Out the Insider

"It will make everyone else's road groups look like toys" - Anonymous Industry Insider

The school girl-like shrieks touting the wonder, mastery, and world-changing greatness of new componentry has rarely reached such a fever pitch. Glazed eyes and breathless whispers are marveling at the apparent impending announcement of, gasp, electronic shifting!

Yes, it appears the big S is beating the other poor bastards to the punch and laying their cards on the table. I already see legions of triathletes strutting in wetsuited lock step on the horizon. I already hear the demands of the ill prepared racer looking for spare connoiter valves and gasket dongles.

These wet dreams are fueled, in part, by the anonymous industry insider. Their quotations are taken as divine counsel and flippantly thrown about in bike shops and club rides as proof of enlightenment. They stroke the throbbing dong of predilection for all things new, shiny, and marvelous.

As a born and raised skeptic of all things popular, I have to wonder who this pesky, nameless, industry insider is. Could it truly be the anointed one of two wheeled truth? Or, is it just another cholo with an opinion bigger than his mouth? Do they even ride? And if they do, do they roll enough to know the nuanced differences between component x, y, and z? Why does their opinion matter?

I'm calling "shenanigans". I think it's high time we put the anonymous quote of the industry insider to a face. I've got a few questions to ask...