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[email protected]> wrote in message
news:171719a1-0037-4fb7-8018-e4ee276151fc@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
>> what he alleges is true, I bet he wins his suit.
>
> Win or lose, no more Trek production of Lemond bikes. Will someone
> else pick up the name? After the first Lemond bikes (can't remember
> the name of the maker), Target & Trek, who would touch it. Giant?
>
> Any bets on when Trek announces its new line of Lance Armstrong brand
> of bikes? Will they wait until the suits are over or settled?
>
> Or will Trek keep making the steel lemonds and put another name on
> them? "Davis Phinny bikes" "Zabriski bikes" "Levi bikes" "Flandis
> bikes" "Tilford bikes" "Bostasaurus bikes".
>
> www.lemondbikes.com is still up. Guess Burke hasn't pulled the plug
> on that yet. tic toc tic toc..... Or is this treks ploy to look
> innocent while putting up such biased statements. That and putting up
> the time lines and suit summarys.
Trek had/has a *lot* of explaining to do. They have a whole lot of dealers
with inventory of LeMond bikes who want to know what's going on, and why.
Doesn't it make sense for them to put everything they can out in public, as
quickly as possible? Beyond the fact that dealers are *owed* an explanation
(after all, we have a lot of inventory $$$ on the line), it makes sense to
try and get back to business as quickly as possible and that, again,
requires that you answer as many questions as you possibly can, as fast as
you can, preferably before they're even asked. That's simply good business.
What's perhaps most admirable is the absolute secrecy about this decision.
I'm one of the more-curious dealers, always wanting to know what's going on
behind the scenes. And just three days ago I asked what the future status of
LeMond is, since I've openly questioned the wisdom of having a line whose
namesake and spokesperson is so intensely negative about the current cycling
scene (it definitely costs me sales). And I was told that LeMond remains a
part of the Trek family and will continue.
The claim that Trek didn't promote the LeMond brand as they should have,
that they didn't support it with product, is bogus. LeMond got a total
redesign of their frame (the min-max carbon) well ahead of Trek's new Madone
design, and they made a HUGE deal of it. They even flew a bunch of dealers
back to Wisconsin to ride the Trek 100 fund-raiser on the new machines. And
they certainly put a lot of energy into the website and catalog. Despite the
fact that LeMond was obviously a much-smaller brand than Trek, it appeared
they received far more than their fair share of resources in Wisconsin.
And yet, Greg just couldn't focus on delivering a positive message about
cycling. I don't know if he understood that many of the things he was saying
(true or not is almost irrelevant) were detrimental to sales. We had
customers who wouldn't even consider a LeMond because of Greg's musings in
the press about how everyone was doping and that he was essentially the last
clean athlete in the world etc.
The most-frustrating thing about all this is that virtually everyone who has
ever met Greg, or been to an event where he talked about his TdF
experiences, comes away incredibly impressed with the guy. He seems
genuinely interested in what you have to say. He's funny, engaging, and
clearly loves the stage. And his "bad peach" story is hilarious. He doesn't
seem at all like the person in the press who believes he would have won 32
tours if the world hadn't conspired against him (the infamous "virtual" TdF
victories). There's no hint of the "victim mode" he is prone to when being
interviewed. Not that he hasn't been through some horrible things in his
life! And it seems that bad things tend to follow him, like the business
associate of Floyd Landis making the bogus phone call.
Greg remains one of the GREAT cyclists of all time. That cannot be taken
away from him, nor taken for granted. That, alone, would be enough for most
people. But somehow he focuses instead on what could have been. From my
standpoint, what could have been would be a phenomenally-successful bicycle
line, if only he hadn't decided it was more important to spend his time
accusing people of doping.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA
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