AlmostTrick

I (obviously) use the internet. I just don't need to carry it around with me all day.

Kindaslow

Does that make you a curmudgeon? Not that that is a bad thing.

Kindaslow

I hate cell phones, smart or stupid ones are all evil!

My work has me talking with people all day, so I certainly do not want to be reachable at all times.

But, they are handy for riding pics!

AlmostTrick

No, I could easily be one though! Give me a few more years...

Kindaslow

So, you are in training, hoping some day, with the correct attitude, they will accept you.... The Schwin will help those efforts. Good luck!

Now, can any of us who own and ride CF bikes get into the curmudgeon club? What if we actually like Di2? What if we own an aero bike?

osco53

Pmsl,, Roflmao

badger1

Possibly not, but you would certainly have a good shot during auditions for a 'ride on' part in the sequel to:

OldsCOOL

Who in the world uses a smartphone for a phone? That's just weird.

Gerryattrick

Life sure can be tough in the modern first world!

TriDanny47

I actually feel quite differently about that - being able to respond rapidly to clients and coworkers often means I/we in my firm can put out small fires before they become large ones. There is always privacy mode or better yet, two cells, a dual SIM cell with separate personal and work numbers, or WIFI based services like Talkatone with a separate number.

We now are a cloud-based workplace, so I can access virtually anything anywhere. It actually gives me a lot of peace of mind. When I really need to be alone, I can not respond, or just turn off the technology. It also reassures clients to be able to reach us on evenings and weekends.

I usually take either a tablet or a compact laptop on long rides - it's kind of nice to stop for breakfast after riding 40 or 50 miles on a Saturday morning, take an hour to catch up on work, and then ride home.

Maelochs

If contacting your own mother with a separate email is too much of a pain you are just a bad kid ....
This is so true it hurts. My wife wanted cellphones which we hardly ever used, then new ones, then an expensive data plan ... finally after several years she has learned to send texts ... not sure she can go online for anything but the weather, though. I could have three bikes for what we spent of phone service she not only never uses but never even learned to use.
Yeah, the idea that all life will cease if I don’t get an email the instant it is sent ... or that I need to check Facebook frequently (or at all ....) is all ridiculous. if I said no one can ride a bike without a power meter and GPS, most people would think I was foolish, but the idea that I cannot get baby pictures instantly shakes some up some people so much they’d cut off their own mothers?

You know what’s funny ... people actually used to Talk on phones. How crazy is that?

Shoot, I am so old-school, if I want to talk with a person, I will actually sometimes go visit and talk ... Face to Face!!! Yeah I must be senile .... but my parents are about 90 and every time I see them could well be the last, so sending pointless pictures doesn’t seem quite as meaningful as actually going to see them. I guess I am hopelessly outmoded, eh? I should just get irritated if they don’t immediately answer my texts, right? The Modern thing to do?

On the other hand, I went to digital cameras as soon as my wallet let me, and I have been using computers at home (and the Internet) since the late ‘80s/early ‘90s (back then, “Internet” was almost all text based and about one-ten-thousandth as full of info as it is today ... )... I was introduced to dial-up via a link to a local college when I was 12 years old through school (very early 70s) and had no problem seeing how much easier and more enjoyable life could be with a giant connected information system.

I am no atavist. I simply want to control the devices which would otherwise control me. I want to make sure the technology I use is doing more to improve my life than it is to define my life, and that it is offering more benefits that it costs.

The horror with which some people talk about not getting other people’s baby pictures (honestly, some of the most forgettable and most quickly forgotten pictures anyway) easily enough (not just not getting them, but having to send some separately and not in a group email---Oh, the Horrors!) is both sad and comical.

You want to talk about Real progress .... talk modern medicine, including pharmacology. Sure there are plenty of abuses, but I know myself and a lot of others here are alive because of incredibly high-tech medical equipment, surgical procedures that weren’t imagined a decade or two ago, and in some case because of drugs which were developed for diseases which were considered death sentences not long ago.

We aren’t fighting All technology or fighting advancement. We are avoiding foolish uses of technology and deciding for ourselves what constitutes “advancement.”

I won’t speak for anyone on this site because I don’t know you well enough, but I know a lot of people who lives could be a lot richer if they could wean themselves away from the notion that “More connectivity more of the time is inherently better.”

Go anywhere to watch people at some amazing live event holding up their phones to make recordings they will post online and never watch ... while the “curmudgeons” amongst you actually Fully Experience the event ... you know, Living Life?

Look how many people who cannot enjoy anything unless they take a selfie ... people going around the country on bikes, seeing the most awesome and amazing vistas this nation can provide ... but they cannot enjoy seeing it, don’t even think they have seen it, unless the only photo they have of it has their faces right in the middle. Then, instead of surveying the vast and beautiful vistas, they spend all their time there sending the photos to their friends ... and then spend even more time sending emotes back and forth.

Meanwhile we atavists are sitting silently absorbing the amazing beauty we might well never get another chance to see, enriching our minds and souls ... I can send empty texts all day when I am at home in my office. I can only sit on the rim of the Grand Canyon or cross the Continental divide once or very few times in the rest of this life.

Most of the folks I was traveling with probably don’t know hat’s in the back ground in those selfies ... all they comment on is whether they look good in the photo.

To which I say: chacun à son goût. If that’s what makes your thing swing, swing away, children. But as for me ... please don’t let me bother you as I sit silently actually appreciating the few fleeting moments I have left in my life.

When I am lying on my death bed breathing my last I might have some regrets, but I can absolutely assure you, the fact that I didn’t get the last round of some near-stranger’s baby pictures won’t be anywhere near my mind.

Kindaslow

No chance. I only have one jersey, and I do not wear it. I bought to remember a trip. Plus my clip pedals would likely get me kicked out...

Kindaslow

I can understand your take in the business world. In the mental health world being unreachable at times is needed for mental health....

TriDanny47

Freds of the world need to unite in a Fred Rights Movement. We're not so bad. I embrace my Fredness.

Seriously, if someone wants to have a little fun at my expense because I have "a lot" of electronics, gear, repair parts, etc. on my bike, or because I have n + 1 bikes, what does it hurt? I laugh at myself at times for having too much "stuff" as well - But I guess I would rather carry some extra gear than be caught without something I need in a breakdown situation, etc.

I've come to the rescue of 6 or 7 other cyclists because I've been carrying repair parts and tools on charity or club rides. And my own flats, etc several times a year.

TriDanny47

That's when I just turn it off or simply don't respond and tell them my battery died.

Kindaslow

I have been using the battery died for years. I get a lot of crap over it. But, the reality is that it is dead a lot (I do not mention that I let it die).

So, tech lover, do you have Di2?

badger1

Ah HA! You, like me, are a different sort of Fred! We'd both be laughed off the set.

Kindaslow

I have clips on all three of my road bikes, but this is the one that upsets the roadies. They literally are stunned and stand there staring at it.

badger1

I share your attitude on this point, Kindaslow. In this, as in many respects, my world (the academic world) is the same as the mental health world. The last thing I need is students (undergraduate or graduate) being able to "reach" me outside of the office/office hours/classroom. Ditto for colleagues and committees! Little enough time to meself as it is.

TriDanny47

My 2014 Specialized Roubaix has Di2 Dura Ace. It was my New Years gift to myself 12/31/2013. I just went over to "the dark side" and bought a Kestrel with Campy Super Record EPS.

rekmeyata

Wait, you're going to tell me that's it's just as inexpensive to work on, meaning hours spent doing the same thing, say for example the time it takes to remove a heater core from a 40 year old car vs a new car today, is the same price and just as much effort? Answer that question then I'll reply with more on what you said in your above statement and why you're not being completely honest in that statement.

KYMISTWALKER

Yes -- I own 7 bikes all under a grand- they serve me well some m/b and some r/b -i will not buy a junky bike

Kindaslow

So, what does the wife think about your addiction?

On a serious note, is the electric Campy any different in a meanigful way from the Di2?

And, are they worth it to you?

gregf83 

Cars are far more reliable and require less service than they did 40 yrs ago. You're welcome to go back to the old days with parts (spark plugs, points etc) that needed to be changed frequently and carburetors and other items that needed more frequent adjustments.

Cars are way more efficient and cleaner than they used to be; naturally there's more technology and a few more components involved. To think it's a Machiavellian scheme to increase service revenue is incorrect.

GlennR

Agreed, but without a scanner and the right software, you can diagnose most problems with modern cars.