wingguy wrote:...you have absolutely no right to expect that legitimate bike dealers should validate choices for you...
You've Freudian-slipped with your mention of
validation!
madcow wrote:...I have no interest in validating what they do by including them in any of our testing...
There's that word again! (
more on that later)
I appreciate you taking the time to address my question, madcow. I got no beef with you personally - nor with your store. You sound like a level-headed type of cat. You are a credit to the scientific method; in both your protocol and in your level-headed response to everybody's questions and comments.
Most of my posts were in "
self-defence" against the
unscientific, angry, venomous attacks by your followers in reaction to my questions and comments.
Because those people who buy retail can never admit to themselves that buyers who pay wholesale for reverse-engineered (a.k.a. "
generic") products made a smarter buying decision than they did, they therefore attack and begrudge the smarter buyers of generic products for their nous in sourcing parts that don't cost an arm and a leg!
This test is so popular because it provides its groupies with
validation that assuages their embarrassment at being made a sucker for spending hundreds and thousands of dollars above the actual cost of materials & production of name-brand products! And what do they get for all those thousands they spend? They get some kind of nebulous, intangible, warm, fuzzy feeling of "
exclusivity".
In layman's terms, the resentment people feel toward the availability of generic, "
placebo" products is just good old-fashioned "
JEALOUSY"! How else can they explain the venom with which they lash out against so-called "
knock-offs"? Such products being available in the market is no skin off their teeth!
Buyers of reverse-engineered products can talk about name-brand products dispassionately and objectively. The reverse can't be said for buyers of name-brand products that talk about placebo products. Its always with hate, rage and resentment.
In other words, a classic case of
Deal Envy!