Roubaix: Mike Sinyard's apology.

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vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
For the cynical among us, what would have been the appropiate action from your perspective?

Personally I couldn't give a toss.

I never got on a high moral horse.

Threats by others were made , real or threatened, to boycott and/or sell their Specialized gear. That's fine by me. It is their right to do so.

I never ripped out my Specialized inner tubes and replaced them in symbolic disgust despite my threatened boycott based on the inability of Specialized to spell Specialised.

Specialized made a judgement in good faith and found it to be defective.

Someone was responsible for the choreographed climb down delivered by the CEO.

A wrong was righted.

Both parties in the dispute are now happy bunnies.

Some folk won't let it go and remain disgruntled. Again, that's their right.

Meanwhile I paddle on serenely through my life's lake of serenity unperturbed by the brouhaha.

End of story.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Being a man of high principles :angel:, I bought a Cinelli Experience Veloce in protest, and left my Secteur Elite to fester, unloved, in my office....

:whistle::rolleyes:

Actually, maximum respect to them.
 

nickyboy

Norven Mankey
What a load of bo**ocks

If he was really genuine in his assertion that it was just an overzealous lawyer then it should have been sorted as soon as it blew up. It's an issue of corporate culture and Specialized are just like plenty of other big corporate bullies out there. It took them ages to sort this because they didn't think there was anything wrong in the approach they took. Then the social media shi*t storm blew up and they were badly placed and had to climb down somehow.

They're only sorry they got found out
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
What a load of bo**ocks

If he was really genuine in his assertion that it was just an overzealous lawyer then it should have been sorted as soon as it blew up. It's an issue of corporate culture and Specialized are just like plenty of other big corporate bullies out there. It took them ages to sort this because they didn't think there was anything wrong in the approach they took. Then the social media shi*t storm blew up and they were badly placed and had to climb down somehow.

They're only sorry they got found out
All true, of course. The point is that plenty of other monoliths would have ploughed on, they didn't. Not perfect, but at least it's a start.
 

asterix

Comrade Member
Location
Limoges or York
It's not in the same league. Corporate lawyers were responsible for the Specialized debacle. Ratner's own utterances at a gathering of the Institute of Directors did the damage and is Premier League status. Mike Sinyard didn't get off the reserve bench in a Sunday league knockabout.

He's made a competent attempt at a save since stepping onto the pitch though.


It's total crap.

My point was that I am saying he NEARLY did a Ratner and you are saying I said he DID have a Ratner moment. It was probably about 3.82 on the Ratner scale as image-damage limitation has been quite effective.
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
It's total crap.

My point was that I am saying he NEARLY did a Ratner and you are saying I said he DID have a Ratner moment. It was probably about 3.82 on the Ratner scale as image-damage limitation has been quite effective.

And I pointed out the HUGE differences in who made the gaffs and the degree of fall out.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Like @nickyboy I also thought it was a piece of corporate steamrolling. But this backfired badly and Epix Gear and Café Roubaix got lots of free publicity while I'd imagine Spesh dealers suffered. Social media, eh! Oh, and perhaps there's a wee bit more loyalty towards small companies, start ups, and LBSs in the cycling world than in some other lines of business.

Meanwhile Epix...:
I just spoke with Specialized legal and CONFIRMED they are withdrawing the action against us! THANK YOU to everyone who shared our story, posted, blogged, wrote articles, and made this happen. You saved us. Also thank you to Cafe Roubaix who started this whole thing and made it so much easier for us.
 
Seems to me that both the owner of Café Roubaix and head honcho at Specialized handled this well, behaved in a mature manner and resolved the situation.
 

mcshroom

Bionic Subsonic
There's more to the Specialized climb-down than meets the eye though. I think this statement from ASI (Fuji) probably has a major bearing on Mike Sinyard's actions: -
http://www.bicycleretailer.com/nort...y-bike-shop-can-use-roubaix-name#.Uq4zTltdWSp

Specialized Bicycle overstepped its bounds when it registered the Roubaix trademark in Canada and then tried to prevent a Calgary retailer from using the name, Advanced Sports International’s CEO told BRAIN on Monday.

ASI says it owns the worldwide rights to the Roubaix trademark — it’s had a Fuji Roubaix road bike model in its lineup since 1992 — and has licensed it to Specialized since 2003. ASI’s Pat Cunnane said the company has no problem with retailer Dan Richter using the name on his store, Cafe Roubaix.

“We have reached out to Mr. Richter to inform him that he can continue to use the name, and we will need to license his use, which we imagine can be done easily,” Cunnane said.
 
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