I think this notion of Bruce being rude to folks took off when a couple of
list members wrote and asked him about Bruce Gordon bikes that they had
bought and gave him the serial #s, seeking some information about them. He
told them that his time was valuable, worth so much an hour, and told them
that he would look up their serial numbers for a certain amount of money...I
may be wrong, but the figure $55 sticks in my mind.
Whether you view this as rude or not, it certainly would be enough to whiz
me off if I got an answer like this. A very good friend of mine got such an
answer and it annoyed me to hear it . I knew Bruce would be at the next
Cirque and I went to Greensboro with a bit of a burr under my saddle blanket
and with full intention of not taking any crap at all from Bruce. Instead,
I was surprised when he was very nice to me and not at all like I expected.
I came away thinking he was an OK guy...like most folks seem to who meet him
in person.
I still think that is a pretty crappy answer to give someone who would buy
a used bike of yours because they admire the workmanship, etc. enough to lay
out their hard earned cash and that Bruce certainly could have handled these
situations a bit better. However, we all occasionally hit a rough patch
with folks, especially in E-Mail, which is somewhat less personal that other
forms of communication. Now, too, Bruce has met many of us at Cirque and
hopefully determined we are such a bad lot and I haven't heard of such an
exchange between Bruce and anyone on the list in more recent times.
Hopefully this is all over except the humor of the situation. I have bought
a couple of things from him and he has always been pleasant. Wish he'd sent
me one of those darn buttons, though!
The guy sure builds beautiful bikes.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA