Originally Posted by
Bob Dopolina
I rode a soloist several years ago. Great crit bike but a little too harsh for my tastes. It sure felt fast, though.
Funny story; At last year's Taipei show I spent part of my time working in the Campagnolo booth. At one point the guys from Cervelo came over for a meeting. The person they needed to talk to was in another meeting so I was asked to talk with them for a bit about the new 11spd stuff. No problem.
The thing is, I'm not a Campagnolo employee. Never was. I worked (at the time) for their Taiwan/China distributor and OE agent and I ran the Service Center. This should be no problem. I was up to speed on the tech stuff so the meeting was within my area of expertise.
The thing was, after I did my presentation, the Cervelo guys wanted to talk about something that was happening for 2009 and what Campagnolo had planned. This was NOT in my area. First off, although I knew the answer, I sure as heck wasn't going to speak about what a company I didn't work for was going to do especially as it would involve significant time and expense for the guys I was talking to and, I things changed and I was wrong, it could have caused a huge ****storm.
So I kept trying to evade the answer, or phrase it in terms that were less that FULLY CLEAR, stall, whatever until the guy from Campagnolo, who did have the authority to address the subject, was free.
The thing is, the engineer from Cervelo wouldn't buy any of it. He would stop me, mid sentence, and ask me direct, pointed questions I didn't want to answer. I'm pretty good at bull****ting or stalling (ask my wife) but this guy was having none of it.
Finally, the right person was free and he could answer the question I couldn't.
The point? If this was any indication the folks at Cervelo are straight up, no bull**** people. Canucks just aren't good at hype. Some companies run entirely on it but I don't think they do. If they tell you something about their products, I am convinced that they truly believe it to be true (whether it is or not we can debate later. I'm talking about their approach to design and how they run their business).
Bottom line; If I were in the market for a new frame I'd be right in line behind you, PCaddy. Plus, I really like the Olympic colour scheme. Simple, direct and tasteful.
I'm looking forward to the pics and a ride report.