Too Long For Twitter, Too Accurate Not to Pass Along
Charlie Cunningham in the Autumn 2009 Bicycle Quarterly on the inclination of component manufacturers to make well engineered parts:
They don’t care any more. Today, what matters is who has the cheapest manufacturing and the best marketing and distribution, it doesn’t have a lot to do with the parts themselves. . . . They have to sell new stuff. How do you do that? You add features and you add materials, and if you can put a story behind it and make people think that it is better. . . A lot of people buying that stuff don’t think about it much, perhaps they are not technically sophisticated, and they buy [the ad copy] hook, line, and sinker.
Good quality workmanship is something I look for when I buy anything. Things of great quality used to be made in this country and they still are made by some quality craftsmen here. I like Charlie’s viewpoints about quality.
Peace :)