Another bike from Mercedes

Check out this post on Go Clipless to see the newest bike from Mercedes. I agree with Graham that this is a disturbing trend. It reminds me of the mid to late nineties when several automakers (including Mercedes) were offering bikes, usually overpriced ones, under their own brand names. Does everyone remember the last generation of Mercedes labeled bikes? Basically they were AMP B5s with slight aesthetic changes and Mercedes stickers on the top tubes. Though AMP research is no longer making bikes, they still have a picture (shown here) on their website. I have to say that I like the old Mercedes design better than the latest one. At least the Horst Link was a good suspension design and was state of the art at the time the bike was released. I just don’t get the new design. It looks like a Y bike, but it is a decade too late. Maybe Mercedes has determined that their target market doesn’t care about performance and will rarely ride off road. Still, I don’t know why are they downgrading from a bike that they offered nearly ten years ago. AMPs were good bikes. Mercedes should have found an equally innovative design and manufacturing partner to get back into the bike business today.