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Specialized

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WWWTPD (What Would World Tour Pros Do)

Every so often I run across a WWWTPD cyclist. You know the type, they look at what the pro teams are doing, and say out loud to those who do their own research that all of that effort is a waste of time. You should just do what the World Tour (WT) teams do. Performance is so important to the pros that they wouldn’t possibly compromise on the products they use. I…

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Blog

Have a Specialized Mirror Saddle? You might need to skip the Chamois Cream.

I ran across a post on Reddit the other day where someone claimed that they were told that using chamois cream with the saddle might destroy it. That seemed really strange to me, because the Venn diagram of people who buy expensive 3D printed saddles who’s entire reason for existence is to enhance comfort, and people who use chamois cream is probably a circle.…

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News

Specialized Goes Direct

It’s really hard for me to see Specialized’s move into direct-to-consumer sales as anything but a way to take margin away from dealers. Which, yeah, fine, it’s their sandbox – at least on the surface. Digging a little deeper, it’s important to understand that this is pretty bad for their customers too. I’m not going to get into how the relationship works with their dealer network (this is covered in the CyclingTips…

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News

If it doesn’t have fender mounts, it’s not a real gravel bike

Sorry BIKERUMOR!, now matter how many times you say “gravel bike” when talking about the new Crux, it’s not a gravel bike. That’s not to say that it’s not a cool CX bike, in a time when gravel is the new black. Just that we need to be honest about what it is. Why pretend otherwise? As long as we’re being honest, maybe prioritizing the lightest “gravel” bike isn’t the smarted choice.…

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News

Yeah, OK, Mike’s Bikes; Pon Group is technically a “family-owned company”

First off, just to be clear, I think it sucks. Really sucks. That Specialized canceled the pre-orders of everyone who bought one of their bikes from Mike’s Bikes. While they almost certainly were within the bounds of their contract with Mike’s Bikes, it’s not great for the 400+ people screwed over by this act, and perhaps more importantly, will cost Specialized goodwill to a much wider audience. FOR SHAME! But, what I…

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