Anti Grant amirite
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HAHA TRUE. But I don’t think we’re anti-cyclists in any form unless they are being a turd to other humans (except cagers). We also don’t have the same bully pulpit as Grant, Prolls, or anyone else at that level (except @capn_FANCYpants) so our semi-private grumblings about what we think is dumb aren’t exactly the same, to begin with.
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I’m not saying they’re irrelevant. I’m saying you’re creating a strawgrant, and if you went by Riv headquarters and said “Hey Grant, I bought this B17 so I could commute to work in regular clothes, and even though it’s 15 minutes I’m getting terrible saddle sore”, Evil Grant would laugh at you and say “tough luck buttercup, take the bus”.
When you know what would actually happen is that you’d spend two hours talking to Grant, get to ride every other Brooks in the Riv test fleet, and leave with a pair of free prototype wool underwear to test out plus a ziplock bag of Dr Bronners.
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Negative.
im buying a riv now
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yes, but then in next week’s blagh he’d write about the guy who came in wearing bibs and clipless shoes, handlebars set far-too-racerly half an inch below the saddle, and fancy indexed gears, and about how Grant isn’t judging or thinking less of me for riding that bike, but he does blame the shop or person who put me on that bike (the person who put me on that bike is me)
On the way over, on the ferry, was a guy in spandex, with a fat-tire eBike with clipless pedals and $250 Sidi road shoes. It’s not my business how he gets his rig together, but one doesn’t come up with a combination like that without expert help. I didn’t snicker to myself or think low thoughts. I blamed the unidentified shop or person or persons who sold him that. No skin off my nose what he rode. I didn’t ask him how he liked it.
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Tarck has a whole thread devoted to mocking high handlebars
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as well as blaming R&E for selling people said setups
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sure, but we’re a bunch of openly-critical internet weirdos, not a guy who has preached for years that you should be able to ride a bike the way you want to ride it.
we shit talk both the rider and the shop and don’t try to pull a smug “I didn’t snicker to myself or think low thoughts” at the same time.
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The Roadini isn’t (fvo “isn’t” that were almost five years ago) bad. Not nearly as nice looking as the few non-mixte Rosco Bubbes were, but also not nearly as much of a bicycle of substance as they were.
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like i’m not going to make a stink about “ableism” or “gatekeeping” because as you point out, tarck often has (and still sometimes does) gleefully engaged in criticism of other’s bikes
Basically:
I get it, it’s very hard to be “pro” something without contrasting the stuff you like with the stuff you don’t like, and this has been Grant’s schtick forever. But it feels like he’s been focusing more on the anti side of things and also getting more tone-deaf over the years, to the point that you have to think about what he’s said/written in the past and recontextualize the stuff he writes now through that lens.
And that’s the brouhaha over the IG post: unless you make the effort to put it through the Grant translation filter, the literal interpretation of that sentence and the direct implications is “You’re riding bikes Wrong and riding Wrong is worse than riding at all, so you should ride bikes less”. That’s not what Grant thinks he means, but that’s what a lot of people are reading.
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Or the world is going to shit and this is leaking out when the company and the person are inseparable.
There are two aspects to Grant’s schtick that I find interesting as a casual observer.
The first is the anti-racer aspect, which I think is inarguably at least some of his deal. I suppose this may, depending on the post and the reader, come across as “you should not race/want to race” or “a bunch of people will tell you to race, but you don’t have to listen to them.” The first of these interpretations strikes me as rude and presumptuous - who would put that much effort into doing something they don’t enjoy? - the second as out of touch. It’s not the 90s any more - even race bikes clear 32s now and all the gravgrav hype means tons of bikes come with wide tires and zits for fenders and extra water bottles etc. This feels like a guy who still rails against jocks and their “sportsball” because he got teased for liking D&D when he was a teenager 30 years ago. He’s fighting ghosts.
People go into shops wanting some exercise and they come out with 23mm tires, low drop bars, an outfit that looks like a costume, shoes they can barely walk in, and thousands poorer.
Not even WorldTour teams ride 23s these days my dude. And I have a lot of trouble believing a random person just wanting some exercise gets sold a Tarmac SL7 against their wishes. The last time I was in a shop it was all gravgrav and MTBs - I don’t recall seeing a “pure” road bike at all. (And speaking of being “thousands poorer”, don’t Rivs cost significantly more than the average hybrid which would serve as a better solution for these hypothetical victims of Big Racer?)
The second aspect is one I find so confounding I have trouble even articulating what it is I think I’m seeing. I guess I’d describe it as the hyper-focus on casualness. It’s like, the complete and utter dedication of your entire life to being as basic and entry-level as possible. Don’t just ride your bike for fun for an hour a couple of times a week and then live the rest of your life - spend all of your time focused on that casual bike and those short rides. Don’t buy a $700 hybrid that will completely serve your basic needs flawlessly - put a lot more money into something that is arguably less suited to the task. Spend your time reading our blog about this thing we don’t want you to do very often! Buy our special underwear to do it! Not the clothes the bike shop will sell you, but different clothes that we’ll sell you that are morally superior for some reason.
This is even more confusing when taken in context with the friction shifting discussion - so I’m not supposed to do this thing very often, but I’m supposed to be very highly skilled at it? When am I supposed to develop this skill? And why, if I’m supposed to be casual about this, do I not want indexed shifting which is easier to use?
To a certain extent this feels a bit like PLP’s thing too, and I’ve seen this - whatever it is - in other places as well. For example, sometimes I watch video game streams and it’s amazing to me how many people spending hours watching the same game being played over and over yet still don’t know even the most basic things about it. It’s like a complete refusal or inability to gain any expertise, I guess? Defining yourself by a thing you don’t really know much about or do very often? Being about the thing more than being the thing? 
I might be conflating a couple of different things - like I said, I’m still trying to figure out what exactly this is. So this is probably not the best explanation, but it’s something that’s been floating around in my mind for a while.
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Grant if you’re reading this just make modern versions of the rb-1 and xo-1 with tire clearances for 700/650 and disc TA
Your fledgling bike company won’t be
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This is the age-old debate of simplicity versus “progress”, see Thoreau’s “Walden”
Also not a new idea, look at stuff like “Shop Class as Soulcraft” or go back to “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”.
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Bless his heart, Grant doesn’t know about Reddit guys.
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so… crust?
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a) he doesn’t say this
b) he can’t compete in the $700 hybrid market
You guys think he’s selling bikes in the context of the US retail bicycle market. He’s selling a mindset, and does it through bicycles.
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that’s a crust romanceur
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