Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Magic or Tragic?

Its just come to my attention that the venerable Phil Wood bicycle co. has released a  limited edition track hub set.


24k gold plated.

Yeah. I'm not shitting you. real gold..  

on hubs.
for sale via a few select stores.

Holy crap.   Words barely convey how ridiculous I think this horror show is.  
(You're welcome to disagree via the little x to the right of the browser tab)
 I just lost some respect for Phil Wood bicycle co. **   for what appears to me as a vain, ego driven ploy to create a status symbol "collectible" by taking a mature fully developed product and making it stupid expensive and elitist simple by adding an expensive commodity as a coating.   The product is otherwise unchanged but for coming in a different colour is suddenly loads more expensive.

nice.

..this further offends my inner weight weenie, as gold is known for several things, and light isn't one of them.

**(not enough to prohibit me from selecting a Phil Woods Ti square taper bottom bracket, mind you, were I to be in the market for one but that decision is would be driven by a rational assessment of the equipment vs. any aesthetic or status symbol consideration)

note: currently there seems to be no information on the Phil Wood site regarding these. (perhaps they're embarrassed?) but they can be seen here,  and here.  ..is it too early for April fools?!

5 comments:

AHands said...

admit it--you secretly want one

Anonymous said...

The product is otherwise unchanged but for coming in a different colour is suddenly loads more expensive.

I'm sure you noticed that that particular hub design is otherwise unavailable, so I won't interrupt your rant.

Unknown said...

NAHBS bikes need hubs too!

Kark said...

Anonymous:
No, I hadn't noticed that the flanges are in fact different from their other offerings. (the sites I saw them on didn't include that info)

.. I'd argue that despite that, they are 'functionally unchanged' but that would devolve into some blather about flange height and wheel stiffness etc etc.
..and my original rant would still contain an error.

meh. I should have been more specific and included the point that most folks target Phil Wood products for outstanding quality and top shelf bearings, and neither of those are changed for this product.

Papa G said...

Those would look bitching on my purple rims!