Some background. Yesterday, I posted my 1989 Bridgestone RB-1, "Orange Crush," for sale on the local Craig's List. Today I got an email from Nathan Kensley. Have a read; my response to him follows:On Dec 10, 2010, at 2:57 PM, nathan kensley wrote:
as a bridgestone owner you are an asshole. glad your selling that bike for you do not deserve to own that bike. that is the worst slaughter job ever. rb-1 is not meant to be a fixed gear or to be modified it had a perfect balance orginial. i hope to god you are 18 for that is the only excusable way for you to get out of this.
nathan k
My Response:
listen up, "ilovekensley" Jackass,
You've got no idea who I am, nor the history of this frame. I purchased the frame + fork as you see it, from the original owner, who, when living in California, found himself riding a lot of mountainous gravel roads and so felt the cantilevers were a smart upgrade so as to be able to run wider tires. He had Dale Saso - a Bay Area frame builder do the mods, then had it painted Molteni Orange. (A color, I might add, made famous by a certain cyclist named Eddy Merckx. But since you're the apparent keeper of the Bridgestone flame, I doubt your nose goes much further than Grant Petersen's ass, and therefore may not know who Eddy Merckx is.)
Over the course of the past few years I've raced this bike in cyclocross events, and generally just enjoyed it's "perfect balance." It's a 1989 frame, though, and with the smaller diameter tubes, when compared to later models just doesn't have the overall stiffness and stability that I prefer in my bikes. I generally ride 80-100 mile training rides, primarily on rough gravel roads, several times a week, in case you were wondering, and this bike is not necessarily suited to that. You're damn right that the orange is a bit over the top; that's kind of the point. Orange is an iconic color, and if the stickers were removed from the rims, then it's actually pretty boss looking.
And since you had the nerve to write me with your attitude, Nathan K, right now I'm busy reassembling my 1993 Bridgestone XO-1, in the iconic Pumpkin Orange color. It has S&S couplers installed for traveling, I hope that is ok with you. I left the moustache bars, though, so you can rest easy tonight. My 1991 Bridgestone MB-2 mountain bike is bone stock, but I toy with the idea of adding a riser bar sometimes. If you need anymore proof of my Bridgestone pedigree, you can check with my business partner, Gene Oberpriller. He's been known to ride a few Bridgestones. Look it up.
By the way, your comprehension skills are stellar. The bike is not now, nor has it ever been set up as a fixed gear. Beyond that, what gives YOU the right to tell me or anyone else how to set up their personal bikes, anyway? Are you special agent for the Bike Snob, vetting out what you find repulsive, and then sending thinly veiled threats, –"the only excusable way to get out of this," –to the owners?
If you'd like to discuss this further, or call me an asshole to my face, I invite you to come on down to the shop and check out the RB-1, and all the other Bridgestones in the stable. I sure as hell hope you are over 18, though, because I'd hate to punch a minor in the face for being such an assumptive prick.
Fuck You Very Much,
-Hurl Everstone
Cars-R-Coffins
*an addendum from the original owner:
Some further history of the bike:
It should be also noted that in 1993, when I had the mods done, Bridgestones weren’t collectors’ fodder. Yes, they were quirky, but Bridgestone was still in business!
Basically, I had an old steel frame that was seriously nicked up and a desire for something like a cyclocross bike at a time when cross frames were rare and pricey. Anyway, my friend was having a custom Saso built in Molteni orange and so that is how the paint color came to be (free!). Dale came up with the stylish bridge for the rear canti, and it was the perfect adventure bike. Took me on a lot of gravel roads in CA and 3 months all over France.
10 comments:
Game, set and match to Hurl. It was never even close. Silly snobby boy jumped into what he thought was a comfy hot tub and it turned out to be a blender.
PS - I'd love to see Grant hisself weigh in on this and retrogrouchily rip the guy a third one. (Wouldn't put it past him!)
Nicely done sir. Nicely done.
eh it's still a pretty ugly looking conversion job, fixed gear or not.
That bike is gross. The rb-1 is an amazing frame, I have to agree that what's been done to it is a shame. If you want to ride fixed with huge tires, I've got no beef, just get a suitable frame.
It's NOT fixed. Go back and read the response, including addendum from the original owner. Get over it.
why is this fixed gear????
;)
I hope those tires don't pop when you hit 110 p.s.i.
Sweet bike. People will always think shit is rare and should be untouched. If I had the money I'd buy it and put it in a big bowl of Jello and set it in front of T-rock.
As an owner of a 92 MB1, 93 RB2, 93 MB4, and 93 XO1 (in nearly identical orange), a member of the original BOB (Bridgestone Owners Bunch) and former employee of a shop when it sold Bridgetones from 92-94, I can say that this is probably exactly what the intended life of a Bridgestone bike should be. Ridden so much and so loved that it needs to be morphed and modified and resuscitated over and over until it turns back into the iron ore it started as. While I am not a fan of orange bar tape or any color other than black really, nor the orange rims, to each his own as long as it gets ridden, because really that's what every Bridgestone wants and what every one was designed to do. And so to you Nathan K, I say "Go fuck yourself."
Here is my angle: It was a production manufactured bike, it was ridden many times on epic rides through the trails of NoCal and Southern France. It came then to MinneChilli and is enjoying another life here. This bike was never envisioned by GP or the manufacturer as an art form, it was simply a model in a ground breaking brand of cycles in its era.
What could be better? As a friend of both Owner 1 and Owner 2, I can say that you guys don't take riding lightly and both of you have been cycling industry employees at a high level for many years, above and beyond just retail.
The real issue is what would Pineapple Bob say?
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