"In the late 1980s and early '90s, Bridgestone's U.S. bicycle division was run by Grant Petersen, a brilliant, talented and idiosyncratic designer.
Petersen, a hard-core cyclist, marched to a "different drummer" than most of the industry. He introduced many innovations to the market, and also strongly resisted other trends and innovations that he didn't approve of."
- From Sheldon Brown's Bridgestone Bicycles page