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Global/international economic discussions cannot be apolitical in our current systems.

Nope. Used to but not anymore. Your bike never looks new once it has ride wrap on it. I mean new when you’re looking at it up close and trying to appreciate the craftsmanship. The edges of the wrap hold dirt, and if they don’t, you still see it. And, in the end, you still get scratches. and you can’t buff RideWrap. Sides of the fork lowers are the only place I’ve seen it be useful

I'm here in Brașov, Romania. Cost of living is obviously cheap, being the country we are, although some prices line up with the West, where the wages don't necessarily. But it is generally cheaper for most things. Mountain biking? How about FREE shuttle service on state-operated local buses, that take you up 12 km to our local resort? You just pay a normal bus ticket, which is about 1 EUR a ride, and on Fridays it's completely free. From the local resort (Poiana Brașov), you can either ride back down on a plethora of trails (of which some are shared...

Imperia region of Italy. See Paul Aston and his bike farm. Buy some ancient stone place in Molini for 50k and make it livable. Then ride ride ride.

Toilet Paper consumer choice is mostly driven by quantitative factors : price, number of ply, size of roll, etc. The only real qualitative factor is how it feels when wiping and I don't that think that ranks high in consumer final decision compared to price. Meanwhile beer consumer choice is more driven by qualitative factors: taste, mouthfeel, bitterness and sourness personal preference, aroma, foaminess. Marketing can help you spread the word of your quantitative advantage or difference with others brands/products but marketing main force is to impact and differentiate on qualitative factors. So bike purchase decision can be driven by...

Specialized definitely needs a response to Avinox ASAP. I'll tell you something funny about the Levo. Levo's were probably like 60-70% of the Korean E-bike market. On rides, I'd see groups of 5-10 E's where only 1 or 2 weren't a Levo. The Gen 4 battery voltage exceeds the e-bike category and is classified for E-motos. Specialized Korea has been trying to get an exemption or the law changed for years. Tanked their MTB business that was probably 80-90% e-bikes. On the plus side, their desperation finally pushed Special-K to import the Status and they're considering the Stumpjumper again🤣

Having no interest in pushbikes these days, I care very little about most on that list. However specialized have to release a new levo & it better be bloody good after the disaster that was the gen4. They literally destroyed their brand with that model after 10 years of market dominance.

“Superboost” “32” enduro bikes”

The negative is obvious and terrible, 150 people losing their jobs and a local venue losing industry and community. My heart goes out to anyone affected by the layoffs, and I genuinely am pulling for Cannondale to work with out. That said, it feels like they're trying to conglomerate the brands under one roof, they've slowly been doing this in the background with some of the B2B systems, and as a shop guy, I can't say the idea of having one rep for multiple brands bothers me at all. One stop shop kind of thing in many respects. We're not...

Damn, we losing Bioware and Cannondale on the same day.