I have owned my share of Specialize bikes and like them as a company... but they are cutting of their nose to spite their face with this concept issue. The Path sold a ton of product for them. Yes... they sold competiting brands but they pushed people towards the Specialize product. Of course if I am interested in Specialize I would now just go to RocknRoad, the local concept store. It won't hurt The Path's feelings. They will just push other great brands. Both Specialize and Trek need to think about how they are marketing their bikes. If the one shop in the area is "sucky" (not saying this is true however) then they lose the market available...

What I am hoping is this pushes independant stores to bring in more "other" product to compete with Specialize and Trek. Both firms sell nice brikes but their product is waaaaayyyyy overpriced. For instance, Spec. sells a almost $2000 road bike with Alivio components... that is Walmart level stuff. For the same price (or cheaper) Jensen will sell you a Fuji or some other bike with 105 or Ultegra. Competition can sometimes be a good thing.