All

You missed the part where Specialized seem to just forget the whole part where the Fuji bike brand licences the ‘Roubaix’ name to Specialized in the United States.... Oh and Specialized were never given the green light to register the name in Canada but did so anyways... Turns out the internet isn't a fan of large companies lying about what is theirs.... BUT! LETS GET BACK TO RUMORS!

Is it possible that Graves chose not to resign a contract? We have no idea what is happening behind the scenes, what they have done to help him or haven’t done. Maybe he doesn’t want to possibly take a spot from an active racer. To blame Specialized right now seems like a reason to hate based on the past.

Could be a rumor, but I think it was just a comment on the camera setup they were using (sony body with canon lens).

first time hearing that concerning brosnan. AFAIK specialized wanted gwin decked out in full specialized gear and sram, same as troy was riding plus didn‘t want to pay as much as he was demanding. will be interesting to see how this intense thing turns out since gwin is sponsored bei fox suspension and bell helmets and intense was on full sram support plus troy lee kits the last few years.

Admins need to start putting people on a time-out, wearing the dunce hat, and facing the wall in the corner of the room for posts that have non-racing rumor content.

Doubt it. A CNC machine costs pretty much the same in Asia as it does here, the operating costs are lower, but not that much lower. The main difference between different countries are the wages, so it makes sense to move production to 'cheaper' countries if you have a lot of manual labor. If your production is decently automatized (CNC machining is a case of this), it hardly makes a difference as to where you produce stuff. Look at how many cars are produced in Germany, which has the minimum wage of something around 1500 € net per month (probably...

What sense would it make? Commencal already has a team and they've put quite some effort building it. It's a team of younger people that already is pretty accomplished. Does anyone think money just floats around? The Athertons will obviously go to whom needs an image boost and values associating their image with them and I think they bring quite a lot to the table. And I also believe they are pretty good with product development too, which can't be everybody's thing. Some people like to give Gee shit for not being likable in their sense of perception (as if...

Has there been any speculation that instead of the Athertons signing a factory team contract for next season they just go it on their own? They picked up the Hope contract for the race season we just had which would mean if next year they decided to just pick whatever frame supplier they want they would have sponsors for everything else needed. They have been around the block and raced a lot of different bikes... Maybe its time they just have their own team where they are in total control and a program that could also better incorporate their Atherton...

Minnaar doesn't go to bike brands, bike brands go to Minnaar... Bad pun aside, is Minnaar's contract with SC up this year?

so true, but that was the reason why i thought YT would leave the mob and trek or some other brand would step in as frame sponsor. but since gwin left the mob it‘s hard to see him go back to a team where he is just „an employee“. things definitely got more interesting now

Remember, Gwin left specialized because he wanted to maintain control over his program... Specialized wanted him to go head to toe Specialized and that would have meant dropping other sponsors that were also paying him... Several smaller checks might be worth more than one big check...

Pretty sure not hitting your goal of world domination due to injury but still keeping it in the top 5 whilst holding back and testing new equipment is nothing any company would consider something worth cutting from their budget given the fact there´s really no valid alternative. Not many podium regulars are up for grabs and even if they were, injury can strike any time. I´m not a Gwin fanboy or anything but come on, he is injured once and doesn´t deliver runs that devastate the competition anymore and people think he´s done for? I don´t believe that. I´m pretty...

Gwin is getting all the money he can while he can. Who can blame him? People complain that MTBers aren’t paid like other sports but when Gwin does everything he has to to get paid like he feels he should it’s the other ride for the love of the sport. If Gwin hand was ever forced maybe he does something different but right now he has the upper hand and talking full advantage of it. Good for him. He knows careers are short. He is friends with guys like EC, Houseman, Tomac, etc.. he sees what they have now and...

same frame by the looks of it

That's just a regular Spectral WMN, the women specific version of the bike.

Looks like a regular Spectral.

cannondale could make sense as one of his buddies rides a jekyll/trigger and it makes sense that they want to get back in the game... just seems like a random pick but they have money and are the owners of fabric... aslong as it's not specialized

Bit shocking. However, not totally surprising. As SC becomes more corporate since the acquisition, they will look to more racer type personalities. My two cents.....

fuck me, this thread sucks this year

Are these jobs people actually want? Our economy is changing and I am not convinced people want a career building bike frames when every year those frames are getting closer to being to be built by robots. That will bring a new type of job to the bike building processs