Originally Posted by
Jeff Neese
I feel a sense of snobbishness toward people that have to buy their bikes as pre-assembled, off-the-shelf models and are stuck having to ride whatever the industry is selling these days, especially through bike shops. I make the generalization that these are the people that don't work on their own bikes and probably don't even own a workstand. I feel superior because I've built every one of my bikes from the frame up, and built them just exactly the way I want them. Maybe that's the snobbishness that people feel coming from C&V people. It's not about "old tech vs new tech". It's that we work on, and in many cases build, our own bikes.
Just a thought.
To put a bit of a twist on this idea, I've found myself lamenting the number of folks who don't maintain their own bikes. Practically, a lot of folks don't have the spare time to do it, and perhaps not the mechanical skills to do so. There's also the fact that they are helping keep the local bike shops alive, so their lack of skills or time has a positive side effect for the rest of the cycling community.
The only folks who annoy me are the ones who refuse to learn the most basic maintenance skills; i.e. fixing a flat.
To be fair, I've only met one person like this. It was on RAGBRAI, many years ago. A women was waiting by the side of the road with a flat, looking for someone to fix it. I offered to help, by teaching her how to do it. She wasn't interested in learning how... she just wanted someone to do it for her. I said "okay. good luck!", and went on.
Since then, I've helped a number of people learn how to fix their flats, with varying degrees of success, so I suppose I'm only snobbish towards this one person.
Strange how she managed to stay in my memory for so long!
Steve in Peoria