One of my pet peeves is the oft-stated/implied claim that Surly somehow ripped off (or "replicated") Riv designs. A quick look at the Surly website or catalog shows that they have numerous models that are far outside the realm of what is offered by Riv, and in fact Surly has led the way in producing entirely new genres of bicycles (cargo bikes, fat bikes, etc). Moreover, all of Surly's more "traditional" Riv-comparable models (Cross-check, LHT, Pacer) are not identical to the corresponding Riv models. There's no doubt in my mind that ALL bike designers, even Grant, borrow ideas from others, but to directly or backhandedly state that Surly is basically a Riv-clone with corners cut for cost savings is untrue and unfair to the good and creative people who design Surly products.
On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 12:28:52 AM UTC-5, Jan Heine wrote: > > On Aug 6, 7:37 pm, ted <ted.ke...@comcast.net> wrote: > > Jan writes: "It would be easy for Rivendell to sell TIG-welded frames" > > > > I think Grant has said that Riv would not be > > successful selling such bikes because other larger well established > > firms with cost advantages are already covering that. > > When you look at Surly's success with taking many Rivendell designs > and ideas and replicating them in TIG, it seems that there is a very > ready market for those bikes. Knowing the economics of the bike > business, I suspect that the Surly brand is more profitable than > Grant's bike lines. But I also suspect that Grant doesn't care - he > makes the bikes he makes not because they are the most profitable, but > because they are the bikes he loves. > > Jan Heine > Editor > Bicycle Quarterly > http://www.bikequarterly.com/ > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/pK_Hperq4q8J. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
