In a message dated 4/24/06 10:56:24 PM, George writes:
>
> > It's just another pretty bicycle, and for the life of me, I can't figure
> out why such a bicycle can take up 2-3 days of digests. Oh well, I'm a
> philistine. And comfortable pounding down the road on a cottered crank,
plain old
> tubed Raleigh.
>
I'm not sure I see the difference here... the same thing happens when someon e asks about the serial number on their Paramount or if the correct crank is o n the Raliegh in the #xxxxxxxx eBay listing, or the subtle details of an interesting French bike. If you'll look at the archives, most topics seem to come in waves that last anywhere from a day to three or four days. I'm one of those folks who reads it all because I always seem to end up learning someth ing. When I begin to read a 1,000 word post about a Rixe, a bike I'd barely hear d of, I may at first wonder if this novella is gonna be worth my time, but by the end of the post I'm usually hooked.
But when a Masi thread starts up, I usually read it with a bit of guilt because as interesting as I may find it to be, I know there are those out th ere who are thinking, "Oh, not again," and just waiting for the response count to rise so they can post their "can we get over this already?" messages. So I
often end up responding to interested parties off-list to avoid offending th ose who are so sensitive to this traffic, and I know other Masiphiles have taken to doing this as well. A shame, really, since that stuff never makes it to t he archives... which means that someone's gonna ask the same questions again in
six months.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA