rufvelo

Well said.

DTrain you would have a point only if the products were crap, the company had folded and the brand faded into oblivion. Apparently not!

Just look at the strange brands in the pro cycling peloton, in formula 1 etc - never had a problem if you're top notch! (How could you possible shop at Ahold, drop your precious money at a Rabobank while wearing Assos)

Also, if 'Pedro' sounds 'funny', what's so great about 'Campagnolo'? (unless it's that good feeling from having spent over $2K on 8-10 bicycle parts)

Cycling Giraffe

"Pedro's" is a brilliant name. It makes an impression on one because it has no obvious link to the products made or sold. Hence, when I first started mountain biking in college in the early 1990s, I used certain Pedro's products, along with other brands. When I got back into cycling after a five-year hiatus (roadie now) several years ago, I remembered the name right away (sort of like "Oh yeah -- I had some of their grease back then, it seemed to work fine!") and got more of their stuff for maintenance. The other stuff, "Tri-Flow," "Finish Line," etc., I can't remember if I used it or not, though I probably did at some point or another. I have some of their products now too. However, nothing about them prompts the immediate brand recognition that is "Pedro's."

This reminds me -- on a slightly collateral note -- of a business school professor at NYU my sister-in-law had several years ago who proclaimed that the old VW "Driver's Wanted" ads were terrible, and contrasted it with (his ideal) of the BMW "Ultimate Driving Machine." If her story is true, the professor completely missed the point that the slogan promotes an image to a target market. Calling a VW Golf the "Ultimate Driving Machine," or anything similar is laughable, as it most certainly is a nice driving little car, but certainly not the "ultimate" at anything. "Driver's Wanted" is obviously targeted to a youth market (possibly newly out of school and on the job market ("Help Wanted," anyone?), is somewhat quirky in its syntax, and makes it seem like the car itself wants a driver ("Hey, I'm a driver!"). Its a nice fit, and those ads were quite successful. I guess that's why he's teaches rather than making the big bucks doing.

In other words, sometimes you have to leave the marketing to the ad wizards themselves. Pedro's seems to do just fine.

cjbruin

Nothing wrong with the name.

Good products.

You're weird.

lucien2

yea such a stupid name. Like that other brand, Mercxyxxxkscs or whatever. So many damned letters from the end of the alphabet. Foriegn names should be barred from being brand names. Pinarello.. uh, whatever! And Le Mond. sheesh. stupid French.

fmw

I thought the one thing more stupid was posting this thread in the first place. I was wrong. The response above wins the sweepstakes.

tlupfer

actually, since that movie entered mainstream lore, I've found that people will get very excited about Pedro's products but not at all excited about this "Colnago" business.

lucien2

Sorry, I thought I pre-loaded it with enough bald sarcasm to be obvious to all but those completely lacking the needed receptors.

thewalrus

Do you have some kind of subconscious racist attitude towards hispanic names?

I'm sure people told Gary Fisher when he first started making bikes, that it would be silly to put his name on the downtube of the bikes. "Why don't you give the company a real name?"

Seemed to work fine for him now, he's doing quite well financially

I can name a lot of people who use their name instead of a made-up company name on bikes. (Including those who've sold their name to a big company like Trek, and continue to work as a tech advisor)

gary fisher
bontrager
lemond
haro
brodie
chris king (would you rather it be called "Really nice Expensive Headsets Inc." ?

MERCKX

TheDTrain

So now the token "you're a racist" reply. Just greeeeat!

I got nothing against hispanic names. But Pedro is just BAD name for a product in any language. Masi, Derosa, good hispanic names, or good italian, I don't know which.

Like Bob's store here in MA, that's horrible name for a recreational clothing chain. What about Raymond's or Mike's, bad names for brands!

shimanopower

shut up walrus. He's 16! it has nothing to do with racism. He thinks Masi is hispanic!

BarconsOrBust

Phil Wood and Chris King. Pedro's cousins with the sweet hookups. As in the best hubs and headsets around.

TheDTrain

Okay, so Masi isn't hispanic. We learn something new every day.

Sasquatchula

Out in this neck of the woods we have Ray's supermarkets, where one can buy some of Mike's hard lemonade.

Huh, who'd a thunk...

Serpico

DTrain still rules

georgiaboy

Instead of Masi maybe Fellini meant "asa nisi masa."

Robbykills

hey is this a good time to talk about my pedro's cycling cap?

But who gives a ****. Is it any worse then a Scott bike? Or a Lemond bag? Or Paul hubs?

catatonic

I would...I have a bottle of this sitting next to my front door right now. It's incredibly nice stuff if you ride your bike in all kinds of weather. Given I wouldn't have anything on my bike that says Pedro's, as I wouldn't have anything that is an obvious first name, unless it is "Steve's" (My name is Stephen...so I'm cool with that). However tools....I'm more of a park fan myself, but I see nothing wrong with their stuff at all....actually their dice grips are quite nice.

TheDTrain

Thanks ziggy.

So I guess this means I have your vote for the most insightful poster award on bf?

Blackberry

Pedro Martinez left the Red Sox when he heard DTrain didn't like the name.

Bauerthis

Someone needs to start up a kidsbikeforum.com for stupid posts like this.

catatonic

even better yet....we can have a kiddie corral: https://www.genmay.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12 (warning, potentially not worksafe content, and the link may be seizure inducing)

roadfix

We're dealing with a kid here.....TheDTrain that is...

lilHinault

What about Phil? Lots of bike stuff is named after someone, it's a cruel world....

womble

Consumers tend to be quite forgiving of funny sounding names, if the name is taken from a founder (or even if it's just an imagined founder). Dr. Peppers, Ferrari, Sony. The first one sounds like a joke, and I'm sure the second two sounded weird to American ears when they first became known, but they were hardly unsuccessful.

If you don't like the word "Pedro", then it's probably just you. I don't like the word "Colnago", but that's just because of the font the manufactuer uses, and don't expect other people to agree with me.

sunninho

This product has two first names and I won't touch it because the brand name sucks