I saw a video today of a new paint job for Sanders for Kona. Have they had an update to their bike since Sanders has risen to prominence?
It seems they could develop a new bike and helmet and use Sanders as marketing for those products. ST and TRS are nuts about Sanders, why not whip out a bike to rival the P5, SpeedConcept, Canyon and Scott. Heck, just mimick the best features of each of those bikes and and mimick the POC and Giro aero helmets and skip the wind tunnel.
Dan commented on their fork design which possibly contributes to good handling and their helmet is in the top 3 of helmets out there, so I’m not saying their products are bad, but why not leverage the Sanders sponsorship a bit more?
but then again, I guess the same thing could be said for the Shiv with regard to Hoffman and Don.
Is the current iteration of the bike that flawed? I honestly don’t know how it holds up to the other super bikes.
my opinion doesn’t really matter. The better question is: are the bike’s sales and the bike’s desirability among potential buyers proportional to Sanders’s popularity?
The process for these sorts of things (product development), is a lot longer than people realize.
Garneau, as a company, has actually been VERY innovative with a lot of the things they do - across the wide spectrum of product that they do make. Spend some time on the Garneau web site and it’s a bit mind boggling the range of stuff they do make and produce - from bikes to sports nutrition!
OK, so products take a long time to develop. But does that answer my question regarding fully leveraging their sponsorship of Sanders?
I’m not saying LG isn’t innovative, but great that you brought it up, even irrelevant to the question asked. I’ve been using their products since the mid-90’s. I think their bike is nice, just like the Shiv is nice. But both bikes are long in the tooth and when you have a Lionel or a Hoffman who have really shots at the podium, are companies like LG and Specialized leveraging those athletes to the fullest extent?
Isn’t the LG P-09 still one of the most aero helmets?
aaannndddd read my OP where I stated that.
My bad, I think I stopped at the second paragraph =O.
And yes, I think they could more the Sanders image, but I do not think that he is as popular in the real world as he is here in ST.
and TRS, and every tri magazine out there, and when I go to any race, even a YMCA-quality sprint tri, newbies know who Sanders is and they know his story of past drug-addiction and they are inspired by him and they follow him. I think that says something about his appeal beyond ST
I agree with you about leveraging and using an asset like a Lionel Sanders, or any top level athlete that a brand sponsors at this level, is a smart thing to do.
The thing is triathlon is small-beer for Garneau. Perhaps they feel they are doing enough already, just by the association and the relationship they have with Lionel (speaking here as an observer). That being said - it’s a down/flat market in triathlon in North America. It’s a good time to move the needle a bit. Perhaps they are working on something behind the scenes!
The thing that kind of turns me off their bikes is the big mess of cables behind the stem, not sure why they haven’t figured out a way to hide all that. Agree that if they did some sort of integrated front end like the Trek SC, I’d be very interested in getting one.
Isn’t the LG P-09 still one of the most aero helmets?
aaannndddd read my OP where I stated that.
My bad, I think I stopped at the second paragraph =O.
And yes, I think they could more the Sanders image, but I do not think that he is as popular in the real world as he is here in ST.
and TRS, and every tri magazine out there, and when I go to any race, even a YMCA-quality sprint tri, newbies know who Sanders is and they know his story of past drug-addiction and they are inspired by him and they follow him. I think that says something about his appeal beyond ST
Really?!? I’ve rarely ever heard newbie triathletes mention pros. Honestly most that I’ve been around don’t really follow the pro triathlon circuit. They just participate in triathlons
One reason might be that a big supporter of Lionel’s over at Louis Garneau is no longer at the company. I spoke to Pierre Perron, who now manages Castelli in Canada, at Interbike last year and it was one of those situations where he was kicking himself for brokering a long term partnership with Lionel and LG!
Look at the polls on the right hand column. Louis Garneau has incredible support within the triathlon consumer ranks. They just haven’t been active on the surface with their marketing in triathlon the last year or two.
The wind can’t see those cables behind your elbows, the base bar, your BTA bottle, and the stem.
Hidden cables in front of the head tube have great value. Hidden cables next to the head tube and such have great value. Hidden cables that enter the top top and are downwind of turbulent air…not so much.
I didnt read past your post. This exactly. Id love to see Sanders tear it up. Reality is until he hits some major titles, he is a niche product. (love the guy,(as far as I know))
Companies develop products and engage athletes to sponsor in order to popularise them.
The lead time for a good bike is not short enough that it makes sense to say “Hmmm, we have a good athlete, let’s base our pipeline on him”. That would be foolish IMO. All it would take is for him to get done for doping, or get badly injured, or whatever…then suddenly your company is committed to something that no longer makes sense.
Doing what you suggest and just jumping on the latest bandwagon with a superficially fashionable product for short-term gain would almost certainly backfire in the long run. They are currently a fairly well regarded company. If they released a poor/rushed copy of other people’s products they’d lose that reputation pretty damn quick.