Astute comment readers will recall I was very much a part of team "I want to criticize the professionals (even knowing a lot of 'issues' are compromise-based) and I really want leave and license to fuck my own bike up" on Mike's article! But I also recognize there's a balance here, which I suspect is why NSMB is apparently publishing a point-counterpoint style series of articles.
Homogenization is an unfortunate product of the capitalistic turned oligarchic market structure present in many industries today. With barrier to entry and other anticompetitive factors, it's hard to afford to take risks unless you're Trek, and even then I suspect you still have to convince a decent number of suits to get something like the Full Stache* to market. There's like, three vague downhill bike design categories in the market these days and everything else is an outlier to those three. We're all worse for it, especially you guys when there's less oddball stuff to write about and engage readers.
*there's a reasonable argument that at the time the Full Stache isn't even a particularly good example of what I'm talking about and I should have picked the 69er or Farley Ex.
March 25, 2024, 8:31 a.m. - Lu Kz
Astute comment readers will recall I was very much a part of team "I want to criticize the professionals (even knowing a lot of 'issues' are compromise-based) and I really want leave and license to fuck my own bike up" on Mike's article! But I also recognize there's a balance here, which I suspect is why NSMB is apparently publishing a point-counterpoint style series of articles. Homogenization is an unfortunate product of the capitalistic turned oligarchic market structure present in many industries today. With barrier to entry and other anticompetitive factors, it's hard to afford to take risks unless you're Trek, and even then I suspect you still have to convince a decent number of suits to get something like the Full Stache* to market. There's like, three vague downhill bike design categories in the market these days and everything else is an outlier to those three. We're all worse for it, especially you guys when there's less oddball stuff to write about and engage readers. *there's a reasonable argument that at the time the Full Stache isn't even a particularly good example of what I'm talking about and I should have picked the 69er or Farley Ex.