Showcase: Specialized Bicycles – Mountain Bikes and Gear

Specialized Mountain Bikes

Specialized Bicycles and mountain bikes are two terms that have been together almost since the beginning of fat tire obsession. Back in 1981, Specialized Bicycles released the StumpJumper to the general public and the mountain bike industry was born. While other companies (Joe Breeze) had led the revolution, Specialized brought mountain biking to the general public and started the revolution that we all take part in today.

Referred to in some circles as “the Big S”, Specialized has carved a permanent spot in the mountain biking community that some riders love and others love to hate. Regardless of your personal feelings…much of what we enjoy on the trail today is because of the early work done by Specialized mountain bikes.

Today, Specialized is a monster of a bike company that has award winning race teams and a full lineup of bikes, components and gear. Recently, Specialized has also stepped into the wheel and suspension market to further expand their brand.

Note: You may have noticed already there is some gear flowing across the trails of Bike198.com for review. Be on the lookout for more bikes and gear from Specialized to get reviewed on Bike198.com.

Specialized Mountain Bike Key Dates

1974: Specialized is founded by Mike Sinyard.
1976: Specializes produces and sells their first self-made product, a tire designed for the touring market.
1981: Specialized introduces the StumpJumper, the first mountain bike sold to the general public.
1982: Specialized moves from its small warehouse space in San Jose to a 60,000 square foot space in Morgan Hill.
1989: Specialized introduces the composite wheel, a joint venture with DuPont.
1990: Specialized introduces M2 metal-matrix composite technology into bicycles for the first time.
1995: Specialized announces plans to distribute bicycles and accessories to sporting goods dealers and discount retails under the Full Force brand.
1996: Specialized discontinues the Full Force brand.
2001: Merida, a Taiwan-based bicycle manufacturer, acquires a minority share of Specialized Bicycles.

2010 and Specialized Mountain Bikes

For 2010, the Specialized mountain bike division has revamped much of their lineup. The StumpJumper is now a 140mm travel trail bike, the Enduro (like the one we are reviewing) gets more capabilities as a AM/Light FR bike with a plusher suspension but a stiffer and lighter frame that brings overall bike weight under 30 pounds on the carbon version.

Specialized Epic Mountain Bike

Across the board, from the Specialized Epic to the Specialized Demo, the entire Specialized mountain bike lineup is seeing improvements in design and lighter weight. A nice change is also the move towards more mainstream designs (paint) that will appeal to more riders on the trail. Remember the candy corn?

Specialized Demo Mountain Bike

As Specialized continues to expand their lineup, the race teams (picking up Sam Hill on the DH end and Team Astana on the road bike) and their apparel/components, their brand is going to grow and provide quality products for both beginners and experienced riders.

For more information, check out Specialized.com or your local Specialized dealer.

Short Company History – Specialized Bicycles

Specialized Bicycle Components Inc. is the United State’s fourth-largest maker of high-end bicycles. Specialized is a leading innovator in the bicycle industry, consistently striving to create new and better bicycle technologies. In 1981, Specialized revolutionized the biking industry by introducing mountain bikes to the general public. The mountain bike Specialized sold in 1981, the StumpJumper, was such an important and groundbreaking product that an original model is on display in the Smithsonian Institute. Since 1981, Specialized has not backed off from its company motto, “Innovate or Die.” The company, led by founder and CEO Mike Sinyard, has continued to create and introduce cutting-edge bicycle products such as lightweight helmets, physician-designed bicycle seats, a three-spoke wheel designed to cut bike racers’ times, and bike frames made of high-tech materials. A minority share in the company was acquired by Merida, the Taiwan-based bicycle manufacturer in 2001.

Innovate or Die!

Specialized Bicycle Component’s rags to riches story of Mike Sinyard’s turning his passion for bicycling into a successful international business might sound like a cliché, but it is the honest-to-goodness story of Specialized’s humble beginnings. After graduating from San Jose State University in 1974, 24-year-old Mike Sinyard sold his van for $1500 and flew off to Europe on a bicycling tour. While traveling, Sinyard met up with a woman at a youth hostel in Milan. The woman he met was acquainted with some of Italy’s manufacturers of classic touring and racing bikes and their components. He went to meet the manufacturers and was surprised to find that they were willing to allow him to sell their bicycle components in the U.S. Sinyard knew that high-end bicycle parts were in short supply in the U.S. and that these products would be “as valuable as jewelry to people back home who were really into bikes.” He used the remainder of his trip money to purchase bicycle components. When he returned home, he found that his intuition had been sound and that selling the components was a snap. He drew up a hand-written catalog listing his wares and sold the entire stock to local bike-shop owners.

After his first success–Sinyard had managed to turn his initial purchase of $1,100 worth of bike parts into $1,300–he found that the bike-shop owners were hungry for more. His lack of capital presented him with a problem, purchasing the parts up front was not an option with his current state of finance. Sinyard’s answer to this conundrum was to persuade his bike shop customers to pay for their orders in advance. The shop owners agreed and Specialized was born. A few years of successful importing of bicycling parts gave Sinyard the taste for the bike business, and he decided that it was time for Specialized to manufacture its own products. In 1976, Specialized introduced its first home-grown bicycle component, a tire designed for the touring market. The years 1978 and 1979 were marked with Specialized’s production of the first foldable clincher tire–the TURBO (with Kevlar bead) and the introduction of Specialized’s first bicycles, the ALLEZ (road racing), and Sequoia (touring frames).

In 1981, Specialized changed the way that the world rode and thought about biking when they introduced mountain bikes to the general public. The bike Specialized sold was called the StumpJumper, and it revolutionized biking by moving the bicycle off of paved roads and into the great and uneven outdoors. The bike was a hybrid of durable bikes Sinyard rode in his childhood and the lightweight 10-speeds of his adolescence. The StumpJumper was advertised as the “bike for all reasons” and introduced the excitement and comfort of All-Terrain Bicycles (ATBs). The fat-tired and lightweight, 15-gear StumpJumper was so novel a product that the Smithsonian Institute had an original model placed in their museum. Specialized’s 1981 production of 500 StumpJumper bicycles sold out quickly, and before long other high-volume bicycle manufacturers began to design and produce their own mountain bike models for the next model year.

Specialized’s practice of selling their products exclusively in bike shops created a loyalty between the shops and Specialized. The shops knew and trusted Specialized’s products and consistently recommended their products to customers. This close-knit relationship has served Specialized well. In the competitive bike market it is important that salespeople know and trust a company’s product because when a customer enters a store they can easily be swayed from one product to another.

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