Sunday, February 21, 2010

How awful for Specialized....


If you check out web sites focused on bicycle racing, you cannot have failed to note that the svelte Specialized Shiv time trial bike has been banned from racing by the UCI, the sport's international governing board.

Each news item about the unfortunate ban features a lovely, carefully posed photo of the bike in question, a bike that evidently is just too damn fast. Its dimensions, in the area just aft of the head tube, have been revealed to violate UCI guidelines. Illegal. By millimeters. Too sleek. The above photo is from VeloNews online.

Ah, but the bike is fine for triathletes and amateur time trialists all around the world. It's only guys who get bikes free who are prevented from riding it. Those of us who walk into Specialized stores (with lots of money) and buy our bikes can buy a Shiv and use it without concern. And it must be godawful slippery and fast, huh? So fast the UCI banned it!

What a bonanza for Specialized. As someone said, You can't pay for advertising like this!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How 'bout the headline, "Specialized gets the shiv from UCI!"? Isn't a shiv the homemade knife prison inmates use to stab each other? The should make a new one called the "pistol" perfect for Contador.