I'm saying there is a market for steel Lemonds, but that it's a niche market and that they won't come close to competing with Trek. Waterford and Jamis still make some money selling steel along with others.

[/QUOTE]To my mind, there is a void in the marketplace for an American road bike. Sure you have Trek and Specialized but those companies have determinedly watered down their image with hybrids and other such nonsense. I think Cervelo has proven that an innovative company can be successful focusing purely on the high end of bike retail. Perhaps an American company with some name cachet and some innovation could give American cyclists - especially in a certain age group, which seems to be buying a lot of these high end bikes - something with some history to buy and be proud of.[/QUOTE]

You could be right with that, but Cervelo didn't need a Lemond or (Steve Bauer?), and I don't know that the Lemond name still carries enough marketing weight to offset the past history of prickly business dealing.

Don't get me wrong, I would be rooting for him. From everything I've read he does seem to be into the technical details. But even with good ideas it would be a crap shoot to actually succeed in high end race bikes. But there already seems to be a few folks here who would be interested in a new 853 bike.