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Before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming and start looking forward into 2009, lets take a second to look at some of the changes that took place in 2008. Over the course of the year, a lot changed in the mountain biking industry that was good and bad. Here are my winners and losers of 2008.
Winners of 2008
- Specialized – Specialized picked up two of the hottest riders in the DH circuit with Sam Hill and Brendan Fairclough. This, with the Monster sponsorship, should make for a incredible team in 2009.
- Dave Weagle – Dave Weagle’s DW Link hit the industry by storm in 2008. Having been released earlier, it really laid down some tread in 2008.
- The Thru Axle – The thru axle for is no longer just a DH/FR phenomenon. With the introduction of the 15mm from Fox/Shimano and the new Maxle Lite out of Rock Shox, the thru axle fork has finally made its way to the lighter fork market.
- Turner Bikes – A complete redesign of Dave Turner’s bike line made it the must ride bike at the Interbike Dirt Demo. Look for great things out of DT’s lineup as incorporates the DW-Link into his future rides.
- Trek – Trek is on a mission. 2008 brought a new outlook for Trek and its mountain biking lineup. What used to be a rather boring series of bikes has turned into an exciting lineup centered around their Active Braking Pivot and EVO linkage. The new Session’s brought a lot of attention with their amazing looks and even better ride.
- Shimano – Shimano took huge leaps forward in their mountain biking component lines in 2008. The new Saint, XTR and SLX groupos lead Shimano into a strong 2009.
- SRAM – It was a dogfight in the component lineup for 2008. SRAM had major releases throughout the year, but the most significant had to be the Hammerschmidt. This front derailleur-less system makes perfect front ring shifts on the fly. SRAM also release their new bulletproof Avid Elixir’s to finally have a brake that competes with the likes of Hope and Formula. With all of this action in the SRAM camp, it is almost easy to overlook their releases of the new Reba lineup (that includes a new 29er 120mm 20mm TA fork) and the new BoXXer.
Losers of 2008
- The Quick Release – 2008 marked the first year in the eventual, slow death of the conventional quick release in mountain biking. The introduction of light weight, thru axle cross country forks is just the start of the release of the quick release in mountain biking. This is a change I like to see.
- Cannondale – Doral bought out Cannondale to add to their “boutique” bike lines. If history repeats itself, this buyout could spell very bad things for the Cannondale bike lineup. To make matters worse…most of the top execs left shortly after the buyout.
- Iron Horse – So what do you do when you lose the top rider in downhill? You reconstruct your entire business plan and only sell through one shop, and at the same time…you drop the hot suspension design on the market for one that is already on countless bikes…the ICT from Ellsworth. The ICT is a good design, but this many drastic changes in the way Iron Horse is doing business is going to run the brand into the ground.
- The Local Bike Shop – LBS’s are having to look at business in a whole new way. The troubling economy and Internet sales are making the idea of service the forefront of the LBS business plan. Those shops that do not take care of their customers (no matter if they bought their bike there or not) are going to have a hard time. Now, more than ever, it is important to really sell the service aspect of the LBS to get through the hard times.
- 650b Wheel Size – The 650b wheel size hit the industry by storm and then faded quickly. With no available tires or forks…it will be a long time until someone really steps up to the plate on this one. According to fork manufacturers, they are still recouping the engineering and production costs from the 29er lines. If this is true (and I believe it is), that puts the 650b in the far future. The question still remains…do we really need another wheel size anyway?
Who are your winners and losers of 2008?
Comment below and let us know…
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