I never TRY to offend people, but it sometimes happens and I'm always sorry for it. My opinions about bikes are about bikes, and not the people who ride them, but of course---I'm this way myself-----I tend to take equipment-comments personally. When I set out to do the Reader--and catalogues and JR--always up front among my concerns is to not attack people, but anything goes on the bikes or parts. But even so, I try to tread lightly while talking straight about it, and if I were really good, I'd be able to pull it off better than I do.
I knew (and said this exactly in the into to JR) that many would find the book offensive, or might feel threatened by it, in some way. But what I find offensive (that may be too stronga word) are the notions that "serious" riders dress, ride bikes like, and train like racers. I know not every non-racer does that, but it is common enough to almost be invevitable--in the absence of a good argument for doing otherwise. Anyway, PB, I'd be happy to send you a copy of JR free. It's only 34,000 words. You might agree with 27,000 of em! Best, Grant On Tuesday, December 11, 2012 12:44:27 PM UTC-8, pb wrote: > > I do not have a dog in this hunt, I really don't care one way or the > other, and I didn't read the book, but I will note the following: > > - The story of George is interesting (click through the photo to read > about him). The guy rides a bike, and I suspect that Grant would enjoy > meeting him. > > - Grant managed to offend me at some point in most issues of the > Reader. Over the years, RBW lost a good amount of my discretionary > spending as a result of various things I read in the Reader. I was baffled > and confused by positions he took, and comments he made, which seemed > snarky to me -- earnestly snarky, determinedly snarky, unecessarily snarky, > rather than good-humored, witty observations. I was a guy with a dozen > bikes in the garage, in a wide variety of flavors, all of them expensive, > all of them with lots of miles on them, some of them very racy, some of > them lugged and Rivvish, virtually all of them subject to ongoing > replacement (in other words, each of those hooks was potentially a business > opportunity for RBW), and I had the means to be able to buy the products > Grant was offering... and he repeatedly told me that I was clueless about > my almost lifelong avocation. I gather George had a reaction to Just Ride > which was along the same lines. > > I recovered from my reactions to the Reader a long time ago. Water over > the dam. Shrug. I own and have owned Rivs. Yes, I appreciate Grant's > positive aspects, and contributions, while shaking my head at some of his > idiosyncracies as well as at what I think are poor business decisions -- > hey, none of my business except that someone needs to finally tell him that > he tends to build top tubes that are too long (and too numerous, but I > digress). I'm not surprised that someone else might respond to aspects of > Grant's writing as I did. An analogy to Grant's style of > communication that occurs to me is a soccer coach who tells kids that they > should play soccer instead of football because football is stupid, and > people who play football are fools who have been tricked. Wouldn't it be > more productive -- and overall much more positive -- to invite the kids to > play soccer because it's a great game and they're going to have a blast? > Some of them might even wind up playing both football and soccer! How cool > would that be? (No, I'm not a football fan. It's an analogy. Substitute > "baseball" or "swimming" or "cycling" or "video games" in place of > "football", if you don't like the football analogy.) > > I'm grateful that, unlike George, when I am reading for pleasure, I > have learned to toss something aside if I don't enjoy it. You'll never > find a review on Amazon from me that reports, "I hated this book from the > first page, and steadily hated it more and more until finishing page 742." > (Or worse, a one-star review that says something like, "I have tried this > in the past, I have always hated it, and yes, I still hate it and it still > sucks, and it gets one star!) On the other hand, occasonally I will go > back and check on something that I haven't liked in the past. BSNY is an > example of the latter, and references to him spurred me to wander over that > direction. Today's column confirms for me that, unless I take up pot > smoking on a Rastafarian scale, his writing will likely continue to hold > zero interest for me, although I did note his admission that his sense of > humor stopped evolving in the 8th grade, which helps to explain a lot of > things. > > And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. :-) > > pb > > > > > On Monday, December 10, 2012 8:29:09 AM UTC-8, numbnuts wrote: > >> >> http://georgethecyclist.blogspot.com/2012/12/grant-petersons-racing-acumen.html >> >> Regards, >> Chris >> Redding, Ca. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/Z6D-m9nF578J. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
