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Guru Bikes Joining the Cannondale Family?

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NAHBS 2012 Guru Cycles DFU dynamic fit unit size cycle machine

Someone recently pinged us with a rumor that Cannondale had purchased Guru Bikes, a Quebec, Canada, based custom bicycle manufacturer, but we didn’t hear anything more…until today.

While no one’s making an official comment (we asked both parties), the puzzle pieces are coming together. Cannondale has scheduled a press announcement about “a unique opportunity to experience the latest initiation we have in providing consumers with the best riding experience possible.” Where’s the announcement? Guru’s booth at Interbike.

Guru’s known for their DFU (Dynamic Fit Unit) as well as some gorgeous titanium and carbon fiber bikes, so our money’s on some sort of integration of custom fitting sessions at Cannondale dealers, at least in the short run. Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess…care to venture your own in the comments?

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GOB
GOB
11 years ago

The DFU is a great reason to buy them, it’s an awesome device. Their carbon bikes break fairly often.

Merican
Merican
11 years ago

Also heard they will shut GT down in the next 3 years

Brandon
Brandon
11 years ago

Hopefully they raise QC at Guru. I’ve seen BB inserts break loose literally almost a dozen times, broken integrated seatpost clamps, off-center headset inserts, cracks, you name it on Guru frames.

Tom
Tom
11 years ago

Guru bikes breaking a lot? Sounds like they have something in common with Canondale. Should be a great match.

Paul
Paul
11 years ago

Fit is the next step in bike tech, so this acquisition makes perfect sense for Cannondale. They can leap frog Trek and Spec in that dept. @Brandon; Not that I care to defend Guru, but I’ve seen every manufacturer have every kind of problem. You can’t tell me that Guru is alone in having issues. That in mind, they make great bikes and their customer service is amazing.

ultegra
ultegra
11 years ago

Where’d you hear that about GT? Seems kind of stupid? Unless they’re gonna sell it off, just putting a brand on the shelf doesn’t make much sense…

Solo
Solo
11 years ago

From 1993 to 2010 I owned a total of 14 Cannondale MTBs, only one of them broke -a 2001 Super V Raven- and the company’s customer service was great.
Two reasons took me to change to a different brand (SCB) in 2010: #1 the limitations of the Single Pivot Point suspension design vs VPP, and #2 too much proprietary stuff from C’dale; other than that I was happy with the brand.

Andy
Andy
11 years ago

Tom, move on, that was 20yrs ago!

Gunner
Gunner
11 years ago

Cannondale has always been one of the most innovative and boundary pushing companies in the cycling industry, and Guru is one of few companies who understand the true benefit of a perfect fit! I’m excited to see what this is about. This sounds like the result will generate some great cycling products or experiences for us.

Tofine
Tofine
11 years ago

I’ve been selling C-Dales for 15 years along with Trek and Specialized. No more incidents of cracked c-dales than any other brand that tries to push the envelope… and their customer service is second to none. I’ve seen FAR more Rockies in the shop cracked than c-dales…

JL
JL
11 years ago

That’s funny Tom bec. I have 10 cannondale bikes, some going back 2006.
Never had a cannondale alu or carbon frame crack, but I have one non cannondale bike. Crack in the chain stay; still riding it w/ the crack.

Just letting you know.

Tom
Tom
11 years ago

@Andy, JL, I actually like a lot of the things Cannondale does, their cranks specifically and the left seems really nice. But being closely associated with a club sponsored by Cannondale, I’ve been exposed to a fair share of cracked Cannonade mtb frames in the last 2 years. Maybe these guys are just hard on bikes, but questions raise when I see an unscathed bike less than a season old with a seat tube cracked right in half. I suppose it happens to all sorts, and as I said, maybe its because I am exposed to more of them.

Seth
Seth
11 years ago

I saw the same type of seat tube crack happen last year on a group ride. The guy’s bike just “popped,” and the seat tube split cleanly in two.

JL
JL
11 years ago

Fair enough Tom. You probably see the extreme end of riding and a good share of failures, but if you were on a team sponsored by another brand, you would probably see the same thing.
If you look across all brands, the rate of failure is probably similar, and now with manufacturers trying to ‘best’ others by producing the lightest frameset (now some are coming out w/ 700-800 g HT frameset) it wouldn’t surprise me if the failure rate is actually going up.

Meta
Meta
11 years ago

The acquisition is for the fitting side of things. They want to be an alternative to specialized BG-Fit. There is a lot of money to be made in the fitting business. Fitting is a an upsell business. The fitter would say: you need new shoes, new pedals, new saddle. At the end of a fitting session you pay $1k for parts on top of the plastica bike you just bought. Win Win!

Gunner
Gunner
11 years ago

@ Meta. Any salesman can tell you that you need more gear, that’s not a “fitter”. A real fitter is there to help you get the most out of your bike, or the bike you are purchasing (custom or not). However I will agree that this often involves being upsold at the same time. The Guru DFU allows riders to feel geometric changes in real time. It’s a very cool and innovative tool. I’m not surprised that a company like Cannondale would want it in it’s technology arsenal. Better fitting awesome bikes: Win Win!

Brandon
Brandon
11 years ago

@Paul: I’ll spare the details, but being an ex Guru dealer, I can tell you first hand that my experience with them includes an outrageous number of QC issues. I only carried the bikes for a very short period of time before I realized that the time spent sending frames back to Canada for repair was far beyond what I considered acceptable. When I started dealing with warranty issues from other dealers who stopped carrying Guru I knew there was an issue.

cj gordon
cj gordon
11 years ago

What’s the big deal? One Canadian owned company( Cannondale) buying up another.Dorel the parent company of Cannondale is worth something like 2 billion plus dollars last time I checked so they can easily afford the purchase.

arlo
arlo
11 years ago

Like CJ says it makes sense I think the Photon is a bit of a gamble but all and all it works lets hope for the positive on this one

Jdog
Jdog
11 years ago

From what I heard, they are just buying the fit machine. But it was just a rumor I heard a few months back.

will
11 years ago

the dfu, like any other fit product, is only as good as the fitter. i have a dfu and love it. it required a huge huge time and financial commitment. it is a very advanced tool that should not be put in the hands of inexperienced shop personnel. the dfu is a big investment. if this is the course that cdale wishes to take (maybe to give specialized body geo a run for its money) than they need to understand that this is not a gimmick or a product that requires little or no training.

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