On Wednesday, October 9, 2013 10:33:50 AM UTC-7, ayjaydee wrote: > > What are your thoughts on this sudden "discovery" of the pleasures of > off-pavement riding by the gravel specific bike manufacturers. It seems to > me that they feel they have invented a whole new form of bicycle activity. >
Well, that's it! All of cycling is really just a long continuum, but marketing people want to focus us on a 'new' thing, which is really just a part of the continuum that was always there. Rarely, in cycling and most everywhere else, is something really 'new'. To me, personal watercraft were 'new'. At least until I looked into the other sorta similar water born personal propulsion thingamabobs. But to me, they were new. So maybe to some a 'gravel' bike will also be new. That said, bigger tires are good, and drop bar bikes that can ride in the dirt are good. So where's the rub? Well, to me the rub is that marketing can serve to divide people into segments, or boxes, rather than to promote the bigger truth, which is that were all just part of one big continuum. I add to the already long list of cycling descriptors.......'Gravel Guy/Gal'. As in...... Dude: 'You ride?' Dudette: 'Yep, sure do.' Dude: 'Whatcha into?' Dudette: 'Is that a trick question?' Dude: 'Naa, just wondering what kind of riding you do.' Dudette: 'Ahh, I'm a Gravel Gal.' Dude: 'Oh, so you like to get dirty.' Dudette: 'Go away!' Smooth tracks, Chris Redding, Ca. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
