Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Sorry but that guy takes too much credit for everything. Retrogrouchery was a thing long before Grant Petersen got his hooks in Bridgestone and killed their bicycle division. Many of us have gone through phases of retrogrouchery to modernism to retrogrouchery. I, myself, have been progressive on front suspension, clipless pedals, threadless headsets, aluminum and STI shifters which I got as soon as I could.. I’ve been rather retrogrouchy on dual suspension, index shifting, aluminum (yes, you can be both), triple cranks, 29er abominations, carbon fiber,and tubeless. That stretches from when I was a kid standing on the lawn ignoring the old guy yelling to the old guy yelling at the kids to get off the lawn
Disagree. Please show a link to the term retrogrouch (as it pertains to cycling) prior to the attribution to Grant (who did not invent the term). I'm not giving credit to Grant, the credit for calling him a retrogrouch goes to whoever wrote about him in an article (name and posting escape me). He just picked up on it, and turned a snide remark into something positive (IMO).
I bought the shirt I posted above in Walnut Creek around 1996. Grant printed them up as a joke, more than anything else.
Most people misunderstand the guy. He doesn't take credit for much. He just went off and started what could be claimed was a hobby job, just something he believed in, and was lucky to have some family help out to purchase a house in the upper-middle class town of Lafayette, California, so he didn't have to make a choice between taking a corporate job and raising a family in the Bay Area and what he truly wanted to do. He knows he's lucky. If you knew him (I've know him since the early 80's, pre-Bridgestone), you wouldn't make such claims that he "takes too much credit for everything."
He just did what he thought was right, and didn't sell out to anyone. You can disagree with what he's selling, but I can pretty much guarantee you that he truly believes in what he's selling.
How many of us can say that?