Great early MTB Brands that are not what they used to be...

"much to the disgrace Yeti Lovers."
Ha! I might get grilled for this, but Homegrowns are not known for cracking headtubes (even though they used 7005 Aluminum grade)...
 
sinnerman":her75a22 said:
Im not sure if he had a hand in it mind, but I was intrigued by the Titus Exogrid, I think one of the last designs before going under, and On-One buying it.

Certainly all the offerings so far, seem to be very much like stuff you can go and buy direct from the far east, all be it, perhaps moderately tweeked. Happy to stand corrected on this mind.

It just seems to have been something with great potential, that has gone no where...?

It seems Exogrid as technology had its ups and downs, but did see its way to a much wider audience around the globe.
http://www.vyatek.com/vyatek_/tech/exogrid.aspx

http://www.bikerumor.com/2011/03/11/nah ... nsion-mtb/
there are many far east variants as well though.

Whilst the brand names get bought up and far east sourcing continued via the tweeked generic route similar to
http://www.caribou-bike.com/index.php?o ... Itemid=222

It seems Buying defunct names has been the fast track to the shop floor.....!
 
syncrosfan":3ngdvt2r said:
"much to the disgrace Yeti Lovers."
Ha! I might get grilled for this, but Homegrowns are not known for cracking headtubes (even though they used 7005 Aluminum grade)...

Not sure about Grilled, didn't they have much the same fabricators for a time...? Whilst in this bleak Ownership...?
 
For the record....,

I was lucky enough to have Sold Both the yeti Product and the Homegrown Schwinn (and the BSOs), at the time you are talking about. (all be it, Yeti in much smaller numbers, but that's a different story, ref UK importing at the time.)

The last few comments ref Yeti and Schwinn have proved a very valid point on this thread,......

The Value of a Brand Name.

The Allegiance to one or the other is the Prime example of the Marketing machine in in Full Swing.
 
Re: Re:

JSO":d7caep9s said:
How bout Klein?

From this…..
attitude90sivu.jpg

To this…… in ten short years
attitudeL.gif


To be fair, this Purchase by Trek was more about increasing market share, than anything else. Efficency and Profit, again easier to Buy a Name than Build One, Look at Bontrager, as much as it saddens me to say it, the shop was all but closing anyway (and that did come from the horses mouth by the way) Trek Stepped in and the Name Lives on, And not just that, Keith is able to help design and Promote, without the headaches, and Trek are able to manufacture/Jointly manufacture an extended Product range, from pumps to Brakes, with other manufacturers, Bearing the Bontrager Brand name, and we buy it,

I guess if we saw a bike with a "Say" Dual pivot brake that read "CHING DING DONG" we would shy away, But if we see it and it reads "Bontrager"... we instantly feel re assured, nice a and cosy and Warm.

The Value is in the Brand Name and How we Percieve it.

And of course Trek can make even more money or use the saving to improve the technology/Quicker, By not having to succumb to the Might of say Shimano, and there Expense.




(Edit) Take a look at the bottom Trek Manufactured Klein, the rear end was made in Chehalis at the klein Factory, the front at Wisconsin at the trek factory (at the beginning anyway) the fork was bought in, as was the Shimano, but take another look at the rest of the bike, the Bontrager stem, post, bars, chainset, hubs, rims, tyres, saddle, etc etc etc......,

all these items were far east product that were Branded, Minimal Shimano on the bike, breaking down the monopoly Shimano and other suppliers had gained in the market place through there brand awareness and quality strategy....., Shimano etc was replaced with another Branded Product though......Bontrager.

Had they not Bought the Brand name, they were faced with either being held to ransom by the likes of Shimano and its rising costs, or devalue there brand by spec'ing unheard of far east names with no credibility, or worse still sent there entire manufacturing to the far east.

Would we have bought it if the higher cost of having an American made alloy frame was laden with no name far east components? could they have continued handbuilding in the USA if Shimano etc had continued there Dominance.? would they have remained Viable,

Either way they made some tough decisions, in the end, we still got to keep Trek US, we still Got to Keep Keith Bontrager, and Shimano didn't get there way.....!
 
For as Much as People Diss the Trek Brand, how long would it have been before Gary Klein put his hands up and said this aint profitable no more....! Im shutting it
down.

look again at the top Picture, (yes I know its one of the most iconic legendary bikes of the whole mountain bike swaray) but look at it again, the frame is built in a small shop buy hand, buying tubes in small numbers, each bike is painted by hand one at a time, every single component was bought in, again in small numbers, the whole bike has An entire Shimano Groupset....., unlike small frame builders that did survive, this formed part of a range of bikes, all be it with bespoke choices available, but it was Not a made to measure frame built for an individual, it was a brand name needing to survive like every other brand name, with its huge success production wasn't keeping up with demand, and something had to give....,

Small frame shops can survive, and they do, but Klein wasn't a Cunningham. It was a world wide Spectacle and a its success was its downfall In my honest opinion.
 
Cannondale, tried a similar thing but in a different way to attempt to solve the same problem, but they conjured up there own name, Coda, and bought/partnered with others using there rebranded products sachs etc etc.

Sadly the Cannondale story is bitter sweet, some silly decisions, pushing the envelop too far, perhaps even a little too much self esteem....saw the company abrubtly crumble leaving only a shadow of its former self to rebuild a once Handbuilt in America Brand to little more than far east produced clones of there former selves.

Below, is one of the Steps many of us as dealers considered to be one step too far.....Forcing flagship dealers to take on board what they deemed the next step for us...., This on our shop Floors, as cool as it was, it was too far too soon.
 

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Fudd":qdskaxa8 said:
Ringle, Manitou, Syncros, WTB and Nuke Proof instantly spring to mind. All once low volume, high quality and very expensive components and frames. Nowadays they are just brand names with new corporate owners and made in the far east to cater for the mass market.

...And why is that? Why did they dwindle to nothing and become fodder for corporate brand acquisition?
Because all of them traded on nought but a name for quite some time. A name forged when there was very little competition.
They didn't change. Their high-end offerings became mediocre to pedestrian as everyone else improved.
It's the same story for almost all the acquired and productionised, or outright defunct brands.
 
Re:

Despite Dorel Industries having such a Massive portfolio of Brands (Schwinn Bicycles, Pacific, Dyno, GT Bicycles, Roadmaster and Mongoose Bikes).

I wonder how there manufacturing process has differed with Cannondale since the Made in America days,

Some of this video reminds me of Scenes From E.T.......LOL.,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at6RWgu ... r_embedded

I guess not too much, but where are all the assemblers/staff now...?
 
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