Lemond looking at making bikes again

[HammerTime2]

Well, you just got me to wondering whether it was bad aim or bad vision, as I had recalled Lemond's brother-in-law thinking Lemond was a turkey (which made the brother-in-law the real turkey).

Here's what I found:

The cyclist was hunting with his brother-in-law, Patrick Blades, and uncle, Rodney Barber, the son of the ranch owner. Blades fired a shotgun at a turkey and hit LeMond, who collapsed.

"All I know is Greg and his brother-in-law and his uncle were hunting on some property we own in Lincoln and Pat shot what he thought was a turkey through some bush," LeMond's father said. "Greg had walked around in front of it and just took some buckshot in the back."

Here is Lemond's own recounting of the shooting accident, and his initial recovery and return to racing. I suppose some allowance for artistic license in some of his responses might be in order though. This is a somewhat entertaining clip.

He thought I was a turkey.

[xnavalav8r]

List of bike brands destroyed by Trek:
- Klein.
- Gary Fisher.
- Lemond.

You forgot Bontrager.

Bontrager still exists and makes good stuff.
BTW a modern reincarnation of the classic KLEIN hardtails (adroit, attitude etc.) would be a huge success in a marketing point of view.

Only as a name that Trek puts on their Far East produced accessories. SFA to do with Bontrager bar Keith getting his cheque each month, despite what the blurb on their website says about design.

Word. If people think that Bontrager invented what are re-badged HED wheels they must be new to the industry. Bontrager pioneered the 3 piece MTB fork and a really cool frame with small tubes for the lower seat stays that sleeved into a stiffer yoke for braking power. Kinda like this: http://forums.mtbr.com/vintage-retro-cl ... 36-21.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (sorry, you have to scroll down and look for a green MTB with yellow decals towards the bottom of the page).

My problem with Trek isn't ethics, it's economics. They destroy value. Klein, Lemond, Bontrager, Fisher all had value as companies until Trek bought them and slowly choked them by restricting design and marketing budgets and shrunk their product lines until they died. That's destroying value. Only name they kept was Bontrager. How a frame designer's name is now on tyres and tri bars is beyond me. It's cynical and shows he distain they have for the customer's intelligence.

Bontrager was a component pioneer too. One of his earliest MTB products was re-rolled rims. He cut 700c rims down and re-rolled them to take 26 inch tires. here were other pioneering Bontrager products as well... but many were developed simultaneously or in conjunction with other big names in the sport so Keith doesn't get credit for them.

[HammerTime2]

LeMond LLC has acquired Time U.S.A. and will become the exclusive U.S. distributor of the French brand of bikes, pedals and other products in the U.S. The company headed by Tour de France hero Greg LeMond, which recently announced that Time would build its bikes, said Time's U.S. headquarters would remain in Minneapolis.
...

I wonder if Ben Serotta advised Lemond or Time on this deal http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=116728&start=30#p1016083.

Let's just hope that the next announcement is not Divine Cycling Group acquiring Lemond LLC ... or Time.

“With an in-house team of industrial designers and engineers, we’re also in the process of designing and developing a whole line of LeMond bikes with various vendors, some of which will be on the market by spring 2014, with the whole line targeted for August 2014 availability,” LeMond said. The first three models will be shown at Interbike this week.

So is this saying that Lemond plans to design bikes to be built by firms other than Time?

[Wingnut]

Not that I'm in the market for another bike but I hoped Lemond would possibly have had a carbon, titanium and a steel model...thats something I liked about the range he had in the early nineties...

[Wingnut]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9v3JUEXgeQ

[djconnel]

"I'm building my own bikes..."

So it's not just a paint job: there's design differences from the Time line.

Nice move from LeMond, I think. He needed to differentiate himself somehow from the high-volume Taiwanese-based companies. I'm not a fan of the "signature" series but he didn't show is higher volume bike in that video.

[HUMP DIESEL]

I think he would go back to his old geometry which I liked, not sure I would like the price of a TIME.

HUMP

[djconnel]

Has he announced geometry? I agree with you on geometry.

[kgt]

Nice frames, really bad paintjobs.

[HUMP DIESEL]

There was mention of a change in the rear end, but not sure. To me that insinuates that he may be doing the laid back seat tubes like he used to, but I may be completely off on that one.

HUMP

[mattr]

Going to be following this one for my new frame, if the custom steel doesn't happen..........

[Ceebers1]

Not so much on topic, but you might enjoy this story...

When I was 17, I was a decent junior racer. My folks bought me a Lemond Carbon (Calfee). It was a super expensive bike for a
kid my age, especially considering my folks financial situation.

I won a state championship on that bike.
On my 18th birthday, I was hurrying to make the Saturday ride. My Avocet computer sensor on the dropout was pushed away, not registering on the magnet ring.

I tried to push it back into position, but my hand went into the front wheel, swung around, threw my body around, my head straight into the ground, while my arm dislocated and broke the Lemond (Kestrel) fork into 3 pieces...

I laid there just sobbing, not because I dislocated my shoulder badly and had a concussion, but because I damaged that bike so badly my folks had to finance;-)

The shop I worked at and bought it from sent it back to Calfee for repair. He fixed a ding in the top tube and a broken shifter boss. He wrapped some carbon filament around all the braze-ons; like I had seen on some of Lemond's actual bikes, as well as put a purple clearcoat on it.

I wish I never sold that bike, I've been looking for that purple Lemond carbon 52cm ever since;-)

[5 8 5]

Geometry here -
http://greglemond.com/#/geometry

[HUMP DIESEL]

The 55 looks spot on!

HUMP

[KWalker]

Same Geo as time with different numerical names. Same exact bikes. All he did was buy the US arm so he could rebrand them. Hopefully they're cheaper.