Originally Posted by
Bekologist
blinkered as to not offer customers that option? why suggest it? Why suggest an obscure and what i consider a duplicitous 650b wheelsize if there's no few/no frames available for the bike shop to sell to customers available on the mass market, only two or three rims and six tires? that does NOT fit my definition of 'viable.'
...and michelin doesn't distribute 584s to NA last time i looked. maybe i'm mistaken, not at the shop today.
584 is not a reinvention of the wheel but the reintroduction of an obscure french tire standard to build a niche market in the USA and satisfy the retrogrouch and haughty desires of the constructuer poseur crowd.
As I said, I'm not particularly religious, so Jeebus H man, take a breath. What is your problem? Listen to yourself. You are ranting like some kind of big tent preacher. What do you care if people want to build a bicycle with advantages, perceived or real, that they like?
And, if as you claim, you work "in the industry" why would you want to cut off your own nose, just to spite your face?
Sales of 650b tyres and rims put cash in the till. Don't you hate that? This year, I sold four 650b bikes -- a tiny percentage of total sales, but each bike totaled over $2500 when complete. All 4 customers (one who has a stable full of bikes, including $10,000+ Colnagos, Pegorettis, etc.) absolutely love their 650b bikes and now come in for upgrades, tyres, etc. Three of them still ride their other bikes, 700c, 26" and the like, but have a special place in their hearts for the classic French standard.
And why not? Unless, of course, they knew that their love affair with 650b was really getting up the nose of some grouch on a bike forum. I bet they'd quit their foolish pursuits pronto!
Have you ever noticed that the single definitive characteristic of a fundamentalist is hypocrisy? They always project their own fanaticisms onto the targets of their ire.
duplicitous: du·plic·i·tous
Pronunciation: du-'pli-s&-t&s also dyu-
Function: adjective
Date: 1928
: marked by duplicity : deceptive in words or action
- du·plic·i·tous·ly adverb
So we have a piece of metal that is both "haughty" and now "duplicitous." What next? Perhaps those smelly French hoops are SEDITIOUS!
I can see the headlines:
"French traitors hide in bicycle parts, topple government"