Folks,
Am I alone in feeling sad at the potential loss of Mick Butler's contributions to the list? As a fan of bicycle history, particularly British bike history, I was saddened by Mick's E-Mail. I am one of those who has benefitted greatly from Mick's knowledge over the past couple of years. He and I have often exchanged British bike chat as well as other pleasantries. Moreover, he has helped me immensely with unsolicited frame identification and, yes, has sent me photocopied material.
As someone who has long been involved in academic matters, on too many occasions I have seen people verbally ripped apart for their opinions and research. Often it gets carried away and unnecessarily personal. I had hoped that such behaviour would not surface on this list (although I am not so naive to imagine that it would never do so). I would like to make a plea for a degree of civility both on and off the list.
I am of the opinion that knowledge is cumulative: each piece of research and each set of opinions gets put into the mix. The result is the generation of the most accurate picture possible at the time. This will always change as new information and new theories are generated. There will always be a difference of ideas; different angles, different nuances. Nothing is exact and rarely is historical information ever 100% complete --- unfortunately we can't always go back and ask the original builders the questions which would help to clarify the argument.
I admire those who are knowledgeable, especially those whose knowledge falls outside my own area of expertise. As a budding student of early British bicycles I eagerly await the contributions of Mick, Norris, Norman, Bruce, Bob, Hilary, and so on. If any one of these people (any CR member for that matter) feels so strongly that they must withdraw their contributions to the list, as Mick has, it is a sad day. Further, we are the worse for it and stand to lose a vast wealth of cumulative knowledge and experience. We can certainly have our disagreements (as many of you may disagree with some of my sentiments here), but let us step back for a moment and take stock - this is a hobby for most of us, something we are passionate about, yes, but also something which should bring us joy and, on a list like this, a sense of fellowship.
Just my Saturday night two-pennyworth!
Paul Williams,
Ottawa, ON, Canada