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This is what's wrong with The Industry™

jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
89,249
27,456
media blackout
regarding the Gwin / crank drama, Aaron popped into vital to set the record straight:

I shoulda been more descriptive and explained things better in that initial comment so that I'm not having to go back and clarify now. I answered a lot of these same accusations in the other responses I made on that same Instagram post but I'll give ya guys the goods too.

I was just frustrated honestly. I had just got a message from the guys at Mountain creek who took the video respectfully telling me that they weren't going to send the video around, which was kind of them. One of the guys had sent it to someone else and that dude blasted it to Vital straight away. I can't control what the media puts out there but with this video and the circumstances being what they were, it just made the whole situation a bummer. They were old parts that we were told not to run and it was a bummer knowing E13 was gonna get hammered so hard. It would have been cool of Vital to ask for any background info to go with the video.

Also, John's my guy, there's nobody else I'd rather have with me at the races and he's been near perfect for the entire 5+ years we've been working together now. I trust him completely and we've built a strong friendship over the years, anyone who's spent any time around us knows this. A big part of having a real relationship with anyone though is being ok to admit when you've made a mistake. We both understand that and he'd tell you the same thing. He'd want the blame for this to fall on him and not E13 because that's reality. We don't try to cover things up by passing blame, we just represent the truth of the situation and move on.

These were old model cranks that E13 told us not to put on a race bike over a year ago because they'd been having issues with them. The bike I was riding last weekend was the very first Intense that I got months ago before I even signed the contract with them. At that time, I wanted to test it back to back with my YT for comparison and we didn't have a lot of spares to build it up since our new parts hadn't arrived yet. We pieced that bike together with random parts that we had laying around, John had saved those cranks for an enduro bike or something and just threw them on because they were the only ones he had at that time. Shortly after I signed with intense I switched to the XL frame and we built that bike up with all the current parts once they came in before team camp. I just recently went back to that large practice bike a few weeks ago after Maribor, I hadn't been riding it much before then and John just didn't think to swap the cranks out. We both had no idea but when he sent the photos of the broken cranks back to E13 for research with the part number, they came back to us kind of like, "dude, we told you not to run those, why were they on your bike?". When John remembered what batch of cranks those came from he was bummed to say the least.

Anyways, just trying to give some back story since it's kind of blown up over my comment. There's so many factors involved that me saying what I did on Instagram gave a really short perspective to the whole situation and I should of explained things a bit better. You guys all know that the media seeks out the drama constantly and only gives a certain amount of truth in a lot of things that are posted. That's ok, it's become a part of our culture these days but it doesn't mean that I should just roll with whatever way they decide to represent things.

The hardest thing that I've had to deal with in my career is harsh judgment from the fans. Might surprise you but it's true. It straight up sucks when people talk bad about you, especially since they rarely understand the reality of certain situations. You guys see a very narrow view sometimes of whatever the media chooses to represent, that's why I've always kind of made an effort to step in and make things clear. Sometimes for better, and sometimes maybe for worse. I'm pretty confident that if any of you were to go out to coffee with John and I to discuss this whole situation, or any other in the past, you'd have a very different view on reality when you saw the trust we have for each other, the factors involved, etc.

Just tryin to be real with you guys.
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Bikael Molton

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,088
1,235
El Lay
That clarification from Gwin seems legit.

Frankly, I'm a bit over all the "professionalism", and would rather see dudes blow their top from time to time. I like seeing a guy be human and throw a tantrum instead of a Supercross walking billboard automaton. In F1, it's pretty dang normal for a driver to express frustration with problems in his pits.
It's also interesting seeing how the racers who don't have a ton of charisma or acting ability deal with the 2019 need to be all over social media constantly.
 
dump

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,526
5,257
The hardest thing for Gwin is the fans? Everyone pretty much loves him. The ribbing and letter of intenting is not mean-spirited at all. Guess his reality is different from how I’m seeing it.
 
dump

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,526
5,257
Definitely appreciate the response... but someone take IG away from these folks. And run a tighter ship with your race equipment. If that story is in fact true, e13 should have demanded those cranks back immediately or had them thrown in the trash. Honestly folks?!?!

Broken crank in the wrong spot will end a career or worse.
 
djjohnr

djjohnr

Turbo Monkey
Apr 21, 2002
3,122
1,811
Northern California
dump said:
Definitely appreciate the response... but someone take IG away from these folks. And run a tighter ship with your race equipment. If that story is in fact true, e13 should have demanded those cranks back immediately or had them thrown in the trash. Honestly folks?!?!

Broken crank in the wrong spot will end a career or worse.
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Systematic professionalism isn’t a description that comes to mind often when describing the bike industry.
 
slimshady

slimshady

¡Mira, una ardilla!
Dec 20, 2007
5,759
3,601
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
dump said:
Definitely appreciate the response... but someone take IG away from these folks. And run a tighter ship with your race equipment. If that story is in fact true, e13 should have demanded those cranks back immediately or had them thrown in the trash. Honestly folks?!?!

Broken crank in the wrong spot will end a career or worse.
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Anybody older than 22 should be banned from Instagram at this point. Microblogging and that crappy mantra "an image is worth a thousand words" is leading us into a speechless society.
 
slyfink

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,834
5,667
Ottawa, Canada
captainspauldin said:
Specialized has so graciously given it's customers the option to choose one of three colors and choose their suspension package: https://www.specialized.com/us/en/custom-bikes

Of course you have to buy the $5200 version of the bike to be able to choose a color and then add the additional cost of whatever suspension upgrade you select.
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In this day and age, $5200 is a pretty reasonable price for a bike.

Oh wait, maybe that's your point. :facepalm:
 
dump

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,526
5,257
It’s pretty much what it’s always been. Slightly nicer finish, spendier, more bragging rights.
 
kidwoo

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Aug 25, 2003
42,149
13,358
Squirtin ketchup n' mustard on charred flesh
This video is literally everything that's wrong with the industry.

-An experienced rider pretending climbing for an hour is climbing everest for the sake of a canned 'story'
-Tucky fucky bar turns every time the wheels are 3 inches off the ground (but only when camera is on)
-Shitty product name dropping while riding
-Self placed gopro self filming
-Use of word 'epic' to describe a 1.5 hr after work ride
-Promotes drinking hydraulic fluid via ski area runoff
-"acting"
-Use of word "epic" to describe trail he hasn't ridden yet
-Use of words "epic epic" to describe pedaling up a few roads for an hour
-No mention of actual source of discomfort, which is fire smoke
-middle age skids
-Not understanding that a creek on your right can't magically become a creek on your left if you didn't cross it


I only watched the video because I was pissed when I saw the name. I guess it's a legit trail now so at least there's that. But holy hell is this stuff terrible
 
Electric_City

Electric_City

Torture wrench
Apr 14, 2007
2,077
805
Jm_ said:
I have questions.

What is the difference between the XT hat and XTR?

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The XT hat has a 2 year warranty and the XTR has a 3 year warranty.

But when you call for a replacement, they tell you that they don't make them anymore. But you can upgrade to the new one for $35/$95 respectively.
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
89,249
27,456
media blackout
kidwoo said:
This video is literally everything that's wrong with the industry.

-An experienced rider pretending climbing for an hour is climbing everest for the sake of a canned 'story'
-Tucky fucky bar turns every time the wheels are 3 inches off the ground (but only when camera is on)
-Shitty product name dropping while riding
-Self placed gopro self filming
-Use of word 'epic' to describe a 1.5 hr after work ride
-Promotes drinking hydraulic fluid via ski area runoff
-"acting"
-Use of word "epic" to describe trail he hasn't ridden yet
-Use of words "epic epic" to describe pedaling up a few roads for an hour
-No mention of actual source of discomfort, which is fire smoke
-middle age skids
-Not understanding that a creek on your right can't magically become a creek on your left if you didn't cross it


I only watched the video because I was pissed when I saw the name. I guess it's a legit trail now so at least there's that. But holy hell is this stuff terrible
Click to expand...
it's GMBN. that's pretty much their MO.
 
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