Ok, i really wasn’t going to write anything about the Specialized social media disaster that been spinning around the last couple of days. If there is someone who still don´t know this is i short terms what happened. Mega bicycle company Specialized sues a small bike shop, Cafe Roubaix Bicycle Studio, in Canada for using the name Roubaix in their name. Roubaix is a town in France and legendary in the cycling world for the famous Paris – Roubaix challenge. Specialized own the name Roubaix when used with bike components and there for sued this little bike shop for a huge amount. Read more here.
The article in the link got 53 thousand shares on Facebook and the bike community has gone berserk against Specialized. Just check their Facebook. This must be one of the biggest fails in branding history. I realize it´s important to stop pirate copies. That goes on my branch to. This is not about that and you need to pic your fights. And the cycling community. Talk about standing up for a small lbs. I think Specialized has underestimated the power of social media, which is hard to understand. A big company should have the best marketing people there is. It´s not like they are new to the internet. They got almost 400k followers on Facebook.
My personal opinion. I think they suck ass big time. This is probably the lowest you can go as a word wide big company. If “i am Specialized” Means being a bully i sure as hell am not Specialized. They should be ashamed!
Edit: Now it seems that the big S has whit drawn their law suit. http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/12/09/cochrane-bike-shop-owner-may-have-won-his-case-against-specialized-over-use-of-word-roubaix/
Bike life in Swedish Lapland 
It’s crazy isn’t it. I was saving up for a Specialized Secteur, which is the alloy version of their Roubaix. Needless to say, I will be riding my 1997 Trek OCLV a little longer because no way can I buy a Specialized bike after their actions.
Having said that, the real people who will suffer from Specialized actions are the small LBS who stock their brand. Two of my three LBS almost exclusively stock Specialized …
Yeah it is sad. Big companies acting like jerks. But now it seems to have been settled. Still, all cred is lost for Specialized. I´m so getting rid of mine.