As a result of the recent thread on Glidecycle I got a long email from the “original concept developer for the GlideCycle”. Parts are pasted below with identifies removed. It seems to have been sent to each person who posted to the thread. I reckon its the reason one STer posted an apology. I’ll respond to him by email but thought I would post it here as well.
He says: “What is God’s name is wrong with our work”. I guess my response is that there is nothing wrong with it and it likely has a valid therapeutic use. What struck me as hysterical was the way they pitch it as if it were a sport with guys appearing to race on a track.
He also wants to meet those of us who posted to that thread “in a pub…or just outback of one”. What’s that about? Fist fight? Good grief!
Bio McGeek
Here is the email:
I would beg a second of your time to help me understand what it is about our project that draws such harsh criticism from some quarters such as the slowtwitch forum upon which you posted a comment. If you look at some of our work, we have several amputees who can run in our glider 6 to 10 miles 3 times per week…and one who has run on his glider 22 miles…or 350+ pound men and women who can outrun many slower runners, yet can’t feel the joy of running and the hope of getting fit without their gliders. I personally glide/run between 60 to 100 miles each week and at age 58 with bad knees am unable to run without this crap version of Walter Dandy’s fine machine, the runbike. My longest glide/run is 62 miles; my track marathon time is 2:37 with my glider. I travel at 10 to 12 mph and once each week run 24 miles to work and climb 2300 feet in 10 miles of mountain road as well each week. We regularly train men and women who can’t run and some that can’t even walk to run great distances again bringing untold joy, health and weightloss to their lives. We are training wounded veterans with alter abilities to run on gliders faster than you could imagine. We are also training several super and ultra runners that can glide/run through injuries and avert overuse injuries by x-training on this amazing equipment. What is God’s name is wrong with our work? I mean, why do so many who, I suspect have done so little good with their own lives, berate the hard work of people like us. I would personally like to meet some of them in a pub…or just outback of one. Would you kindly help me understand by just explaining yourself. It would really help us here. I mean, after reading the blogs on the triathlon site that popped up on google alerts, the director of therapy and research her broke into tears. Sincerely begging a response,
X2
I love the banter on ST and I get it. I dont mind what people say about me on here as I put my self on here and so accept the abuse. BUT not everyone feels like that and if I offend someone I dont mind saying sorry. There is nothing wrong with the product, I found it funny to watch but that was just in my childish head, I guess what the guy was saying when he offered us all out for a fight was that it had pissed him off and had upset his colleagues who worked hard at this and were proud of it. Also I guess as a business they dont want people talking shit about their stuff as it may effect business. This is also a fair point as they didnt advertise on ST.
note that i changed the thread title. otherwise, i have no response. except i want to meet bio_mcgeek inside AND outside the pub. we’ll drink inside, and then i’m going to beat him once we go outside… to the city limit sign.
I would be pretty ticked too if something I designed for people with physical limitations was getting criticized. I also realize that advertising it to able body runners as a cross-training device may draw some ire.
Note that my original post did not take a side. The subject line was “Does it get any more awesome than Glidecycle?” and my post was “Imagine how fit you could get on a Glidecycle!!! Be sure to click the videos here.”
Any “side” or insult was in the perception, not explicitly in the post.
Hard to imagine something more unprofessional than threatening violence against someone critical of your product. Acting professional might be a good start if their goal is to be taken more seriously.
Hard to imagine something more unprofessional than threatening violence against someone critical of your product. Acting professional might be a good start if their goal is to be taken more seriously.
Thom
Who says he was threatening violence? You can’t very well ride a Glidecycle in a pub, can you? You’ve got to be outside of the pub to do a proper Glidecycle challenge, which I’m sure is what he had in mind.
because you and i didn’t see the correspondence back and forth between the parties, i’m not sure it’s wise to assign a meaning to something somebody said somebody said. it’s possible that if you and i read the original correspondence penned by its author, you might think that some other meaning was intended. i don’t know. i haven’t read any more than you have. i’m just sayin’.
the thing about bio_mcgeek and me, we’re old, but we’re young enough and lucky enough to still be able bodied. one of these years either of us might be surreptitiously typing in our credit card numbers for a glidecycle, depending on our luck and our health.
i’m a big believer in hoisting one’s petard off the couch, getting oneself outside, and locomoting from point A to point B under human power. if the glidecycle can aid in that regard, i’m all for it. especially if there’s an entire new class of people now mobile who - without the aid of the glidecycle - would still be relegated to the couch.
Hard to imagine something more unprofessional than threatening violence against someone critical of your product. Acting professional might be a good start if their goal is to be taken more seriously.
Thom
Who says he was threatening violence? You can’t very well ride a Glidecycle in a pub, can you? You’ve got to be outside of the pub to do a proper Glidecycle challenge, which I’m sure is what he had in mind.
Well if you park your Glidecycle next to the choppers outside the pub, violence may not be far behind…
Who says he was threatening violence? You can’t very well ride a Glidecycle in a pub, can you? You’ve got to be outside of the pub to do a proper Glidecycle challenge, which I’m sure is what he had in mind.
because you and i didn’t see the correspondence back and forth between the parties, i’m not sure it’s wise to assign a meaning to something somebody said somebody said. it’s possible that if you and i read the original correspondence penned by its author, you might think that some other meaning was intended. i don’t know.
Unless mcgeek is flat out lying, he posted the original correspondence penned by it’s author verbatim. It just struck me as ironic that a company complaining it isn’t being taken seriously resorts to such unprofessional behaviour. I have nothing against the product but I think they would be better off just acknowledging that it looks a little in use.
I guess I should have proceded my original response with, “Assuming bio_mcgeek is quoting them accurately…”
“Assuming bio_mcgeek is quoting them accurately…” Thom
Copied directly from the email and then removed the opening sentence and signature lines to remove his identity. Only difference is that the paragraph returns did not paste properly so it all runs together.
oh well heck. i don’t see what they wrote as any explicit threat. rather, it was a private email you’ve made public, which is not typically done. i just don’t see why we can’t let this company continue its work. not likely any of us is going to meet them in or out of the pub.
furthermore, i think this is where you and i could do battle, bio_mcgeek. i can whip your ass in a 5k. you can clean my clock in a bike race. so, who would win between us on a glidecycle? admit it, you’d like to see, wouldn’t you?
not everyone is internet-acclimated. it’s apparent that these folks are more comfortable in the analog world and, while i earn my living in the digital world, psychically i’m more comfortable analogging as well. and that’s the point of their product and, for that, a salute them.
at some point you’ve got to give digital a rest, and go analog.
In my email to the person from Glidecycle I wrote “FYI I copied most of your message to the Slowtwitch forum. If you want to promote or defend your product you really should register for that forum and post there. Its a lively forum and I’m sure you’ll find people who like it. Hashing it out on forums is the modern equivalent of meeting out back of a pub.”
I just got this response back from him: “Thank you, Jim…that is very good advise…and I imagine it is a good place to learn to laugh at ourselves a bit. Best to you,”
I consider that a much improved response and wanted to pass it along.
