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Andrew Coggan: Oct 19, 09 14:59
Triathlon Forum
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Re: Kestrel Wind tunnel data [Trirunner]
[ In reply to ]
Re: Kestrel Wind turnnel data [Rappstar]
[ In reply to ]
I agree with Rappstar on companies spending tons of $$$$$$$ on R&D and not taking the final step on packaging up the product with the correct supporting materials like whitepapers. I fight this battle all the time within my own company and more often than not, I get the fun job of writing the whitepaper on a variety of technology problems...and then having to stand in front of customers and analysts and speak to the points and get the hard questions.
Soooooo, I'll volunteer my to write the whitepaper for free provided that the raw unadultered experimental data is provided as input to the whitepaper. Steven can provide the Kestrel marketing spin, and like any whitepaper, the writer will be glad to map it to the hard data, provided that it can legitimately be mapped and that you can't drive a Hummer through the holes in the arguement.
All kidding aside, a agree with most of the posters on the thread. The 4000 looks at the surface to be an awesome bike. If it is aero "enough" and has the right look it can be marketed to anyone. You don't need the most aero bike in the market...that's just going to sell to the top 1% of the field. If you really aren't the most aero bike in the market (or the top tier of aero bikes), better to steer clear and focus on other attributes :-)
Having a bike that is reasonably aero, with data to back it up, ridden by some fast dudes to fast bike splits and looks incredibly hot will sell to the "fat part of the market" ...and frankly that is what that really matters in any business when it comes to revenue and profitability.
You don't need the best widget in the market, you just need the widget that lots of people will part with greenbacks for and want to be associated with. Now what do you have to do to make it happen? Do you need the best windtunnel data? I don't think so. 99% of triathletes could care less whether their bike came out top in the windtunnel or not.
I know guys on this thread do care, so you better offer them the data they are looking for, or focus the marketing on other early adopters who can influence the market in other ways.
:-)
OK, carry on with the regular programming.
Dev
Soooooo, I'll volunteer my to write the whitepaper for free provided that the raw unadultered experimental data is provided as input to the whitepaper. Steven can provide the Kestrel marketing spin, and like any whitepaper, the writer will be glad to map it to the hard data, provided that it can legitimately be mapped and that you can't drive a Hummer through the holes in the arguement.
All kidding aside, a agree with most of the posters on the thread. The 4000 looks at the surface to be an awesome bike. If it is aero "enough" and has the right look it can be marketed to anyone. You don't need the most aero bike in the market...that's just going to sell to the top 1% of the field. If you really aren't the most aero bike in the market (or the top tier of aero bikes), better to steer clear and focus on other attributes :-)
Having a bike that is reasonably aero, with data to back it up, ridden by some fast dudes to fast bike splits and looks incredibly hot will sell to the "fat part of the market" ...and frankly that is what that really matters in any business when it comes to revenue and profitability.
You don't need the best widget in the market, you just need the widget that lots of people will part with greenbacks for and want to be associated with. Now what do you have to do to make it happen? Do you need the best windtunnel data? I don't think so. 99% of triathletes could care less whether their bike came out top in the windtunnel or not.
I know guys on this thread do care, so you better offer them the data they are looking for, or focus the marketing on other early adopters who can influence the market in other ways.
:-)
OK, carry on with the regular programming.
Dev
Re: Kestrel Wind turnnel data [devashish_paul]
[ In reply to ]
Last edited by:
Andrew Coggan: Oct 19, 09 14:58
Re: Kestrel Wind turnnel data [Andrew Coggan]
[ In reply to ]
Just like I tell the engineers in my company....show me the data from the lab so that I can put the marketing spin on it...but I want to see the data, cause I can't market it without believing it myself. And I do have to stand in front of people and defend it beyond what is written, so it better be real, or my credibility is toast, and I'll never win that customer over again and if I can't win the customer or help the sales guy do it, all of our paycheques are toast. In the end, customers pay our paycheques, not executives :-)
Re: Kestrel Wind tunnel data [Andrew Coggan]
[ In reply to ]
"Linearly interpolating data is SOP in science"
Guilty as charged of thinking like the engineer that I am, then!
Re: Kestrel Wind turnnel data [devashish_paul]
[ In reply to ]
...and to be fair, (and as I told gregclimbs, The Privateer, and sharad in the Kestrel booth at Interbike) I personally think that the 4000 is "drop dead sexy" looking.
However, there's nothing more frustrating than a knock-out looker that doesn't perform up to snuff...we're just trying to make sure the performance matches the "looks" ;-)
http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/
Re: Kestrel Wind turnnel data [Tom A.]
[ In reply to ]
sharad does know that you were talking about the bike when you said drop dead sexy...right?
Re: Kestrel Wind turnnel data [zebragonzo]
[ In reply to ]
Re: Kestrel Wind turnnel data [Tom A.]
[ In reply to ]
See, you guys are critical consumers. Most just go for the knock out looker, even if she is high maintenance, can't perform and might have to be traded in not to far down the line due to the high maintenance factor. But lust is only skin deep as we all know...
What kind of difference does that translate to on a TT? Seems to me that when Zipp is calculating for their wheels they use approx 3sec / 1 gram, if so, that is a pretty big difference. Or am I way off base?
Kevin
Kevin