I don't know whether to be sad, appalled, or vindicated.
My significant other is looking to get an entry level mountain bike, so I've been doing a little research to see what might be a good deal that fits her. I have done extensive website geometry/component/price comparisons and we're at the point where she needs to get on a few bikes so we can see what geometry fits her best and then we can determine the best frame/component bang for the buck.
The search brought me into a LBS today to see what size bikes they have on hand for a few test rides/fittings this weekend. The sales people were nice enough in offering assistance, but I left them to tend to other customers in the store. That's when I overheard the "state of the union". A dude was looking at mountain bikes and stated his intentions as being what I would deem as very light use on paved trails, roads and a few (by name) South County a-technical trails systems. That was when the salesperson started in with the hard-sell on FS, filling his diatribe with myth and bicycle company propaganda on how a hardtail bike would not be a good choice for this individual. I bit my tongue so hard, it bled and I had to walk out before going off on this lying creep.
With bike shop salespeople all over the World being trained to spew these myths and party lines, it's no friggin' wonder that not many people know how to ride a bicycle anymore. The hard-sell that full suspension designs climb universally better than a hardtail will never get those lazy neophyte asses out of the saddle and thus help in creating a new generation of a-holes who can't ride and ruin trails because of this.
The one saving grace in all of this is that 99% of these people who have been created by the bicycle industry will never be able to pedal more than ten miles at a time. Show me the way to the remote goods, please...
My significant other is looking to get an entry level mountain bike, so I've been doing a little research to see what might be a good deal that fits her. I have done extensive website geometry/component/price comparisons and we're at the point where she needs to get on a few bikes so we can see what geometry fits her best and then we can determine the best frame/component bang for the buck.
The search brought me into a LBS today to see what size bikes they have on hand for a few test rides/fittings this weekend. The sales people were nice enough in offering assistance, but I left them to tend to other customers in the store. That's when I overheard the "state of the union". A dude was looking at mountain bikes and stated his intentions as being what I would deem as very light use on paved trails, roads and a few (by name) South County a-technical trails systems. That was when the salesperson started in with the hard-sell on FS, filling his diatribe with myth and bicycle company propaganda on how a hardtail bike would not be a good choice for this individual. I bit my tongue so hard, it bled and I had to walk out before going off on this lying creep.
With bike shop salespeople all over the World being trained to spew these myths and party lines, it's no friggin' wonder that not many people know how to ride a bicycle anymore. The hard-sell that full suspension designs climb universally better than a hardtail will never get those lazy neophyte asses out of the saddle and thus help in creating a new generation of a-holes who can't ride and ruin trails because of this.
The one saving grace in all of this is that 99% of these people who have been created by the bicycle industry will never be able to pedal more than ten miles at a time. Show me the way to the remote goods, please...
