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Mx
At the very least the brands would be chewed to death for so blatantly copying other brands products. A lot more so than what we're currently doing in regards to sharpie tactics
Sure it's worked out in some cases, Aaron's relationship with TRP has been fruitful for both parties and consumers, if we could actually get DH-R Evo's that I ordered a year and a half ago. And with Onza, that tire was pretty good. But those were first joined up through Martin on the YT team. Whitely always seemed to have a history of going to company's who want to break out into high level racing with top tier athletes and making it work. Global, Honda G-Cross, YT and other teams he's fielded always had a few standout weird bits on them, or YT/Orange who at the time weren't exactly at the forefront of DH racing. Honda was a bit of a different situation but still.
I almost thing Gwin has out Martin'd himself with going for 2nd tier parts for the money and getting results for the whole team are suffering because of it which may lead to less companies offering as much cash when contracts come up next time.
As for products, I recall Gwin wanted to carry Onza over to the new program, but, from the sounds of the interviews I heard, they were not able due to contractual obligations.
I love how YT has skated on their second disbanding of a team, from apparently no where based on comments from Whitely himself, and they are defend as a business doing business, but Gwin is lambasted as greedy, for what, running a business?
It just doesn’t make sense.
Sorry to post a link to other site, but considering this bike of Nico's will be 25 soon, it's pretty wild. So far ahead of it's time...
Why on earth would you mericans destroy the heritage of your best rider of all time? Who of you all knows enough to give a real inside view? Who of you earned money as a professional sportsman? Who of you runs a team? Who of you gave chances to other riders? Who of you did develop products? Who of you was really nice to most people you met at a race? Who of you having so strong opinions are actual riders competing for something?
I find you are a bunch of disrespectful people who would benefit a lot by just being quite and holding back your unqualified opinins.
Huge news and team rumor from Finland!!!!
Well know, all time good guy, famous Finnish mtb podcast host (@kuraläppä), father of 3 and epic shredder Bob Jakovski just leak in his own instagram story sneakpeak of his new bike. There is clearly showing gold Pole!!! Meaby e-bike Voima? Is Bob moving to dominate Finnish e-bike enduro series? We have seen Bob shredding trails with his custom Specialized!
This is truly surprising! I’m in shock!!😳🤯😳🤯😳
And what does his co-host Mika Pensas thinking about this move? Is Mika also switching to e-bike’s?
As long as the results are there, the marketing departments can sell products through those, but once the results are not coming as often as they did, the other part becomes really important.
The point I'm trying to make? It's hard to have a following if, for whatever reason, the rider, driver, sportsman, public persona, whatever, is not relatable.
Yeah, we are being hard on Gwin. Are we as hard on Minnaar? On Hart? The list of people that are very likeable is really long here. With some people it could be a calculated thing, they can be assholes in private, but that just means they play the game better than others.
Gwin is playing the game that he chose. Kudos to him to earn bags of money, he's earning more than I or most people on this forum ever will. Does any of that mean we still have to clap at him or for him at every step and like him? That we (the public) can't say we don't like either his behaviour, his actions, him? Nope. There is a line regarding what can and can't, should or shouldn't be said, but we can always voice our disagreements.
These riders are, in part, where they are because of us. It's only logical that we have a vote in it all.
With three World Cup teams during the same season for quite a while, they basically out-Commencal'd Commencal, even before Commencal was a thing. Isn't that cool? :-D
Mx
Anyway, the only ”odd” product I remember Nico using was that EGS derailleur and shifter in 1999. And don't forget that 1999 was the last year of Sunn, the year when the Nike sponsorship went and they dubben themselves Sunn UN, whereas ”UN” stood for ”unsponsored”, as they had very little money that year.
Also, looking on this thread and how much a tire matters to a racer, Nico made a total switch from Michelin to Tioga in the last two years of his career, when Michelin reigned supreme. I don't know how much input Nico had on those, but I recall the Tioga tires being simply fantastic, better than anything else I had used until then. Our national team was on the 2003 Worlds in Lugano and somehow they were in the right place at the right time, when the Tioga guys were leaving and they bought all they tires for dirt cheap. That stock lived a good while in our local competitions. It wouldn't completely surprise me if someone still had some of those around!
(L.E.: Of course, that ”someone” would be stupid me! I just remembered I have a set of newish Tioga 1.8 4X mud tires in the basement, most likely prototypes from back then.)
Oh, and I'm sorry Maxxis fans, but Michelin DH Comp 16's, Comp 24's and Comp 32's were High Roller, DHR and DHF's before High Rollers, DHRs and DHFs!
Mx
OK, enough old-guy reminiscing, back to the rumors!
I would love to see him back in the mix and challenging for wins.
Maybe if he can stay off the ground, busts out a sharpie and spends a month in Morzine focusing in Euro mud and steeps he can do it.
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