Retro-grouch or just obsolete
Mon, May 17, 2021 I started writing here in 2005 that will be sixteen years by the end of this year. That is a long time and a lot of material, a lot of subjects covered.
The reason I started writing here was simple, I had gathered a lot of knowledge over the years spent building bicycle frames. I felt I needed to share that knowledge. There must be millions of people like me all over the world, doing something or other, and along the way figured out how to do that something a certain way.
This knowledge is often not written down and when these people are gone, that knowledge will be gone also. I felt this was a damn shame because knowledge passed on from one generation to the next is how humankind got from chasing their food with a stick, to where we are today.
However, the thing I find alarming is that our knowledge today is growing at such a rate, that old information becomes outdated at a faster rate. We are producing products that are almost obsolete by the time they are shipped from the factory to the store.
The other thing concerns me is, does anyone really care about what I or anyone else did forty or fifty years ago, when most people are not interested in what was done last year, or even six months ago? I am talking here from a bicycle industry standpoint.
I know my regular readers will say they are interested, and I believe most genuinely are, otherwise they would not keep on coming back. But is the knowledge gathered here only of value from an entertainment standpoint?
Most of those who visit here and learn something about bicycles are no different from bird watchers, people who grow roses, brew beer, or collect stamps. Part of the enjoyment of engaging in a hobby is becoming an expert in that particular subject.
This blog gets around 1,500 to 2,000 hits a day from all over the world, most of these hits come from search engines. Type in any question about bicycles and chances are I have written about it at some time or other, and that article will pop up in a search.
Many hits come from forums where people are discussing some aspect or other of the bicycle, sooner or later someone will post a link to an article I have written. Then the term “Retro-grouch” will pop up, and I wonder, “Is that how people really see me?”
I left the bike business in 1993 so naturally stuff I write about pre-dates that, but does that make me a retro-grouch? To me a retro-grouch is someone stuck in the past that will not move forward. When I was in the bike business, I always questioned the status quo, and often went against what everyone else was doing.
The robots that drive the search engines will only pick up my blog if I keep writing new stuff. At some point I will become too old, too tired, or simply run out of stuff to write about.
When I stop writing, within a year this blog will disappear from the search engines. Publishing in book form is no better, there are so many books published each year that most only reach a limited audience, and who remembers a book that was published last year?
I think the point I am trying to make is that when I started writing here I did so because I thought what I had to offer had some value. I still believe that is true, it is just my reasons for thinking so has changed.
What do you think? Does the speed of advancement in today’s technological environment make knowledge obsolete at a faster rate?
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Reader Comments (14)
Knowledge never becomes obsolete. It can be superseded, or even falsified by new knowledge, but "old knowledge" is always relevant and useful for many cases. In particular, knowledge about bicycles is highly relevant because there is still no unified theory or precise model that describes their work and their relation to the humans that powers them. Thus, any piece of knowledge is valid, not to mention your particular contribution, which is supported by a lifetime of experience building bicycles. Thank you for contributing (and publishing) that knowledge.
Dave, I believe that a lot of people follow you because you talk about what was behind the choices and designs. You don't act like the 'old way' is the only way.
But that the reasons behind the designs and methods are important to discuss and always will be.
I agree with PedroMJ - your writing is, and always will be, valuable. Thank you for continuing to write.
Dave, your site for me is interesting because you talk about the past in a way that is enjoyable to read. But in terms of bicycle information, Sheldon Brown's site, is still kicking even after he passed away. Retro-grouch in a sense that you have not moved on from the bicycles you built in the past. Today's bicycles have moved to hydraulic brakes, electronic shifting, electric bicycles, MTB frames/shocks. The list goes on. I ride with an 83 year old who has a collection of at least a hundred classic bicycles. He looks at my current hybrid bicycle with all the bells and whistles and sighs...
Dave, the information you put up about your bikes will never go out of date while even one of those bikes exists (and perhaps not even then). Please don't fear that your blog will be ignored when you stop adding new posts... we all worry more that it might not earn enough ads to pay for hosting and your inheritors might kill it off.
Search engines are actually pretty good about old links when those are relevant. My bike site hasn't been updated in years and is slightly broken, but still gets a few hundred hits a month via search engines. Some of the searches are quite specific to my site, others only specific to the topic (how do I build a particularly weird bike type questions).
Dear Moz, we can rely, for the time being, in the great Archive to host all this knowledge. For instance, in [1] you can find a snapshot from last month. The knowledge is there to stay, and it will be found whenever needed. In fact, I hope it to be highly exploited the day some working theory is formulated and somebody comes back to test it with this knowledge. It would be great to contrast David knowledge obtained from years and years of experience and new findings in bicycle science.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210411023147/http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/
I believe when we come to your blog we are looking for wisdom, for the long view. We want to hear from an individual who has been eyeballs-deep in cycling and the bike business for decades. Not all of us trust tattooed internet gurus who are in it for the freebies. No click-bait on Dave Moulton's Blog...
Dave, you're quite nearly the opposite of a retro-grouch. All old engineers, myself included, are naturally skeptical of "revolutionary new ideas" (remember the hype over the Segway?). But skeptical doesn't mean close minded. In reading this blog it's clear that you give a fair shake to all the modern trends in bicycle design.
And for the knowledge you've shared I'm forever grateful. I've archived all of your bicycle design related posts. That knowledge is as relevant to today's carbon fiber bike manufacturers as it was in your days of steel.
As an optical engineer I picked up a copy of Isaac Newton's Optiks, written like 12,000 years ago. Sure I fully understood everything presented but I still learned a great deal about my own craft. Real knowledge is always relevant.
D'nardo
PS. I only wish the British knew how to speak English. :-)
With the information overload on the internet, it is always nice to drop in on your web space which provides access to ‘knowledge’ not just information. For the cycling society to grow, we build on knowledge from those like yourself who paved the way. Others will use (already have) your knowledge to continue to pave their own way. The knowledge is not lost; it is embedded and evolves in the ‘new’. Becoming an expert in a particular subject is very much timeframe dependent. But you passing on your knowledge will allow someone else to become an expert in their timeframe. The internet may allow a quicker transfer of knowledge and I would like to think of knowledge not becoming obsolete but rather allowing new growth on top of it! Regarding being labeled as a “Retro-grouch”, just wear it with a smile; without retro there is no new!
Hello Dave- There is a site called "The RetroGrouch" and he's anything but a grouch. So my guess is search engines combine key search words like 'retro' 'classic' 'steel' 'bike' and so on and populate dozens / pages of results to give the requester a choice of pages to view. Thats all.
As for fading away, I'm always amazed when I type in a particular bike topic (one of yours for example) that a page from an obscure conversation on a bike forum type site written in 2006 will show up for example. Your great contribution will be with us for a long time... Love your site.
Enjoy your blog and don't consider you or your commentary to be 'obsolete'.
Would like to know how you currently set up your bikes and the kind of riding you do.
Yes, I agree with the writer above. I too am a fan of the other Retro-Grouch blog, love it and I'm not alone. Many followers view the term with endearment. Always good reading...just like this blog!
The bike industry has an incredible problem with knowledge loss, which is why we see daft ideas continually recycled and good designs replaced with bad ones because the reasons the previous design was good have been forgotten.
Any repository of cycling knowledge based on insight and experience is therefore valuable; all you can do is hope that some fresh-out-of-college product designer sees it before he orders the tooling.
Maybe you should write a book?
This is a great blog. I started the Retro Grouch Moto Club via a number of articles I wrote for the "Dirt Rag" back when the magazine was non glossy. I wrote satirical articles regarding the advancements in cycling technology. As the magazine matured and drew big name advertisers my articles were no longer published, sorta because my articles were not kind to new technology. So I ventured off and started the rgmc.org web site that ran for a number of years. My interest in cycling never faded but the interest in maintaining the site did. I had several other interests that occupied my time. Last week I found a CD that contained the html files for an 1997 version of the site. It was and still is old and clunky compared to modern websites, but I uploaded it in a directory off of my photography website. I added a few of my articles from the Dirt Rag into the site as well. If you have continued to read this far into my note then you may want to visit the resurrected site.... www.lenbruffett.com/RG