Why are they not a Pro Tour team bike?

[bennydorano]

Multiple bike of the year winner Storck or the likes of Boardman, Fondriest, sure there are a few other brands worthy of inclusion.

 

[SWSteve]

Because they don't pay to sponsor a team.

 

[MikeW-71]

^^ simple as that.

 

[TissoT]

The bike company need to spend a fortune on a perfect design of a frame and manufacturer it. test them etc
Then pay the team to ride them... Needs a lot of funding

 

[Hacienda71]

Iirc Boardman supplied bikes to one of the teams in the Tour of California a couple of years back.

 

[bennydorano]

Where is the likes of Storck's and the others' reputation garnered? All just word of mouth / positive reviews from the unwashed?

 

[raindog]

Where is the likes of Storck's and the others' reputation garnered?

Reputation? This is the first time I've heard of them

 

[oldroadman]

Because they don't pay to sponsor a team.

Correct. Simple economics. Bike suppliers pay to have their bikes ridden by top end pro teams. Lower down it's supply but no money on top.
If a manugacturer does not want to get involved, they don't. Easy.
It's sometimes simply because their brand is not big enough and/or they simply don't have the resources.
Just business.

 

[Svendo]

Storck did once supply a womens team, Vanderkitten, with Absolutist 0.9 frames as mentioned in this Bike Radar review of the Fenomalist from 2009. I remember it as it was where I first heard about the bike frame I eventually got, which you can see here, although it's a bit more worn and scuffed now.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Never heard of the brand till now.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

In the past, Storck have tended to be a very high end bike ridden largely by the kind of people who earn well over 100k a year, train in the gym and ride a few sportives a year, only in good weather and preferably the more exclusive ones...

 

[montage]

Brownlee brothers ride board man bikes don't they? And I am pretty sure they supplied a women's team at some point, or at least the women's GB team.

 

[400bhp]

Brownlee brothers ride board man bikes don't they? And I am pretty sure they supplied a women's team at some point, or at least the women's GB team.

Yeah they do (or at least they did last time I looked).

They use the specialist "air" ones, not available in halfords.

Think about it too-boardmans are (in part) marketed as budget, prices would have to increase if they paid for a pro team to use them, hence their whole marketing strategy would need to be re-thought. Hell of a risk and perhaps one only taken with a backer full of capital ready to take them into a world leading brand by market share.

 

[ufkacbln]

I have hear of Stork, they have a good delivery record

 

[ufkacbln]

Sorry - more seriously

There are high quality manafacturer's who do live and survive by reputation and renown

The bikes used by professionals are free so they will use them, but if you look outside the sponsored racing, the spread of manafacturers and marques is entirrely different