Very impressive indeed, and have enjoyed seeing the Premier Tactical evolve overtime. Also, enjoy seeing all of the great work Jim is doing as well. Hoping to possibly pay him a visit early 2018 (if the below comments don't get me blacklisted ;) ).

But, is it just me, or is this a complete conflict of interest to have someone that carries/stocks the Premier Tactical at his fit studio/shop to be the one conducting and overseeing the test?

Dan/Jim- You can come on here and smack me around and correct me if the bikes just sit at Jim's place of business and their is no monetary advantage to those bikes or an Tactical being sold. (not that it is any of our business what the business arrangement is, but when it comes to him being the one doing the testing, I think it is something that should be questioned).

Not trying to say either one of you have integrity issues or would skew the data, but I would think if you were wanting to have completely transparent data that you would use someone "unbiased"?

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

Sure - thank you for your post and your question.

I met Jim Manton for the first time at the testing session linked above. This testing was to accompany the launch of the Tactical about 1 year ago.

I had asked some industry people who they thought could do a great job testing "rider on" and "rider off" in both a wind tunnel and velodrome.

Jim was recommended to me so I reached out and asked him to do the testing. Specifically, I asked him to do the testing and publish the results no matter how they turned out. Next I asked who could be the rider - again, someone that I did not know. Ian Murray was recommend so I reached out to him.

These two professionals turned out to be a great choice.

The testing was scheduled for December 2016 - I flew out and met them both for the first time. About 1 year ago. The results were prepared and published as they are shown on the link Bryan included. We ended up doing some extra testing, 20 mph vs 30 mph, 1X, storage options etc.... and published that data as well.

About 9 months later I asked Jim if he would like to enter into an arrangement to work with PremierBike. The agreement outlined on Jim's website - ERO Sports.com - is what we ended up doing.

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

Brad,

Read this http://www.ero-sports.com/...ier-tactical-is-here

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

Ahhh haaaa, makes perfect sense then and thanks for your transparency and openness. Timeline makes sense now, and knew there was more to the story.

Great to see those results, the 1x results are interesting and hopefully more is done in the future with that.

Keep up the good work, great to see you guys continuing to evolve the bike with each "model/phase" launch!

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

Why was the IA tested with the Zipp bar instead of the Felt Bayonet bar? Just curious, I doubt it would have changed much either way.

That was Ian's bike. He had added a few upgrades. The bar, TriRig brakes ...stuff like that. I think Jim listed those components in the write-up.

It seemed like a more realistic comparison of what an athlete would compare to the Tactical. We would have done better with a stock IA. Those components more to the cost but - it seemed like a better example for athletes to compare as many swap out those items.

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

No more or less than anyone else's testing (with the rare exception of someone like Kiley). It's also pretty hard to blind a test, unless you have someone independent and not in the room doing the analysis.

It's nice to see a new manufacturer making such an effort. There are some interesting results in there, particularly his 1x and 20mph/32km/h testing.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

I see. I was wondering just because it seemed like a fairly unusual choice. The tririg brakes made sense. Thank you for your reply, and I think you make a fantastic bike. Definitely on my short list of bikes to buy after I graduate. Do you see yourself hiring any engineers anytime soon?

Just to add another data point, the 1x results were similar for my testing with a Shiv TT.

Thank you.

We have some unbelievable engineering helping on all our products . We have people both inside and outside the bike industry which helps with new approaches and innovation.

As a small company I’m not sure when we will be able to hire young engineers. I’m hopeful.

It starts with ideas and hard work. If I can help in any way please let me know. Part of what I want to do is further the sport. That could be expansion, innovation or new product development. Maybe something else.

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com