It's the Cadillac of bikes
In a quirky marketing move by GM's hot-selling luxury marque, select bicycle shops in the U.S. and Canada and a few dealerships in Canada are now selling Cadillac-branded bikes produced by Kent International, Inc. In some instances, the bikes are being thrown in to close a sale or awarded to sales personnel who meet or beat goals. In the past three years the average age of Cadillac's customers has plummeted nearly a decade to the mid to late 40s, and the availability of a premium line of bicycles is designed to attract a buyer around the age of 35. Models come preassembled and range in price from $500 to $1,900. The high-end two-wheelers feature carbon-fiber composite and aluminum frames with disc brakes. GM was involved in every step of the bike's design to ensure that the now strong Cadillac brand image was represented well in a two-wheel counterpart.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kennymacks 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
maybe it's just me, but i think these kinds of bikes are a total joke for the money. you can buy a trek mountain bike that has way better components and frame material for less!
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mr 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
"gm was involved in every step of the bikes design to ensure that the now strong cadillac brand image was represented well in a two-wheel counterpart."
nonsense.
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iQuack 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
this clever badge engineering should improve cadillac's cafe mileage numbers.
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Tim 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
huh?? no cycling enthusiast in their right mind would be caught dead on top of a "cadillac bike." sorry... doesn't work that way. the vw/trek model seems to make more sense to me. but these cross brandings can get kinda crazy. having said that... i can't wait for the bullitt mustang in '08 ;)
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RamSport47 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
these days...shouldn't gm focus on their cars and trucks and leave the bikes to bike makers?
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Whydrive 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
trek is the gm of mountain bikes.
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PatrioticDissent 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
these should go over well with current and would-be (if they could afford) escalade drivers. are chrome spinner rims available?
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Motorin' 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
quite a few luxury brands have bikes, scooters, and various other "lifestyle" accessories. it's not really surprising that group now includes cadillac. they're often not truly for the enthusiast in the segment of the product, but for people who really like the brand...just standard marketing.
also, the cadillac division is doing quite well (to address ramsport47's comment). although it would be funny if they snuck in a little gm badge somewhere on every bike.
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Brian 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
other bikes made by kent are sold in such fine retailers as toys r us and wal-mart.
$500 to $1900, hah!
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Poe 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
ridiculous...
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Stone 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
>this clever badge engineering should improve cadillac's cafe mileage numbers.
lol
wow. these bikes look terrible.
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TimUF 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
you mean this: http://lowriderbike.com/bike_features/05winlrb_hellsbelle/
isnt the cadillac of bicycles?!? hmm... i wonder which one is more likely to end up in a music moguls escalade ext...
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md 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
well you could look at it another way. toyota sells $14,000 cars and also sells $60,000 cars under the lexus badge. same company, completely different cars from the ground up. i don't know much about bikes or bike brands, but maybe these are much better engineered than the regular trek bikes. however, i still think it is a stupid idea. at least jeep's bicycles make a little bit more sense.
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Jon F. 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
jeep, bmw, mb, and porsche did it, why not caddy?
how much do they weigh? 50lbs? :0
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Lee Gibson 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
well, md, i do know something about bicycles, and i'm here to tell you: kent has zero track record with making bikes that don't disintegrate before you get them out of the christmas wrapping.
kent is a cut rate huffy clone. i wouldn't trust them to build a tricycle.
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Manhattanite 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
as a bike enthusiast and rider, these bikes seem like crap and they'll only reinforce the so so image of cadillac. at least porsche when they did their bikes used a high quality niche manufacturer rather than one whose dealer network is walmark, k-mart, and sears. i think they'll be hurting their brand with these. kent also makes gmc bikes too - http://www.kentbicycles.com/bikes_gmc.html.
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J Zeke 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
anyone remember the movie "get shorty" ?
danny devito's quote at the end of the movie, after being asked why hes in an oldsmobile silhouette is "its the cadillac of minivans"
the silhouette was craptastic, and the line was a joke... whats cadillac's excuse here?
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tr 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
the problem with this is that if they are trying to use these bicycles to draw in a younger crowd (who are into luxury/performance/quality like cadillacs...?), these people would also want a bike manufacturer with the same characteristics in their bicycles. and that is not kent-built, cadillac-branded bicycles.
looking at the specs of the cadillac bikes (http://www.cadillacbicycles.com/), with the exception of the road and the high end mountain bikes, these are pretty mediocre, using low end parts. and even the higher end bikes use the lowest tier of a quality line of parts (shimano 105/deore lx). i'm guessing all the bikes are made in taiwan (not that it's particularly bad, but there are certainly better bikes made in taiwan than these.)
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km 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
don't overlook the colnago ferrari cf-2 and cf-3:
http://www.folsomdirect.com/cf2.jpg
http://www.folsomdirect.com/cf3.jpg
either one can be yours for a mere $9k...
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zack 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
i was going to buy a custom calfee or parlee, but what a deal! a road bike for $500 - 1500. what a joke!
cadillac get your arse in shape instead.
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