I am definitely not from a "North Shore" (the specific one that's the namesake of this website or otherwise) since I'm from the desert southwest of the US, but I come here for a couple of reasons.
1\. I appreciate your (Andrew Major) outlook on bicycles. The idea that a new bike is neat, fancy bikes are good, but that there's a certain value (monetary and otherwise) in a repairable, lasting bikes, and the new hotness isn't always better than what you're already riding. You tend to focus on that a lot, but the other writers seem to have a some of that view as well.
2\. The reviews you all do tend to be for a longer time, and line up better with my view on what makes sense for bike reviews. Specifically, Company A sent us a bike with this build kit. Build kit is neat and cost is reasonable/not for what you get. Now let me change it to suit my riding style, location and part preferences; let's now review the qualities of the frame not the build kit.
3\. The community. I appreciate that the authors engage in the article comments. I appreciate that the commenters tend to be polite with each other despite some being much more gravity focused and some, like Alex, living in places where a gravity focus would be a challenging itch to scratch.
4\. I also appreciate the (seeming) age of many of the people around here. I'm getting towards 40 and don't recover like I once did, but I still enjoy being dumb in ways consistent with my abilities and non-bicycle commitments (work, family, etc.) and I definitely see some of that reflected around here and not pooh-poohed.
July 7, 2022, 9:57 a.m. - shenzhe
I am definitely not from a "North Shore" (the specific one that's the namesake of this website or otherwise) since I'm from the desert southwest of the US, but I come here for a couple of reasons. 1\. I appreciate your (Andrew Major) outlook on bicycles. The idea that a new bike is neat, fancy bikes are good, but that there's a certain value (monetary and otherwise) in a repairable, lasting bikes, and the new hotness isn't always better than what you're already riding. You tend to focus on that a lot, but the other writers seem to have a some of that view as well. 2\. The reviews you all do tend to be for a longer time, and line up better with my view on what makes sense for bike reviews. Specifically, Company A sent us a bike with this build kit. Build kit is neat and cost is reasonable/not for what you get. Now let me change it to suit my riding style, location and part preferences; let's now review the qualities of the frame not the build kit. 3\. The community. I appreciate that the authors engage in the article comments. I appreciate that the commenters tend to be polite with each other despite some being much more gravity focused and some, like Alex, living in places where a gravity focus would be a challenging itch to scratch. 4\. I also appreciate the (seeming) age of many of the people around here. I'm getting towards 40 and don't recover like I once did, but I still enjoy being dumb in ways consistent with my abilities and non-bicycle commitments (work, family, etc.) and I definitely see some of that reflected around here and not pooh-poohed.