Skip and Craig,
You are commenting on something that Carsten has not written himself. Carsten only has personally written the German version, the other languages are approximate translations of that which he has written in German. I am probably the only one on this list that can make this statement, as I fully understand the Greman original and was the person who wrote the Italian and the French translations for Carsten. The English translation has been written by a friend of Carsten's who is a member of the Veteran Cycle club. While not a perfect translation, it is quite faithful to the German original (probably as good as either of my translations.) If it were my own personal web-site, I would probably rewrite the English translation to bring it even more in line with the original, but that is up to Carsten (who you should understand is not perfectly fluent in English himself!)
I have never met Carsten, but he seems to be a great fellow (otherwise I would not have volunteered to do the translations). I do however believe he has more passion for bicycles than for the study of language, so I do not believe it is correct to comment on writing style or grammatical correctness. I think he should be soundly applauded by this group rather than criticised for such minutiae. I know he is open to critiques, additions and completions, so if you have something to say, please address yourselves to Carsten.
With regards to Skip's criticism listed below, I have put down some of my
thoughts. I am sure others will be able to add more. Maybe, this will bring
in more of the pre-70's content that people seem to want. ;-)
> My thoughts - I believe variable gears (derailleurs) were specifically
> outlawed by the European racing community for some time, so it is hard to
> credit them with early variable gear innovation. However, was there
> another racing community (in England?) that did "power the technical
> innovation" of early variable gears? Once they were accepted by European
> racing, did professional racing power the further development of variable
> gears? Yes.
The outlawing of the gears was subsequent to their development for use in
racing. The development which had been advancing very quickly up until the
begin of the ban came to a very quick decline in the period of the ban. The
speed of the developments then increased dramatically once the ban was once
again removed. Carsten's thought therefore seem to be borne out.
>
> MR. Rehbein writes further: "The racer explores new technological
frontiers
> without being charged with the development costs which can be set off
> against the gain in popularity and the ensuing sales of cheaper models."
>
> My thoughts - I am not sure what this means. We seem to have three
parties
> here: 1. the "racer" who (presumably) tests the new development (but does
> not "pay" for the development); 2. Someone who pays the development costs,
> (even if the cost is in terms of lost evenings and weekends spent
tinkering
> in a garage) and 3. someone who reaps the benefits in sales. Ideally #2
> would also like to be #3, if all of this is economically driven. In the
> case of a team sponsored by a bike or component manufacturer, this model
> works. In the case of an innovative team sponsored by a vacuum cleaner
> company, the company clearly loses out on bike sales. It would hope to
> recover its costs in increased sales of vacuum cleaners. No off-setting
of
> costs.
This is part of the translation that I feel does not fully reflect the original, even if the German could perhaps be clearer. It was my understanding that he had intended to write: The racer's bicycles are the test-beds for that which is technically possible. The potential marketing value of these same bikes in helping promote sales of the particular bicycle brand or technology being developed is however such that the actual development costs of the extreme technologies tested on the racer's bike can readily be offset.
Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ
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