I logged on here to see what was going on in the world of mountain bikes, first time in literally years. I stopped visiting cos I felt like the feel of the place had gone from bike geeks and weirdos to management consultants setting leiure time targets. Inevitable, I guess when objects of desire and ‘lifestyle’ coincide. Nevermind, I got on with just riding my bike. For years. Everything works, still does. When the odd bit needed replacing a quick search on chain reaction found what i wanted and i didn’t have the faintest idea about ‘developments’.
Anyway, I logged on and saw this post. Having built up and ridden a load of On One and Planet X frames I had to have a read. Sad to find out there some kind of issue and then some sensitivities with ‘communications’. So it goes, I always used to like the fact I dealt with humans – warts and all – but maybe it was more than. Parts failuree and points of contact going silent? Not good by any measure.
So, great news Brant is back on board – without doubt, love him or hate him, a bike geek.
But then I read on. 29 is the new 26. 650blahblah. 26 ‘for kids’. Hahahaha. All those things that people did on 26″ wheels for, what? 4 decades? Kids stuff. NewProduct™ would have saved from the shit times we didn’t realise we were having.
It would be a cynic of the highest magnitude to imagine the big bike companies rubbing their together at the thought of filling garages and sheds not only with proper ‘grown up’ bikes and myriad cluttered boxes with spares, upgrades and such and then doing it all over again for ‘the little’uns’. Endless gravy chains (fluid shifting, my droogs!)
It all comes back to me. The annual obsolescence cycles (no pun intended), infauxvation, William Burroughs. “Hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside.”
**** that shit. I’ll check back in again in five more years. Maybeby then the increasingly oversize, ponderous riders will have traded their 29ers in for crown green bowling and 26ers will have had a rennaissance. Or not, IDK. Whatever. I’ve a garage full of 26 size spares’n’tyres and a bunch of secret trails. See ya later suckers!
(But: good luck to On One.)