Crank It Cycles

Last month I was very privileged to be invited to the Specialized World dealer event in Monterey, California.

Steve with Mike Synyard - Founder and CEO of Specialized

To say I was excited was an understatement! I flew out of Auckland with 12 other NZ dealers, landing in San Francisco. We then boarded a bus for the 1 hour drive south to Specialized HQ in Morgan Hill. Upon arrival we were broken into groups for a tour of this impressive facility. Specialized had just completed a museum containing many historic bikes including the first 1981 Stumpjumper, many famous race winning bikes and some cool prototype bikes. Also recently completed (the night before our visit) is a retail store in the middle of this huge building, complete with shop front, and a fake street! The purpose of this is to display their cutting edge retail fit outs, bike displays, fixtures and fittings. It was a weird sensation walking through a fully stocked retail shop inside a bike factory, but what a job they had done!

Next it was a tour of the normally "off limits" test lab. Specialized are renowned market leaders, and to make cutting edge products that truly work means exhaustive testing. They also make all of the test bed machines in-house too; now that is impressive!

We got to see carbon Roubaix road bike frames being flexed to simulate road shock, dual suspension mountain bike frames with the shock replaced by a solid bar undergoing extreme "bottom-out" tests, and mountain bike frames undergoing extreme head tube stiffness tests. Each frame undergoes at least 100,000 cycles of torture as part of the extensive testing. We also got to view Specialized's own tyre testing device. This is a massive lumpy drum onto which a wheel and tyre roll at normal road speeds. This sounds bad enough, but every few seconds the wheel pivots violently sideways to simulate cornering. This is tyre torture, Specialized style, and amazing to watch.

S-Works Epic

After a quick lunch, it was back on the bus and on to Monterey, about another one hours drive south.

Holy smoke, do Specialized do conferences well or what! I have been to some impressive shows during my 18 years in the bike industry, but NOTHING comes close to the effort these guys put in! They booked out three hotels to host visitors from as far away as South Africa; even had huge stickers made for the doors of the venue; and decorated the adjacent mall with hundred of "Specialized 2012" flags.

Next day it was up early and off to the first of many presentations. After lunch we boarded the bus and headed up to Toro Park, by the Laguna Seca raceway, for the mountain bike demo. Huge marquees filled to the brim with the latest S-Works bikes greeted us there. Awesome. So what to ride then? "Will that be a new S-Works Epic 29er sir? Or perhaps sir might like to ride an S-Works 29er Hardtail? Oh the agony of choice. Needless to say, I squeezed in as many rides as possible on some fantastic, dry, hard and fast single track. My favourite bike? Tough call but probably the S-Works 29er hardtail. That thing was unreal.

S-Works 29er Hardtail

Day 2 saw us start with the road bike demo. Once again we were spoilt for choice. One bike rack contained 12 S-Works Tarmac SL4 bikes, another rack was full of the 2012 Venge, and yet another packed with S-Works Roubaix complete with Di2 electronic components. I settled for the Tarmac SL4. Gratefully I slipped into new S-Works shoes, donned the new Prevail helmet and waited for the rest of the NZ dealers to do the same before we were off. Now this was supposed to be a cruisey ride around a scenic 17 Mile Drive through Monterey and Pebble Beach. However, at the bottom of the long climb, there was nothing cruisey about the pace! All of us putting the hurt on to test those bikes! Some of the dealers really can ride bikes, and Adam and Tony from Specialized New Zealand know how to hurt too!

2012 Venge Pro - Mark Cavendish's bike of choice

Day 3 saw more presentations. This may sound boring, but trust me, the product engineers at Specialized are the most passionate people you could meet, and listening to them explaining about how they have designed the new products, is just remarkable. We managed to squeeze in another road demo late afternoon. This time I rode an S-Works Roubaix complete with electronic Di2 Dura Ace. This would be the perfect bike for New Zealand's rough road. It was a truly astonishing bike!

NEW! Womens S-Works Fate Carbon 29er

Specialized also had a full trade show set up, to showcase every one of their products, from tyre levers to shoes, helmets to handlebars, and every model of bike they make. I had a chat with Mike Synyard, Specialized's founder and CEO. It is not difficult to work out why Specialized makes the awesome products it does, when they have a guy like this as the boss. He is the most genuine and passionate person one could ever meet, and lives for cycling!

So what did I take away from this experience? Well, many things really. Now that I have had the opportunity to talk with the people behind the products, it has really reinforced my belief that Specialized really do want to make a difference to everyone's cycling experience.

I sum up this experience at the Specialized World Dealer Event as having my dose of Vitamin S!

Steve Pedley