HigherGround

We really need a "vomiting" emoticon added to the menu.

halfspeed

HigherGround

Nice!

The spewage from the nostril was a nice touch.

Barrettscv 

"Serotta bikes are inextricably linked with the rise of American cycling in international competition in the 1980s through supplying team bikes (usually bearing some other name) to American athletes in the national programs. Jim Ochowicz led legendary team 7-11, America’s pro cycling expeditionary force, into Europe aboard re-badged Serottas. Serotta was the framebuilder for Coors Light team, who had a stranglehold on the domestic US cycling scene during the early to mid-1990s. Names like Grewel, Phinney, Keifel, Moninger, and Heiden all made it onto winner’s lists atop Serotta frames.

Though in recent years Serotta has made their flagship frames in titanium and carbon fibre/titanium hybrid, in my mind the most interesting Serottas were the lugged steel frames using shaped and ovalized tubing, custom produced for Serotta by Columbus and True Temper. Back in the late 1980s, lugged steel bikes were still being developed as cutting edge competition equipment. Special lugs similar to Columbus’ MAX and Merckx MXL lugsets were cast to fit the exotic tubing, and these “CSi” frames are still some of the most unique lugged bikes ever made".

https://www.bikehugger.com/m/view/ser...cycles-closing

I'm fortunate to enjoy a lugged steel Serotta Nova Special X. It's a superb ride.

wheelreason

It can't be that expensive to slap a few stickers on the Motobecanes and then rebox them, can it? ashes to ashes, dust to dust and Huffys to Huffys if you will...

roadwarrior

Exactly why I hang on to my CAAD9. Handmade in the USA.

HAMMER MAN

i agree. My Serotta CDA was a nice bike but inmo it was no different than some of the other steel bikes i have had, which were all custom made. i don't believe personally that they were "exceptional bikes". ben serotta did a great job of marketing and earlier with Pro teams riding the bikes more or less gave him the Name and fans who were willing to spend the extra $ for a custom frame. The paint job on my CDA was really crappy,nothing but problems. they had a small segment of the market place, however instead of captalizing on that they figured inmo that they could charge outlandish pricing for their name and their would still be buyersfor their product. After a while the cost dosen't equal the means for the layout of dollars when you can get other frames that are just as good.

cleansheet

Serotta out at Serotta Bikes.

https://www.timesunion.com/local/arti...up-4710013.php

Jed19

The sharks have started the execution of the 'new' business plan.

nadimk

As a previous Serotta owner, I am also not surprised. I would periodically visit their page to scope out another one, but the prices, even for a bike snob like me, were just too high. This was a marketing failure though, not a quality issue. Shame on their marketing department for not being able to sell the MeiVici.

Anyway, Serotta was always about the people, artisans hand building in the USA, and the super quality frames they made. It's hard to market that.

Cyclist0094

From today's Albany Times Union newspaper


"SARATOGA SPRINGS — Benjamin Serotta, the founder of Serotta, the Saratoga Springs company that makes custom bicycles used by elite riders in the Tour de France, has been ousted along with its CEO in what appears to be a dramatic shift in business strategy.

The news comes just days after the company revealed that it had closed its California fabrication facility and laid off many of its local workers in a bid to stay afloat that included not taking new orders for bikes.

The company, which was founded in 1972 and has supplied high-end bikes to Olympians and Tour de France competitors over the decades, will try to expand through contract manufacturing with other brands.

Serotta was acquired by a Longmeadow, Mass. investment fund last year, and recently underwent another organizational change when the company became part of a holding company called Divine Cycling Group, which also owns other bike makers.

Brian Case, an avid cyclist who is the managing partner of Bradway Financial in Longmeadow and is a director at Divine Cycling, said that the Saratoga Springs production facility would not be closed and that the Serotta brand will live on.

"In fact, contract manufacturing represents a significant opportunity for the company, which in turn may support the future of the Serotta brand," Case said.

In an interview Friday, Ben Serotta said the Saratoga Springs facility usually employed 18 people, but the number of employees after the recent layoffs was less than that.

CEO Bill Watkins has left the company as well, the company said.

Patrick O'Farrell, director of operations of Serotta, will oversee the facility, which is working now to finish current orders for bikes. O'Farrell will report directly to the Divine Cycling board of directors."

justkeepedaling

Crumpton's Type 5 isn't lugged. Crumptons haven't been lugged for awhile now. Parlee's Z5 SL are considered to be essentially top tier. The Z Zero is not lugged either. Argonaut Cycle's bike is monocoque

You don't have to have lugged to get custom

Slackerprince

Just noticed this one on craigs:

https://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/bik/3977418090.html



S

Carbon Unit

My main point is that Calfee, Parlee and Crumpton are not monocoque but tubed frames. I have had three Calfees and would buy another without hesitation.

Shimagnolo

This note with today's date on Serrota's website: https://serotta.com/new-management-to...atoga-springs/

Jed19

The new owners, to me, are not being upfront with the cycling public. Do you really think Ben Serotta and his erstwhile CEO had not looked into manufacturing in the USA for other brands?

These new owners, IMHO, are just posturing. They'll soon announce that they couldn't find any OEM customer in the USA, thus manufacturing is being moved to Asia (China, to be precise).

Make no mistake, this deal was a pure asset play by Divine Bicycle Group (what a name,eh?). Serotta's brand name was what they paid for, and manufacturing in the USA be dammed. Look for an announcement within six months that they'll manufacture in Asia!

roadwarrior

Ben Serotta wrote a piece in Bicycle Retailer and Industry News...he was fired with a call on his cellphone Sunday evening. YOur email passwrod's been changed, your building code erased, come on Tuesday to get your stuff.

How classy.

You can find the article at https://www.bicycleretailer.com

Look in the Industry News link.

Apparently, the new owners want to build frames for other companies. I will be curious to see what, if any business they get.

Everyone in the biz reads BRAIN.

merlinextraligh

That's the way business gets done these days. The company has a legitimate interest in protecting their intellectual property, so once the decision is made to part ways, you don't want the terminated employee ot have access to customer lists, pricing information, and a whole range of other things that can be used to compete against you.

And Serotta doesn't get to have his cake and eat it too. He sold the business (or at least a substantial portion of it) to an investment group. He got paid; the investors get the business and the right to manage it the way they see fit.

CenturionIM

Seriously, saw a modern serrota the other day and it's niceee. Refreshing to see something not big four.

Ricanfred

"As a long time employee of serotta (13) years; i am heart broken,as painting bicycles is what drives me. However, id rather throw a match on it and watch it burn with Ben before i ever saw a Serotta built in Taiwan." Just read this in the comments section of the article.

cleansheet

There was an extremely similar one in Miami for $400 on CL South Florida

roadwarrior

You don't fire someone at that level over the phone. You grow a pair, be a man and do it face to face.

JakiChan

Tell that to Carol Bartz.

roadwarrior

The lady who said she'd "drop kick to f'n Mars any employee that talked to the press"???

If you always take the high road, you do not need to be staring over your shoulder all the time.

She was also rated the most over paid CEO. But you still do not handle a parting like that.

merlinextraligh

Doing it by phone is a bit chicken ****.

But when he sold an interest to a private equity group, he pretty much should have known what was coming.