1. IP law is fundamentally complex and hard to enforce (talk to Pinarello about the $400 Dogmas)... There are already several similar designs out there and I am not seeing anybody filing a suit against those anytime soon.
2. The auction included only part of the tooling which is a very expensive part of the business. Apparently they still owed money on the molds (making me feel a lot better today)...
3. The manufacturing technique meant the spokes have to be bonded to the rim side walls first for tension, and then glued to the rim bed... the gluing right at the brake tracks meant disaster. We sat down w/ 2 of the best carbon factories by any standards and concluded major improvements were needed. Maybe a super complex 3D full wheel mold (sort of like what Cipollini does w/ frames)?
4. The aero bug... weren't any real way to fix it. I wonder how LW's Fernweg is doing these days?
The design is definitely viable w/ some capital injection and more pragmatic management. But Devine screwed them all... makes pretty good case study of how M&A destroys value in a corp fin course.
HammerTime2 wrote: - so much for Mad Falcon wheels.