I hung out this past weekend with a buncha guys who make my XC buddies
look like tame gear-freaks in comparison.

One guy has maybe 30-50 pairs of outdoor-tech footwear, kicking my butt
there. 65 fishing poles. Knife obsessions on all sides to no end. I have
plenty of weakness in all this regard, but I was soundly trumped.

We all went mtbiking and afterward ran into a techsupport guy for SRAM
and RockShox in the parking lot. Gear-freak heaven, for sure. Bees and
honey everywhere. Those guys all stood there gabbing hightech bike parts
for 2 hours! My fellow skiers, we have been soundly defeated!

I knew what they were saying and was occasionally provoked to chime in
or give a test-ride to illustrate a point. And I definitely appreciated
needing a loaner bike and being able to borrow a $4000 bike to go on
this ride with! I'd never ridden a full-sus before, much less a fancy
bike. I can see how it would help in some conditions. BUT! One of our
guys rode a 20-yr-old Bridge MB1 (just like mine back home) and he did
just fine of course. I made sure to stand up for the perfectness of the
Bridge during all the post-ride gab.

I got much hassles that day for my own crappy stuff. (It was remarked
that my crappy pocketknife was damaging the molecular structure of the
German tools being stored nearby.) But I stood up for it as long as it
worked. And I defended it to the end when I thought it was better-made
and better-looking too (as in the Bridge).

AND! I got to chime in my two bits about the whole tech thing when I
said: "This cool gear stuff is well and good but I have to admit my main
appreciation of it is in beating the tar out of a fellow racer who's
using it."

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture...
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