Originally Posted by
dddd
I was speaking in the context of equipment choice when I repeated the "enthusiast" link to the preceding comparison to cars.
To many drivers, the details of their vehicle's mechanics and of traditional driving skills are nil, but to the enthusiast...
As one example, driving enthusiasts may effect actual control dynamics parameters of their vehicle using their clutch and transmission, just as a roadie might be approaching their hill attacks with well-timed sequences of shifting and rising off the saddle.
It's the additional and more-compex involvement that I see as distinguishing those I might term as "enthusiasts", though I or another rider might define a completely different set of parameters, depending on circumstances. Many riders today for example are watching watt-meters and such, but they are no less enthusiasts for it.
Huh?
Whatever distinction you're trying to draw, that clarified nothing, especially by the last two sentences. In any event, one could be enthusiastic over the equipment and still hate the placement of DT shifters--that was where you really went True Scotsman. One of the hallmarks of a true equipment enthusiast has got to be strong preferences for some features over others.
I'm sure you'll continue to find a market for your custom DT bikes. I took the OP to be calling for mass market bikes to start featuring it again, and that seems absurdly unlikely to me.