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Trek/Sam Hill????

CRoss

Turbo Monkey
Nov 20, 2006
1,329
0
The Ranch
I said earlier,

Lets look at a few things;

Sam's name starts with a S and so does Specialized...Hmmm...

Specialized is in Morgan Hill and Sam Hill's last name is Hill...

The rumor must be true these facts are to big to ignore.

Sam Hill and Trek nothing there.

Trek is located in Waterloo, Wisconsin Water flows off of a Hill and into rivers and streams.

I just can't see much of a relationship happening here.
 

Polhill

Chimp
Feb 8, 2008
10
0
When I think of Trek I don't think of Lance Armstrong. I think Of a company who for years shunned the current style of "freeride" or "DH" riding and basically said it was for meat heads. I think of a company who for years has made absolute crap in terms of mountain bikes. I also think of a company who without a doubt is using an exact copy of another design that although hasn't been "issued" a patent, is clearly owned by another company. Not to start the whole patent thing again because I don't think the ABP or Split Pivot should be issued a patent of any sort, but it's not revolutionary by any means. I'm more into the tubing and the link fabrication than I am into the suspension. I'm more likely to support a company that actually shares my vision and passion for riding a mountain bike not just another big budget company with a team of engineers trying to reclaim something they wanted nothing to do with from the start.
 

dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
So let me get this straight.

Because Trek decided to only make a Token pass at freeride/ dh, probably due to the inherent fact that its a giant pain in the ass and probably makes the smallest profit of all disciplines, you think they are crap?

BTW, this line is classic: I'm more into the tubing and the link fabrication than I am into the suspension.

So, you'll buy a bike that rides like ****, as long as its well made? Interesting way of doing things, I suppose. Guess thats like an eggfart that never fades away.

or something.
 

DirtBag

Monkey
Feb 1, 2006
648
0
When I think of Trek I don't think of Lance Armstrong. I think Of a company who for years shunned the current style of "freeride" or "DH" riding and basically said it was for meat heads. I think of a company who for years has made absolute crap in terms of mountain bikes. I also think of a company who without a doubt is using an exact copy of another design that although hasn't been "issued" a patent, is clearly owned by another company. Not to start the whole patent thing again because I don't think the ABP or Split Pivot should be issued a patent of any sort, but it's not revolutionary by any means. I'm more into the tubing and the link fabrication than I am into the suspension. I'm more likely to support a company that actually shares my vision and passion for riding a mountain bike not just another big budget company with a team of engineers trying to reclaim something they wanted nothing to do with from the start.
I will second this entire statement.
 

pinkgoat

Chimp
Dec 11, 2007
56
3
Australia
When I think of Trek I don't think of Lance Armstrong. I think Of a company who for years shunned the current style of "freeride"... and basically said it was for meat heads.
But freeriding is for meatheads:biggrin:. I dont blame Trek for shunning freeride (not downhill though). Its image (at least at the moment, although has never been great) is **** and only appeals to 14 year olds, who are although a pretty big market I guess, full of wannabe Andeau Lacondeguy wankers riding single speed, one brake, dual suspension bikes trying to pull basic bmx tricks. Not exactly the image we want our sport to be portrayed by.

Downhill on the other hand, I believe, can be used as a great connection between the average joe and the pros. There is no 'arena' or purpose built booters, just the simple thrill of riding your bike as fast as you can.
Luke Strom said it best in one of ClayP's videos "we are still cyclists". We should look up to them as athletes in the same way we do olympians not rockstars or second rate bmx riders making a buck.

I for one wouldnt mind seeing a rider like Sam move to Trek or Specialized (provided it was a comfortable team environment, keeping Jacy/Sean etc), as it would pretty much enable unlimited resources and budget. I am not an RM fanboy, but I have great respect for Sam. He is an awesome sportsman, both on and off the track, and as such is a great marketing figure.

If however Trek or Spesh pick him up, they are gunna need a lot more than just Sam to sell bikes. Both have solid frames (although can obviously be improved), but they will need to rethink their pricing strategy and homebrand parts on top of the line bikes (Trek Especially). Whatever happens i just hope it in Sam's best interests and enjoyment, not just money.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens!
 
R

rb92078

Guest
Anyone is marketable, everyone has a marketable story to tell, but this Atherton 'thing' has endless possibilities. Male market, Female market, families on bikes, sticking together, good role models, kids think its cool they are brother and sisters (my friggin 3yr old said she wants a brother and sister now after meeting them), young people can dig on their speed, talents, etc and old people (my parents) think it is so 'neat' that they all travel, train, race and win together.

The Atherton thing has legs like nothing we have ever seen before. If done correctly they 'could' be bigger than some snowboard guy.
Atherton's bigger than Palmer??? That be like saying Jerry Rice was more famous than Bo Jackson...:crazy:
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
When I think of Trek I don't think of Lance Armstrong. I think Of a company who for years shunned the current style of "freeride" or "DH" riding and basically said it was for meat heads. I think of a company who for years has made absolute crap in terms of mountain bikes. I also think of a company who without a doubt is using an exact copy of another design that although hasn't been "issued" a patent, is clearly owned by another company. Not to start the whole patent thing again because I don't think the ABP or Split Pivot should be issued a patent of any sort, but it's not revolutionary by any means. I'm more into the tubing and the link fabrication than I am into the suspension. I'm more likely to support a company that actually shares my vision and passion for riding a mountain bike not just another big budget company with a team of engineers trying to reclaim something they wanted nothing to do with from the start.
That kind of thinking made Trek the largest bike company in the world.

I think Trek is doing a better job with FR/DH, but their bread and butter has these initials: "OCLV".

When the guy who might be jogging or golfing is riding a FR bike, that's when Trek will spend millions to sponsor a DH rider, like they do for Astana.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
That kind of thinking made Trek the largest bike company in the world.

I think Trek is doing a better job with FR/DH, but their bread and butter has these initials: "OCLV".

When the guy who might be jogging or golfing is riding a FR bike, that's when Trek will spend millions to sponsor a DH rider, like they do for Astana.
also "7000"
 

DaveyIntense

Chimp
Jul 25, 2008
68
0
Berwick
lol rachel atherton wouldn't leave her family
Money talks in this sport your not round long so you gotta make it while you can i bet her brothers would tell her to leave if the money was right.

On the other hand is the Atherton name worth to much as a whole?? What if the whole team went??
 

Jim Mac

MAKE ENDURO GREAT AGAIN
May 21, 2004
6,352
282
the middle east of NY
That kind of thinking made Trek the largest bike company in the world.

I think Trek is doing a better job with FR/DH, but their bread and butter has these initials: "OCLV".

When the guy who might be jogging or golfing is riding a FR bike, that's when Trek will spend millions to sponsor a DH rider, like they do for Astana.
Exactly. As I work PT for a shop that sells Trek, I have been to the Trek seminars and I see the daily decisions that a shop makes. You stock (and make) the bikes that sell the most. FR/DH maybe has 10% of the entire bike market, if that.

Besides OCLV, the big seller is the 7000 series "comfort" bikes. Cannot keep them in stock...
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
Exactly. As I work PT for a shop that sells Trek, I have been to the Trek seminars and I see the daily decisions that a shop makes. You stock (and make) the bikes that sell the most. FR/DH maybe has 10% of the entire bike market, if that.

Besides OCLV, the big seller is the 7000 series "comfort" bikes. Cannot keep them in stock...
10%? :banana:

probably something closer to .5% of treks market. Maybe less.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
Fixed that for you.
If you consider all disiplines of cycling this is sadly true.
yeah, but on the plus side, trails are reasonably clear, and its still profitable for companies to invest in DH bikes, since it pushes the tech alot further forward. Used to be high end bikes that had suspension forks. Now everything does. Used to be high end road bikes that had carbon forks/frames. Now you find carbon forks on pretty much everything. As long as its profitable for the company to keep investing in the sport, should be all good.

Really I'm hoping that MTB pulls away from looking like a lesser MX clone. Don't think it does alot for the sport. trek hopefully understands that when you're trying to sell expensive bikes, appealing to kids and to blue collar adrenalin junkies isn't as profitable as appealing to mid/upper class. Hopefully whoever they hire to win races, they can work that angle.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
yeah, but on the plus side, trails are reasonably clear, and its still profitable for companies to invest in DH bikes, since it pushes the tech alot further forward. Used to be high end bikes that had suspension forks. Now everything does. Used to be high end road bikes that had carbon forks/frames. Now you find carbon forks on pretty much everything. As long as its profitable for the company to keep investing in the sport, should be all good.

Really I'm hoping that MTB pulls away from looking like a lesser MX clone. Don't think it does alot for the sport. trek hopefully understands that when you're trying to sell expensive bikes, appealing to kids and to blue collar adrenalin junkies isn't as profitable as appealing to mid/upper class. Hopefully whoever they hire to win races, they can work that angle.
I think it is a culture issue. Trek is in Wisconsin, so not surprisingly they don't nothing about DH. I can't believe how many people brag about their 3 inch XC bike.

But they hired a Manitou suspension guy, Jose Gonzales, built a California test center, and they are more commited to the mountain bike.

Unfortunately, for the DH scene, it looks like they want to develop the 6 inch Remedy before the Session. I think from a sales standpoint, Trail/All-Mountain is more popular, so I hope there will be some trickle-up to the more sophisticated dh bikes.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
I think it is a culture issue. Trek is in Wisconsin, so not surprisingly they don't nothing about DH. I can't believe how many people brag about their 3 inch XC bike.

But they hired a Manitou suspension guy, Jose Gonzales, built a California test center, and they are more commited to the mountain bike.

Unfortunately, for the DH scene, it looks like they want to develop the 6 inch Remedy before the Session. I think from a sales standpoint, Trail/All-Mountain is more popular, so I hope there will be some trickle-up to the more sophisticated dh bikes.
in all fairness to the remedy, its the nicest AM bike i've ever touched. Fycking amazing.

edit: anyway, getting away from the OP

Maybe peat? his contract runs out this year right? That would be epic. Peat is probably the best possible person you could have repping your bikes. Everybody is head over heals in love with him and he's been shredding hard and winning longer then anybody on the circuit.
 

al-irl

Turbo Monkey
Dec 9, 2004
1,086
0
A, A
When the guy who might be jogging or golfing is riding a FR bike, that's when Trek will spend millions to sponsor a DH rider, like they do for Astana.

Its starting to happen in my part of the world. In a small way but ireland is a few years behind in mountain biking terms.

Cycling is defenitly slowly becomming the new golf. The club i'm involved in runs beginner xc spins and you'd be amazed at the amount of girls who come out on these spins most of them treat it like going to a yoga class or something like that everyweek. 1 in 10 gets the bug propperly and gets the passion that most of us on here who eat sleep and drink all things dirt related. The rest of them are happy to go out once or twice a week and just follow you around the same spin week in week out. We've just had our first batch of trail centres open up this year and already the shop I work in has had a huge influx of people looking for entry level xc bikes. If you are unfortunate enough to have to ride these trail centres there flooded with newbies on nice bikes and all the kit. These are the people with disposable income to spend on fancy all mountain bikes. They love going into the office and telling people how cool they are because they go mountain biking while standing round the water cooler. You can see it in the UK aswell they've had trail centres for the last 8 years maybe more and since they started mountain biking has exploded. All the ski resorts are starting to realise that they can't depend on the snow and are embrasing mountain biking as a way to attract tourism. It won't be too far off from package biking holidays for the masses. Mountain biking is a huge growth area in the cycling industry.

So it makes sense to me for Trek to get involved in a big way now. So that when the time comes they will be more of a household name than they are now.
 

dan wask

Turbo Monkey
May 11, 2006
1,463
0
B-More Maryland
I think it is a culture issue. Trek is in Wisconsin, so not surprisingly they don't nothing about DH. I can't believe how many people brag about their 3 inch XC bike.

But they hired a Manitou suspension guy, Jose Gonzales, built a California test center, and they are more commited to the mountain bike.

Unfortunately, for the DH scene, it looks like they want to develop the 6 inch Remedy before the Session. I think from a sales standpoint, Trail/All-Mountain is more popular, so I hope there will be some trickle-up to the more sophisticated dh bikes.
Trek worked extremely hard with Shandro to get the new session 88 up to snuff with the rest of the line. If you notice, the new remedy was released about 2 months prior to the 88, Trek was still doing testing with the frame. They originally intended just to redo the session ten, tweaking it to make it lighter and more race friendly. After the application of the ABP and floating link on the EX's and Remedys they completely scrapped the project and moved onto the session 88 platform that is out now.

Sure, it took awhile for trek to realize there was a viable market for a race ready dh bike, but with the amount of money they can afford to throw into testing, expect a phenomenal ride.

As for the hate towards trek, it doesn't make any sense to be bashing a company with this much publicity. The more exposure the sport gets, the more resources that will become available to the community.

I talked to my rep at Trek, and Trek DOES have Sam for next year. Shame he seems so unhappy and is overall an un-personable character; he'll fit in perfectly with all the Trek team road riders.
 
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jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,570
24,185
media blackout
As for the hate towards trek, it doesn't make any sense to be bashing a company with this much publicity. The more exposure the sport gets, the more resources that will become available to the community.
its kind of a double bladed sword. Yes, its great exposure and having bikes available at multiple price points will allow more riders to join the sport. But with more riders comes more muppets.
 

al-irl

Turbo Monkey
Dec 9, 2004
1,086
0
A, A
unfortunatly we need muppets for the sport to grow. Most of them will leave when golf is back to being the new golf but if one in ten of the newbies turns into a legend then it will be worth it.
 

dan wask

Turbo Monkey
May 11, 2006
1,463
0
B-More Maryland
its kind of a double bladed sword. Yes, its great exposure and having bikes available at multiple price points will allow more riders to join the sport. But with more riders comes more muppets.
The sword only has two edges if you're an elitist who doesn't want the sport to grow. More people on downhill bikes=more demand for bike parks and trails catering to this discipline of cycling.
 

CRoss

Turbo Monkey
Nov 20, 2006
1,329
0
The Ranch
I talked to my rep at Trek, and Trek DOES have Sam for next year. Shame he seems so unhappy and is overall an un-personable character; he'll fit in perfectly with all the Trek team road riders.
I learned a long time ago not to trust reps about new products and gossip unless they had literature to back it up.
 

Cranx

Chimp
Aug 6, 2008
35
0
I talked to my rep at Trek, and Trek DOES have Sam for next year. Shame he seems so unhappy and is overall an un-personable character; he'll fit in perfectly with all the Trek team road riders.

This argument is flawed on two points.

I spoke directly with Sam yesterday and he hasn't yet made a decision. So no, Trek DO NOT have Sam, at this point. He may choose them, he may not. He has plenty of offers.

Nor is he an un-personable character. Have you ever met him and got to know him? He is a whole lot more personable than some "golden boys" who vandalise other competitors bikes or trash opposing sponsors equipment. But maybe people think that's tough and worthy of accolates?
 
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dan wask

Turbo Monkey
May 11, 2006
1,463
0
B-More Maryland
This argument is flawed on two points.

I spoke directly with Sam yesterday and he hasn't yet made a decision. So no, Trek DO NOT have Sam, at this point. He may choose them, he may not. He has plenty of offers.

Nor is he an un-personable character. Have you ever met him and got to know him? He is a whole lot more personable than some "golden boys" who vandalise other competitors bikes or trash opposing sponsors equipment. But maybe people think that's tough and worthy of accolates?
When I went up and introduced myself to sam at this year's US open he acted like a total pretentious dick to me. Almost "too good" to talk to a lowly fan like myself. So yes, I have met sam, but no, I have not gotten to know him as he didn't seem to want to give me the time of day.

Set up a lunch date for me and Sammy and maybe things will go better. But with athletes of his caliber, having some personality in that first and possibly only encounter goes a long way in forming people's opinions of them.

I'm not some fanboy who is going to be on his nuts just because he is super fast.

To the vandalism bs, I'm not sure who you're referring to, but joking around in the pits isn't something I'm going to call out as trying to be tough and crucify them for it. If it came down to it, I'd rather hang out with guy's like JD and Matti who actually have some inkling of personality.
 

pelo

Monkey
Jun 11, 2007
708
0
It´s downhill, not the world championship in social-neutral-correctly behaviour.
 
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bdamschen

Turbo Monkey
Nov 28, 2005
3,377
156
Spreckels, CA
When I went up and introduced myself to sam at this year's US open he acted like a total pretentious dick to me. Almost "too good" to talk to a lowly fan like myself. So yes, I have met sam, but no, I have not gotten to know him as he didn't seem to want to give me the time of day.
Introverted people can sometimes be mistaken for jerks because they don't talk much. Have you ever seen Sam Hill's interviews before? The dude barely says anything and when he does it's so quiet you have to strain to listen, and that's to reporters and regulars on the WC. I don't think it's because he thinks he's too good to talk to people, it's probably because he's uncomfortable talking to people.
 

Lex

Monkey
Dec 6, 2001
594
0
Massachusetts
I usually stay out of these discussions but all of this is beyond rediculous lately. What's next? Is someone on RM a phychologist who'll provide a general personality profile of Sam Hill along with the other top 9 WC riders?

WHO CARES!

Newsflash for everyone who does seem to care: Sam Hill will ride a bike next season. He will be fast.

It just seems like the "silly season" has started before this season is even over.


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