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Some were speculating about the GOAT going back to Oakley.
These Smith ads have been showing up on my FB feed. 🤔
yep, I think both Rob and Ratboy choked up on interviews the day it was announced. Even the vibe in the Syndicate videos has changed a ton since Rob/Kathy left the team. It seems weird they never feature/introduce any of the other staff involved (besides the mechanics and Peaty).
unofficial insight info:
Szymon and Dawid Godziek on specalized next year
They don't have a bike big enough. Unior Sinter was supposed to run Specialized frames a few years back (Tanja actually did in XC), but there wasn't a big enough Demo available for Jure (S5) , so they went with Senders. They could make a custom size for the like of Greg, but what does that look like for the marketing department? 😜
With Loic Duval commenting with "losing heritage". Loic Duval of Le Mans 24h winner fame in an Audi with Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen of all people.
Rob has some connections!
'comes down to Leadership' & 'wrong people in place' - to me that reads as a jibe at Peaty because as I understand it, that is who Rob put in to replace Kathy S when she stepped back. Looking back to Loris and Luca moving on - in both cases there were rumours that Peaty was over bearing and treated them like kids which is why they wanted out.
I heard it was not Peaty, it was Greg not pumped on Loris and Luca. Mind games apparently. Even after leaving, Each time Luca has been on the podium Peaty has always shown a lot of love to him. What do I know though.
"All the best going forward with your new ride."
It seems to me that GM will NOT be following Roskopp to Unno, then.
So Norco it is.
Or he's just being proper and not letting a the Goat out of the bag.
Riding Demos and P.3s you reckon? I'm just curious. Some years specialized has more niche bikes (freeride, entry-level (?) DH, slalom, slopestyle, freestyle BMX) and some years not, and it's been a bunch of years of not.
I don't see this aimed at Peaty but more at Santa Cruz/Pon execs turning the the team into a "trade team" run buy the accountants rather than what the syndicate stood for originally.
I can see Rob doing in the future what Pete Fox and Jim Jannard have done and setup his own brand (or getting in with Unno) and creating a modern syndicate team.
I don't think you're correct there. In that sentence, Rob is talking about SCB (Santa Cruz Bikes) not the Syndicate. There is recent history there.
I fully agree. I don’t think this was about the Syndicate, but was aimed at PON mostly. Rob built Santa Cruz bikes into the “core” brand it was. I’ve worked at a handful of Santa Cruz dealers of the years, and until recently you couldn’t keep those things in stock. They started losing foothold when they got behind the times with ebikes and released that outdated and under gunned first gen. Heckler ebike. They kept losing foothold when their pricing got out of hand for the part spec you were getting, and now they got even more behind the ball by waiting to discount their bikes far after the other big brands had already dropped prices. Not to mention that, at least in my area, really the only way to get them is to go to Mikes Bikes, which no one really does because everyone looks at Mikes as a corporate store for your average enthusiast not the place you go for top end parts and service. I would reckon from about 2013 to 2020 a Santa Cruz was every third bike I saw, now a days, it’s probably one in 10. He is watching his brain child and hard work fall off the map and turn into yet another drop in the moderately premium mass produced bicycle market. I would be bitter, too.
I think the same. Unno is a brand that is sponsoring some spanish riders and they seem to have the cash to throw in a big deal.
Headquarters reasonably close to Andorra where Greg (and Angel spend most of their time) will help
Also Unno is a boutique brand that can produce custom frames, linkages very fast, since all the production is made locally in Spain. We know Greg will need this, and frankly he hasn't got three years to develop a bike from scratch.
I could see him making a Gwin move and owning a piece of the whole project too.
Lastly, FOX
Unno is not a made in Spain brand anymore, the current bikes (ebike and bicycle of the same design language) are made overseas.
You're probably right, but at the end of the day wasn't it his choice to cash out and sell to PON? You can't have it both ways and to me, he comes off as an entitled asshole stuck in his version of "the good ol' days". I don't know how the decision to cut Greg happened, but I think it would be smart build the future of the team around Jackson and there's only so much a brand can budget for a race team.
Speculating that the budget was set, and the decision was between keeping Greg and cutting support staff for the team, or dropping Greg and giving the remaining riders the staff they need to be fully supported, I would choose to cut Greg even with his history.
Nailed it in one!
all these guys are going to be fine...
that said: you keep Greg Minnaar on your bike racing squad!
I just want to hear a podcast where GM in his very polite and respectful South African accent sets fire to Santa Cruz and burns all bridges with his PON corporate overlords in a scorched earth "Tell All" rivaling the Milli Vanilli scandal and C&C Music Factory debacle where he unveils that his last 2 wins were using an EEB motor that had been secretly developed in his Honda days that he never offically raced.
But then, once Father Time came calling, he folded to PON's relentless pressures to win at all cost & electric motored his way to a hollow victory...only now relieving himself of the guilt and burden of endless shame. And from this point forward, he sets out on a path of motorless redemption to claim ONE LAST VICTORY from age itself.
They made a custom xxl demo for Jordan this year. Besides that, Greg's bikes have never actually been that big anyway. He likes a long chainstay but the reach numbers aren't that big.
I read it as being aimed at Joe Graney, who was promoted from head of engineering to CEO of Santa Cruz when Rob stepped down.
Careful what you ask for.
I would agree with you for santa cruz being late to the party. But also they did a big favor for swallowing the bitter pill them selfs and not passing it on to the dealers?
But yeah lets see how the whole industry develops over the next years!
Thats sounds like you might visit the guys from @thespiritproject / @radsportlang . Not that close to you but worth the visit! Also they are Santa Cruz dealers now, along with other brands like Forbidden.
Whitely is managing Frameworks now.
They have a budget freeride option with the status. But there isn't anything in this niche with more than 160mm travle.
They just released the new p3 dirtjumper a couple of months ago
what does this mean for team rumors
Nothing. Australian school summer break starts this weekend.
Only Fans?
There is current Enduro with cascade link that is 180mm rear travel if I remember corrrectly and with the (really early) rumours of a new Enduro coming..
Ok we get it. GM is off SC. Blah blah..... But who is Dak riding for?
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