Anybody catch this news:
Tinker Juarez
- Thread starter Bike N Gear
- Start date
one piece crank
Well-Known Member
Help me out, what is cannodale again?
serviceguy
Well-Known Member
Not sure what the dealio is there but I'm not a big fan of washing your dirty laundry out in public. It's my understanding he's got another deal already lined up with another bike manufacturer so he cold probably spare himself the controversy. Great racer (I remember drooling over anything C-dale built he and Missy' were riding back then), apparently still very active in the West Coast (PinkBike sources, must be true).
Response from Cannondale - https://m.pinkbike.com/news/tinker-...nondale-in-now-deleted-social-media-post.html
This is a step up from the Kardashians, but my 2c is he should have publicly been polite about it. Even if it's a hollow but positive message like Cannondale's response.
The guy's life has been racing for the past 3 decades. Gotta be a pretty boring guy.
The guy's life has been racing for the past 3 decades. Gotta be a pretty boring guy.
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
I've been taught not to air grievances publicly, as well. It is bad for future career prospects, even if you are 100% right, and happen to be ungodly good at what you do. There's always someone better out there who isn't an ass about it.
I will admit I assumed this post was going to say that he passed away at the age of 87 or something. I assumed he was long gone from the racing scene.
A Potted Plant
Honorary Sod
IDK who he is but yall are too worried about a company's feelings, the guy is human let him be pissed. Cannondale made a purely financial decision with someone who had an emotional partnership with them.
A Potted Plant
Honorary Sod
rick81721
Lothar
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
I’ve always been a Tinker fan. His spelling and grammar suck but he’s an open book for the most part. As he gets older he sounds like he’s making more excuses but honestly, who besides him is winning big races at 60 years old? He just won the masters world championship again. I thought it was kinda shitty to air it like that but on the other hand he’s not a wuss that’s afraid to speak his mind.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
They gave his 25k to Loclan because he actually shows what those bikes are capable of.
Ian F
Well-Known Member
Seems strange the post was created and then deleted. Hard to say if he really handles all of his social media - many racers do not. My own WAG is Tinker asked for a raise and Cannondale said, "hmm... no." I do think it's pretty damn amazing he's still out there racing and is actually competitive against guys who are 1/3 his age.
Pretty sure if you make 25k a year, you don't have a Digital Media Assistant on staff. Maybe he had his grandkid handling his Twitter?
serviceguy
Well-Known Member
Let’s not get too carried away, he’s 60 not 200!
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Tinker is a legend, but I think he's really overstating his importance to the brand. It reminds me of a situation a couple of years ago - there was a downhiller who put out a blog post railing on the transition of manufacturers to the "ambassador" model vs. paying pros. I get that it sucks if you're a pro that made the choice to go all in and relied on that pro sponsorship model for your income, but the reality is that the industry found a better way to reach customers that didn't cost them the price of a sponsorship. And that cheaper model just makes sense - seriously, who is more likely to influence your purchases: a pro or a regular joe who rides at the same level as you? I think the fact that there are so many threads asking for advice on this forum itself suggests the latter. And when you do find yourself looking at the gear a pro is using and thinking "I want that", is it because of the pro, or is it really because they were granted access to that thing before anyone else so you're just seeing it when they are using it? That is, if the same bike or helmet or whatever showed up on your local trail being used by a buddy who is an "ambassador" for the brand, wouldn't you still want it?
I think in the end, Tinker's issue here is more a misunderstanding of business. This is not about loyalty - it never was. His value to Cannondale was always his ability to put their brand front and center - and he drew a salary for years for doing just that - but the market and technology have now changed in such a way that they can get that same exposure without the same cost. Basically, they can loan a new rig to a YouTuber or Instagrammer for few weeks for them to test it and make a video about it and get the same return they got without shelling out a salary. That's just good business. And for those who would say that they're not being fair to Tinker, think of it another way: if any publicly traded company where you were an investor came to you and said, "We have a lower cost way of operating that's going to increase your bottom line as an investor, but we're not going to do it because we feel like we should continue to do the old way in order to appear loyal", how would you feel about that?
I think in the end, Tinker's issue here is more a misunderstanding of business. This is not about loyalty - it never was. His value to Cannondale was always his ability to put their brand front and center - and he drew a salary for years for doing just that - but the market and technology have now changed in such a way that they can get that same exposure without the same cost. Basically, they can loan a new rig to a YouTuber or Instagrammer for few weeks for them to test it and make a video about it and get the same return they got without shelling out a salary. That's just good business. And for those who would say that they're not being fair to Tinker, think of it another way: if any publicly traded company where you were an investor came to you and said, "We have a lower cost way of operating that's going to increase your bottom line as an investor, but we're not going to do it because we feel like we should continue to do the old way in order to appear loyal", how would you feel about that?