You know what, Speicialized has done a lot for the cycling world. They produce good off-the-shelf bikes at a reasonable price point. They sponsor a lot of athletes, including a good friend of mine, allowing them to focus full time on their sport. The promote riding in a way that has gotten more of the general population excited about the sport and have done their part to increase the numbers of recreation cyclists on the road and on the trails.

But I abhor their corporate policies, specifically the bullying behaviour we've seen in the last 10 years.

Here's yet another example.

And recently...Volagi

And before that...this and this.

Not to mention stories told to me by bike shop owners who have been threatened by Specialized to pull their bikes from the shps and to open their own Specialized shop close by to compete if the shop owners don't agree to dedicate a very large portion of the shop to Specialized only and demand that the owners carry a certain volume of bikes. This is often nearly impossible for the smaller dealers as they simply don't have the floor space or revenue to carry the required inventory.

I'm not sure I will ever buy a Specialized product again.