Pro's preference

I have no idea what Lance Armstrong preferred or did not prefer, but to a large extent pros ride whatever their sponsor provides them. The usual exceptions are shoes, pedals and seats, although the pros are increasingly being 'forced' to use whatever the sponsors are selling. They usually fall into line or do what has commonly been done for years - ride their preferred shoes/saddles but take off the producers' decals/patches and substitute their sponsors'.

Powerful Pete said:

I have no idea what Lance Armstrong preferred or did not prefer, but to a large extent pros ride whatever their sponsor provides them. The usual exceptions are shoes, pedals and seats, although the pros are increasingly being 'forced' to use whatever the sponsors are selling. They usually fall into line or do what has commonly been done for years - ride their preferred shoes/saddles but take off the producers' decals/patches and substitute their sponsors'.

Thanks for that, interesting. Im not just thinking of armstrong but of all of the riders as im sure that there are others that do the same. cheers nath1

Ullrich used to use light weight wheels dispite the team being shimano sponsored for wheels, think Zabel does the same thing too.
Before everything went carbon many pros used to ride thier favourite custom rides and put sponsors names on them.

nath1 said:

Hi all , i was scanning some of the older threads and came across something that i have often wonderd about. Ok the thread spoke about what kit pro's would prefer to use . For example Armstrong was said on the thread to have prefered to ride a Serrato road bike, and use speedplay pedals and that sponsership made him use the kit he used. Now i am only going on what someone else has said but it is something that i have often thought about. I often look at what the top guys are using out of interest. Do the teams HAVE to use what is given such as pedals ,wheels and do they all use the same stuff? Does anyone have any info on this, cheers nath1

Armstrong disliked Shimano's Road SPDs but he complied with the agreement by using older Shimano Look-clones (already discontinued at the time) for a long time. Shimano couldn't stand that such a star didn't like their pedals so they invented the newer road SPD-L or whatever they call it but everyone else calls it the Lance pedal. They wouldn't issue it until Lance approved it and agreed to use it.

Now that Ullrich is not riding for T-Mobile, he has been spotted training with one of his own bike frames equiped with Campagnolo. I remember reading that the T-Mobile riders were not too happy when they were forced to switch to Shimano.

Most pros have to ride what is given to them. Only the biggest stars have the pull to make adjustments. Shimano recently has been putting more pressure on their sponsored teams use all Shimano gear.

Obviously there would be leeway within each sponsor, such as the last day of the tour. To minimise any possibility of issues for floyd, he ran what looked to be strong alloy rims where the rest of the team ran carbon. I imagine he may have had non-light-weight super puncture-proof tyres too.

With the pedals, I imagine teams would like the same pedal/cleat system for all riders for consistency. Again, on the last day of the tour, had Floyd's bike broke he could have just jumped on one of his team-mate's bikes... couldn't do that if they all ran their own pedal/cleats.

Also, in motor racing, they throw whatever tyre on the car that works, then pull out a cardboard stencil of 'GOODYEAR' or whatever and spray paint the sponsor's name on the tyre... As long as you get paid, whatever works...

I'd just love to be that good a rider or that well known I could walk into my LBS and get a free tube...😄

Loads of pros use whatever they want and just rebrand it to please the sponsors. Buddy of mine absolutely hated the Jamis carbon bikes they were given so he had a custom AL frame created and painted to look carbon with all the appropriate Jamis logos appropriate logos. Stuff like shoes are even easier to mask. Sponsors know the game and to a large degre don't care because they just want their name out there.

DiabloScott said:

Armstrong disliked Shimano's Road SPDs but he complied with the agreement by using older Shimano Look-clones (already discontinued at the time) for a long time. Shimano couldn't stand that such a star didn't like their pedals so they invented the newer road SPD-L or whatever they call it but everyone else calls it the Lance pedal. They wouldn't issue it until Lance approved it and agreed to use it.

I have an old set of those Shimano Look-Clones (bought them used in '93). They're heavy but they are still excellent pedals. I don't blame Lance for sticking with them instead of hotspot's..I mean SPD's...

What I find funny is all the money to get the brand and model out there. I know, football/basketball all do it too, but the extremes of elit cycling kit is pure laugh-fodder...

Such as Campagnolo. OK, they are the euro purist kit of choice, and shimano is seen as the japanese interloper offering precision kit at a lower price. Comparing Campy and Shimano would be like comparing Buick and Toyota.

But back to what I was getting at, I spotted a campy record carbon bidon and cage go for nearly $200 AUD. Excuse me? A bidon and cage at K-Mart cost $8 AUD. A comparable carbon cage can be had for $25 AUD. The campy bidon was the grey coloured generic bidon made by a company that make zillions of them for different companies.

So at the end of the day, its the consumer that pays the premium to allow the companies to pay megabucks to sports stars to advertise their wears to the consumer paying for the goods...??? wtf did I just say? Confusing myself...

fauxpas said:

Comparing Campy and Shimano would be like comparing Buick and Toyota.

Your comparison is backasswrds. Shimano is run like an American car company, which is the industry that invented planned obsolescence and the industry that views its customers as marks to be fleeced the latest year's minor cosmetic changes or pointless upgrades. Campagnolo is more like a Japanese auto company that wants to make a durable, quality product.

Bro Deal said:

Your comparison is backasswrds. Shimano is run like an American car company, which is the industry that invented planned obsolescence and the industry that views its customers as marks to be fleeced the latest year's minor cosmetic changes or pointless upgrades. Campagnolo is more like a Japanese auto company that wants to make a durable, quality product.

Uh oh. Here we go. [img]cyclingforums.comrolleyes.gifOpen ↗[/img]

sidepocket said:

Uh oh. Here we go. [img]cyclingforums.comrolleyes.gifOpen ↗[/img]

Well he is right that Campagnolo products are better. That being said, you can buy the Campagnolo 200 AUS$ bidon if you feel like it, or the 2.50 one if you prefer... no one is telling you what to buy...

And Shimano is, of course, forced to sponsor far more teams... :p

Just kidding! 😉