Thursday, December 4, 2008

Bike Parts for Sale; Only Fascinating People May Inquire


Making fun of craigslist and its posters' poor judgment, poor understanding or supply and demand, and poor command of the English language is an easy and fruitful pursuit. The Bike Snob has elevated it to an art and even we humble BeatBikeBloggers have dabbled in it from time to time. Usually, these bouts of ridicule have focused on the substantive foolishness of the poster, like when someone tries to sell a used version of a bike for $4 more than it sells for new, rather than on bad writing, which is almost too ubiquitous to bother with on the 'list. But today, something amusing caught my eye: Some guy in West Hartford is selling "2 Mountain Bike saddle with seatpost." The ad is has photos and tells would-be buyers, "If interesting, email me at xxxxxxxxx@tmail.com." That is funny! No boring people may buy my mountain bike saddles! But it's not worth a blog post, because people who type quickly tend to put the wrong word sometimes - I, for example, have a lot of trouble typing "react" because I always, automatically type "reaction." It's not a typo, exactly, it's just a weird muscle memory thing, and substituting "interesting" for "interested" seems to be the same sort of error. EXCEPT THAT THE POSTER DID IT AGAIN WHEN SELLING A STEM. AND AGAIN WHEN SELLING A FORK. ALSO FOR THE HANDLEBARS. AND THE BRAKE LEVER.

I think he really only wants to sell to scintillating people.

UPDATE: He really did mean to write "interesting." How do I know? Now he has posted a solid tube for sale (the kind that doesn't need air and makes your ass hurt a lot), and in this ad, he does not limit inquiries to interesting people. Obviously, the saddles, stem, fork, handlebar, and brake lever were meant to be sold to interesting people, but the guy doesn't give a damn who buys his airless 20" tire.

5 comments:

Brendan said...

It looks like those things all came from the bottom of the Trout Brook.

OpusOne said...

And so it has come to pass that the beatbikeblog is truly an indoctrinated and wholly integrated part of the internet. Let it be known across the firmament that on the fourth day of the twelfth month, a lolcat has graced our humble web log.

And so it is and so it ever shall be. Forever and ever, amen.

El Presidente de China said...

I can haz free folding bikez?

Karma said...

Well I hear they have been cracking down on violations in the personals section of Craigslist. Perhaps this guy has moved his listing to a different forum in search of "Interesting" people. Maybe this time the type with bulging quads and firm gluts. You know, bikers.

Well that or they just dont pay attention to the grammar of their posting. Lets be honest though, it makes for "Interesting" blog fodder.

Brendan said...

think of all the skids you could do on your xtoor with that tire!