Do you have a question for Specialized Women's Product Team?

[Susan Otcenas]

Ladies,

I'd like to chime in here to discuss the general theme of this thread.

Jeff & I have been talking about this thread in some detail and are quite conflicted about it. On the one hand, our mission is to advance women's cycling and part of the way to do that is to have great discussions like this one regarding what kinds of products do and don't work for us as cyclists, specifically as female cyclists. On the other hand, we do not permit commercial posts on this forum. While being helpful, Rachel is clearly "on company time" with a goal to actively promote Specialized products and services, talking about producing videos, etc. I think this potentially violates the "no advertising" rules. We have other industry folks on this list who are active participants sharing their knowledge without crossing the line into commercialism.

I don't think we want the forums to turn into a market research / marketing vehicle for every cycling company out there. If we permit threads such as this, where do we draw the line? We are receiving PMs from people who feel the line *has* been crossed here and we need to be sensitive to that.

This is a community, so we want to hear from YOU about how you feel on this subject. I'll ask that you keep it civil. :-) No final decisions have been made, so please let us know what you think. Thanks ladies!


Susan

[SadieKate]

I agree with you. If I could mailorder Specialized products from you, I'd would be sitting on the fence. But since Specialized has weird marketing rules, well, I'm on your side o' the fence.

[Thorn]

It has bothered me from the onset and I've read the thread with an odd fascination.

If Rachel was a participant, it wouldn't bother me. If she was here answering questions as well as participating, it wouldn't bother me.

But in response to questions people have taken the time to place, we learn the answers will be on a different site. That isn't in the spirit of the site. In fact, I'd go so far as to ask how it is different from gavin_m?

[ehirsch83]

It doesn't bother me one bit and oddly, I am surprised that this bothered so many people.

[salsabike]

I don't feel strongly about it in either direction.

[aicabsolut]

I was hoping that Specialized would use this as a way to do more market research than to push their products. So far, that's the vibe I'm getting, and I'm ok with that. I think that getting some answers to questions is a bonus. I like Specialized products, but I wouldn't mind if another company took this approach. For example, I think it'd be great if Trek people came here and said, I've searched this board and found that a lot of you can't stand our Bontrager saddles; we've been working hard on them, but we'd like some more feedback and questions from you on our women's line.

[Kiwi Stoker]

I used to work in the bike industry and I am respectful of what special website we have here.

Personally while I was working there all I did here was to read the discussions and occassionally pass on comments to other people in the company which I thought was helpful. It wasn't until after I left that I joined and started participating.

Unfortunately I do believe Rachel and Co has probably crossed the line in the sense they are using this site for free to gain market research etc and traffic from it to their site (and that is what you pay online ads to do). This site is unique and cool because TE hasn't used it as a way to generate extra funds by allowing advertising throughout this forum.

And its not like Rachel is from a start up company that needs help, Specialized can afford market research and does so by their women's travelling roadshows etc.

I like how this is a neutral space where we can discuss everything. As others mentioned I think it would be OK for Rachel to paricipate on this forum as a woman rider and not with her Specialized marketing hat on.

[OakLeaf]

I'm with Thorn.

Several of us have invited Rachel to become part of this community. Now, I don't read every single thread, but at this point I don't know anything about Rachel except for the cursory (and, I thought, a little testy) intro she posted in this thread.

If she'd spent enough time here to know something about this community, she'd have an idea of how we value this space. And that we appreciate TE on many levels - for hosting this space, for their great selection of products, for their terrific customer service, and for keeping their advertising unintrusive here.

I don't think Rachel should be banned (not at this point, anyhow). But if she doesn't want to be respectful of TE as a commercial enterprise, and of this community, then I don't know that she has much of value to offer us.

[aicabsolut]

But it is a BB30. You can use any BB30 crank on the frame. It's just a pain to use a non-BB30 crank (like English or Italian threaded BB) b/c you'd have to install the threaded sleeve.
Do you mean the BCD isn't the same on the rings/cranks? Like it wouldn't take FSA or Shimano rings?