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Cam Zink on Hyper bikes. WTF?

gonefirefightin

free wieners
Hey everyone...EC here, thanks for all the interest and comments here, the good and bad. It all gives me the opportunity to explain a little more. So i will address a few issues I see most focused on here.

*Wal-Mart/ Big box...Again we sell bikes in Wal-Mart and will continue to do so, there are many uses for bikes in the world and not everyone can afford high end bikes.
The big box bikes are a completely different product offering from Hyper. Hyper wants to get more people active and out on bicycles...HIgh end or Big Box, which speaks directly to me.
I grew up in a household with little money and started riding bikes on a bike from Toys-R-Us...I am so thankful to have been able to find my passion of two wheels instead of a stick and ball sport, All of it due to my parents being able to afford a big box bike.

Am I to assume that everyone who has something negative to say about bikes in Wal-Mart also drives a Mercedes Benz, wears a Tag, and only uses the highest end camera when they are out on the family picnic?

I will be posting more responses...if you all have any questions fire em off and I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks Again.
Mad props!
 

manhattanprjkt83

Rusty Trombone
Jul 10, 2003
9,644
1,214
Nilbog
im 100% with suspect, i dont understand how people on a mountain bike forum can talk sh!t about a guy getting a big money name behind him...And all the walmart talk is just ridiculous...I work in corporate retail and the goal is to sell 'units' if you get a deal with walmart you take it and use it to fuel the other products you want to focus on.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
Hey folks EC here....throw'n two cents in as i have over on PB.

The bike in the image is one of Cam's Corsair bikes from BITD...the Hyper bikes will be different and i assure you not at the level of what we produce for Wal Mart...Two different worlds....the only thing we really are keeping off the bike in the PR is the rear adjustable drop outs and the UNIT linkage system...We have tested the system and we are very happy about the performance.

As far as Hyper from a company standpoint....We aren't a fly by night deal...we are however entering into the high end line of Mountain Bikes which is why some of you may not have heard of Hyper?...I don't know the management/ financial or design details of the previous companies projects that Cam rode for....but i do know that the Owner of Hyper is committed to making a great line of bikes and that we don't have to save cans to turn lights on.

This team of Pablo and Cam was very attractive to us for a number of reasons here are 3

*We love the performance of the design...the suspension system works really good.
*A lot of the devo has already been worked through, meaning hopefully less hiccups on the way to market
*It's a system that Cam has won with at the highest level of what he does.

Fire off questions if you have them and i will answer best i can.
Forgot to ask. Does that mean that the production bikes will be new projects and not the ones we've seen from Pablo before? Some of them were really good if they had a bit refinement and better QC.
 

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,010
1,146
El Lay
im 100% with suspect, i dont understand how people on a mountain bike forum can talk sh!t about a guy getting a big money name behind him...And all the walmart talk is just ridiculous...I work in corporate retail and the goal is to sell 'units' if you get a deal with walmart you take it and use it to fuel the other products you want to focus on.
Actually, many choose not to deal with Walmart.
 

BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
Forgot to ask. Does that mean that the production bikes will be new projects and not the ones we've seen from Pablo before? Some of them were really good if they had a bit refinement and better QC.
We are using the UNIT linkage system....and the adjustable drop outs of the previous versions from Pablo....we are changing up tube sets and geo to what we feel will enhance the performance or image of the previous bicycles Pablo did.
 

iRider

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2008
5,648
3,089
I think Cam is the perfect match for a Walmart brand. Patriotic redneck joins brand that is sold in THE supermarket chain synonymous for US consumerism. F*** yeah! ;) :D
 

blackohio

Generous jaywalker
Mar 12, 2009
2,773
122
Hellafornia. Formerly stumptown.
Actually, many choose not to deal with Walmart.

For former company did that because walmarts price/volume would have required us to produce items outside the US and they didn't want to do that.

But it's cool to see someone with money seeing the potential in something we all love and trying to build and sell bikes.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
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borcester rhymes
Well it'll be interesting to watch, that's for sure. I think EC has some great ideas (excavator tire with cut guides for different conditions/uses, direct involvement with us internet trolls) but I'm terrified of what COULD happen based on what HAS happened. Pablo's designs with Corsair were really neat and creative, but virtually every one ended up with some glaring QC error. Pulleys not working, swingarms out of line, etc. Took them several years to bring a single bike to market, then he left/sold the company instead of fixing everything. People are still sorting out problems. Was Cam the guy the slopestylist who badmouthed his previous employer publicly? Finally, sponsoring a team before releasing a bike is a questionable feat...remember evil?

I wish this project the best but I'd approach very cautiously.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
Yup. That was when he left Felt. Though to be honest they have been promising him a real freeride rig for what? 3 years?
 

fortenndu

Turbo Monkey
Apr 22, 2008
1,573
0
Boone, NC
Walmart systematically destroys small towns and small businesses such as local bike shops. It's pretty easy to compare WalMart to a monopoly, the devil, etc. WalMart hate is to be expected. However EC is the man and the fact that Hyper is expanding in a direction that doesn't involve WalMart is awesome so I think WalMart hate should be directed at Walmart and not at hyper.


P.S. If you don't think that WalMart is one of the worst things to happen to the modern world you need to do some research as to how they run their business.
 

Bedlam

Monkey
Feb 13, 2010
240
0
Under ground
Walmart systematically destroys small towns and small businesses such as local bike shops. It's pretty easy to compare WalMart to a monopoly, the devil, etc. WalMart hate is to be expected. However EC is the man and the fact that Hyper is expanding in a direction that doesn't involve WalMart is awesome so I think WalMart hate should be directed at Walmart and not at hyper.


P.S. If you don't think that WalMart is one of the worst things to happen to the modern world you need to do some research as to how they run their business.
Sounds an awful lot like the Big S, doesn't it? :think:
 
Hyper may never become a popular high end company if they continue to sell to Wal-Mart. Bike shops don't respect companies that have high end products and department store quality products. Look at Mongoose they started off selling high end bikes to the shops, when they resized that more money could be made selling to department stores they started to make cheep bikes along with the high end ones. Now you never see a Mongoose at a shop. Specialized also almost went out of business. They decided to start a department store brand along with keeping the high end bikes. After they noticed the lack of high end sales at bike shops they switched back to only selling high end bikes. Basically a company can not survive selling to a bike shop and to a department store.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
Hyper may never become a popular high end company if they continue to sell to Wal-Mart. Bike shops don't respect companies that have high end products and department store quality products. Look at Mongoose they started off selling high end bikes to the shops, when they resized that more money could be made selling to department stores they started to make cheep bikes along with the high end ones. Now you never see a Mongoose at a shop. Specialized also almost went out of business. They decided to start a department store brand along with keeping the high end bikes. After they noticed the lack of high end sales at bike shops they switched back to only selling high end bikes. Basically a company can not survive selling to a bike shop and to a department store.
That's BS. Mongoose has little presence in bike shops because the company is managed badly. Period. They have no visibility anywhere. Look at Iron Horse - they had crappy bikes but sold like there was no tommorow.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
In other news - it looks like zink is still on a corsair with hyper stickers.
I completely forgot what his new company was named so I was kinda surprised to see a corsair under him. Cam sure makes some strange sponsor choices, especially after his "I was a felt rider and felt gave me a crap bike" thing.
 

Speedgoat9

Monkey
Aug 27, 2009
147
0
State College, PA
That's why you buy bikes that aren't engineered by artists.
Not engineered by artists by any means. Pablo, the guy who designed the bike and an actual engineer( bikes are his 2nd job) is a really really smart guy. Talked to him on the phone for 2 hours before I bought mine (wich is holding up great).

Also Cam is on what appears to be a Corsair (or might actually be as transcend points out) becase Hyper liscenced Pablo's designs, wich is one of the said reasons Cam signed with hyper.
 

toowacky

Monkey
Feb 20, 2010
200
4
Pac NW
This announcement isn't too exciting, except for the glimmer of hope for another linkage Corsair at the bottom. The issues (idler/etc.) of their old bikes aside, I always like the Maelstrom (etc.) linkage designs:

Corsair seeks U.S. distributor for brand relaunch

Corsair Bikes is seeking a U.S. distribution partner as the premium freeride mountain bike brand rolls out an international relaunch.

The brand’s complex linkage frames were perhaps most famously ridden by freeride pro Cameron Zink, who won the 2010 Red Bull Rampage aboard a Corsair Konig slopestyle model. Corsair has largely been dormant the past two years but resurfaced at Interbike in September, under the ownership of Taiwan trading company Derhawk International and Reno-based Atomlab, with a new line of Taiwan-produced single-pivot freeride and slopestyle frames and hardtail dirt jumpers.

Distribution is up and running in Europe, South America and Australia, but Corsair has yet to hook up with a U.S. partner—which Atomlab’s Jim Severt attributes in part to past delivery issues. “From the get-go they had really good product, but the brand kind of got beaten down,” he said.

To simplify production and improve delivery, Corsair has scrapped its linkage models for now and is focusing on simpler single-pivot aluminum suspension bikes and chromoly hardtails. Linkage bikes might resurface for 2014, Severt said, perhaps via a licensing deal with an established suspension design.
 

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,882
447
Derhawk (pronouncing the non-german way, durr-hawk, when I first read it...) :rofl:

 

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,882
447
Ok, so is Hyper officially Corsair again? Or is it a seperate brand?
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
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They had a post on their facebook page about a pre-release 7-8 Konig frame and they wanted something like 2gs for the prerelease and 2600 for the production frame...for a single pivot, made in taiwan, zero support frame that will likely never see the light of day. I noped right out of there.
 

BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
Ok, so is Hyper officially Corsair again? Or is it a seperate brand?
They are separate brands, frames and designs.

Initially Hyper was working with Pablo to license his UNIT linkage system that was on the Corsair bikes that Cam rode.

Unfortunately for all parties involved we were informed of potential legal issues at the 11th hour, which was our mistake for not digging deep enough into potential patent issues.

Hyper decided to not spend the time and money proving the uniqueness of the design and instead choose to start over with a completely different suspension design.

To say the least it has been a very big set back time wise.

Moving forward.....

We are excited about the direction of the new bikes in regard to the technical suspension numbers we are seeing and the overall industrial design.

We are pushing to show 3 suspension models in April.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
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best of luck! And even if it's a simple single pivot, as long as it's done right, it'll still be competitive...just ask the new guy over at CRC.
 

BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
EC,

Is hyper still working with Pablo for the new designs or did both parties go their separate ways?
Hyper is not working with Pablo for these new designs.

We are working with a guy I used to work with at GT.

I think Pablo has been really focused on the new Black Market Roam that Carter has recently announced?
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,628
5,443
Hyper is not working with Pablo for these new designs.

We are working with a guy I used to work with at GT.

I think Pablo has been really focused on the new Black Market Roam that Carter has recently announced?
Please tell me the headtube has lost the crud catching slots the old Corsair frames had.
Also normal single pivot seems like a good move, with the rocker setup there were to many bits to align perfectly. I could only get three months from a set of bearings on my Maelstrom.

What ever happened to all of the Corsair branded parts, did any production runs get done?
 
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BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
Please tell me the headtube has lost the crud catching slots the old Corsair frames had.
Also normal single pivot seems like a good move, with the rocker setup there were to many bits to align perfectly. I could only get three months from a set of bearings on my Maelstrom.

What ever happened to all of the Corsair branded parts, did any production runs get done?
There is/are no pieces that were a part of Pablo's Corsair prototype bikes that carried over.... Those bikes and designs were/are Pablo's property.

We didn't experience any of the issues you describe, but we were looking at/testing a yet to be produced design...nothing that was available to the public.

I am not sure the location of all the Corsair stuff.....We didn't get any production stuff done with Pablo's UNIT design.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,628
5,443
There is/are no pieces that were a part of Pablo's Corsair prototype bikes that carried over.... Those bikes and designs were/are Pablo's property.

We didn't experience any of the issues you describe, but we were looking at/testing a yet to be produced design...nothing that was available to the public.


I am not sure the location of all the Corsair stuff.....We didn't get any production stuff done with Pablo's UNIT design.

That UNIT system looked pretty cool, it's a shame that has been shelved for now.

Also if you go with aluminium bolts again pretty please cut a relief between the thread and the plain shank bit. I gave up and went with steel bolts in the end, snapping suspension bolts is scary as ****.

It's cool to see the company hasn't gone under, hopefully Hyper/Corsair can turn things around like Evil seem to have done.
 

BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
That UNIT system looked pretty cool, it's a shame that has been shelved for now.

Also if you go with aluminium bolts again pretty please cut a relief between the thread and the plain shank bit. I gave up and went with steel bolts in the end, snapping suspension bolts is scary as ****.

It's cool to see the company hasn't gone under, hopefully Hyper/Corsair can turn things around like Evil seem to have done.
FYI.

Hyper has never had any business link to Corsair.

Pablo designed the UNIT Linkage system for Corsair.

They made production Konig frames and some new revised prototypes.

Corsair backed away from producing bikes with this system and Hyper was going to license it from Pablo.

As stated above in an earlier post we made a decision to start over with our design to avoid any potential legal issues.

Hyper as a company was not in jeopardy of going under.... But it has taken us a lot longer to bring a high end line to market then we had anticipated.

I have personally been humbled by going through the process of producing high end bicycle frames.

As a pro athlete you never really see the process...Usually you just get a prototype and jump on and thrash it to give feedback....You just have no idea how many hands/minds have to touch a design and product before you throw a leg over it.

It gives me a much bigger appreciation for all the people that made it possible for me when I was riding at the elite level.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
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UNIT linkage, for people scratching their heads. Supposedly it gave an effect like a single pivot but was stiffer due to the dual links. I would think the same thing would be achievable with a single pivot and a swing link, like a foes/etc., as flex forces will be taken up by the swing link as well as the main pivot.

Like this:


Then there are no patents to deal with!

Also this:
 

BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
Nice link there Sandwich.... How bout the narrow bars! haha.... late 90's early 2000's was a really fun time to be racing the World Cup circuit.

wiscodh.... I don't know if awesome is the best description? haha.... Trying to factor in all the details and the effect they have on each other has been a learning experience... haha

I am getting a little more comfortable in this roll and understanding the process.
 

Inclag

Turbo Monkey
Sep 9, 2001
2,750
439
MA
Initially Hyper was working with Pablo to license his UNIT linkage system that was on the Corsair bikes that Cam rode.

Unfortunately for all parties involved we were informed of potential legal issues at the 11th hour, which was our mistake for not digging deep enough into potential patent issues.

Hyper decided to not spend the time and money proving the uniqueness of the design and instead choose to start over with a completely different suspension design..
So was Hyper approached by another brand or designer about patent infringement or did their legal team discover something that was deemed as too high risk since the Corsair design has no patents or applications around it? It doesn't sound like the latter was the case, which I find curious since Corsair previously distributed and sold the linkage design for years without (as far as we know) any problems.
 

BC VAN

Monkey
May 4, 2005
624
0
We were contacted about a patent that we were not aware of.

We didn't have any tooling or inventory at the time.

Enforceable or not... It wasn't a war we were advised to fight.

At this point for Hyper just starting out with a high end line, we would rather focus on the objective of building bikes instead of fighting a legal battle.
 

PsyCro

Chimp
Apr 10, 2011
39
1
Sad to hear that the old Corsair bikes aren't being refined and going into production again. They were just a few small steps off from perfect. Loved my Maelstrom and my friend is now loving it as well, and my Crown is serving me just fine.
I was actually hoping Hyper might revive something of the old Corsair.. ah well.. :shakefist: