June 8, 2016, 4:35 p.m. -  DrewM

#!markdown Hi Nat, I think Vernon Felton explains it pretty concisely yet eloquently. The article I pulled it from is an entertaining read in general (link below text): "Back in the `90s a guy named Grant Petersen helmed Bridgestone USA, designing some of the best bikes imaginable–elegant machines that rode as smooth as silk and were incredibly versatile. And then Bridgestone’s bike division went belly up. As cool as Bridgestone bikes were, they cut against the grain; there were no glued-together carbon tubes, purple anodized parts or neon-green aluminum frames in the Bridgestone line-up whatsoever, which were pretty much everything the market was clamoring for back then. I lived through this era and I still can’t explain why this was so, other than to note that this was also a period in which Cher was so huge that she seemed on the verge of becoming the next president of the United States and Steven Seagal movies were hugely popular everywhere in the world. It all fits together." <http://www.bikemag.com/features/opinion/web-monkey-speaks/web-monkey-speaks- screw-retro/#IOesSUk3emfkfMIL.97>