Originally Posted by
T-Mar
Gee Robbie, I'm really surprised you didn't mention someone named Dave Scott. Regardless, this practice is nothing new, even in the cycling industry. Eddy wasn't the first, by a long shot, and he won't be the last. However, I think Lance has waited too long to market his line of bicycles and has missed the boat. He was too busy launching lawsuits against people who said he did illegal, performance enhancing drugs. It was probably more marketable too, as I don't believe he ever paid any of it back.
But he did write it was not about the bike.
So much for bike sales planning, maybe a tie in with Big Pharma would have been a more truthful angle?
Eddy, or his business manager, did a number of branding deals in the 70's. He was looking down the road as he was on bikes with his name on the downtube before there were branded license deals.
When I was young, I thought that was clever planning when I saw the images of Eddy on a Eddy Merckx branded frame for the first time in 1970. Also, smart to get Ugo to help him set up his own facility upon retirement.
I was bummed the Falcon did not really change the geometry on the Eddy branded bikes I was able to measure.