atpjunkie said:
they are both Campy Cranks. The mfr would most likely want to sell the CF as it probably has a higher profit margin. racers are given a choice and choose what stuff they want within the limits. some guys are still using Chorus BB's as they trust the steel spindle more and nowhere, nohow is the mfr advertising that to sell. magnus is a classic example. he rides for Bianchi and 'his bike' is not even availbale to the consumer. they are one offs specifically for him. Noe if it was 'all about sales' to a pro rider/team/sponsor they'd have him on one of the floor models, doncha think?
Yes, riders are given a choice
within limits. It is up to the manufacture to chose what those limits are. Whether a Chorus or Record BB is used is probably of little concern to sponsor Campagnolo, because consumers can't see what BB is installed. Magnus's bike might be a one off - but it is painted and otherwised marked as similarly to other Bianchis, so that to the casual observer it looks like the Bianchi in the bike shop. An extreme example of this is NASCAR race cars. They are required by their auto manufacturing sponsors to outwardly resemble cars that are sold by the manufacturer to the public. But of course, the race car is completely custom built from the ground up and functionally is nothing at all like the car it aesthetically resembles. So why do the auto manufacturers pay a lot of money to NASCAR teams, if it isn't even using the manufacturer's products? Because they are paying for the team's
appearance to use their products.
And that's what it all boils down to - they want the consumer to
believe that the competitor is using the sponsors products, and usually particular products (for example, a NASCAR's auto sponsor won't let them model their car's appearance on an economy model, they want it to look like the car that is marketted as a performance model).
A classic example of sponsor tightly limiting equipment choices is how so many MTB XC racers suddenly switched from V-brakes to disk brakes a few years ago. Why? Not because they asked for them, but because they were required to use them by contract to their equipment sponsor, Shimano. A few years later, when the contractual obligation was removed, many of them went back to V-brakes, because that is what they really preferred.
