Not putting pedals on bikes was a good idea. It gave customers flexibility in pedal systems (since there was no consensus and still isn’t) and generated a revenue stream for bike retailers.
In 2005/06, please do the same with saddles. Just leave them off. The ones you are sending us are terrible.
For companies like Cervelo who only offer one color per model: Thank you. All others, please do the same.
Forget the fancy crap on the bikes, give us supply chain management. Retailers cannot forecast, we leave tha u to you. Welcome to the world of Just in Time inventory. I don’t want to floor bikes and owe you money while my customers buy everything I don’t (and you don’t) have.
If you don;t have something and are not getting it, say so. Stop telling us things are “on the way” when they aren’t- then I’ll return the favor.
Stop insulting women by offering bogus “Women’s specific designs”. Bikes don’t know gender. They only know fit. Putting flowers on a bike, a shorter stem and a saddle with a hole in it does not make it a “women’s” bike.
If the pros are using it, customers will want it. Please be sure it is available.
If it isn’t selling it is because people don’t want it.
Look at what Felt, Cervelo and Guru are doing. Do that.
Stop trying to be Trek, Specialized and Giant.
Oh, did I mention, please just leave the seats off next year…
Stop introducing a line of bikes to address a specific market, i.e. Lemond = steel bikes, then completely hose both your dealers and your customers when you butcher the line, i.e. Lemond = carbon/steel hybrids. This does three things, all bad:
It abandons your niche, which is the reason people bought from you. This betrays the people who bought from you because of the unique product you provided.
It saddles your dealers with yet another line of “me too” frames. This causes them to have multiple lines of identical bikes, meaning that not only are you competing against your other lines, but the dealers waste a lot of time explaining to customers why one bike is different than another, basically identical, bike.
It compromises the value of your bicycles. E.g. in 2003, a steel Lemond Buenos Aires with Ultegra was $1549. In 2004, the carbon/steel Buenos Aires with 105 is $2000.
One thing I’d add to the list is LBS-specific: Don’t just carry Trek and Specialized, then one boutique brand like Merlin or Seven. This doesn’t offer a whole lot of variety to your customers, who might(how dare they!) not want a carbon or aluminum bike, and can’t afford a $5,000 bike.
Right. Not to nitpick, but Lemond is Trek, so you really have to wonder what the marketing strategists were thinking. Or smoking. In my case, if the Lemond hadn’t offered better components, I would have bought the Fuji Roubaix Pro. At the Lemond’s new pricepoint, I would have bought the Roubaix instead of the Buenos Aires.
I’m just disillusioned because there is only one Cervelo dealer in MA, and whenever I go to a shop and ask about them, the universal answer I get is, “We already have two lines of aluminum bikes.” I, for some reason, seem to be one of those guys who is always looking for the best overall bike for the money, which means that I am invariably looking for a line no one carries, such as Jamis or Cervelo.
Sorry to derail your thread.( I know, that never happens.)
Well, I think ultmately most bike compnaies look at the Trek/Intrepid Finance gross sales figures and market share and say, “Man, we want that…!” Then they try.
The bigger strategic vision is that this is a highly volatile, seasonal, non-essential industry. It is the first to go when the economy contracts (contrary to what Forbes magazine said 10 years ago). Also, our industry is in a constant state of change- MTB’s are hot, MTB’s are extinct, Trithlon is hot, triathlon is extinct, etc. etc. The big guys are like an aircraft carrier in a kayak race- they can;t turn fast enough.
Product managers: If you aren’t on the phone with FSA right now to OEM their aerobars, you should be. They are the best and the cheapest.
Cannondale, Felt, Cervelo, Guru, Trek, ABG- everybody- spec FSA/Visiontech aerpobars for '05/'06 model year on everything. Customers love them, retailers love them and they are awesome.
Please stop sending me these plastic bags full of nuts, bolts, shims, pads and tubes that are supposed to be aerobars. They suck. Bad. Spec FSA/Visiontech in '05/'06!!!
The big guys are like an aircraft carrier in a kayak race- they can;t turn fast enough.
So they bull the market along the boring tried and true path. . . You’ll never see a Soloist project out of Trek. . .The Madone is about as far as they’ll venture into radicalism. . .And there really isn’t anything revolutionary at all with that bike. Hell, without Armstrong, Trek would NEVER have produced the TT frame. Can’t have a Trek sponsored athlete like Armstrong riding a rebadged Litespeed!
Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with the boring tried and true path . . . buzz does not equal volume on the economic side. .
And also, as much as I love them, customers don;t care if your bike is the “official Ironman bike”
It doens;t make the bike any better, and it alienates frist time buyers who say “but I haven;t done Ironman” or “I’ll never do Ironman”.
The licensing fees are wasted money. sophisitcated consumers understand it is bought and paid for, unsophisticated consumers shy away from it. How many bike have been “official Ironman bike”? Four?
Now that is an idea I had never really considered, but makes at least as much sense as the pedals. Those so-called Selle Italia XO and Nitrox saddles and all of their ilk should be banned from manufacturers. They are third rate, at best, and probably responsible for more complaints to the LBS about how “terrible this bike feels” than any other issue. NOBODY rides those things. . .my LBS has a bin full of them. . .It should be marked as a bio-hazard, like the needle boxes at the hosital!
Cannondale, Felt, Cervelo, Guru, Trek, ABG- everybody- spec FSA/Visiontech aerpobars for '05/'06 model year on everything. Customers love them, retailers love them and they are awesome.
Please stop sending me these plastic bags full of nuts, bolts, shims, pads and tubes that are supposed to be aerobars. They suck. Bad. Spec FSA/Visiontech in '05/'06!!!
Or like the seats, just leave the aerobars off, the FSA/Visiontech’s don’t work for everyone. Of course I have the weirdest set up anybody has ever seen.
Trek is a fine company. They are the best at being Trek. The OCLV bikes are excellent road bikes and their popularly priced MTB’s, comfort bikes, hybrids and road bikes are very, very nice.
I absolutely do not care for their tri bikes. They should have just left that alone IMO.
Trek is best at being Trek. Problems arise when other companies try to be Trek. There is only room for one Trek. We don;t sell them, but I might like to someday in some limited capacity. Truth is, my store is not large enough to really sell Trek correctly, and we have a fine Trek dealer just down the street from us who are well established and do an excellent job (Jack’s Cycle and Fitness). They have been there over 70 years, one of the oldest businesses in Dearborn.
Make no mistake, if the winds of change blew the right way I would be a very, very enthusiastic Trek dealer.
"And also, as much as I love them, customers don’t care if your bike is the “official Ironman bike” "
I’ll go you one better and say that many people eschew the “official” anything because, as jaded consumers, we realize that you bought that endorsement, and it is no reflection on the quality of your product. Further, since that “official” status was paid for, I’ll assume that I am paying a premium for that product.
I will say this: I own an Ironman wetsuit and a Seal Mask, but their status as the “official” product was not listed in the plus column of my decision-making process. If anything, it was disuasive.
I have no issues at all with Trek. I’ve had the 440, 1100, 1200 and 2500 (all late 80’s). In my mind, most folks taking umbrage with their products are barking up the wrong tree. They are operating under mostly different circumstances than, say, Cervelo. If Cervelo’s total bike production equals that of even ONE of Trek’s main models, I’d be very surprised. And yet Trek isn’t that large a company that they can go really screwing with their lines. They can’t absorb mistakes like shoe companies can when they get off track for a few years. Nike had about 5 years in the 90s where their running shoes were anything but. . . Now they seem to be back on track. No issues. If Trek screwed up the OCLV bikes with some weird cutting edge crap they might never recover. . .
So. . .those looking for the cutting edge stuff should look elsewhere, rather than blaming Trek for “bland” products. . .If your line of bikes was winning the TdF five years running, would you be making radical changes?
I would say the “official product of xxxxxx” works if your product populates Wal Mart’s shelves. In a specialty shop. . .folks don’t come in looking for the “Official Camera of the ATP” or the “Official Bike of the Ironman”. . .they ask for . . .that Andre Agassi’s camera. . .or Lance’s bike. . . And the REALLY knowlegeable folks, like most of those on this forum, already know what they’re looking for, and don’t need the “Official” status to make the sale. If Fizik were to slap the “Official saddle of Team Saeco” on the Arione, it would not impact sales of that red-hot saddle in the slightest. Folks who are interested in it already know its on Gibo’s bike. . .and this year, hundreds of other’s rides as well.
True enough. I bought an Arione based on the feedback on this forum, and I like it a lot. I am still kind of confused how the stock saddle, with its cushy finish, can be so much less comfortable than the Arione, which is hard as a rock.
Your point, sadly, is true. I’m horrified when I see kids in the grocery store screaming because Mom won’t buy them the Shrek yogurt, or the Shrek cereal, or the Shrek soda pop, but I supposed we’ve become conditioned to think it’s acceptable to market products to people, including children, hoping they’ll buy the stuff not because they want the product, but because they want the face on the product.
… Those so-called Selle Italia XO and Nitrox saddles and all of their ilk should be banned from manufacturers. They are third rate, at best, and probably responsible for more complaints to the LBS about how “terrible this bike feels” than any other issue. NOBODY rides those things. . .
IMHO the sella XO is a pretty good saddle. I have ridden quite a few saddles on many different set-ups over the past few years and the XO has been very comparable to many “top end” saddles. With Mag. rails it is pretty light and in training, distance, and race conditions it has held up very well. It is true that most OEM saddles are tourture devices, but the XO stands on its own.