In a message dated 10/27/03 10:14:37 AM Pacific Standard Time,
henox@icycle.net writes:
> Sorry Stevan, but your perception of Phil Woods "philosophy" and attitude
> simply couldn't be more wrong.
>
Although I certainly allow the possibility, I specifically asked him about
the bb axles that were breaking. I do not think I misunderstood him when he said
he was going to use up the last of that material shortly, and that with the
better material he was going to use, the problem would be a thing of the past.
The conversation, though brief, occurred in his booth at one of the BDS shows
in either Reno or Las Vegas in the mid 1980s.
I never had a conversation with him about the hubs. I was working in various
bike shops in the early 70s, and several collapsed wheels came into a shop
(that I at least hung out at) on Fulton street in San Francisco. The shop owner
told me there was a "batch" of hubs that were mis-machined. All the collapsed
hubs were replaced but there was no recall to attempt to find the defectives
before they collapsed.
I grant that Phil did all kinds of interesting work on bicycles and
wheelchairs, but unless my facts are wrong, there appears to be a disconnect somewhere.
If I was making bottom bracket axles and I found I had material that was
breaking, even at .0x% of production, and could change to a material that was
better, I would do it without using up the old material.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA