Background: My bike, a Kestrel 200 SCI, was sent back to the factory to get the seat post collar repaired. As long as the frame was being stripped and shipped, I decided to pony up for a much needed paint job. When it comes back to me--sometime next week--it will be transformed from scraped and scuffed white to gleaming mango. I shipped the bike to the factory through my local bike shop.

A salient point: The Kestrel 300 EMS is an identical frame to mine but is made with some graphite in the carbon weave. This makes the EMS stiffer, lighter, and about $1000.00 US more expensive than the SCI.

A factory rep from Kestrel called my LBS last week.


Dialog:

Factory Rep: Was your customer's frame an SCI or an EMS?

Local Bike Shop: Why? Did you lose it?

FR: No. It's back in the paint shop now. It's just that we stripped and primed it, and we don't remember which frame it was. We don't know which decals to put on it.

LBS: Well, I'm not sure. I think it was the EMS.

FR: Yeah. Okay. We'll put the EMS decals on it then. I don't want to insult your customer, and I don't think he'll mind the upgrade.

The upshot: I just got a $1000.00 status upgrade. I am going to be such a poseur!




Postscript: Does it seem like the height of poser-dom to use the French spelling to describe a poser?

so are you getting a EMS frame or just EMS stickers on your old frame?

I am shocked.

Dishonesty is doesn't become you, Regular Guy.

Just the stickers...same old frame. It is an upgrade in status only.

So tell me--you are going to keep the bike, right?

You deserve the upgrade--Kestrel can take shamefully long for some repairs, for what the frames cost and by the way, why can Trek make a better carbon frame in Wisconsin and sell it for not terribly much more than Crackstrel has to charge for the Commie-built Talon?

Hmmm...you seem to have something against Kestrel. My experience with the bike, and the factory has actually been great. I don't know that the Trek is a BETTER bike than the Kestrel. The first time I saw the Trek I thought "nice knock-off of the Kestrel design."

Why is the Trek cheaper? Volume sales for one thing. The process is another. Trek bonds carbon tubes together. Kestrel builds a true monocoque frame. Kestrel pioneered the carbon fiber frame. They still make a fine bike.

And, yes, I plan to keep mine.

No, no, no, no...

Sell it and buy yourself a real upgrade!



No, no, no...just kidding!

Ah, heck! My hearts not in it. Let's just have a tall frosty.



Oh, and Feldman? If you will refrain from calling my bike a "Crackstrel" I will refrain from referring to yours as a "Drek."

Not really. When refering to "one who affects a particular attribute, attitude, or identity to impress or influence others," i believe poseur is the proper word choice. Though poser can be used as an alternate spelling of the above, it is more commonly used to mean "one who poses."

Besides, if your going to do it, do it all the way, you know?

Now we talkin'!