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
Of possible interest to the 51-to-Oh Crew: “parasocial” was just named word of the year by some dictionary.
00:00 – Intro
00:41 – Markus Flossmann Returns to the Podcast
01:55 – YT’s Ownership History Explained
03:29 – Private Equity: The Turning Point
04:06 – When Growth Plans Became Dangerous
06:48 – Covid Boom → Market Downturn
08:48 – Costs Spiral and YT Loses Control
15:07 – The Fire Sale: What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
18:48 – Markus Personally Pays to Deliver Bikes
25:25 – What Really Happened With the Downhill Team
34:41 – How Markus Bought YT Back
36:08 – Addressing the “Bought Back for Pennies” Accusation
38:36 – What Happened With YT USA & Why It Shut Down
47:59 – Inside the Rebuild: YT 2.0
53:45 – Future Bikes, Riders & What’s Next for YT
🍿
Please someone else listen to this and summarize the important takeaways so I don't have to.
He "absolutely understands" the criticism, and continued to laugh and smile through the whole thing. The only time I felt he was being sincere was when discussing his disappointment with the race team management and how they "threw gas on the fire" instead of protecting the family. Apparently, one team rider came to him and said they understand, as did the freeriders. I think we can guess who that is, the only person to keep working for the new YT along with the freeriders who got their contracts renewed.
what a chode lol
I'm trying. It kinda falls off my brain about halfway and I feel like we enter the full 'say what needs to be said' part.
Which I was more okay with at the beginning... But as it got more and more 'woe is me' and 'things weren't fair enough for me' about halfway through the images of Porsches started to fade into view and dull my senses. Numb the brain.
As was mentioned in the podcast, at no point did I get a sense of 'sorry' or 'that was my bad' or 'we messed up'. I understand German culture is very pragmatic and straightforward but... In a global market, being tone deaf doesn't help.
I hope Brines gives a general summary not of the entire thing but... Of stand out moments that seem to be glossed over. I hate the one-sided nature of it because it's fairly easy to just 'say what needs to be said'. I don't blame him for doing so. But in critical moments it felt like a way to smooth over the rough details of what went wrong on their end.
Also can't wait for the episode with Jeff Taylor! Since I'm sure this story will be valued at both sides lol
Moreover...at any point in time did he say "It's my fault. I spent the money."
Sorry, I don't follow the Team Rumours thread (limited time requires tough decisions)... which racer did YT retain for 2026? Haven't heard that yet.
Texi is still with them. He retired this year so he is probably not on a full racing contract and more of a brand ambassador. He posted a video the same time as the relaunch, praising the new company.
Holy shit!
TLDR... he should have thought twice about taking that sweet sweet PE money (and the corresponding growth targets that came with it) and when he came back as CEO in early 2024, he should have made some hard choices sooner. And he sold some cars.
Jeff and the gang nailed a lot of this.
Hope you guys do a follow up pod!
I love Downtime, but I’m not expecting hard hitting journalistic questions out of this interview, unfortunately.
@jeff.brines recorded some thoughts after listening to the Downtime show. Listen below.
Impressive. Very nice. Now let's see YTUSA's CEO tell-all podcast.
Maybe that is a pod we could actually get.
As much as I love it (and am a Patreon supporter) I've started skipping/abandoning episodes because they seem like straight-up puff pieces...
This was great! Crazy fast turnaround, too. Thanks for your timely thoughts on the Downtime Podcast, Jeff.
To your point about Markus being at the helm when he alleges that "PE was overly focused on growth," I agree.
As I was listening to your 9-minute response, I was thinking about Andreas Kolb, who was likely signed to the 2025 YT MOB sometime around September of 2024, well after Markus came back as CEO in February of 2024. Kolb must have been a HUGE contract and represents YT choosing to double down on their DH and Enduro teams, especially given the fact that they were still paying superstar Jack Moir and had just re-signed Vali back onto the Mob in January of 2024.
There's so much we can't know, but signing Kolb in '25 tells me that it cannot be the case that Markus was already a believer in cutting costs in 2025, while his hands were tragically tied by ownership. If he was really worried about ownership's irresponsible overspending, and he'd JUST seen Vali resigned for big money only months before coming back on board in February '24, I find it impossible to believe that he would have green lit the Kolb-signing later that year.
And it's not like the finance nerds at the PE office were the ones pushing to sign Kolb.
Just remember what HE did to Gwin. Honesty, transparency & relationship based business growth are dead last on that guy's priority list. Second worst priority...financial stewardship.
I enjoy his pre and post race shows, and that's about it.
It sure seems like Markus came back in early 2024 and the strategy / spending didn't change. Perhaps there were layoffs. Perhaps there were other cuts. But it really didn't sound like it from that interview.
What's wild to me was that he was already going hat in hand to the PE guys at the beginning of 2025, and they told him they weren't going to give him 100% of the cash infusion he was asking for.
That should have been a red siren moment for him. Time to cut and cut deep.
Instead the strategy appears to have been low/zero margin sales events to move product. No wonder the PE guys pulled the plug, that was a road to nowhere.
please, you don't know what % of the company you own.....
I’m marveling at this dude’s ability to detach himself from decisions he made. Talking about these onerous contracts that have simply handcuffed them, whatever shall we do? Zero accountability. Like, I expect it from these sociopath CEO LinkedIn financebro podcast goblins, but it’s infuriating to hear.
Made it to the halfway mark, I’m out. The cornball way he holds the mic should’ve been enough: dude’s a kook.
I sure hope he stays out of racing forever.
I’m a fan, but it’s a rough back to back with Matt Jones and the Fleecemann, I gotta say. Oof!
Bunch of interesting stuff with this ordeal.
Only thing I liked about YT was the San Clemente mill events the employees and the free beer. Bikes didn’t excite me. My opinion they are doing away with the best part of YT
I know Kolb said he had offers for much more money but chose YT because apparently it was a long (think 5 year) contract. I really feel sorry for him thinking he was going to be at a place for the long haul to only loose everything before the end of the first season.
Chris is the man. The amount that guy does for gravity sports and athlete exposure is unreal. I think it's unfair to bash downtime over the YT gong show.
Keen for a Vital x Downtime 2025 recap podcast this slow season 👀
Crazy it feels like he didn’t even understand why they were upset. I don’t think it was ever over the truck. The man will do anything to make him look like the victim here.
I was thinking about a post made by one of the former YT USA crew.. He mentioned that Markus was hoping to buy the USA inventory for pennies on the dollar. Maybe Jenson threw out a better offer to the liquidator and that left Markus feeling bitter and prevented him from entering the US market right away. I'm sure he'll say he was the victim in that..
Agreed. He’s great and I love the pod. I also really enjoy, weirdly, the Downtime goes downhill series. A bunch of amateur Middle Aged Brit’s racing downhill or enduro shouldn’t be that interesting to me… but somehow it is.
Post a reply to: The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread