Following swiftly on the heels of last Friday’s news, here’s the full Press Release from Madison…
11th January 2010 : Madison is pleased to announce an agreement to distribute front and rear DT Swiss suspension products in the UK. DT Swiss and Madison will launch their 2010 products to the UK market at IceBike* 2010.
DT Swiss rear suspension was originally introduced in 2001, followed 5 years later by a range of front suspension products after the acquisition of the suspension fork business from Pace Cycles Ltd. With this acquisition in 2006 DT Swiss became a full scale, high end suspension product manufacturer. To this day all suspension products are hand assembled in Biel, Switzerland.
DT Swiss has quickly become the XC race fork of choice for professional, recreational, and serious cyclists. In 2009 DT Swiss proved itself as the fork of champions when Nino Schurter piloted the XRC100 Race fork to become UCI World champion.
2010 marks a huge step for DT Swiss suspension with not one but two completely new technology dampers; in fact all fork internals are completely revised for 2010 and represent a significant advance in suspension fork capability and functionality. There will also be the introduction of a range of magnesium-lower forks using the patented ‘Torsion Box Technology’ to create a magnesium lower stiffer than any other on the market. The use of magnesium lowers will allow lower price points and will complement the higher end flagship carbon fibre models.
Dominic Langan, CEO of Madison said “DT Swiss front suspension is a great fit into our existing portfolio, and we are excited to be launching the forks at a time when DT Swiss is introducing some innovative new technologies across the range”.
Frank Boeckmann, Sales Director of DT Swiss AG explains, “Our 2010 range of suspension products is the culmination of several years spent developing new technology, and we are very pleased to be working with Madison to launch these new platforms in the UK. I am sure that a highly professional company like Madison will make our new class leading products a great success in the UK marketplace”.
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Not looking for drama unnecessarily, but does anyone else read a veiled swipe at Pace in Herr Boeckmann’s last sentence?
“…I am sure that a highly professional company like Madison will make our new class leading products a great success in the UK marketplace”.
Are Pace still owned by DT Swiss after this?
I noticed the veiled swipe, and also a slightly-less veiled one in the opposite direction from Adrian Carter on the article about Pace ceasing distribution. Sounds like all was not gravy, but if my experience of Pace’s customer service on faulty forks in the pre-DT Swiss days was anything to go by, I can see why. Great product design, poor manufacturing tolerances (pre-DT Swiss!), fairly good customer communications, but never a proper fix or resolution following 3 x returns to the factory. Result = a slightly-used pair of £450 Pace forks sat unrideable for 4 years in the shed.
Pace never were owned by DT Swiss as far as I’m aware. DT Swiss bought the Pace ‘suspension division’ I think, which effectively meant the fork designs, the exclusive rights to produce them and presumably some kind of ‘knowledge transfer’ process.
Am sure Madison will do a good job. They’ve been distributing and supporting the DT Swiss rear shocks for years, they have big buying-power, the product reliability has reportedly improved and there’s these less expensive new Magnesium-legged models on the way which will really help with market pentration.
Ya DT just bought the rights to all paces carbon fork designs. Part of deal meant pace would be the importer for DT swiss products.
Who is the wheel importer now?
Wheels = Madison
I couldn’t abide the ludicrous prices.
I had a pair of RC40 forks which weren’t the most reliable (back to Pace twice) not quite as stiff as claimed but the damping was excellent.
They cost £439.
To see the same forks (albeit with an air spring) on sale for over £800 makes me want to avoid anything DT Swiss where better priced alternatives can be sourced.
Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.