I finally got tired of reading all his guff about this stuff being done in the interests of "weight savings for faster riding" and dropped him a line:

Hello,

Look, I'm not bashing you here, but there does seem to be a bit of delusion where your ideas behind the drilling are concerned.

You state you didn't drill this in a pretty, concise way because the drilling was to shave weight and allow the bike it is attached to to be ridden hard and fast. There's only one problem with that theory: if someone tries to ride this hard and fast, it's going to break apart. If someone tries to climb a steep hill, the torque is going to break it apart. Your drilling has taken too much material away than is safe. I ought to know: I've done tons of drillium myself.

Here's the thing, whether you want to accept it or not: drillium is a concept that is just as much about presentation and accuracy as it is about weight-savings - probably more so. So, if you aren't making your holes accurate and pleasing to the eye, and you're drilling too much material away so that the part can't actually be used, well...what's the point?

Jeff

I really can't think of why anyone would bid on this - it's obvious this will fail with any halfway-serious use, and it certainly can't be for the challenged aesthetics. But there's another bid today; maybe a shill to drum up some interest?

I'm tracking this auction just to see what the hell happens in the end (and man, am I looking forward to the feedback!)

DD