Cyclofiend: RBW: Grant's Editorial

Rivendell Bicycle Works - Editorial
December 2, 2006

Our website has been hibernating for a year now, and it's not finished, but here it is. The webalog will be more updated after January 3, and a new feature we're excited about, a BuildaBike thing, where you start with a frame and pick out the parts and the prices and weights are tallied as you go, will be along by February.

Also, I hear that soon after the new year, we'll be able to get rid of something that's bugged me for a long time. When you look at an item -- a wooly t-neck, for instance -- right now you see photos of all the sizes. You should look at one photo only, then pick the size from a pop-up menu. That's just normal, and we haven't had it, but it's coming. I mention this not to get the ball rolling against us, because I sure don't want that. I'm saying it just because I think it might bug some of you, too, and I just want you to know that we know it's not ideal, and are working to fix it.

I don't like it when businesses talk about their internal makeovers in public and assume that the public cares about the behind-the-scenes workings that resulted in some new change, so I won't dwell on the site. But if you don't find what you're looking for here, or you find something that's fishy or confusing or frustrating, please let us know, and we'll fix it.

Other

The worst, by far worst, part of being a semi-known person, is that people whom you've never met and don't know you go online and say bad things about you. They do it based on a false-knowledge of you gleaned from what you say about bike parts, or some opinions you express. It happens to lots of people, but I'm just talking about me, now. Please don't do it. It drives me nuts, I can't handle it, it makes me miserable, and then I feel like a mouse for caring at all. Don't say it's just the other side of the coin, that I should be able to take it because enough people say enough good things. Don't make it out to be something like I revel in the good and don't want to hear the bad. I pretty much don't want to hear anything, and I know it sounds bad to say that, and it makes me sound like a grumpy recluse. That old saying that "any publicity is good publicity" was made up by a publicist trying to soothe an inconsolable client. Put yourself in that guy's place.

Basically, I'm like you. I want to be healthy, to enjoy my friends and family, to have enough money to not worry too much about it, and to ride my bike, read some good books, watch a good movie now and then, and eat lots of good food without getting too fat. Unlike many of you, I don't have a variety of skills I can call on to make a living. I can't bop from one industry or one company to another, using my business savvy or management prowess or global connections and charm and impressive resume to land another job. I have this one thing, and that's all. I have to make it work, not just for me, but for the other people who work here, too. I hope it comes across that I love bicycles, because I sure do -- even more than it might seem. And to a large extent, the business depends on my saying things about them, and the only things I can think to say about them are... well, the things that I end up thinking about them based on what I do every day. I don't access the truth more than anybody else does, but I dilly-dally in bikes a lot, and the enormous time spent doing that is bound to draw fruit every great once in a while. Not great fruit, just fruit.

I end up writing a lot, and the sheer volume of what I write can be interpreted as me wanting to hear my own voice or see my own words in print, or that I'm out to convert the world, and the upshot of that, or the downshot, is that it makes me seem like a bullhorn guy on a platform, which is about 180-degrees away from how I feel. But if I don't say things, I think it'll be hard to keep it all going. And there's also this: Writing helps me think. As I'm writing something, I'm blocking out everything else, so things that don't surface when I'm not writing get noticed, and sometimes they clarify things for me.

I'm 52 and want to retire at 64 or so. I don't know if I'll be able to do that, but that's a goal. Then I want to keep riding my bike, travel with my wife, and watch my children get their lives together. I'm not begging you not to spout off about me on line. Well, maybe that's not entirely true, but the rest of this is.

- Grant

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