Could just be a website hosting issue.

Cobb has a new website:

www.speedandcomfort.com

I would think the old site should still be active, or at least forward to the new site.

Edit: Fixed the linky.

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Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador

You would think they would forward it. But I noticed the original site was down too and there was no indication they had a new one (searched and browsed their twitter page real quick...no mention of it and actually last tweet was back in March I think on that page).

I wanted to find setup instructions on the JOF 55 but a link from a reviewer article was broken. So I went a hunting on google and couldn't find any indication they rebranded themselves (at least website wise). The rest of the results were other non-cycling "Cobbs" that showed up so I didn't feel like sifting through all that last night.

travis, your URL was malformed. here is speedandcomfort.com.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

We are alive and well but decided to make a name change to better reflect where the company is headed with our soon to be available fitness equipment. One big change is that I am back as company director and we have several new products that I have dreamed up to help you racers. Yes, we changed the phone number and web address but I wanted this to be all new. We appreciate all of our past customers and look forward to a great future.
Thanks,
John Cobb
speedandcomfort.com

All new can be good, but a forwarding address wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

Great to see your alive. But I have been sending messages for over 5 days regarding an shipment that is paid for but no response and email keep bouncing back order number 1635. Maybe you can help me out through this channel :-)

Thanks,

Jeroen

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

Finally..!! I've been hunting for the website for the past few days, and kept getting errors. Now i can finally dig down into narrowing my choices.

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Paul..

Do I have this right? You changed your name and set up a new website, but your old website cobbcycling.com doesn't re-direct you to the new website?

Brilliant business move. . . . starting COMPLETELY over when you already had a customer base.

What happened to your business partner that bought your company before? Is this a complete reset of the company? Did you guys split?

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

I'm guessing something pretty drastic happened if Mr Cobb wants/can have nothing to do with Cobbcycling.com.

This may, in fact, be the only location on the entire internet where one can find Cobb's new web site. Unbelievable!

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Race Reports, etc -- Bob's Bikes

Fwiw, you can search for it but unfortunately it doesn't have enough Google/Bing juice to make it to the top of the listing so it is buried. There is a story here, I don't know if it will ever be told but I think Slowman would be better than anyone to talk about it. Cobb was bought out in 2016 and I am not sure if this is John taking it back or what but I can't imagine you just remove your online storefront without a good reason.

Slowman's original Don Park / Cobb piece is here.

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The other day I was looking at saddles online, and wanted to check out the latest Cobb offerings. I went to their website and got the dead link. Then I searched on "Cobb Cycling", "Cobb saddles" and a few other terms and never did come across the new site. So apparently, no, you can't find it just by doing a search online (at least I couldn't). I'm glad to hear they're still around, but having a website that nobody can seem to find doesn't seem like the best way to kick off a "new" business.

Even worse is the Cobb link below is to the old site!

Whatever happened to Tom Demerly?

OK, for kicks I just did another Google (TM) search for the following two terms: "Cobb Cycling" and "Cobb Saddles". You know where the "real" website (the new one that's referenced further up in the thread) appeared? NOWHERE in the first 5 pages of results. You think I, or anyone else, is going to sort through more than 5 pages of results to find the real website? I'm not talking about 'featured near the top', I'm just talking about being able to find it at all. I don't know if you're a Millenial, but I'm pretty sure you can figure out what it costs a business when nobody can find them online. Anywhere.

Are you serious right now, or are you just being argumentative for the sake of it? That, right there, is some lame arguments.

Yes, your arguments are lame. Why, because they are defensive and are attempts to rationalize a, frankly, indefensible position. I've been a part of several startups, and am all too familiar with how people come to rationalize behavior that is completely contradictory to the customer's needs and the business's success.

Can you tell me with a straight face that if I, as a customer, am interested in a Cobb saddle and take the time to do a google search to learn more about Cobb's current offerings and find it odd that I can't find any hint of a current website, I'm being pretentious? Hell, this whole thread started because someone else did exactly that and came to the conclusion that the company was dead. Good luck building a new business when your customers think you've gone belly up. Spare me the "starting a business is hard" schtick. I know it is. As a customer, I don't care. If you've started up a business from the ground up, you know all too well that your customers don't want to hear about that. If you think that makes them unreasonable or pretentious, your competitors are going to eat your lunch.

There seem to be a few ads for Cobb Saddles (by others), so the Google adwords route is probably not a good option as the cost likely isn't insignificant to pop-up as an ad. The other thing I noticed is that they sell direct on Amazon, and Amazon has a paid ad for Cobb saddles, so maybe they're getting what they want out of their search results.

Lastly, I've been getting their "Speed And Comfort is now the supplier of all Cobb Products" display ad on ST quite often, with new phone number and new website, which does redirect you to their new website.

I'm not saying you're wrong... there's got to be a reason, maybe has to do with the re-brand, and how things have been prioritized, but yeah, maybe some growing/changing pains.

Google is a finicky little thing. Search engine results pages are more customized than ever, and will factor in your browsing history, search queries, etc. to give you results that are more likely than not to best serve you. Speed and comfort shows up on the 5th page on my searches this morning, but that doesn't mean that it will always serve in that position.

It's also incredibly difficult to rank for the Cobb Cycling term, especially if you don't have the ability to write a whole bunch of content there around it, gain backlinks to the domain, and drive a whole bunch of new engagement to send signals to Google that this site is worth ranking for. Shopify sites are a bitch to drive up organic search-wise.

It would theoretically be easier to run an AdWords campaign on this - alongside the Speed and Comfort skins that have been running here on Slowtwitch (although those may be set to display only to industry members, rather than public at large). That being said, you're competing against every e-commerce person known to man on that front. As Andres noted, they're also running some Amazon listing ads (which should cross-pollinate over to some Bing results), which if you're looking for bang for your buck, is probably the way to go. Drive enough engagement there and you should be OK eventually.

I'd also throw some Facebook Dynamic Shopping ads into the mix, while uploading offline conversion files, but that's probably getting ahead of the game a bit. Marketing budget is probably exhausted by Amazon, and you'd need to maintain at least the current conversion rate to make it profitable.

TL;DR--it's early. I don't know why there isn't a re-direct, and there's probably a reason why the saddles are all just labeled "Cobb" and not "Cobb Cycling," but you can find the new site and the products via a few sources.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I found this thread after I had a support email go unanswered. After doing some digging I found a few links that indicate that the loss of the "Cobb Cycling" brand may have been collateral damage from a breach of contract suit and/or bankruptcy. Sad to see but glad John is still producing quality products under another label. I can understand the loss of the cobbcycling.com domain and the inability to forward it but I would think that the links on slowtwitch and emails could be easily corrected.

For those as confused as I was:
Bok v. Cobb Sports Designs, Inc. et al: https://dockets.justia.com/...6:2017cv00165/174836

Colorado Bankruptcy Court Case 1:17-bk-21113 - Kimatek LLC.: https://www.inforuptcy.com/...bk-21113-kimatek-llc

Yeah, the ST Link at the bottom of this page is still broken...

Does anyone know how to reach Cobb Saddles? I'm trying to track down a SHC DRT Black saddle and its so difficult. They are sold out online at all online retailers. I messaged Cobb's Facebook page and got nothing. Anyone know what is going on with them? Thanks, Wes

Their new website is http://www.speedandcomfort.com. The SHC DRT has been discontinued for a while now. If they don't have one, I think I do.

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Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador

Dude, you would be a life saver if you do. Where can I send you my money? I'm looking for the SHC DRT in black. I called them and they have one sample and I'm not sure what it looks like. If you have a new one I will buy it from you today. Thanks, Wes

I'll take a look when I get to the studio tonight and will PM you a picture to make sure it's the one you want, as well as my contact info. Thank you!

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Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador

Tom writes for The Aviationist and has a very active presence on Facebook. Multiple posts per day every day. He seldom posts about cycling or triathlon but when does, he’s usually critical of the sport, particularly the retail side. Except the Tour de France. He loves the TdF.