Mark A. Perkins wrote:
>
>In reference to my post a few days ago regarding a few so called "expert"
>members of this group who have repeatedly refused to respond to my
>inquiries.
I don't know who these folks are, but you seem to have a bit of an
attitude problem, which might be related to their failure to respond.
For instance, referring to them as you do above implies that they are
not really experts at all--when your stated gripe is about their
failure to answer your unsolicited email.
>As I said, I have so far declined to reveal their identities, but the
>more time I have to think about the situation, the more I think these
>individuals should probably be revealed so that others don't make the
>same mistake I did by expecting these two to be decent, honest, and
>respectable CR members (someone said this is a family?), and businessmen.
There's that attitude again. You imply that somebody who doesn't
answer your unsolicited inquiry is indecent, dishonst and
unrespectable. This is a major overreaction on your part.
>I really would like to get to know both persons, and I have absolutely no
>idea why neither of them will return my messages,
There may be any number of reasons. Email sometimes gets misdirected, or my fall afoul of antispam filters, or may be ignored because the subject heading gives the impression of being spam.
They may have the decals, but not wish to part with them for reasons explained by Dale, but may not be able to articulate as well as Dale did. Nobody is under any obligation to sell decals under any terms they feel appropriate, under our free-enterprise system.
I for one get about 400 emails/day, and there's no possibe way I could read them all, much less respond to all of them. Fortunately, I have learned to make extensive use of Eudora's "stationery" feature to provide canned responses to Frequently Asked Questions, and I'm also able to answer a great many questions by referring people to one or another of my Web articles. (Once in a while I get an angry response that the write has already read that page...as if I could somehow know this!)
I get a _lot_ of requests for decals, which I generally can't fill (all I've got is a few Gitane decals) and I have a canned boilerplate reply that I send in answer to such queries. Being pretty skilled with Eudora, I can answer such inquiries with a couple of mouse clicks--but those who are less computer savvy than I might find such a request burdensome. They don't _owe_ you a response, though it would be courteous of them to do so.
FWIW, here's my canned response: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry, I have no source for decals other than the Gitane decals shown at:
http://sheldonbrown.com/
H. Lloyd is a dealer in England who can supply decals for many older bicycles, see:
Most bicycle painters can supply decals, but, unfortunately, they will usually not sell them outright without a paint job.
Instead, they supply them as an add-on item in a paint job. Since the decals are copyrighted and/or registered trademarks, the painters cannot sell them outright without risking legal problems.
There is a section of links to painters on my Bicycling Links page:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
If you want to try to make your own decals, I have a link to a supplier of ink-jet decal paper. I haven't actually tried this, so I don't know how well it works.
http://www.beldecal.com/
Good luck,
Sheldon
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772, 617-244-1040, FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com
Useful articles about bicycles and cycling
http://sheldonbrown.com