<< (I guess Dale isn't really serious about needing to see "USA" in the sign-offs)>>
?? That statement doesn't help me much.
Dale Brown cycles de ORO, Inc. 1410 Mill Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27408 USA 336-274-5959 http://www.cyclesdeoro.com http://www.classicrendezvous.com Giant, Specialized, Orbea, Felt, Landshark, Pinarello, Colnago, Townie and other exotica. National Bicycle Dealers Association Board member
-----Original Message----- From: freesound@comcast.net To: heine94@earthlink.net; brandon@ivycycles.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 6:45 AM Subject: RE:Warning OT drift: [CR]VBQ becomes Bicycle Quarterly)
Thanks, Jan, for clarifying. I wasn't implying that Cycling Plus is generally as well researched as BQ/VBQ. You're right, it is of value to know how strong a claim of fact should be taken. They do not show this level of scholarship, except for Joe Beer in a few cases. He seems to try to establish the claims he makes, and to provide the bases for the controversies he discusses. That level is surprising in a popular monthly. But this is probably all off-topic, so I'm done.
Ken Freeman Ann Arbor, MI USA (I guess Dale isn't really serious about needing to see "USA" in the sign-offs)
-----Original Message----- From: Jan Heine [mailto:heine94@earthlink.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:35 AM To: freesound@comcast.net; brandon@ivycycles.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: Why does it matter? (RE: [CR]VBQ becomes Bicycle Quarterly)
At 9:36 PM +0000 9/19/06, freesound@comcast.net wrote:
>Just to be fair (and pedantic perhaps) Cycling Plus does quote
>references from time to time.
>
>Ken Freeman
Bicycle Quarterly uses footnotes so that when you read, for example, that the Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur was introduced in 1949, you can go to the end of the article and see whether that info comes from "xyz, personal communication, 2006" (meaning, somebody told me so recently, more than 50 years after the fact), or "Le Cycle 10/1949, p. 28" (which means it was published in the trade journal). Obviously, we prefer the second type of source.
The footnotes have two advantages: One, the author has to double-check my information when they write the article, rather than going by their somewhat hazy memory. And two, if somebody in the future wants to research the topic, they have a starting point. So many good articles in other bike mags are useless for historic research, because it is impossible to evaluate the information. I find one or two errors and then have to question everything. If I had footnotes, I could check the information myself. But as it is, I have to start from scratch.
Listing all sources is different from a few "for further reading" references at the end of the article...
Of course, the footnotes will not detract from having fun reading articles about classic bikes. Most readers probably never read the footnotes. But if you need them, they are there.
The same applies to sending historic and technical articles for review. In most cases, it's just a lot of work, and the reviewers have little to add. But then, once in a while, I, the editor, am glad I do it, because there is something the original author (often me!) overlooked. Better to fix it before it goes to print than to retract it later. -- Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles 140 Lakeside Ave #C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com
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