Eleven Is The New Ten

I just got back from Europe where I found out that pink will replace black as the new pink for 2009.  I also found out that Campagnolo is introducing 11 speed grouppos for 2009.  Yep, eleven is officially the new ten.  So, go get some pink bar tape and a 2009 Super Record grouppo, and you will be hip as ever.

Here are the main points people will be complaining about in the next few months because of this new “standard.”

• Who needs 11 speeds? 
• The chains will be too narrow and will wear out too fast. 
• The rear cluster is too close together, which will make it hard to shift just one gear at a time. 
• This will cause a marketing nightmare for bike shops.
• What is wrong with 10 speeds?
• They just want to make my new bike obsolete.
• 11 gears in the same spacing as 10 means that the sprockets will be thinner, and they will be more apt to wear out or break.
• Bikes already have the same combination of gears with 10 speed if you just know how to shift into it.

These are all the reasons that I heard when 7 became 8 and 8 became 9 and 9 became 10.  Guess what, you all moved to 10 speed when it came out, even after telling me all the same reasons listed above why you wouldn’t. You will all move from 10 to 11 sooner or later, so stop making up dumb excuses to make yourself feel better about owning last year’s stuff.

“So then the next movie moves to the top of the queue. So No. 5 becomes No. 4. No. 6 becomes No. 5. No. 3 becomes No. 2, etc., etc. And lets just say that I just sent back ‘Love, Actually’ — which was awesome — and they sent me ‘Uptown Girls’ –  which was also awesome. But guess what? Now I want to see ‘Love, Actually’ again, but it’s at the bottom of the queue. ‘Oh, no, what do I do?’ What I do is this: I go online. I go click, click, click, and I change the order of the queue so that I can see ‘Love, Actually’ as soon as I want to. It’s so easy, Ryan. Do you really not know how Netflix works?”   -Kelly Kapoor

13 June 2008 | Industry News | Comments