The Fall of Cannondale as an opportunity

On Feb 7, 11:12*am, Rob Lindauer wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:

The Cannondale

Vintage 8 Ultra 2008 looks the business right up to the Brooks B17
seat; all it doesn't have that is desirable in a commuter is the hub
brakes, having discs brakes instead. It is also very pricey indeed:
Bonthrone Bikes in London sells it for 1250 sterling (ooooouch!). But
I presume Stateside prices are much more reasonable.
http://www.bonthronebikes.co.uk/516-226154

That model (and others, like the Bad Boy 8 and the Bad Boy Rohloff) are
not listed in the US catalog at all. *Maybe it's possible to order one
specially, assuming they're indeed built here... *RL

--
Rob Lindauer - Please change "att" to "sbc" for my real email address

I suspected as much. US bike makers (except possibly Electra)
apparently don't think they have a home market for city bikes;
European makers seem to agree, as the efforts made to export Dutch
bikes, for instance, to the States have been less than half-hearted.
Trek for several years made noises at shows but, as far as I know,
not even the semi-conventional L series (like my Cyber Nexus but
downspecced -- by European standards -- to somewhere well above the
Electra Amsterdam) has ever been offered in the States. Instead Trek
offers the Lime, by the standards of commuters a bit toylike, a
different sort of bike; it is almost as if Trek, and the other US bike
makers who offer city bikes of one sort or another in Europe, think
there are no serious city commuters in the States. Who knows, they may
be right, the market may be too small; we haven't seen their market
research. I suspect that if there were a market in the US, Giant, the
Taiwanese corporation which is one of the big three in city bikes in
the Benelux, would be trying to service it.

Andre Jute
Niche King

On Feb 7, 11:32*am, Dan Birchall nob...@imaginary-
host.danbirchall.com wrote:
(Andre Jute) wrote:
*That Cannondale is changing hands might make Cannondale bikes a bit
*cheaper because people will fear they cannot get service or, a fear
*already expressed on RBT, that the new owners will depress the image
*so much that the bikes will have no secondhand value. But if the parts
*are essentially service free, as in hub gears and premium Shimano
*parts, it doesn't matter. And if you intend to keep your bike until it
*lies down and dies, depreciation doesn't matter either.

I think "Fall" may be a bit of a loaded word here, considering the
value of the company appears to have roughly tripled since it last
changed hands about 5-6 years ago.

Thanks for straightening that out for me, Dan. I'll let your title
stand as more apt. Would that Raleigh when it was in dire straights
about thirty years ago had fallen into the hands of investors who were
interested in value rather than asset-stripping a great name.

But I certainly agree with everything else you said. *In my life I've
owned 2 bikes pieced together by my cousin, 1 Murray bought at a flea
market, an Iverson bought at a police auction, a Marukin that I crazily
rode in USCF Juniors, and 2 Cannondales. *

The non-Cannondales lasted me maybe a few years tops; I don't even
remember how they all died. *(The Murray's axle bearings fell out.
Literally. *While I was riding.) *The first Cannondale made it a
decade and then got wrecked by a car. *I hobbled into the local bike
shop with it the next day, frame and rims bent beyond repair, and
bought the second one; it's heading for a decade as well. *I get its
"annual" maintenance about once every five years; should do that
again soon.

My wife's Cannondale is over a decade old now. *My daughter has
been working her way up through Trek's kid bikes; she takes 4-5
years to outgrow them, and at that pace they're cheaper than
buying her a Wal*Mart bike each year and watching it fall apart.
Once she stops growing, I expect her to be on a Cannondale too,
presuming they're still around and making good bikes.

--
"Infirm indeed are my bones, and the hair of my head doth glisten with
*grey: but never am I unblest."

Hell man, with an accolade like that, Cannondale starts to seem a
desirable brand, and I can see why so many who know the bikes worry
that the new owners might be quick-buck merchants. But you do make it
seem as if they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they
cheapened the Cannondale bikes and with the bikes the name.

Andre Jute
It takes a generation to build up a brand, and two years or less to
wreck it -- Commodore J Walter Thomson, founder of the first modern
advertising agency*

*Mind you, his judgement was not always so perfect: in 1916, having
sold out, on his way out of the building, in the elevator Thomson said
an acquaintance, "I got out just in time. The advertising agency
bubble has burst."

On Feb 7, 5:16*am, landotter wrote:
What about the macrame skirt guard spec?

Why? Aren't you a bit old to be a cross-dresser?

datakoll aka gene daniels wrote:
On Feb 7, 2:06 am, Tom Sherman
wrote:
datakoll aka gene daniels wrote:

...
history sez no. consider the depression's effect on the auto industry.
what happened with the mortgag crisis is real money was sold several
times becoming unreal and greatly inflated unreal money (redeemable
for real money if you got out before the bust as always) unreal money
that became real when the ''community' found it unreal when the
creditors demanded yet more real money....
What mortgage crisis? Now that all the speculators and those who lived
beyond their means are getting their comeuppance, maybe us hard working
frugal people without inherited wealth can finally afford to stop
renting and actually buy an abode.


what, you didn't invest in real estate?

Hard to invest in real estate when one owes more in student loans and
uninsured medical expenses than all other assets combined. It took me
over six years after finishing graduate school to stop having a negative
net financial worth.

you didn't watch the floorpans either

My "Wabbit" was twelve years old when it was given to me. Just making it
road legal (repairs to exhaust system and lights required by corrosion)
cost more than the resale value of the car.

AND you ride an incumbent in cowville.

No, Andrew Muzi is the one in "cowville" - this event is just a short
walk from his shop: http://www.danecountydairy.com/dairycows. I am in
Beer City to the east.

A new definiton of frugal?

Well, I have adopted three (3) orphans [1], but they found me.

[1] Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/19704682@N08/.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

Andre Jute wrote:
...
It takes a generation to build up a brand, and two years or less to
wreck it -- Commodore J Walter Thomson, founder of the first modern
advertising agency*....

Well, if I see the "Paramount" name on a cheap piece of junk made in
mainland (sorry Jobst) China, I think I will be ill.

The greatest trashing of names has occurred in the audio industry, where
names like Scott and Fisher were slapped on low-fi commodities.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

On Feb 7, 7:43*pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
...
It takes a generation to build up a brand, and two years or less to
wreck it -- Commodore J Walter Thomson, founder of *the first modern
advertising agency*....

Well, if I see the "Paramount" name on a cheap piece of junk made in
mainland (sorry Jobst) China, I think I will be ill.

The greatest trashing of names has occurred in the audio industry, where
names like Scott and Fisher were slapped on low-fi commodities.

Egads, Tom, how old are you? Fisher was hi-fi in the 60s and tanked
in the '70s, IIRC. That brand was pretty much gone while there were
still tube testers at the supermarket. With that said, I cannot think
of an American brand from my youth that has not been trashed --
Magnavox, RCA, Westinghouse for example. When it comes to mid-fi
consumer electronics (the standard fare of Best Buy, etc.), an old
American brand name is a big red flag -- actually, a big red flag with
gold stars. --- Jay Beattie.

Jay Beattie wrote:
On Feb 7, 7:43 pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
...
It takes a generation to build up a brand, and two years or less to
wreck it -- Commodore J Walter Thomson, founder of the first modern
advertising agency*....
Well, if I see the "Paramount" name on a cheap piece of junk made in
mainland (sorry Jobst) China, I think I will be ill.

The greatest trashing of names has occurred in the audio industry, where
names like Scott and Fisher were slapped on low-fi commodities.

Egads, Tom, how old are you?

Not old enough to have seen any of the classic products new.

Fisher was hi-fi in the 60s and tanked
in the '70s, IIRC. That brand was pretty much gone while there were
still tube testers at the supermarket.

However, the Fisher name is kept alive as the home of the NYP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Fisher_Hall.

These products do NOT look promising:
http://www.fisherav.com/products.html.

With that said, I cannot think
of an American brand from my youth that has not been trashed --
Magnavox, RCA, Westinghouse for example.

The exception? http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/.

When it comes to mid-fi
consumer electronics (the standard fare of Best Buy, etc.), an old
American brand name is a big red flag -- actually, a big red flag with
gold stars.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

On Feb 8, 3:43*am, Tom Sherman
wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
...
It takes a generation to build up a brand, and two years or less to
wreck it -- Commodore J Walter Thomson, founder of *the first modern
advertising agency*....

Well, if I see the "Paramount" name on a cheap piece of junk made in
mainland (sorry Jobst) China, I think I will be ill.

The greatest trashing of names has occurred in the audio industry, where
names like Scott and Fisher were slapped on low-fi commodities.

There is one notable example where Chinese ownership has revitalized a
famous audio brand without cheapening it, and that is QUAD. I have
QUAD electrostatic speakers and QUAD amps and CD players from the
Peter Walker era which I service or rebuild myself as required, and I
cannot see that the Chinese developments of these iconic products are
in any way inferior; I would certainly not hesitate to buy the Chinese
QUAD products new if I didn't already have QUAD hi-fi that will last
the rest of my life.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/
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