Thorn Cycles Forum
Community => Muppets Threads! (And Anything Else) => Topic started by: Danneaux on March 25, 2017, 05:50:51 am
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Hi All!
It was my great pleasure to meet Thorn member Dave Simpson this evening. He dropped by while making his return home from a two-week family vacation and was able to fit in a good visit while lodged in town tonight.
You know it's a good "chin wag" when it all seems too short and too soon over, so hopefully he'll pencil my place in for a return visit next time he passes through. We enjoyed talking bikes, bikes, and more bikes and as Anto would say, "the craic was good"!
Thanks for the visit, Dave. Safe travels on the morrow to you and your family.
All the best,
Dan.
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;)nice one Dan and Dave
anto
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Good on yer, guys. Love the foto!
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That's what it's all about, great photograph of you two lads.
Regards to you both, Alfie
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+1. :)
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;D !
Best,
Dan.
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Good on you guys!
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Dan was kind enough to allow to me to visit late, after my family and I had done the long drive (540 miles / 860 km) from the San Francisco area to Eugene, Oregon. It was supposed to be a quick half-hour visit, but we went to his garage/workshop to talk about his bikes, and an hour passed before I realized it.
I felt like a kid in a candy store in Dan's workshop. There is so much to see and learn.
Thanks, Dan, for a great visit!
- DaveS
p.s. I don't always wear a Thorn shirt. :) I had brought a handful of shirts with me on my vacation, and I when I looked at what clean shirts I had left and saw the Thorn shirt, I knew that I had to wear it.
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8) 8)
anto.
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Fate :)
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A real pleasure, Dave. Come back again. :)
All the best,
Dan.
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I've always thought we should have a by-yearly Thorn convention. This meeting is a step in the right direction. On a related note, I wonder how many Thorn owners there are in the States and Canada. Too bad there isn't a registry.
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I wonder how many Thorn owners there are in the States and Canada. Too bad there isn't a registry.
I've wondered about this myself, Pavel. Perhaps the best way is by self-reporting under a separate heading I can create if enough members PM me to show demand.
There are other methods but they are largely impractical, largely due to privacy reasons. Members' IP addresses will identify locations by country and even town, but I take great care to protect members' privacy and so I cannot publicly match member screen names to location without individual permission, an unwieldy task considering all 2600+ current members would need to be contacted first and could always decline. Plus, some members have their email privacy settings set to no notification and wish to only read posts and messages on the Forum. We average almost 46 registrations/day and about that many defections, so total numbers remain about the same making it a daunting task at best without self-selection.
Around 2003, a small section of the Gallery was devoted to the bikes of North American Thorn Owners (NATO), but it soon died out as members left for other pursuits.
I know I've surely enjoyed my in-person meetings with AndyBG, John Saxby, and Dave Simpson and had a near meeting with Slammin Sammy and his wife but missed due to schedule conflicts. A couple more folks hoped to stop by when traveling through town, but their schedules didn't allow a meet. I look forward to meeting more member/owners as it becomes possible. I keep in touch with some members by PM, email, and Facebook and have enjoyed our near-daily interactions off-Forum for years.
All the best,
Dan.
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At the risk of making more work for you, could I suggest a poll?
Location of members.
UK......500
USA .......250
Germany.....34
Etc.
Matt ( who likes numbers because they can prove anything )
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yeah, I too would find a poll interesting.
Too bad governments don't regard privacy the way Dan does. I'm somewhat mystified that Andy's advertising, which I consider to be very good compared to the over the top lifestyle ads of American companies, that they don't result in a stronger number of US sales and higher popularity of the brand here in the US.
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or some editable map like: https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=2532220
not sure this interface is the best though... somebody probably knows one that's easier
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Humm. That's good but provides a guide for ' tea leaves '.
Hows about just stat figures for country of owners?
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When we get figured out what we'd like, I can either set it up here or link to a site you've made. Either way is fine. :)
I thought about making the topic as a poll. By default, there's 5 options/choices on a poll, but I can add fields. I can also make it possible to answer the poll multiple times, so someone from the UK could answer "UK" and then some subset like England. Same for North America and then Canada or 'Merka. That would give us categories with totals in each pretty quickly and easily. Individual replies could include greater specificity if desired, maybe a thumbnail profile of the owner and model Thorn. If this sounds like a good direction, I'd appreciate it if you could come up with some suggested location fields to include in a poll.
While the idea of reviving the old NATO (North American Thorn Owners) might have some appeal for those who live on that continent, I want to keep things as inclusive as possible for all, to avoid fragmenting the Forum. Accordingly it would be nice to have worldwide regions or locations. It'll get unwieldy real quick if we're too specific (i.e. by county, parish, or state) so something "bigger" would probably work better for the poll, leaving more detail for individual posts under the same topic.
I don't mind answering with my general location (i.e. "Oregon USA"), but maybe don't want to be more specific to avoid creating a Thorn shopping list for the many thieves here'bouts locally. Some good discussion here so far, and Jim K's map shows one possibility that could work, though it lacks the numbers other might prefer.
If it all comes together, I'll make the topic "sticky" for the Thorn General board.
A reminder: We still do have a gallery entry that displayed members' photos. I can't access it at the moment because I am on break from jury duty as I type this and have to report back to to the jury assembly room at the courthouse momentarily.
All the best,
Dan.
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I don't think there is a need for NATO, us on this side of the pond seemingly are a minority, but a rough idea sort of sounds like fun. To keep it simple, I guess continents could be the poll and the country and region could just be answered in a post?