Quote:
Originally Posted by TopQuark
I have a different view of all this since I started looking for a brand last year. I was bike dormant for over 20 years before deciding to dedicate myself riding bikes again. In the process of reviewing, evaluating, and finally, selecting the brand I will commit on, what turned me off on the Serotta brand other than their top end pricing is their outrageous claims on just about everything. I'm sure there is truth on some of it, but if they are not backed by convincing data at the moment of reading their claims, it didn't took me long to look for other brands.
Here are some of what I have in my notes. I am not sure if these are still in their website today:
- Fitting - we invented it!
- Serotta has built more custom frames, one at a time, than any other American builder.
- Serotta has more control over engineering and manufacturing than any other American bicycle company.
- Our proprietary materials provide more rider tunability options than any other bike company in the world. Serotta material costs are higher than our competitors’ because we demand the highest quality in carbon, titanium and steel and then modify them to meet specific rider needs.
- We are maniacal about frame tolerances. Serotta frames are the best aligned in the industry – period.
- Material properties of each tube and all components of each and every frame are 100 percent quality audited.
- We also offer an insane number of finish choices – over a billion options!
- A Serotta titanium frame, handcrafted in our U.S. facility, is straighter and more precise than any frame of any material you can buy.
Serotta lost 5 bike sales here just because of their sales pitch. Different strokes for different folks... |
The marketing is brash and understandably off-putting but, aside from "inventing fitting," whatever that means, the rest of the claims are basically true. As others noted, however, the vertical integration necessary to make many of these claims true (owning their own carbon facility, cnc'ing all of their own parts, etc.), plus the obsessive manufacturing standards and testing, have contributed to a cost structure that is out of whack.