One Year Ago Today

sram's leap'd year

the rocket scientists over at sram are at it again, pissing off more small fries for no good reason.  i'm not a huge fan of the current indyfab bikes--their 1997 hardtails and 1998 cross bikes are about my speed--but why in the world would you not want a company that sells uber-spendy (that's french or something) bikes to throw your latest and greatest on their show bikes, x-pecially if that bike maker is a self-described sram fan who was planning on using your stuff x-clusively at the big show?  you want to get the orders from the giandale trekalized bike marketers; you sell to marketing managers by the uber-thousand lot and make your money.  but does anyone not buy a bike at a shop because it has something other than sram on it?  wouldn't they buy that wonderbike just as easily if it had something else on it at the same price?  i think so.  it seems like most folks buying a complete giandale trekalized sort of bike buy on price and what looks coolest, or what their buddies tell 'em, or what the shop pushes.  the gruppo is probably not all that important by that point.  maybe i'm wrong.  the last complete bike shop bike i bought had training wheels.

richard sachs and indy fab, along with other small fries that aren't giandale trekalized, create demand in ways that 10,000 pre-sold gruppos never could.  it's all about that intangible cred.  big fans of richard sachs, even if they will never be customers at this point, might consider putting sram red on their neato new custom bike because mr. sachs is a huge proponent and has put his racing team on it.  if a customer who has their heart set on a new uber-spendy indyfab carbon-ti thing wants the indyfab-approved gruppo and chooses red because of that fact, well that's absolutely a unique bike-geek bike that, assuming it's ever ridden, will be out there on the road and probably on the interwebs promoting sram components in a way that those 10,000 otherwise anonymous tour de france-approved chinese giandale trekalized plastic carbon frames never would.  gruppos that go on a richard sachs or an indyfab or whatever are a harder sell in some ways.  those dudes and dudettes that are buying the custom or bespoke or small-builder sleds probably waste way too much time considering their cycling-related purchases; they are probably those annoying douchebags who never shut up how good the stuff is on group rides or in the weight room or on the internets.

it's about being the cool company.  cool with the tour de france wins on the giandale trekalized team might be one thing.  but cool on the sachs cross team is another, more interesting possibility.  and cool on that awesome new richard sachs frame that dave who rides with on tuesdays just got to replace his bianchi or whatever is another.  cool on that fucking indyfab that people seem to be shitting themselves over on the weighpede salorum or wherever shows your stuff in a whole new light, because the indyfab crew likes and promotes your stuff.  maybe just maybe it makes your stuff cool enough to make someone want to buy a giandale trekalized because it has sram on it as opposed to shimano on it for the same price, or cool enough to make someone want to buy sram to put on their new bespoke or custom frame instead of the tried and true campagnolo jewelry. 

call it cool, or call it hip--ugh--or call it something else, but it's a multifaceted branding that can't be bought at only 10,000 piece increments.  how did sram not get this?  when they made their pitch to these people, why did they not make it clear that this was an opportunity to have their new stuff in time for the big show--or that it was definitely not the new stuff, now way, no how?  why did they not make it a corporate priority to have every one of these builders on the list for the big show get a chance to put the new sram junk on their bikes?  i'm sure the well-heeled bike dweebs would have noticed all the new 2012 red on the custom frames at the show.  i'm sure sram could have answered those questions with a big smile.  sram, the choice of the giandale trekalized racing team and richard sachs and indyfab and some custom builders you have never heard of.  sounds like bullshit to me, but it sounds like easy bullshit, and if for some reason the container from china didn't show up, then they could have sent along the 2011 stuff for the show bikes and nobody would feel like the low man on food chain. 

i guess i don't understand their mindset.  sram is not shimano, the soulless automaton that never misses a shift.  sram is not campagnolo, the stylish italian company that has been with the sport of cycling since the dawn of time.  they should want to be something unique, and fucking up this situation with the small builders looks like a lost opportunity to craft that image as more than just the only people who are not going to have an electric gruppo (this year).  sram: the choice of battery-phobic tour de france racers and cranky bespoke frame sole proprietors.  i guess not.  it must be time to leap back to the drawing board.