Do you guys really care when climbing up a mountain or bombing down the other side whether the bike was made by hand or robot? Sure it is nice and touchy feely sort of feeling but does it really matter? 1% of you may matter. To the rest of the folks, price matters more.
So you’re saying Cannondales were overpriced or really expensive? That’s another subject entirely.
If the price was equal—or pretty close, anyway—and one bike was handmade and the other was robot made, would that be a factor in your decision at all? How concerned are you about the frame itself?
Do you guys really care when climbing up a mountain or bombing down the other side whether the bike was made by hand or robot? Sure it is nice and touchy feely sort of feeling but does it really matter? 1% of you may matter. To the rest of the folks, price matters more.
So you’re saying Cannondales were overpriced or really expensive? That’s another subject entirely.
If the price was equal—or pretty close, anyway—and one bike was handmade and the other was robot made, would that be a factor in your decision at all? How concerned are you about the frame itself?
Really, I’d like to know.
I am concerned only with the quality of the product and the reputation of the company. That is why I bought my first Cervelo almost 6 years ago now. They had a great rep and the bike was really well made.
I never even looked at a Cannondale when i was searching for a number of reasons. Most of which, there wasn’t a dealer near where I lived.
As for if all things were equal (price, quality, frame geometry), more than likely, I would tend to gravitate towards the robot made bike.
Personally I’m more interested in the overall design. If it is a tricky/clever design that requires some hands on process then great.
If not, then I don’t care.
But the paint job matters a lot to me, totally a non functional desire on my part. I see no problem with people who desire a hand made frame.
If the price was equal�or pretty close, anyway�and one bike was handmade and the other was robot made, would that be a factor in your decision at all? How concerned are you about the frame itself?
What other place is there for an equal comparison, right? A wind tunnel, perhaps.
Anyway, it made the difference for me at the time, and really, it was the big selling point about Cannondale. Now that they don’t have that, what advantage do they have over any other bike manufacturer?
I think it is safe to say that the 200 people being let go from Cannondale will be making much less at their new jobs…and 200 layoffs from a manufacturing company is a small number these days.
There is a great video clip I showed last week in class from an interview with a person being laid off from a manufacturing job, predicting the demise of the economy b/c of the loss of good paying jobs. Oddly enough, it was in 1998. I’ll try my YouTube skills and maybe get it posted this weekend.
Do you guys really care when climbing up a mountain or bombing down the other side whether the bike was made by hand or robot? Sure it is nice and touchy feely sort of feeling but does it really matter? 1% of you may matter. To the rest of the folks, price matters more.
To most no, to the purist yes. Ask the guys that tie their own flies or build their own rods for fishing. I have a ti built in Colorado GT that I will never part with. Same with a hand crafted fly rod. The 1% that it matters to are the ones that will spend the big $$ to obtain that “touchy feely sort of feeling” the rest will just buy a bike at wal-mart.
But I don’t think you would put Cannondale into the 1% category. They are a business and I am sure they want to get their bikes out there to the masses.
Which means mass production.
But again, sure there are those guys out there that want the hand made. Just like I am sure there were folks that wanted hand made tennis racquets as well.
I’m thinking ahead of time here. Not today, but within the next 5 years. Once the value of the USD breaks 30% below current levels and unemployment is another 50% higher from here labor will be much cheaper and it will make sense again to manufacture here in the US. It’s just a matter of time, the US will have to adjust, we can’t just be a consumer Nation that works in the service sector. The bike industry sure won’t lead the Nation but it will happen.
…yet another perfect discussion to point out; you can buy a fully-custom, hand-made-in-the-US frame for the same price as a high-end (Cannondale) sitting on the floor.
This is maybe more of a Lavendar Forum comment, but the real tragedy about this is that it’s yet another indicator of how U.S. companies are struggling to keep pace with the international marketplace, and the reason is because our labor costs too much here.
Call me Canadian (because I am), but the employer-based healthcare system needs to go first. Then we need to scare up some more business here in the states before we can demand higher wages. (Someone’s going to argue that our wage-earners are our customers, and that’s true, but we need strong exports too.) The unions can have power after our companies are doing well. In the meantime, we need to reduce the cost of employing American workers, not increase it.
Just my opinion. Hope it doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.
