14 Jun 2007

Today in one of the various bikey forums there was a discussion on vertical compliance of hardtails. It’s a good topic, no issues there - part of the reason why Titanium is so groovy, and why chainstays are ovalised in the wrong direction. As often happens when you’re old and crusty, a vision sprang to mind of a bike I remembered seeing in Mountain Bike Action man moons ago. Lucky for me, I have 17 years of mountain bike catalogs neatly archived away, and lucky for us all, I didn’t have to scan it because some German dude had done it already. Behold, the Sotello CRS!

I don’t really have a lot to say about the design, mainly because every time I go to look at it I get a splitting headache and the desire to scream “I got ya Genesis geometry right here Gary ya dickhead!”. However, in the article that photo is attached to is some absolute pearls of wisdom which today have lifted me out of the woes of the everyday and restored my faith in design and the free thinkers that often dwell in there. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Danny Sotello, circa 1990…….

“One of the things I like least about this industry us the arrogance of some custom frame builders. They’ll adda little kink or bend to their frame design and then announce it to their legions of fans that the new way is the only way it should be. I hate that, especially if the new kink or bend is just a step backwards. Most of all I’ve resented the way some of them have looked down their noses at my work.”

On working for big companies….

“They never understood that as an employee designing bikes and product for a big company, I never had the freedom to finalise my ideas as I envisioned them. Having to always get 100 approvals from within the company before a compromised and watered down version hit the market, I was suprised any of them were as successful as they were.”

On the armchair critics….

“It was always a wonder to me that if all these critics were so great and had access to make anything they wanted, where was the “wonder bike”? Where were the real design breakthroughs? I think these pompous Granolaheads are just afraid to explore the unknown for fear they migh make a mistake. Look at the geometry of all these bikes today - ever notice that none of these guru designers venture too far from the norm?”

Here’s a picture of Danny with one of his Love tubeless tires from 2001. I actually have the original catalog in a folder around here somewhere. Bah! That tubeless thing will never take off!

So Dan me old mate, thanks for lifting my spitits somewhat today. Much obliged! A beer will be consumed in your honour shortly.

Oh, and in seeing we’re in trivia mode and talking about watered down design, here’s some tires I did for a company at about the same time, from the same Interbike coverage of 2001. Now children let this be a lession to everyone - before becoming a designer, learn how to say “These are just initial concept sketches” in as many languages as possible.

Posted by warwick @ 9:00 am

One Response to “I am the Salmon”

1. erin Says:
   June 17th, 2007 at 10:42 am

   Is it just me, or is that fork on backwards?

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