CentralCaliBike said:
I have heard in the past that re-badging was common. Today a lot of bikes have very distinctive profiles which might make that a tough sell. I a fairly confident that the top manufacturers build decent bikes but I wonder if there are some out there sponsoring teams that have a bad reputation which results in riders not wanting to ride for the team?
Maybe this one, though I don't remember exactly which team it was:
In 1978 Michel Pollentier was kicked off the top-level Flandria team in disgrace, caught at the TdF with a bulb of somebody else's urine up his sleeve. After that the only teams interested in him were second-tier squads.
One of these second-rate teams sent Pollentier and some domestiques to a stage race, where it turned out the sponsor's "race bikes" were utter junk, dressed up to look sporty. Enraged, the riders refused to keep using them. Pollentier himself was so pi$$ed off by the bikes that he took the boys to a local shop and bought them all new Colnagos, allegedly with his own money. They finished out the race on those bikes. Never did hear about how this played out with the sponsor.
I think this was in International Cycle Sport or something like it ages ago. Does anyone else remember this story, or ICS, for that matter?