A visit to the specialized museum

Specialized Bicycles is headquartered in Morgan Hill and has a nice museum on site. My Tuesday riding group had previously visited in the spring of 2020, just before the Covid pandemic broke out. We went again last Tuesday, and this time our guide was Robert Egger, who has been their creative director for years. He designs their concept bicycles, many of which are in the museum, and also guides the future directions of the product lines. He is also a good and funny guy and a great storyteller.

It was fun to hear him tell the story of how Mike Sinyard, the CEO, founded Specialized Bicycle Imports, which grew into the current company. I told that story here, but we got some new tidbits from Robert.

The next fun anecdote was how Robert got involved with the company. He had a degree in industrial design and worked for a bicycle dealer in Los Gatos in the early 1980s. A customer came in that Robert didn’t recognize and asked questions about many Specialized products. Robert would say the Specialized product was pretty good, but this is why a competitor’s model was better (their panniers are made a little sturdier, or their water bottles have a wider opening so you can put ice in them easily). When he later found out this was Mike Sinyard, he thought he would be fired if Mike complained to the store’s owner. Instead, Mike called him and arranged for him to come to Morgan Hill for a visit. He hired Robert on the spot and gave him his first assignment: to oversee improving all the parts that Robert thought weren’t the best.