I wish I hadn’t know what bike I wanted when I went shopping. I bought my Seduza largely on the recommendations of ST at large. The same shop that sold me the Seduza also carries the Specialized Transition. In the year since I bought it, I have come to understand that the Specialized is not only a much faster bike, but would probably have fit me better as well. Oh well. Seduza is still a nice bike, just buyers remorse.
Yep, the bike shop can’t foist it on the newbie if the bike ain’t AT the shop.
Here’s the Cervelo success story in a nut-shell
- They have ground-breaking and best-in-class product
- They have the good fortune to start out in business just as the current triathlon boom begins in the late 90’s
- They start small and start to fan out and sign up as many small boutique bike/tri shops that are focused on triathlon ( Nytro et al)
- As the sport of triathlon grows, these sort of shops start to flourish
- Their sales force develops outstanding relationships with those accounts - even to the point when there are “Problems”, the accounts( the shops) stick with Cervelo.
- Momentum starts to take over and the go-to tri bike is Cervelo.
Big Drops:
Kuota
Orbea
Look
Guru
**Litespeed (~60% drop in 4 years! Ouch) **
Big Jumps:
Trek
Felt
Specialized
In percentages, some of the very small companies made big pickups, especially Ceepo. They’re still not big players, but 38 bikes isn’t a bad showing. Gotta wonder if they hoped for more with being a major sponsor of the race…
Probably has something to do with the fact that Litespeed has not made a Tri bike in about 3 years.
Also your Seduza is probably just as fast as your transition (If not faster and better handling) but that opinion is pretty biased.
Yep, the bike shop can’t foist it on the newbie if the bike ain’t AT the shop.
We keep showing the dang consumers all of our brands (which we are usually well stocked in), but for some reason they keep walking out with Cervelos.
We try to lead them astray but it rarely works.
as a small counterpoint look who’s had prominent complaints about delivery problems on this forum and is still up on the bike count: Felt.
With apologies to SuperDave the first half of this year had a “where the $&#^@ is my DA” thread per week it seemed like, and they’ve gone up since last year.
but it’s still just a trek
^2
.
I’ve seen the occasional Slice sneak past your doors!
Yep, the bike shop can’t foist it on the newbie if the bike ain’t AT the shop.
We keep showing the dang consumers all of our brands (which we are usually well stocked in), but for some reason they keep walking out with Cervelos.
We try to lead them astray but it rarely works.
We keep showing the dang consumers all of our brands (which we are usually well stocked in), but for some reason they keep walking out with Cervelos.
We try to lead them astray but it rarely works.
Don,
Cervelo is in the enviable position now, of having so much product in the market place, in a small niche market like the triathlon market, that a certain momentum has clearly taken over. They get a lot of sales, through referrals from friends and others in the sport and just general exposure at races.
If a total newbie walked through the Transition area at the pier in Kona, and you then asked them which bike they were going to buy, which brand would be first to come to mind??
I suspect that there #1 position will be maintained for a while, but it’s also dangerous to rest on your laurels too long and starts to take things for granted. That can be dangerous to!
“steady decline of Kuota bikes aswell. Down by more than 50%”
This is no big surprise. Despite being well-built and fantastic-riding bikes, the Kalibur, and now the Kueen K have been off the back aerodynamically. And for 2011, despite the fact that they redesigned the Kalibur, they lost US distribution, so a huge part of their market became inaccessible overnight. Who knows if the 2011 Kalibur changes even brought it up to the P2/P3 generation aerodynamics. They can’t compete in the triathlon market against efforts like the P4, SC, and Shiv. End of story.
And I say that as a Kalibur owner. I really liked most of the bike. I liked it better on most fronts than its contemporaries, and it fit me well. But I knew it gave up drag, and had it not been for a screaming team deal, I’d have been on a P3. My Kuota is sold and the future holds a Shiv Tri for me.
**"I suspect that their #1 position will be maintained for a while, but it’s also dangerous to rest on your laurels too long and starts to take things for granted. That can be dangerous too! **
They really haven’t introduced a “home run” bike since the P3 came out in 2005/06.
The P2 came out in late 2006 but kind of malingered until really catching on in early 2008.
Sales of both these models have been steady and strong since then but I’m now waiting for the “next big thing” (the P5?),
that really grabs the consumers attention (and pocketbook)
steady decline of Kuota bikes aswell. Down by more than 50%…
Indeed, the numbers are what the numbers are. No question that Kuota received a big shot in the arm with Normann Stadler - but it’s rarely if ever that one dimensional in this business. Recent controversy aside, if you used this same analysis, Orbea, should be seeing a big jump in sales based on( until two months ago) the amazing run of great races at IMH that Craig Alexander had, while riding an Orbea. On the contrary, Orbea has been in decline.
Many can’t see or don’t understand the back-end of this - the stuff that you don’t see that goes on behind the scenes. What you see is the flashy product and the top athletes riding that flashy product - that’s the sexy part of it all. But there is all kinds of very un-sexy stuff going on behind the scenes that dives the success of a brand or a product in this market.
Heres’ an example: When I started working at Sugoi in the mid 90’s we surveyed all our existing accounts and a number of our top prospects. The number one complaint that was leveled at all apparel suppliers was - delivery: They were late. They were missing items. Stuff was back-ordered and then never shipped and so on. So what Sugoi decided to do was to start shipping all orders 100% in full and on time, even if it meant over-night shipping at great expense. Some shops were skeptical about this and balked at our slightly higher prices, but we would say, “You can’t sell and make money on what you don’t have in the store”!! Eventually they came around! And Sugoi started on a run then of more then doubling it’s business over the next 4 years! We had great product, but where we got the edge was in something behind the scenes that is really not that sexy, delivery!
maybe not using the term ‘one-dimensional’ but each successful bike company over the last few decades has done so on the back of one single aspect which which has done well.
Marketing / Sponsorship: Trek, Kuota
Distribution: Cannondale
Engineering (fit for purpose): Cervelo, QR
It seems that from the athlete’s point of view, the most important criterium is ultimately the one that has been the most successful and has generated long term success rather than just ending up flavour of the month.
I feel like trek does pretty well at the engineering too
.
Agree. It appears that they have definitely improved on that. I guess I was refering to 2000-2005 era when they were near the top of the bike count based on the alliance with a certain neighbor of ours. The reversal of their subsequent downturn has much more to do with the bike itself rather than marketing / sponsorship.
“I feel like trek does pretty well at the engineering too”
I think they did drop the ball initially when TT/Tri-specific designs became a major sector of the market. They lost about 5-8 years in the mid-late 90s when people left the double-diamond, slack-angle road bike and moved toward the QR, Felt and later Cervelo-led paradigms for this application. It wasn’t until LA had to ride that rebadged Lightspeed Blade in 99 that they started putting resources toward a serious TT bike again. That is greatly simplifying how that all played out, and certainly leaves some major influencers out. But the fact is, Trek never capitalized on the initial movement of triathletes to their initial carbon designs like the 2500, 2300 and later OCLV 5000 series bikes to stay with that market when that market decided slack angled bikes were not what worked in their world. They stayed with the OCLV bikes for a long time. I and a ton of fellow triathletes got aboard their OCLV bikes intially. But when Dan hit the street with the QR Private Reserve and Tequilo, I jumped ship and haven’t looked back when it came to tri bikes. Even Trek’s ill-fated Y-foil was still a slack bike without serious TT/Tri chops.
But today, I wholeheartedly agree that they (and Specialized) have not only made up for such lost time, but come straight to the forefront. I would ride either company’s triathlon bikes without hesitation.
I think Trek really nailed it with their Speed Concept Line…like it or not, they did a lot of things right.
- Great Results at Kona - Lieto and Dibens dominated on the bike.
- The Lance factor and all the buzz about the bike from the Tour De France
- Innovation. Speedbox, fully integrated front end, Tube Shapes.
- Prices
All 4 played their part, but for the Kona Bike count numbers…I think the good range of Price Points is the biggest factor. Face it, if a certain bike is deemed the Fastest or hands down best…but it costs $10,000+, some pros and wealthy AG’ers will go for it, but very few of the 1,800 competitors. Now offer a bike that is very similar looking in the $2000-$4000 range, you have something. And it looks like Felt and Specialized were paying attention. You can only imagine their Kona numbers will be going up in the next couple years.
as a small counterpoint look who’s had prominent complaints about delivery problems on this forum and is still up on the bike count: Felt.
With apologies to SuperDave the first half of this year had a “where the $&#^@ is my DA” thread per week it seemed like, and they’ve gone up since last year.
No need to apologize, we let some of our customers down with insufficent inventory in 2011. This has changed with the investment of the new DA platform for many models.
There is no question that demand far outstripped supply and March 2011 dellivery for our new DA was much later than most people could accept for their training to begin for the season. With 6 different DA options for 2012 I expect continued growth but with a complete line of SHIVs, the new P, newcomers like Boardman and Blue’s superbike as well as the custom options and impressive growth from Guru and Parlee’s numbers the Kona count is going to be another challenge to post another 20%+ gain in IMWC marketshare.
-SD
Interesting topic. Using myself as an example. I decided to start cycling 3 years ago. I had NO clue about bikes, I only knew the name CCM, as I had a 3 speed from them in 1967.
I walked into an LBS here in Vancouver, La Bicicletta and tod the salesperson that I wanted to get into cycling and figured to spend around $2000.00 he showed me 4 bikes in that range and since I had heard the name Cervelo, as I had several triathlete friends, chose the Soloist Team.
Sold it 10 days later and bought the awesome Cervelo RS. As a new rider, it was the perfect bike for me. I tried a Kuota Kom, nope, didn’t do it for me.
Since then I’ve owned an S3’, R3, P2 and now own a 2011R3 and 2010 P3C. I doubt I would switch to another company, hence my screen name 
Stadler had little to do with the decline of Kuota. He was a great rider and had alot to do with building the brand, but was exactly what Fleck touched on. Kuota killed itself.
Yep, the bike shop can’t foist it on the newbie if the bike ain’t AT the shop.
Here’s the Cervelo success story in a nut-shell
- They have ground-breaking and best-in-class product
- They have the good fortune to start out in business just as the current triathlon boom begins in the late 90’s
- They start small and start to fan out and sign up as many small boutique bike/tri shops that are focused on triathlon ( Nytro et al)
- As the sport of triathlon grows, these sort of shops start to flourish
- Their sales force develops outstanding relationships with those accounts - even to the point when there are “Problems”, the accounts( the shops) stick with Cervelo.
- Momentum starts to take over and the go-to tri bike is Cervelo.
Oh man, careful you don’t get that stuff in your eyes!
Trek made a good call getting the speed concept to market when they did. It’s easier to see a speed concept than any other tri bike (at least here in trek land) even with cervelo having such a entrenched fan base. Just that alone is going to sell truckloads of bikes. And I think it’s a well-designed product. Plus the 9s are USA made. Makes sense to me. At the same time more players putting out great bikes is good for everyone.