SRAM Focus Group (give it up)

[Kid A]

Anything to post up??? You get to demo and f'd up sh1t? Anyone come to venue wearing pink lycra? They show u line up of '08 kickstands?

Inquiring minds want to know

[carbonman]

Let us know......we need to be informed.

[Schecky]

I've got some pics. I'll post tonight after the Loop ride.

[Nagaredama]

We just talked about various SRAM brands vs. others. Nothing that exciting.

[roadkillross]

yeah it was obviously commissioned by sram but there was free food and drink, which is a plus in my book.. got to see a full carbon front end setup.(i.e sid wc, truvativ carbon barrs, avid juicy ultimate brakes.... and some x.o stuff.) some of the guys in my group were a little too extreme in the category of specifics about components. but it was fun to meet some ppl. and got a c-note afterwards!!

[SAR_boats]

It was cool to see the differences of opinion between riders. They showed us the new 2008 RS SID fork and (I think) the new juicy ultimate, along with Noir cranks.

I like how they did business tho- no check, no gift certificate, just a crisp c-note in an envelope for our time there.

Personally, I think SRAM is making a mistake by going with more and more carbon stuff (carbon bars / carbon steer tube, and crown on the SID Carbon wrapped aluminum on the Noir crank. It looks cool and is light but I question the durability / safety of it.) but I do understand that it is designed for racing, not trail abuse.

Some of their questions were stupid- "When you see a Rock Shox fork,m how does it make you FEEL?" Uh...good? Am I supposed to get a hard-on or something?

[guero]

Okay, first of all, thanks to OMR i was very creeped out when the two guys conducting the group closed the door, and looked at each other and made some weird joke. I took a deep breath and it passed, I was soon okay. (OMR had made a joke in another thread about us being taken hostage, lol).

They divided the 9 of us there into two groups, basically a "younger group" and an "older group" (not that you are old schek!), or a more aggressive style of riding group vs. a more xc style of group. I was in the more aggressive riding style group. Our group stayed in the initial meeting room, and we then compared products:

Rockshox vs. Fox
Truvativ vs. Race Face
Sram vs. Shimano
Hayes vs. Avid

We discussed our overall impressions of both companies being compared, the plusses, the minuses, what we felt when we thought of the brand, and at the end of our group discussion per category we had to "kill" one of the brands. Our group killed Fox, Truvativ, Hayes, and Shimano.

After that, the other group came back in the room, and we all compared notes, theirs, with ours. The two groups were pretty much split down the middle as far as which products they'dd kill. The other group chose to keep Fox, Truvativ, Avid, and Sram.

One of the things I felt was kinda apparent of the generation gap/riding style was the decision for us to keep RockShox, and the other group chose to keep Fox (with the exception of Scheck). After discussing, the other group seemed to believe that RockShox still sucked and they didnt seem to be in tune with how well the PIKE, REBA, are performing, are more lately, the LYRIC and TOTEM (i know there are still a few bugs to be worked out with those). Our group felt that RockShox has been steadily on the rise in both performance and popularity.

All in all, it was pretty cool to hear other peoples opinions on things. I'm not that much of a latest and greatest part freak, but it was cool to see the NOIR crank, and the new brakes. Getting the crisp Benji at the end was nice.

Oh yeah, BOATS was suppose to pick me up from downtown LB at 6, he didnt get here till 6:30, which meant we were doing 80mph the whole way there, well, until we hit the surface streets. Remarkably, we were only 7 minutes late!

[SAR_boats]

Originally Posted by guero

Oh yeah, BOATS was suppose to pick me up from downtown LB at 6, he didnt get here till 6:30, which meant we were doing 80mph the whole way there

quit yer bitchin, I got you there

Thank for the beer, BTW

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by guero

Oh yeah, BOATS was suppose to pick me up from downtown LB at 6, he didnt get here till 6:30, which meant we were doing 80mph the whole way there, well, until we hit the surface streets. Remarkably, we were only 7 minutes late!

good stuff bret, thanks for sharing. So appears Chris did make a pit stop to check out the honey's before getting back into the car for ride up to LB

[Schecky]

I think guero covered things pretty well. No offense taken Bret, it was definitely grey beard vs. young bucks grouping.
On to the photos:
After the 91 hell, the 405 was pretty nice


OK, not always nice


The offices were well done, and they had cookies!


They also had one way mirrors....



'I'm SAR_boats and I came to get down...'


Nice crank


Racing special. So dang light.


Black Box





All in all it was fun.
We got to talk bikes for two hours and got paid for it.

[RacinJason]

You mean you don't?

Originally Posted by SAR_boats

It was cool to see the differences of opinion between riders. They showed us the new 2008 RS SID fork and (I think) the new juicy ultimate, along with Noir cranks.

I like how they did business tho- no check, no gift certificate, just a crisp c-note in an envelope for our time there.

Personally, I think SRAM is making a mistake by going with more and more carbon stuff (carbon bars / carbon steer tube, and crown on the SID Carbon wrapped aluminum on the Noir crank. It looks cool and is light but I question the durability / safety of it.) but I do understand that it is designed for racing, not trail abuse.

Some of their questions were stupid- "When you see a Rock Shox fork,m how does it make you FEEL?" Uh...good? Am I supposed to get a hard-on or something?

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by SAR_boats

Some of their questions were stupid- "When you see a Rock Shox fork,m how does it make you FEEL?" Uh...good? Am I supposed to get a hard-on or something?

is that called Rock Cox

[roadkillross]

it was pretty cool, i wish i coulda been in y'alls group..tho

[Pain Freak]

Funny I was in total agreement with the older group???

How could anybody pick Rock Sux over Fox?

[SAR_boats]

Originally Posted by ChumbaJason

You mean you don't?

Not in public.