All

If they are pumping up on rapid pulls but work consistently otherwise, as a general rule, it could be due to 2 different causes. 1. If the pumping up is taking you from an excessively long lever throw to a normal one, that is usually due to a poorly maintained brake that is low on fluid and/or has excessively worn pads, and/or has stick caliper pistons. Basically, the system is at a point where a single lever pull can barely generate enough fluid volume to activate the brake fully, so you need to "stack" multiple pulls on top of each...

I think we may have to admit some possibilities about the group on this thread. Either: 1. We are all no longer well connected enough to score inside info. 2. The industry is in a slump and not developing product at the same speed as the previous few years Considering the lack of new product that came out of crank works I would suggest the latter but who knows. Until we get some new rumors we can either talk tech or make rumors up. Speaking of which I have one to start: Norco bikes have a relatively low resale value...

Have run lots of ski demos....that 20% that want to tell you how everything is wrong will also take up 90% of your time.

Having run plenty of demo days I'd say it's about 30% just having a go on an expensive bike for free, 20% just telling you what is wrong with the bike, 20% "just confirming that my bike IS better", 20% "I'm thinking of replacing my 2011 bike in the next 3-5 years" , 9% having one of the bikes on a shortlist but "I'm going to buy whatever I get the best deal on" and 1% actually going on to buy something from the demo. A couple a year was more than enough to never want to do it again.

As a person who HATES marketing but had to work in it for a while as an advertising filmmaker (I made commercials and short form video; I loved telling stories) and currently does not work anywhere near the marketing world: Cutting marketing budget during a slowdown is very often a bad choice. Marketing doesn't have to be commercials. It's whatever your company does with the intention of making your target market feel more favorable about your brand. So much of selling a product is about being the brand/offering a product that is recognized and trusted by your potential customers as...