[Yak] Suitcase hassles? Don't overthink.

[Andy Heath]

Lynette at Bike Friday wrote:
> Don't know why people are having these suitcase hassles.

This is the luck of life - sometimes everything goes to plan and
sometimes it doesn't.  Every other time it went well for me.

Lynette, I know you are sensitive to anything that could be construed
as negative about BF's and that you have a vested interest in
pointing discussion in a positive direction (which could just
have some distant faint relation with the role you perform
for the company ;-) ).
In the case of the fuss about Quality Control that's reasonable because 
one loud-mouthed complaining person would have given newbies the
wrong impression about GG.  But this is a different circumstance.

I love my NWT as I always make very clear and I've never ever
had anything negative to say about GG.  But life is life - why try
to distort it by painting it differently in the name of sales ?

A very strong reason that led me to buy my BF is because this
community is NOT biased by sales-speak.  When I joined this list
around 10 years ago, 2 years before I bought my NWT,
I saw that people openly discussed the
bikes, negative points as well, and that GG listened.  And that
I believe is precisely why the bikes are so good. Had it been
a place where negative comments never were uttered I would
have gone and bought a bike from another company - one that
was realistic.
If this becomes a place where platitudes are extant in the interests of
pushing GG and the bikes then quality will suffer.
Whilst the feedback of idiots is worthless the feedback of the
community that use these bikes is very valuable and you
stifle opinions at the company's peril.

With regard to point about cases - s..t happens.  Not very
often if one takes care and its not useful getting
hung up on it, but occasionally it does.  That's life.

andy

> There is no reason why you would remove the combo lock off the suitcase.
> The TSA always ask you 'is it locked?' and your truthful answer should 
> be no.
> Then just wave it bye bye down the gullet of the x-ray machine and hope 
> for the best.
> They all must have PhD's in luggage by now.
> If you insist on trying to be overly accommodating or canny by locking 
> it, putting a key there etc it is simply asking for trouble, asking for 
> them to get mad because you're now keeping them from their lunch break 
> ...  they have to put more attention to it because you deviated from 
> what is straightforward.
> I've never had a problem and I've been flying a lot. No, correction, I 
> did have a problem recently - bent seat mast hinge, due to some sloppy 
> packing on my part, but I fixed it with a pair of pliers - what's not to 
> love about STEEL. Also, TWO crush protectors ain't a bad idea.
> I put some of my packing and airport schlepping tips here:
> http://www.bikefriday.com/galfromdownunder-gear in the unlikely event it 
> tells you anything new...
> I just find if you keep things simple, take an anti- paranoia pill, and 
> don't be tempted to treat TSA like it's a stupid inconvenience, things 
> magically work out.
> Keep your eyes on the prize ...
> 
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> 


Cheers

andy
-- 
andy heath
pedalpushers web/list manager
and cycling rhetoricist