New Zion 29er
February 7th, 2006 by Tim GrahlZion Bicycles, the JensonUSA exclusive brand, will be coming out with the 737 29er. The 4130 double-butted chromoly frames will probably be available in two options. The singlespeed only with eccentric bottom bracket(EBB) and vertical dropouts version (no derailleur hanger, cable stops only for disc brakes) and it will probably also be available in a non-EBB geared version, also disc brake only, but with the full complement of cable stops for shifter cables. Colors are still to be determined, however white and black are looking like the choices.
What is RSS?
Get our articles in your inbox:
with all of these smaller frame makers (builder?) jumping on board, I (stevie) wonder if big names like Spec or Cannondale will be able to have any market left by the time (if) they climb on board?
Cannondale is currently conducting an informal marketing poll of their dealers to guage the response that a hardtail, Lefty equipped, Avid Juicy 5, SRAM X-7 bike at $1400.00 might garner. Sounds like the guys at Cannondale may actually be jumping in if they hear the right things from their dealer network.
Selling 29″ers is not much harder than making a proper bike and sticking a fair price to it. Won’t even require as much marketing (anymore) as 26″ to get orders.
Hardest part about selling 29″ers is making enough of them (ask Fisher).
It looks like the big players are slowly but surely getting into the act. I know that Specialized is coming out with a 29er or a line of 29ers in ‘07. But then this is the way it always works, nobody wants to jump into a trend until they see it is going somewhere. Then they jump in with a lot of money. Twenty years in this industry and I still have to laugh.
Is that a done deal with Specialized? Do they know themselves? When they join, as the second big one, everyone that doesn’t loses money with the first bike Specialized sells.
As far as I know it is a done deal. One of my coworkers was speaking to someone at Spec corporate last week and they let that drop. I really can’t see them passing this up. And you are right, when Spec jumps in everyone else has to play catch up. I expect Giant to be in there as well. It will be interesting to see what happens. Mountain biking will be picking up some over the next few years anyway with Armstrong out of cycling the road market will drop some. And with the popularity of 29ers with the endurace mtb racing crowd.