Endurance Bike made from scratch

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RoubaixCube

~Tribanese~
Location
London, UK
I guess the OP isnt coming back then?
 
They know, they don't care. It's not about the performance, it really *is* about the brand. Look up Veblen goods.
Bear in mind that Pinarello are owned by LVMH. Yes, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. So when they are not selling handbags, champagne or brandy, they're into bikes. Obviously they are about as interested in bikes as I am in diamonds. But, as someone very famous once said about a different aspect of cycling, "it's not about the bike".

LVMH have only recently bought Pinarello though ? For almost all of their history they haven't been linked.

I almost hate to say it, but there's less difference between bikes than the marketeers want us to think. Otherwise there would be one brand of bike in the peleton that wins more than it's fair share.
Pinarello do make nice bikes but so do many people.
 

battered

Guru
LVMH have only recently bought Pinarello though ? For almost all of their history they haven't been linked.

I almost hate to say it, but there's less difference between bikes than the marketeers want us to think. Otherwise there would be one brand of bike in the peleton that wins more than it's fair share.
Pinarello do make nice bikes but so do many people.
it's not important when they bought it, the point is they've become just another luxury brand. LV, Moet, Hennessy, Pinarello, Rolex, Crystal, it's not important. It's not about the product.
 
it's not important when they bought it, the point is they've become just another luxury brand. LV, Moet, Hennessy, Pinarello, Rolex, Crystal, it's not important. It's not about the product.
Were they not a luxury brand before LVMH bought them ?

What about Trek or BMC or Cervelo ? They have expensive bikes too ?
 

battered

Guru
Were they not a luxury brand before LVMH bought them ?

What about Trek or BMC or Cervelo ? They have expensive bikes too ?
1. Probably yes, but so what? They are now. LVMH bought the brand, not the bicycle technology.
2. I'd say not, because Trek etc have bikes at various prices. There isn't a cheap Pinarello though. Brands shift, not all luxury brands remain so. It's complex and intriguing.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
What about Trek or BMC or Cervelo ? They have expensive bikes too ?

The opportunity to do a deal was probably at least as important as the actual brand they bought. If it wasn't Pinarello, it could just as easily have been something else.
Having a portfolio of premium brands in a holding company could be seen to be a shrewd business investment, so long as all the brand images hold up and remain "premium". The reason is pricing power and margins. Those guys are not scrabbling around in the gutter trying to make 5% profit on what they sell, like the mass market. Remember, with globalisation and outsourcing, production costs of products sold in premium western markets has come down. if you can get someone to build you a frame in China for £500 and can flog it in the west for £3k, then you are on to a winner. You just need to maintain a small amount of real in-country manufacturng to keep your "heritage" credibility alive and sell your globalised product off the back of the historic reputation of the real stuff. Hence there's still a bit of proper lightweight hand-built steel being made in Italy, even if the bulk of the carbon is imported and then branded as Italian!
 

battered

Guru
I almost hate to say it, but there's less difference between bikes than the marketeers want us to think. Otherwise there would be one brand of bike in the peleton that wins more than it's fair share.
Certainly true, even more so now that the manufacturers buy in frames rather than the steel days when they really were brazed together in Nottingham or Milano. As for the peloton, I think those bikes are basically one offs. I know some racers have stiffened bottom brackets for sprinting, and so on. The paint job is neither here nor there. I've always thought that they were like WRC rally cars, the Citroen, Toyota or Ford is stripped to a shell, reinforced and then a nearly identical set of racing parts is fitted.
 
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