A Go to To The Specialised Museum – BionicOldGuy

Specialised Bicycles has its headquarters in Morgan Hill and has a pleasant museum on-site. My Tuesday driving group had visited it earlier than in spring 2020, proper earlier than the Covid pandemic took off. We went once more final Tuesday, and this time our information was Robert Egger, who has been their artistic director for years. He designs their idea bikes, lots of that are within the museum, and likewise guides future instructions of the product traces. He’s additionally a superb and humorous man and a terrific storyteller.

It was enjoyable to listen to him inform the story of how Mike Sinyard, the CEO, based Specialised Bicycle Imports, which grew into the present firm. I advised that story right here, however we bought some new tidbits from Robert.

The subsequent enjoyable anecdote was how Robert bought concerned with the corporate. He had graduated with a level in industrial design, and was working for a motorcycle vendor in Los Gatos within the early 80s. A buyer got here in that Robert didn’t acknowledge and was asking questions on lots of merchandise made by Specialised. Robert would say the Specialised product was fairly good, however right here is why a rivals mannequin was higher (their bike baggage are a made just a little sturdier, or their water bottles have a extra wide-mouthed opening so it’s straightforward to place ice in them). When he later came upon that this was Mike Sinyard, he thought he would get fired if Mike complained to the proprietor of the shop. As a substitute, Mike known as him up and organized to have him come all the way down to Morgan Hill for a go to. He employed Robert on the spot, and gave him his first assignment- to supervise enhancing all of the components Robert had thought weren’t the very best.