RonK wrote:Breton Bikes wrote:This is the first failure I've had in 10 years, but 10 minutes with a Hypercracker and I was ready to go good as new.
Great if you have a hypercracker, but it's years since they were last available, so kinda irrelevant to this discussion.
May I ask if your recent membership of the forum is to promote your business.
I use a hypercracker and there are several equivalents on the market - I could have lied about what I used but to what end? Anyone could look up Hypercracker using Google and find equivalents in seconds as I've just done, Stein NBT2 etc. Several posts also asked why you should take such an item - I hope my post gave some examples.
As for your rather pointed question...
I contacted and explained exactly my position with the moderators before I joined this forum and was told that 'disclosure' was important in my posts. (direct quote "Disclosure is important - it could be “I do run a cycle tour business is France…” ")
Now it's hard to give 'disclosure' without saying what I do, it was their decision not mine, I would have preferred to only mention it when it was directly relevant but I wanted to be squeaky clean. I didn't take up their suggestion of a link to my site in my Sig because I felt uncomfortable about that
I've been contributing to the UK CTC forum for 8 years, have offered free advice, organised club runs (200 tandems from the UK last year), sent people routes, accommodation details etc etc all for free because I want as many people to come cycletouring as possible because I have the view that in that way I can 'contribute to the sum of human happiness' and have some weight when I'm hassling local authorities over cycling facilities. Likewise my website is full of free advice of a non-commercial nature e.g. a large section of it is entitled - "a basic guide on how to avoid paying us for a cycling holiday" - I doubt I've sold a single holiday to a CTC member because of it (they don't need us) but I know a hell of a lot have cycletoured here 'off their own bat' having benefited from my help - and besides that, having been in business for 25 years I really have as many customers as I want... I also gain because I learn a lot too. For example I'm currently writing a 'Dummies guide to frame materials' for my site and I've started a thread on this on the CTC forum because I want help with some of the technical aspects of metallurgy. I've had lots of nice replies - it's a two-way-street. The Mods also know that if I post anything that someone objects to then I'll delete the post immediately and with pleasure.
It also brings up the more general point of professionals posting on here. If say a professional frame designer posts on a thread about frame design should he keep the fact that he (she) is someone of vast experience of frame design and just allow people to think they are just another opinionated individual? If they have a page explaining how a frame is built should they not be able to point that out in answer to a question? Genuine question. When I post about something to do with touring, especially in France I''m coming from a business where I run a fleet of quality bikes that have covered over 2 million miles of loaded cycle-camping all over France. I could of course keep this secret and so a post e.g. "26" wheels are stronger than 700c" becomes merely an individual's point of view rather than a definitive answer backed up by unique experience. If I say 'this is the guide you need for campsites in France' anyone reading it should know that my post should carry rather more weight than someone who spent a week cycling in the Loire... Personally I like to know where someone is coming from, if they actually have real knowledge of a subject or whether they are just regurgitating something they've read on the net or something that happened to them as a one-off. Without disclosure this is worthless.
Lastly I am very happy for people to U2U or email me in search of advice - I get emails like this every day - it's difficult to encourage this if I remain anonymous.
As we are getting an increasing number of Australian customers (and they are my favourite customers) I thought I'd extend the same service to the Australian equivalent - if I'm not welcome then please just tell the mods and I'll disappear.
