Cross posted from our sister site, twentynineinches.com, for your reading pleasure.

“Morgan Hill looks a lot like San Luis Obispo to me”, I said as I rode along seated next to Al, my driver assigned to get me from the airport in San Jose, Ca, to the HQ of Specialized Corp. in Morgan Hill, Ca.  Al remarked that he had never been to San Luis Obispo, and then went back to talking about his relationship with Specialized (his company handles the bulk of their limo services) and the time he has spent chauffeuring Mike Sinyard, the owner of the company.  “Mike is a real down to earth guy and is a total bike nut.  He even invited me on a ride and arranged a bike for me to ride for a day.”  He went on to talk about the way he leads company group rides, how he often rides from the airport to the office instead of grabbing the limo, etc.  In his mind, Mike is a smart guy and all, but after all this time is also a passionate cyclist.  Interesting.

The intention of the visit was two fold:  To tour the facility and meet some of the key folks that are bringing the 29ers to market, and to ride a 2010 FSR Stumpjumper 29er.  The timing of the weather was a bit off though.  California was experiencing some of the harshest winter weather in years with nearly biblical rains, winds and even tornado warnings in Orange County.  Northern Cal was just as bad.  It was raining sideways as I stepped out of the limo and reached into my pocket for a ‘consideration’ for Al.  The wind grabbed my money and flung it across the wet tarmac.  AHHHHhhh!  “Al, I have good news and bad news.  I got most of it back and only lost one 20 dollar bill.  Unfortunately THAT one was yours.” Just kidding.  However the storm that was stripping me of my wealth was also making for a challenging day to test ride a bike.  Anyone riding today was pretty hardcore.  We shall see.

Stepping into the lobby of the company, I was surrounded by bikes from various years and models going back to the first Stumpys and road bikes.  Along with those were notable racing bikes, experimental design stuff…real pieces of history there.  Was that one of Ned’s bikes?  I think so, Tension Disc and all.  Even a pink Team Stumpjumper.  New stuff too, like the Globe line.  Apparently they remember their roots here and are proud of it.  That is a good sign.

I was shown around by Nic Sims, marketing man extraordinaire.  Specialized spends a lot of time educating their dealers and employees about their product.  They even have a classroom dedicated to the program they call SBCU, Specialized Bicycle Components University.

There is a gym for rainy days that would make a lot of health clubs jealous.  There is the Body Geometry Room where they train dealers to properly fit customers to bikes and clothing using the Body Geometry system.  Nic mentioned the high end road racers that have benefited from the fit system, being turned from skeptical Euro roadie to happy camper.  I know I have enjoyed the fit of the shoes with the variable insole supports and the saddle on the Epic Marathon has been very comfy for as racy a design as it is.

I saw rooms full of tires and wheels, helmets and shoes.  I spoke to the tire guy, the wheels guy, the men that torture frames bolted to machines that can sense when a frame not only breaks, but even begins to fail by just a hair.  There are helmet testing machines that certify not only the shell for impact, but the straps, the buckle, etc.  Ever wonder why an S Works helmet costs so much?  It is not just the light weight.  It is the strength that needs to be engineered back into the helmet after all the material is removed to make it light, like the Kevlar in this example shown next to a helmet mold. There is a lot of testing going on here, which is good.  That can save you and I from being the test dummies. 

There are huge rooms for bike storage. Employees bikes, test bikes, bikes everwhere.  The lunchtime rides are legendary.  Nic talks about the times when Mike Sinyard will come by his desk and pull him away from the emails to go for a ride.  These are bike people here.

After a while I sat down in a room with many of the key people that bring you bikes, some of the guys being dedicated just to the 29er line.  We discussed bikes like the Epic Marathon and the thoughts behind XX, 2x10 grouppos, wheel design, through-axle forks, carbon frames, etc.  We talked about the future and what you, the readers of this site, are looking for.  Some of that is just good business sense, building what the audience wants, but a lot of it seemed to be a genuine desire to make a product that is the best they can offer the customer.  It is fairly common to point an accusing finger at a big company like Trek, Giant or Specialized and say things like “soulless, WalMart, capitalist machine, bully.”  And, while being big has its downfalls and Specialized is no angel, size also has its upside as well.  Large companies can engineer, develop and test products at a level that is beyond most smaller builders.  They may not always innovate, but they often refine and then offer the marketing, distribution and support that only a bigger company can bring to the table.  Being big has its advantages. 

But, like the banner says, in the end a big company is made up of individuals.  And, if they are allowed to be, or in this case encouraged to be, they can be passionate, dedicated, and fun loving people that fight the battles with the accounting dept just like any company that makes widgets.  They get mired down in emails, conference calls and meetings on the second floor.  But after that is done, they go riding their bikes.  It may be the bike you will be buying next year or two years from now.  It may be a bike that is old and beaten but still good to go and it just may be Mike Sinyard up there on point, dragging his workers around the back roads of Morgan Hill.

After all the talk, it was time to ride.  An XL FSR Stumpjumper was set up for me and we met at the back parking lot of the building.  It was howling wind and rain.  Thunder rolled across the sky. Unbeknownst to be, the county had just raised a monsoon warning at the time we were loading up the van.  I actually had three employees crazy enough to go out with me, or actually maybe I was crazy enough to go out with them…I am not sure which.  In any case, for my thoughts on the FSR Stumpy 29er, rain rides, 3x9 shifting, more travel, what makes a trail bike and moderately crazy Specialized employees, stay tuned for the second part of the story.  It gets wet from here.