Unintentionally stirring the pot

It's a rainy morning here in southern Arizona, the first in 140+ days so no complaints...

So.  My quest to determine which bike is faster for me, the Dos 29er or the Trek Fuel, kicked up a bit of a ruckus in places.  The Cyclingnews piece in particular got folks talking, er, yelling?  In case you missed it, it's this one:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=news/2006/mar06/mar03mtbnews

Then yesterday g-ted posted a link to bikemag, which features an article on Old Pueblo and the bike test.

http://bikemag.com/features/columns/030806_mike/.  Mike Ferrentino doesn't exactly have a gentle writing style...

It has really baffled me why so many folks get so worked up over my little quest.  How many folks are riding 29ers strictly for racing & speed?  Very few.  It's as though readers see my test and think it's a slam against their belief system.  Some bring up points that would be valid if I was doing a blanket across the board study...but I am not a research facility!

Entertaining in a "gee this doesn't make me so proud to be a human" sort of manner.  Here's a random collection of the links I found to MTBR threads concerned with the testing, either directly or indirectly.  From initial reactions, to "where'd the love go", to "I'm outta here", to "wait a minute, we ride these for fun!". 

Phew!  Someone finally got it in the end.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170033

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170202

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170114

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170650 

This one is about the 96er.  Anything 26" gets attacked here.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170773

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170061

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=171388

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=171890

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170790

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170491

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=170411 

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=166486

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=155598

On the endurance racing MTBR board: 

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=141317

Funny thing is, I love riding my 29er.  26er too, for that matter.

 

Published Saturday, March 11, 2006 8:29 AM by Dave
Filed Under: ,

Comments

# @ Saturday, March 11, 2006 2:12 PM

"Funny thing is, I love riding my 29er. 26er too, for that matter."


Word!

JB

# @ Saturday, March 11, 2006 7:07 PM

Your 29er vs. 26er debate is a carbon copy of this mess!

http://just-riding-along.typepad.com/just_riding_along/2005/08/kerkove_suspend.html

Jeff Kerkove

# @ Saturday, March 11, 2006 7:34 PM

Dude! Keep rocking. If we didnt shake belief systems we'd all be in the dark ages - like modern medicine.

Its just a damn test on one single course! What are the 29er riders worried about? Its as if you insulted the size of their man parts. Silly.

Keep rockin'!

Shane

# @ Sunday, March 12, 2006 5:36 AM

Thanks y'all.

Jeff - one major difference in our situations: you had everyone from MTBR on your side (and as a sidenote, it appears to have been a poor business decision - where are worlds now?).

Shane - I'm sure you're accustomed to this sort of attention, eh? Belief systems can be dangerous...a snippet from the flat earth society, for instance (http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm): "Rightly wishing to dispel notions regarding the alleged citrus-like shape of our planet, the Church was able to either silence or execute nearly all the fanatics..."

Better watch your back out there!

Dave

# @ Sunday, March 12, 2006 6:37 AM

Yeah, there are differences from our situations on the internet, but how much it has blow'n up is what I am getting at. I find stuff like this online to be quite entertaining. Give it time. It will all blow over.

Jeff Kerkove