livedarklions

So if your objection is that it's "too cute" and apparently, too British, we are really differing on esthetic grounds and there really is no point in arguing taste. I don't see the stretch from "tool kit" (a very familiar phrase to Americans) to "cycling kit" as anything significant, and I also don't think one has to be a non-native speaker to mishear "gears" for "gear" in conversation.

You want to get me started on an unnecessary, pretentious borrow-word, mention "bidon".

Darth Lefty 

Thread is borked

Road Fan

"Equipment" v. "equipments" may come from vehicle engineering. As one a dem, we might say "the vehicle is equipped with several (guess what?) equipments," then we would go on at length to mansplain them. At the same time it isn't grammatically wrong to say "the driver is provided with useful equipment of several types," for example (with or without mansplaining).

BTW just to be fair, female engineers also mansplain, when necessary.

livedarklions

Please find more reasons to post Krazy Kat. I mean it sincerely!

livedarklions

Then I think that's properly called "neersplaining".

A google search found no results.
Can I get credit for the coinage? It saves several letters, and I think it's funnier than "engineersplaining".

genejockey 

Oh, then you'll LOVE how my wife occasionally refers to my kit as my 'bike togs'!

Gear vs gears, eh? "What gear are you in?"
Do you answer, "Pearl Izumi," or "52 x 17."

Road Fan

This isn't really about cars, but they are good examples of product segmentation or stratification.

The distinctions among Corolla, Camry, Avalon are largely a matter of size. Interior and running gear are largely the same or same architecture, sized up or down to control the weight and power of a bigger or smaller car. Smaller cars are cheaper, and hence more basic in gadgets and experience, but I think "level" more pertinently refers to Toyota versus Lexus, for example Camry versus ES330. Here the Lexus ES has a very similar body-in-white (basic welded body structure), but is equipped with more soundproofing, vibration suppression, adaptive suspension, and various stuff in the interior to improve the task of driving, collision survivability, collision avoidance, comfort and freedom from fatigue. Another example is Chevrolet versus Cadillac (despite the K-car fiasco).

For bikes at least in the C&V world, it would be Raleigh Super Course versus Raleigh International, for example. Interesting that Masi USA only built one product, basically, with some year over year refinements and incremental improvements.

Clyde1820

And "Pedantic" ... which pretty much applies to each of us detail-oriented types, in such discussions.

Of course, electronic "typing" and spell-check tools have rendered the age-old task of actually proofreading and editing things nearly obsolete. Heck, these days, even the NY Times, Washington Post and LA Times seem to have fallen down that hole, skipping over the basic proofreading. (Which only prods the second-stringers like us to be even less attentive.)

Gotta love the modern world, sometimes.

A great read, for some, on the flip-side of the spelling coin: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss.

livedarklions

Damn, that's good!

genejockey 

Thanks! I'm here all week!

Clyde1820

And then there's pronunciation.

Say ...

February -- all too often spoken like "febwary"
Quarter -- frequently spoken as "korter"
Jewelry -- seemingly almost always spoken as "joolery"
Twenty -- "twenny"
Going to -- "gunna" or "gonna"
Have to / Got to -- "gotta"
...

We could all just re-watch the Charlie Brown animated shorts, and re-dedicate ourselves to speaking like the muffled teacher in the distance: "Waa, waa-aa-a-a-wwaaa? Wa wwwaaaaa, aaaah, wa-wa-ahhh, wa wa."

Could be worse. We could devolve to grunting, not looking at one another and lashing out when asked a question. Oh, wait ...

fishboat

Ya..sigh....and I can come back with an equally pithy response pointing out how this analogy fails miserably..but, in the end..I don't care and discussing it further is a waste of time. I have my simple bibs, t-shirt, and shoes on and I'm about to go out for a ride(everyday is Saturday..such is retirement). As for me, I'll leave the kit and colorway world to itself. To some they'll be unique cutting-edge trendy hipsters and to others they'll be..something else. Everyone has opinions..it's how the world works. Be whatever you want to be and call it what you like.

Darth Lefty 

It's called condescending. Which means to talk down to. Engineers did it before it was cool

Darth Lefty 

Watching my kids learn to speak and spell has been frustrating all over again. English has a lot of sounds that are redundant because of the remnants of multiple languages, Greek and Latin especially. "GH" might make an F sound or be silent and it depends on which country you're in, there's a bunch of words that end with "mb" and the b is silent, one of C, K, Q, and S is redundant but not clear which, ch and sh and j sounds, etc etc.

So give people a brake. It is hard. Especially with auto-correct making wrong assumptions about our hobby language.

livedarklions

Cars are too big a rabbit hole for me because I'm really not a fan, but I think an example of the way price point can be used is to compare a.vehicle of one type to another , like an SUV, to a luxury sedan at the same price point. That's probably going to be a comparison on who the vehicle is being marketed to more than anything abut the vehicle per se.

livedarklions

Defining "condescending"! You win the internets today.

livedarklions

Calling that bluff...

First of all, there's no analogy, there's a clear example of an ambiguity.

Second, I'm thinking if you could have come up with this "equally pithy response pointing out" the failure, you would have. He's quite right, "in gear" would be completely ambiguous if it were the common word for bike clothes.

Here's the deal with this game--when we say "people shouldn't use ____ because....", we're all being at least a little snotty to people who do use it that way. I freely admit I do that, btw, so I expect to get at least a little argument from the people who use the term. What I don't get to do is to say "this is a waste of time" with a sigh when I'm the guy who brought it up and they make a really good argument for the term they use and I have no good answer.

fishboat

Mostly, as ample data suggests, you like to argue.
Not playing that game. Slice and dice whatever you like, however you like. Dictate rules to the clouds. ..I don't care.
(put me on your ignore list..that'll show me!)
bye.

livedarklions

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile....

RichSPK

I remember when computer typefaces were sans descenders. Now, they're almost universally condescenders.

Eric F 

So...like a teenager? No, thanks. Already got one.

Just Mark

So, what is this peeve many of you have as pets?

livedarklions

I've yet to see a feral peeve.

shrtdstncrdr

Suh-pose-uhblee


Oh my god when I hear that one I want to gnaw a tree branch or something.


When I was a kid my mom tried to teach me English and finally handed me an English dictionary. Eventually I had a collection of various versions. What surprised me was how different each could be in esoteric circumstances.

prairiepedaler

'Nuff with the sarcasm and help me with my hydrogarlic breaks. Yippee - this took 30 only seconds!