John Cobb and Steve Hed seemed to formerly be everywhere together. Now Bicycle Sports doesnt even carry Hed wheels. I smell a story.
It may also be a business matter between the two of them, best left between the two of them… 
Now Tom that is no fun. We all love good gossip.
Oh, I should add I have no idea what the deally-o is. I can tell you my impression of both of them is they are good people.
“We all love good gossip.”
Wouldn’t you rather talk about Lance and Cheryl?
Yes, I’d rather do cheryl
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Interestingly enough, Lance and Cobb have also split…but Lance is still working with Hed. The plot thickens…
on the Bicycle Sports forum , Cobb now says that Zipp 404 is faster than the HED H3, whereas he said the opposite for years
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That does seem to merit an explanation.
I personally do know John Cobb and Steve Hed and like them both. They are both extremely nice and very smart when it comes to bike setups and aerodynamics. Both John and Steve also very private and really would not speak negatively about eachother. Sometimes it is just so that business and friendships do not mix well.
Herbert
Litespeed/QR
Searching for P2K prices today, I notice Cobb doesn’t list Cervelo’s on his website. Not related to Hed, but I find that odd.
I bought a griffen from cobb in 2002 and I am pretty sure bicycle sports has not carried cervelo in that time frame.
From when I was in his store for a fitting 2 weeks ago, there were no Hed products that I saw (not saying they weren’t there). There were a ton of wheels with the label “Blackwell” on them. I asked and they are very, very similar to some other well known deep dish wheels except they are $100 or less cheaper and have a huge Blackwell sticker on them. It seems that Cobb is going to come out with his own line of stuff under the Blackwell label. The wheels seem to be excellent quality and I will definitely have them under consideration for a front wheel.
-Just guessing here, but as John’s business makes the wise and logical transition from being exclusively a retailer to a mix of retailer/distributor/manufacturer/designer I would expect a natural pull-back from brands other than the ones their own business manufactures, designs and distributes.
Every time they sell one of their own products they strengthen themselves, every time they sell another vendors product they strengthen that vendor to their detriment.
It only makes good business sense and, as one poster pointed out, the Blackwell products are nice quality and well designed.
If John and his men can foster the brand equity necessary to compete with the other brands (Hed, Zipp, Mavic, etc.) then he will have a huge hit on his hands- he may already.
John’s business plan(s) and practice has always seemed insightful, daring and innovative to me.
I have a Blackwell disc I bought about a month ago and used it in my first tri of the season sunday. Very nice wheel avg 19 on a very hilly and windy course. It even has the roar of other disc :=)
Excellent observations, Tom; as is to be expected from someone also in the retail business. It seems Cobb/BicycleSports/Blackwell have a fairly well defined and large vision of where they want to take Blackwell. It seems to be a greatly expanded version of such enterprises as Nytro/Xlab and the multitude of small shop/frame builders out there. Cobb spent years building his image and reputation for cycling knowledge expertise. The delicate part now will be maintaining that image as he moves away from some of those things that he built that rep on. . .i.e. Lance and Hed. One interesting thing that I will be looking for is some sort of Blackwell three spoke carbon wheel. It seems a logical step somewhere down the line, given his up-till-now contention that the Hed 3/Specialized TriSpoke is the fastest thing out there outside of a disc. I’d imagine he’ll work on solidifying and expanding his market share before we start to see such ambitious projects. At any rate, it will be interesting to watch this company over the next few years. . .