Where's the dumb questions thread?

I did a bunch of work once chasing a click on Ash’s bike and then we realized it was the zipper pull on her boot clicking against her bottle cage.

Ok. I’ll check for dumb stuff first.

But I’m pretty sure it’s the beeb.

Well that was an awkward phone call at 7:45am (it was probably me in my groggy state.) There’s one person who sews the XL and they’re on leave till around the end of September.

Oh shit.

You gonna wait or go somewhere else?

Wait it out, hoping by then someone would have made a Haulin’ / Orc front rack situation

Yeah, I was wondering if that would be the case, they were very close to starting maternity leave.

I like to support cottage scale businesses, but come on. It’s July— surely the maternity leave was known with enough runway to train another employee to adapt their existing skill set.

“Sorry, dude, the person who knows how to steam milk is on leave until September”
“Oh, we can’t do any web graphics until September, our digital designer is out until then”
“Can you bring your own forklift and operator for that delivery? Our only certified forklift operator just POTFed”

I fully support workers leave. Also it’s not like the XL is on their main menu, if anything I should be disappointed with the lack of an email reply. But it’s not a big deal.

The XL solidly fits in the “not on our website but something we could possibly dig out of the pattern archive if you ask nice and are patient” category for Swift.
They aren’t under any obligation to continue making them.

Everyone I know who has a Surly loves the shit out of it. I don’t see myself getting one anytime soon, but I’ve recommended them to a lot of friends and probably will for as long as they’re around.

They’re one of the best options for the most people who want a new bike but only want to own one bike and want to ride to work and around town during the week and maybe go on a ride or go to the park on the weekends. We’re just neurotic.

[quote=Andrew_Squirrel]The XL solidly fits in the “not on our website but something we could possibly dig out of the pattern archive if you ask nice and are patient” category for Swift.
They aren’t under any obligation to continue making them.[/quote]
Ok, that’s different. I thought we were discussing a product that was part of current line.

Hey take a look at taggart cycles on insta if you’re looking for racks

Tell him straight up that $200 is too much but you’d do $125

Oh that looks good

[quote=aek]Ok. I’ll check for dumb stuff first.

But I’m pretty sure it’s the beeb.[/quote]

Add chainring bolts to the list.

Everyone I know who has a Surly loves the shit out of it. I don’t see myself getting one anytime soon, but I’ve recommended them to a lot of friends and probably will for as long as they’re around.

They’re one of the best options for the most people who want a new bike but only want to own one bike and want to ride to work and around town during the week and maybe go on a ride or go to the park on the weekends. We’re just neurotic.[/quote]

I had fun for many years on my xcheck. I just know better now.

[quote=cheese][quote=Andrew_Squirrel]The XL solidly fits in the “not on our website but something we could possibly dig out of the pattern archive if you ask nice and are patient” category for Swift.
They aren’t under any obligation to continue making them.[/quote]
Ok, that’s different. I thought we were discussing a product that was part of current line.[/quote]
But if it is just a different pattern, how is there only one person that can sew it?

I imagine coz the person who had constructed them in the past is likely most familiar with how they go together, and has become “the XL ozette person” I guess they could have someone else smang it together. but a two or three month wait for a special order product from a small company doesn’t seem too unreasonable to me.

Doesn’t really explain why it takes a special person to make it, though. Doesn’t seem like it ought to be any more challenging than sewing together a smaller ozette, assuming a template exists?

I don’t have any substantive personal experience making bags, though, so what do I know.

Maybe there are a few little tricks for how it goes together and nobody wants to do the trial and error to work it out for a single bag. Maybe not everything is fully documented so the person who makes it does a few things from memory. Either way it’s not unreasonable that a small outfit wouldn’t have a backup person for an out-of-catalog product.

real talk
I know swift are good people and wouldn’t cut someone for taking parental leave
but this person helped secure their future employment by keeping a lil trade secret for themselves
and they deserve recognition for their smarts atmo