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PhilDAS
AlexD
I concur with the sentiment that STRM and DBAD are not equals, however I feel that very important characteristics of DBAD are either not being recognised or are misrepresented in your evaluation.
Most problematic is that you have opted for a very Modernistic perspective; you root the genesis of DBAD in a concern for the real or imagined approval of its functional componentry regardless of their usage. In fact, DBAD is the world's first Post Truth bicycle, and to judge it by its physical characteristics would be to ignore its very Trumpian nativity.
For instance, Trump declares he will build a wall. The biggest wall. Somone else will pay for it so it doesn't matter. People become enraptured by the theatrics even though deep down they know no wall will be built. Amey proclaims a short wheelbase build, the shortest wheelbase. Custom if needs be. The rationale for this, like Trump's wall, is laughable, illogical even. When Amey buys a second hand off the peg frame from an obscure shop brand, it has a regular wheelbase but it doesn't matter; his audience is already caught up in the maelstrom of ridicule and glee-a voluble energy that crescendos with the added criteria of taking this banal frame and customising it at great expense to add S+S couplers and Paul Canti mounts-brakes which entirely subvert his own narrative of seeking effective braking solutions.
With one fell swoop Amey has re-focused the ridicule upon these equally risible criteria, whilst the frenzy of humour and ridicule continues to rise ever higher. It's a trick that works again and again throughout the build; promising "Potenza for the lols" but delivering the peasant-fare of Shimano Sora. In a manouvre worthy of Gideon Osborne and David Cameron DBAD has gone from a 'short wheelbase bedecked with Paul components and bling' to become a semi-bespoke, expensive but perplexingly basic componented 'austerity travel bike' that embraces its illogical, contrary failure as a project and exchanges the substantial material investment in it for cultural capital-however this can be defined. Until page 75 it wasn't even certain if DBAD even existed, such was the astute gamesmanship of its author.
DBAD is therefore the Bitcoin of 'custom' or 'bikepacking' bikes; it probably exists in some kind of dimension, more and more money and speech is being wrapped up in it, but nobody is really sure what it is for or how long it will last or if it will be ridden up a Col before disappearing into a cloud of sub-par braking, upset and ill feeling.
STRB, on the other hand, is nothing but a two dimensional pastiche of DBAD-a half hearted scribble on the cubicle wall of the pretentious cycling one-upmanship that DBAD so comprehensively molested for its own gain. DBAD is Livestrong-embodied in not just the laboured and contrary bicycle cypher that spawned it but also its notoriety-STRB is the violet eyed old man jangling a collection box outside Greggs on a Saturday morning, devoid of wider relevance or reach.
(Parklife!)