Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
He works for FSA... so the "our" is FSA.
Santa Cruz is hosting a live AMA tomorrow for the new V10...
Don't forget to join tomorrow's Live Event: Ask Me Anything with the people behind the new Santa Cruz V10. To join, just click the link below at 9AM PDT on November 1, 2023.
https://news.santacruzbicycles.com/e3t/Ctc/WX+113/cbylW04/VWfnbC5KDDVDW…
The administrators gutted the distribution arm of Crc/Wiggle this week (hotlines). I can't imagine they'll see any value on continuing with supporting the marketing costs of sponsoring teams.
You don't think the Sports Direct exclusive £499 Nukeproofs will fund a race team?
@Primoz .. what he said
I'm all but positive (like 92%) that the Nuke Proof team is no more
You already mentioned it on the previous page BTW
But thanks anyway.
Back to rumors?
Regarding Intense and the racing plans for 2024. Listen to Jeff Steber in this video at the 1 hour 18 minute mark: https://youtu.be/yw2Xwa_FiJ0?si=q-1u4Tl7JKHGOrp7&t=4678
What do you read into his comments?
That’s sounds like Gwin is moving his program along/being moved along!
Sure does. And almost sounds like more of a focus on younger US riders and/or a frame affiliation. One gets the feel big changes are afoot but there will still be some involvement in the racing scene.
Definitely sounds like the team was a means to an end, with that end being a production, race ready frame. Now that the frame is done and in production, I get the feeling they don’t want to/ could no longer foot the bill for Aaron and company, and will focus on a cheaper, American based development team which will be cool and very in-line with all of their marketing talk.
99.9%
lots of riders with no teams at the moment.
maybe they all start to race e-bikes? Strong rumour of that happening in the future
Probably not the first athlete split over there. I heard Norco fired their team manager right before Snowshoe and ran the last two races without anyone at the helm.
Heavy sleuthing, with timestamped youtube link—thank you for your service!
There's a huge push being put on shops to sell E-bikes right now, and TBH, rightly so. Its finally a product that people want that actually makes shops money even if they are more of a pain in the ass on the back end. E-bike racing would certainly help push E-mountain out the door, not that in my area at least its an issue. Our local hill has three main climbs, two are about 430m high with an average of 10% grade and the other is 430m and 9km long so they pretty much sell themselves for people who have limited time and want maximums laps. Even I've dabbled into an EXe Demo at this point....
Thinking out loud: Gwin to keep running his program on Frameworks frame next year.
Sounds like he has been pretty close to Neko lately, getting back to speed with the Windrock bikepark ownership and he was today on an IG Live with Neko and Kogel Bearing (a Frameworks sponsor).
That’d be pretty rad. Hope that happens.
I think this theory makes sense if:
-Gwin is injecting cash into Frameworks by buying 49% stake in it right now (probably for pennies).
-The extra cash allows Frameworks to get bikes (trail & enduro bikes most importantly) into production within a year.
-Gwin, as 49%, owner gets his portion of profits from the business until he sells his shares or is bought out. If Frameworks ends up being successful on the saturated market (questionable), Gwin would be setup for long term profits.
Gwin is in the final portion of his career, but even in this market, he could still probably get $80-100k/yr+ from a frame sponsor. He's not going to turn that down to ride Frameworks bikes for free (Neko can't pay him) unless he's getting a big cut of future business, etc.
I don't know whether Reece Wilson is simply testing some other brand's tires or Trek Factory changes to Schwalbe tires, but he is running Dirty Dans in his insta story
I don’t see Gwin on Frameworks. Neko documented how he’s had issues with frames cracking. I don’t think that is something AG would want to deal with. I’m sure as they are coming close to production that is getting worked out but until they are proven, I don’t see him on the bikes.
Kogel was also a sponsor for IFR in the last few years.
Gwin to Yeti would be sick!
I think a big portion of what brands pay Gwin for is product development - think of the many signature tires over the years, the new M1, etc. So I think IFR will likely end up with a frame brand that is looking to develop their DH bike over the next few years.
Frameworks DH frames are in production now, pre-order of 100 frames is open with delivery early 2024. Neko sent out an email last week to people expressing interest.
$4000 for frame without a shock. Alloy front/carbon rear.
Yea, I think the likelihood Gwin is on Yeti (frames, but his own program) is higher than him being on Frameworks frames.
...
Wow, $4,000 for Frameworks DH frame w/out a shock. Ouch. But I suppose there are 100 people who have that kind of cash and want a (standard FSR deign) DH frame for the boutique-ness of it.
Costco Intense Factory Racing rocking Kirkland kit
We can turn our noses up all we want, but this would be a good omen for racing. We really need non-bike industry sponsors with stable cash flows. No one argues that the next couple years are going to be brutal for marketing budgets and sponsored riders. We need to see car companies, healthcare, tech, etc. coming in as sponsors, it's really the only way forward. This has always been the case but 10X more starting... right now.
It's odd that we haven't seen healthcare more. It's perfect. We have lower lifetime healthcare costs as riders, but fund their high margin joint replacements and ortho surgery. I'm seeing an ortho now and joked that I should get a free hip since I developed trail systems that send them a daily stream of work. At least take me out on your yacht while I'm laid up!
The fact that healthcare is fragmented in the US and gov in Europe is probably why this isn't happening. Maybe something like GE Imaging? Either way, the smart riders and teams need to be looking outside the bike world.
Websites also need outside advertising to not be so beholden to the industry. You can't review the products you are also advertising...
Yeah - I started the rumour in jest but - hey - there is an existing relationship! What's interesting is that there was more external sponsorship in the sport's competitive infancy in the 90s than there is now. Grundig: where you at??
Neko explained the cracking situation pretty clearly. At the time they made their frames, there was as specific tubing they needed to use that was not available in time to race, so FTW made frames with what they had available to make do.
He actually knew in advance the pieces they used to make it work were more likely to crack. Next revision FTW was able to get/use the tubing they wanted to.
Post a reply to: 2024 TEAM RUMORS