Serotta lays off 40% of workforce, planning shutdown

[Charles M]

Originally Posted by PQJ

Or it could be that conditions to closing weren't satisfied and so no closing. Deal docs dammit. We need dem deal docs!!!

My $.000002 - not clear to me that Ben and rusty have been getting good professional advice. Of course, w/o knowing players or deal terms or having deal docs, I could be dead wrong.

You're very likely close...


DCG made agreements with 3 companies...

Serotta is just one of them and neither Blue or Madfibe are confirming that they are all set and rolling...

This could be a DCG thing more than a Serotta thing.

[nicrump]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeDave

Maybe not a "great deal" of the blame,

BBD

preface, i have no idea who was in charge but--->

so lets put the "great deal" on those who didn't make decisions or have control? perfect alibi!

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . that we simply don't know.

BBD

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeDave

. . . that we simply don't know.

BBD

Which is the correct point. Got to loves me the interwebs. Everyone (including me, too often) gets to be an expert. Some of you know the truth. Most don't.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

At the center of it all is the core desire to make better bikes.........the biz part has always gotten in the way of that

Great quote I heard many years ago from Ira Friedman about a completely different field, but seems equally apropos here:

"Our industry is littered with the corpses of brilliant designers who simply suffered an Entrepreneurial Seizure."

[majorpat]

I blame Lance...

When cycling was a fringe sport (even more than today) in the eighties, Serotta was a name with some serious juice in a small market. Dopemania ensues, some of the eighties little guys tie a rope to that rocket and, well, they are what they are today...big, successful companies that buy most of their stuff from other people who actually make the frames.

Maybe the Serotta framebuilding model is dead? I don't know. Solo builders are still going, IF seems OK along with Moots, Seven. Once we went from leather hairnets and downtube shifters to personal power meters and colorways we lost something, in my opinion.

[MadRocketSci]

Originally Posted by dumbod

You say potato, I say potato (OK, it makes more sense orally than it does on the written page but you get the point.)

Great, now i have Christopher Walken on the brain:

http://iheartjimmy.wordpress.com/201...otato-potahto/

sorry for the interruption...carry on!

[Ken Robb]

what is a colorway?

[Bruce K]

"What is a colorway?"

About 2oz per square foot! (rimshot please!)

BK

[FlashUNC]

For me, it all comes back to the Meivici as everything that was both great and terrible about Serotta.

A no-expense-sparted, top-of-the-line carbon frame that I'm sure was exquisitely manufactured and rode great.

How many people are buying $8,295 carbon frames and forks in this economy?

And given the competitive landscape, was it any better than something Mr Crumpton was turning out? Was it worth the nearly $3,000 more than a Crumpton SL road? Or $2,000 more than an Argonaut?

Or $1,200 more than a full 6.9 Trek Domane bike, with parts and wheels and stuff you could ride? Or $1,000 more than a fully-built Calfee Dragonfly?

The numbers just didn't work, and haven't for a long time.

[Jaq]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

"What is a colorway?"

About 2oz per square foot! (rimshot please!)

BK

Rimshot

[Bruce K]

Thank you very much, sir.

BK

[CunegoFan]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

what is a colorway?

A term that should be banned from cycling along with "cockpit" and "full carbon."

[shovelhd]

Why does it always have to be about blame?

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

For me, it all comes back to the Meivici as everything that was both great and terrible about Serotta.

A no-expense-sparted, top-of-the-line carbon frame that I'm sure was exquisitely manufactured and rode great.

How many people are buying $8,295 carbon frames and forks in this economy?

And given the competitive landscape, was it any better than something Mr Crumpton was turning out? Was it worth the nearly $3,000 more than a Crumpton SL road? Or $2,000 more than an Argonaut?

Or $1,200 more than a full 6.9 Trek Domane bike, with parts and wheels and stuff you could ride? Or $1,000 more than a fully-built Calfee Dragonfly?

The numbers just didn't work, and haven't for a long time.

Someone has to be the most expensive.