Two quick things:
1. People are going bat s**t crazy over the cross frames. Everyone on the team tells me that people stop them regularly to ask about them and generally check them out. Please feel free to do this.
2. Apparently we are going to have to make the CX team kits available for people to buy, as people might even be asking about that more than the CX bikes. I designed them so don't worry I'm not getting a big head over how cool they look or anything. And everyone is loving the Verge kit. Really good stuff. So we've got to figure that out and we will soon.
3. It's CX season but the road frame pre-order closes on 11/7. There's a lot of interest and we've had a pleasantly surprising number of orders so far (we know how you people are with pre-registration and such - we half expect all the orders to come in :20 before we close the order), but there's no penalty for getting in early. If you want to be on one of our road frames next year, get in on this, man.
Okay, sponsorship. We hate it. The single stupidest thing to me in bike racing is when you have a rider in a kit with "Company Y" plastered all over it, perhaps the team is even named after Company Y, and 85% of the riders aren't riding Company Y bikes. I have no interest in having my company's name on the jerseys of teams where less than A HUGE percentage of people on that team are riding our bikes and/or wheels. We've never asked any team to put our logo on their kits. Some of them do anyway. It's a cool looking logo.
Anyhow, our whole premise is that the prices of the bikes and wheels are as low as they can be, for everyone. A lot of teams I know are getting their "team deal" offers for 2012 and from what I'm hearing they generally suck. Higher MSRP's and thinner discounts for teams. Well our discount for teams is as thin as it can be - 0% - but our MSRP is stupid low. We know a lot of people perceive that they're getting a better deal when they get a $3000 frame for $2100 than when they get a $745 frame for $745 but we're not going to accomodate that feeling.
If no discount on frames and wheels, what then? Well, we do get some macking pricing on a lot of stuff, and we offer the teams we work with pretty excellent deals on that stuff. Everything from gruppos to rollers to helmets to tires and pedals and well there's a lot of stuff. And it's not some twice a year thing, we have regular orders, so you can actually make good use of it. You still need to have a little planning, but you can make cycling A LOT less expensive than it would otherwise be.
So there's that, but the new wrinkle for this year is that we want to sponsor 11 teams. One team for every month, except November is taken. And we want to work with teams that are working for some greater good. Saving baby seals? We LOVE baby seals. Preventing childhood obesity? We HATE childhood obesity. You get the point. We don't have the roll to just stroke a check to your cause's coffers, but we think we have a better idea. Think of it as a bake sale - your team, during its month, creates a special set of stuff that makes sense around the cause. Say that the team is working on breast cancer issues (we REALLY love breasts), and that's generally a pink theme. Well, during that month we sell wheels with pink Chris King hubs, and pink spacer kits, and pink bar tape, and pink tires, and you get the point. And we share the proceeds with your cause. Not all of them - we can't afford that - but you help us get the word out and shake the trees to sell some of the stuff, and your cause will directly benefit.
We're also loudmouths with a pretty big soapbox and a loud microphone. We'll help you get the word out about what it is you're working for, and how other people can help. Promoting a race? We're on it, and will make it our personal mission that if any fields aren't full, it sure ain't for lack of people knowing about it.
So that's the gist. We've gotten some sponsorship applications (and we hate the traditional sponsorship concept so much that we're going to figure out what else to call it) - some of them aren't going to go much of anywhere, but some of them have a lot of potential. If you want to find out if we can work well together, then please by all means contact us.
Thanks, and we'll see you at the races. And I will put you in the tape, I swear it.