Originally Posted by
Trakhak
Your post triggered my own knowing smile---a.k.a. smirk.
I love most things about the C&V crowd except this reverse snobbery. (Ferrari versus Lamborghini? Spare me.)
IME, racers don't belittle any riders except other racers. Did you and the rest of the posters in this thread completely miss that the GCN video is precisely about racers being snobs about what other racers do and has absolutely nothing to do with any other class of riders? And why was it posted in C&V in the first place?
I'm glad I spent 30 years touring and racing my bikes in Edenic peace before the Rivendell guru figured out in 1995 that convincing touring riders that racers are the enemy was the best way to sell all those pre-indexing components he'd bought on closeout. I wonder if Peterson ever regrets what he started.
Grant Petersen and Rivendell has never stated or hinted that "racers are the enemy." The entire point is that most cyclists are not racers, so bikes designed for racing may not make sense to most riders. Grant Petersen's ultimate message is to make informed decisions about your bike purchases based on the kind of riding you want to do. If you want to race, get a bike meant for racing. I am quite certain Grant will not begrudge you the purchase. If you don't race but like the feel and geometry of a racing bike, go get one. I am quite certain Grant will not begrudge you that purchase, either. But if you want something more upright and more all-day comfy, why buy what a Europro rides, with its emphasis on going faster than the vast majority of us will ever go at the expense of comfort? Yes, he makes a living selling non-racing bikes. But that doesn't make his position any less legit. And he must be on to something, because a fair number of things he's been saying and selling for years have caught on with other operations as well.
And no, I don't think Grant Petersen regrets what he started. Why should he?