Soulbrotha
Soulmusik all night long!
Hei lebaron,
Du bist ja Fan von Keith. Hier ein Interview, vielleicht kennst Du es noch nicht... Keine echte Story aber interessant.
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DirtWorld: Do you ever hang out with the Gary Klein, Gary Fischer or Greg LeMond?
Keith Bontrager: Not much. I see Mr. Fisher and Mr. Klein at corporate functions. We get along okay. They are both interesting folks.
I don't see Greg often either. I am an admiring fan, so I would probably embarrass myself if I did see him more. Drooling and stammering are not acceptable social skills where I come from, at least until you're on your tenth pint. The times I have hung out with him I'd have to say it was real easy. One of the advantages of having kicked so much fast Euro Roadie ass is that he has very little to prove, and I think he's comfortable with what he's done. It's a rare quality.
I scored a poster from one of the display stands at the Vegas show of him crossing a finish line in a full sprint, looking like he wanted to win. It's one of the luckier scores I've made swagwise lately. Very cool.
DirtWorld: Read any good books lately?
Keith Bontrager: "No Hands" - the story about Schwinn's rise and fall.
DirtWorld: What are you working on these days that has you jazzed?
Keith Bontrager: Going faster on my snowboard in the trees. Riding my bike in the forest around here. Checking out the live Pearl Jam MP3s around. All the usual distractions from real life we use to stay sane and happy.
You said jazzed right? ;-)
A great deal of the work I do is not technically challenging these days. So it's not that satisfying - I really like technical challenges. My work will come around to that again I hope. The timetable we work on now and goals we have for the stuff we are working on takes most of the complex engineering decisions out of my hands. I am old and slow and I am told we don't have the time for that. Because of that it's too expensive to do much deep development anyway - one of the complications of working in a fashion biz and working for a company that has to chase it to survive. We rely on vendors a lot.
In a way it makes sense. By the time you understand something well, the fashion goes somewhere else. In some ways it doesn't make that much sense to me though. You can't establish an advantage or reputation for the long term when you chase. It's a gamble either way, but the conditions in the biz now force us to take the direction we are on.
I don't work on a lot of the parts I have designed in the past anymore. Others on the team do that. They inherit some of what I have started with the products that are in place and then do what the committees want them too from there.
I do still know a little about designing bike parts though. I still work on tires and rims, and spend a little time on wheels and saddles too. I don't control the final designs on any of these though. Decisions made by committees, team members, and our product manager determine the direction for all of this. Some things come easy because of that, especially when the goals of the project involve lowering costs rather than raising performance. Rims do not take very long to design anymore, especially less expensive ones. It's not work that has me jazzed, but it's good work most of the time and what I set myself up for.
DirtWorld: What's your favorite place to ride?
Keith Bontrager: Powder in the trees. A few spots in Tahoe mostly though Utah and Colorado would be better if I could get there more. A snowcat or heli tour of BC or Alaska are my dream rides someday before I am too old to point it downhill hard anymore.
Oh, you meant bikes? Sorry.
I rode in Ketchum a few years ago. It was great. Singletrack everywhere. We had some guides to help us - Western Sprit Cycling. They know the place, so we got the best, or at least what they wanted to show us. There is probably something there that they reserve for themselves. Don't blame them.
The Dolomites and Alps are nice. I hope to do a Trans-Alp ride soon to get a little more of that kind of thing. Hut to hut, coffee in the morning, pasta and wine in the evening, and a zillion meters of climbing everyday, you get the idea.
It's possible because I get to travel a little. I am lucky.
I am not all that picky though. Travel is nice, but not necessary. I really like Santa Cruz, rides that I don't have to drive in a car to get to, daily stuff, not epic rides, but trails I really know well. Santa Cruz is pretty hard to beat for that.
Being on the bike is what matters anyway, just pushing on the pedals and adapting to wherever I am at the time. That's why the knobby hobby rules. You don't need resorts or plane tickets to do it. Just ride.
Du bist ja Fan von Keith. Hier ein Interview, vielleicht kennst Du es noch nicht... Keine echte Story aber interessant.
----
DirtWorld: Do you ever hang out with the Gary Klein, Gary Fischer or Greg LeMond?
Keith Bontrager: Not much. I see Mr. Fisher and Mr. Klein at corporate functions. We get along okay. They are both interesting folks.
I don't see Greg often either. I am an admiring fan, so I would probably embarrass myself if I did see him more. Drooling and stammering are not acceptable social skills where I come from, at least until you're on your tenth pint. The times I have hung out with him I'd have to say it was real easy. One of the advantages of having kicked so much fast Euro Roadie ass is that he has very little to prove, and I think he's comfortable with what he's done. It's a rare quality.
I scored a poster from one of the display stands at the Vegas show of him crossing a finish line in a full sprint, looking like he wanted to win. It's one of the luckier scores I've made swagwise lately. Very cool.
DirtWorld: Read any good books lately?
Keith Bontrager: "No Hands" - the story about Schwinn's rise and fall.
DirtWorld: What are you working on these days that has you jazzed?
Keith Bontrager: Going faster on my snowboard in the trees. Riding my bike in the forest around here. Checking out the live Pearl Jam MP3s around. All the usual distractions from real life we use to stay sane and happy.
You said jazzed right? ;-)
A great deal of the work I do is not technically challenging these days. So it's not that satisfying - I really like technical challenges. My work will come around to that again I hope. The timetable we work on now and goals we have for the stuff we are working on takes most of the complex engineering decisions out of my hands. I am old and slow and I am told we don't have the time for that. Because of that it's too expensive to do much deep development anyway - one of the complications of working in a fashion biz and working for a company that has to chase it to survive. We rely on vendors a lot.
In a way it makes sense. By the time you understand something well, the fashion goes somewhere else. In some ways it doesn't make that much sense to me though. You can't establish an advantage or reputation for the long term when you chase. It's a gamble either way, but the conditions in the biz now force us to take the direction we are on.
I don't work on a lot of the parts I have designed in the past anymore. Others on the team do that. They inherit some of what I have started with the products that are in place and then do what the committees want them too from there.
I do still know a little about designing bike parts though. I still work on tires and rims, and spend a little time on wheels and saddles too. I don't control the final designs on any of these though. Decisions made by committees, team members, and our product manager determine the direction for all of this. Some things come easy because of that, especially when the goals of the project involve lowering costs rather than raising performance. Rims do not take very long to design anymore, especially less expensive ones. It's not work that has me jazzed, but it's good work most of the time and what I set myself up for.
DirtWorld: What's your favorite place to ride?
Keith Bontrager: Powder in the trees. A few spots in Tahoe mostly though Utah and Colorado would be better if I could get there more. A snowcat or heli tour of BC or Alaska are my dream rides someday before I am too old to point it downhill hard anymore.
Oh, you meant bikes? Sorry.
I rode in Ketchum a few years ago. It was great. Singletrack everywhere. We had some guides to help us - Western Sprit Cycling. They know the place, so we got the best, or at least what they wanted to show us. There is probably something there that they reserve for themselves. Don't blame them.
The Dolomites and Alps are nice. I hope to do a Trans-Alp ride soon to get a little more of that kind of thing. Hut to hut, coffee in the morning, pasta and wine in the evening, and a zillion meters of climbing everyday, you get the idea.
It's possible because I get to travel a little. I am lucky.
I am not all that picky though. Travel is nice, but not necessary. I really like Santa Cruz, rides that I don't have to drive in a car to get to, daily stuff, not epic rides, but trails I really know well. Santa Cruz is pretty hard to beat for that.
Being on the bike is what matters anyway, just pushing on the pedals and adapting to wherever I am at the time. That's why the knobby hobby rules. You don't need resorts or plane tickets to do it. Just ride.
