... and i dont mean "breaking frames".
http://www.cervelo.com/en_us/news-blog/company/article/announcement/2952/

Interesting. A good run as an independent business. I wonder how the [probable] new owners will change things.

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Cervelo R3, Campagnolo Chorus/Record mix... pastatrails.blogspot.com
And you can call me Macktastik Honey Pete Kicks, thank you.

An update: http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/new ... n=addtoany

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Cervelo R3, Campagnolo Chorus/Record mix... pastatrails.blogspot.com
And you can call me Macktastik Honey Pete Kicks, thank you.

good discussion/information on cervelo over at slowtwitch forum.

cervelo's unique approach to clearing out inventory.
cervelo P5 needs to be a massive hit for them to rebuild relationship with there dealers.



"My understanding is that the LBS gets an R5 frame set instead of the $2000. The problem is that hardly anyone buys R5 frames. Building them will bring the cost up to the same as a complete bike so there's no upside for the LBS. They dump bikes people buy and get stuck with bikes people don't buy so much.

If that's correct it's kind of a bad deal for shops, great deal for Cervelo."


This is an accurate understanding of the situation.

ref

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowt ... P3692754-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Current Rides:

2010 SWorks SL3 7090 di2
2013 Trek 6.5 PO 9070 di2

Also worth bearing in mind that Vroomen White Design, the engineering side of the company is a completely separate entity from Cervelo.

It would be the logical next step though, either a private buyer or IPO.

I only hope it doesn't change the overall dynamic behind the company, something which one largely feels was driven by Gerard and Phil.

As long as PON is just there to own Cervelo in name and help with the marketing/business side of things, I think this could be good news. As long as Cervelo maintains their engineering focus, nothing will change. In fact, this could give Cervelo more money for R&D

Are the announcement of the PON deal and their current blowout-sale just a coincidence?

For me it sounds like C. running high on inventory and low on cash. Very sad as I'd still rate them as one of the most innovative bike companies.

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“I want to clear my conscience. I don’t want to be part of the problem any more.”

Apparently they're in dire financial straights. A little birdy told me that Vroomen no longer works day to day at the company maybe b/c he needs to make a salary elsewhere or his and White's opinions of the future are quite divergent. One was certainly bent on world domination, the other was more pragmatic. They've been laying off people over the last year. I think the Test Team dented their bank balance.

This happened to many technology leaders like Merlin, Fat Chance, Litespeed, RockShox, Salsa, Klein, etc.: meteoric brand rise then a bit of a supernova before a grounding. Usually it's for the better.

Technical development/ability is in no way tied to being a good business person...

_________________
Cervelo R3, Campagnolo Chorus/Record mix... pastatrails.blogspot.com
And you can call me Macktastik Honey Pete Kicks, thank you.

vroomen has been out. works for slowtwitch(!)
cervelo's biggest problem has been that:
other companies caught up
they didnt see that and kept acting like theyre printing money
lost quality in fit/finish (until now with the VWD frames)
downright refused to make solid improvements from a bicycle user-friendliness standpoint
-cable guides that had so much friction, and forced cables to drag on frame parts
-still(!) no metal chainstay protection behind crank
-bb shells on their R-series bikes that disbonded year after year
-seatpost head on their S-series bikes just blows
-derailleur hanger stiffness that took two steps back last year
-junk in the frame that keeps cables from even being able to be fed through
-p4 "brake redesign" that merely improved it from horrendous to terrible
etc... gosh, i really could go on and on. (didnt realize i had quite this much pent up frustration!)

back on topic,
i hope this gives them the cashflow to make the improvements they need to make. and i hope they start listening to the people around them that are trying to help them.

Yeah, some good points.

I think they have hit the problem that a lot of small companies encounter. Scaling a business is a lot harder than it looks.

Please bring back the soloist and slc-sl names while change is in the air. The current alpha number naming is generic and without emotion.

perhaps the new owners will move production to China

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dangerous curves ahead

bikerjulio,

Are you differentiating mainland China from Taiwan? I ask because Cervelos are already made in Taiwan and I hope you didn't think they were made in Canada or the USA.

their carbon bikes have always been made in mainland china. i believe their aluminum bikes were from taiwan.