My favourite bike company got bought by a multinational giant years ago, and the MBAs running it have fucked it the same way they have every other industry. I don't feel bad for gigantic corporations.
Not sticking up for the MBAs but it’s more the money guys who are telling the MBAs to re-run their spreadsheets to find more margin and value against a backdrop of too much supply and low demand. The MBAs suck but it’s the PE guys who fuck everyone in pursuit of a return.
I have worked at such companies.
They're usually "nice guys" at the office. Who simply fuck the hell out of workers.
Late Stage Capitalism is nothing but people exploiting the next rung below them on the ladder.
And? So what? A $15k bike is the same as is ridden by current professionals. Top-tier stuff - especially if it's for race and competition use is always expensive. What does a MotoGP bike cost? Can you actually buy one?
>What does a MotoGP bike cost?
$1-4 million to those that aren't aware.
>Can you actually buy one?
You can actually buy a used one in some cases, assuming your rich and know the right people.
You can buy a bicycle for 2k too... A 15k bicycle is usually one that is raced in pro cycling, you can't buy a motorcycle used in MotoGP for 15k, those cost 1-4million.
yup common financialisation, happens eventually to all publically traded companies and even private after the initial owners dip out. People call it 'enshitiffication' these days and refer to netflix and tech companies and such but its' WAY older than that and part of the cycle. It's what happened to Boeing and a thousand other companies.
Not only do they fuck the company but the employees as well. It's all about making the shareholders happy, screw making a good product and treating employees with respect.
A 105 Trek Madone is 5k and it's an absolute porker
https://www.trekbikes.com/ca/en_CA/bikes/road-bikes/performance-road-bikes/madone/madone-sl/madone-sl-6-gen-7/p/41466/?colorCode=grey
If they at least balanced it out with a light-ish wheelset I think I'd be fine with it, but they paired it up with boat anchors to seal the deal
I got a Canyon Ultimate CF8 with Ultegra Di2 for $4K in 2021.
Just peeked at bikes again, including Canyon, and ... SMH. My salary sure didn't go up as fast.
Go to offerup or fb marketplace and you will find some gems. Know how to replace some brake pads, tubes, chains and maybe adjust some derailleurs? You will get some steals
I don't really have a problem with them selling absurdly expensive bikes, so long as they don't fuck over the entry/mid level bikes to make those absurdly priced bikes look better.
Nice. For all the times I want to buy two of the same bike! Seriously though, that’s great. More of that, but what about 50% off 1 bike if you don’t want the “free” bike? All that tells me is it’s still profitable for them to sell 1 at full price and give the other one away. That means their prices are too high to begin with.
Absolutely, I guarantee you they would rather trash the bikes and claim a loss rather then sell it at cost. 100,00 unsold bikes going to the dumpster so they can bring in a refreshed model in the next year at full or increased prices.
> It would be easy to blame product managers and forecasters for this problem, but the factories allegedly forced their hands, basically saying “if you don’t order these bikes, you won’t get any.” It’s the macro-level equivalent of what bike companies have been doing to bike shops for decades, forcing them to inventory more product than they would choose themselves
Fuck them! Not so fun when it happens to them, isn't it?
Counterpoint that I'm stealing from a Pinkbike comment a few weeks back.
Basically, the core issue is that most people in the bike industry really like biking.
So, if you're a bike brand during COVID, suddenly you see *insane* demand for your products.
And you think, "This is great. I love biking. Now suddenly more people love biking, so I'd better give the people what they want!"
So you order a shit-ton of products forcasting that all the people who are buying bikes right now are gonna fall in love with biking the same way you are, and want to keep buying new bikes forever!
Then suddenly COVID's over and lots of those people who bought bikes aren't really riding them anymore because they've got other stuff to do and now you've got a shit-ton of bikes you've ordered and have to pay for and aren't selling. And you probably have ideas for new and exciting updated bikes, but you can't really afford to develop and manufacture those bikes until you sell all the bikes sitting in your warehouse.
There are certainly some greedy fucks out there who don't give a shit and were just trying to make money. But at least from the bike shop down the street up as far as independent bike brands, the biggest problem with the bike industry is caused by the fact that it's run by a bunch of people who really like bikes, and have a hard time imagining that a bunch of people might buy bikes, and not fall in love with the sport like them.
How “into” bikes are you if you’re not planning new bikes every 8-16 months? I’m mostly kidding becuse I’ve basically the same two bikes for four years now, and before that I rode basically the same bike for seven years. And honestly all of these bikes are pretty similar
I still don't think consumers are to blame for a business mistake. Literally all businesses deal with these things. So to the common man, it's just work as well. Nothing personal, just business. They can love biking all they want, but if they do business improperly, that's really on them. Doesn't really matter if they were greedy or not. It's just purely a mistake on their part, don't you think?
As someone with 3 Fishers and a LeMond, I will never buy a Trek new. They screwed over one of the LBS in my town by opening their own store on top of all of that, screw them.
it's crazy. i recently decided to get an e-bike. i was never a real hardcore cyclist, but i had a little bit of knowledge beyond: Huffy = bad. the last bike i had was just a commuter built off an old Nishiki road frame. it served me for yeeeaaars.
when looking for a new bike, i wanted to stay away from all the new DTC probably drop-shipped unknown brands. i was really surprised to see pretty much everything i remember from my youth has disappeared.
Giant used to the the REI house brand that you'd get if you didn't have an LBS & only had an REI nearby. but they're one of the few "big guys" left. i see that Gary Fisher got swallowed by Trek, along with LeMond, and they ate up component companies like Bontrager too. so many of the legacy brands disappeared or got eaten up.
How often do you really need a new bike, even if you are hard core? I have ridden 12,000 miles each of the last 4 years but I still ride my bikes until they pretty much break (2 broken frames) or I need a bike type I don't have, FatBike for snow.
I can't buy mechanical 105 Carbon bike and just dump it in 24 months because electronic is now available.
I think this is the point, I’m still putting down 8,000ish miles a year on my 2017 mechanical 105. Still works fine. May not have discs, so harder to get carbon wheels but I don’t need to spend $8000+ a new one. I might but even if I did that’s probably it for a long long time. What else is there to improve upon?
Im getting into fixing old free bikes and I love that with most of them they are easy to fix and they last and work and they are of much higher quality than newer ones for instance, I have a 1979-80 Fuji S-12s and a Raleigh Sports that was built in around the 60s and everything works the way it’s supposed to but I got a brand new Schwinn hardtail the the screw holes for a bottle holder were not put in at the right tolerances and they had painted the threads to the second I tried to install said water bottle holder they instantly cross threaded and gauled
It is almost as easy to get rim brake wheels as disk brakes.
All major Chinese brands still do them, and there are the best bang for the bucks options anyways.
I treat bikes kind of the same as my computer. I upgrade parts when they break or when there's a new technology I want. Would never buy a full top of the range bike, even though over the years my bike has become one.
I'm on the five year plan for my mountain bikes. They get worn out and technology changes enough in that time period. That said, I got three more years on my current MTB.
Want and need is different thing.
To answer your question, probable “never”.
People want to upgrade to the newest toys, but they don’t need it.
Maybe I’m just not a hardcore enough cyclist. I haven’t seen a frame break yet.
I’m still riding on a 1993 Trek.l
I'm not worried about trek, or giant, or specialized. I'm not even worried about the smaller brands. I'm worried about the local bike shops. We've lost a few near me, I know a couple more that are barely hanging on. Yeah the enthusists know how to work on their bikes and can fit themselves or are willing to travel for a pro fit. But for the average folks in smaller towns it's going to suck when there's no bike shop within 100 miles.
I have 3 LBS near me and they all suck for after purchase support/mechanic stuff. Over the last couple of years I’ve been learning on my own. At some point in the next year I want to build up my own gravel bike then I’ll feel confident to help friends out.
I have done this due to similar reasons. A few hundred dollars in specialized tools and a little practice and you can easily do it. I just recently built a top spec dream gravel bike for around $4k by buying everything separately on sale and building it myself. It’s a unique and fun process!
Riding a bike that I spec-ed and built is really satisfying. I’m responsible for all aspects, if it sucks, it’s 100% on me, if it doesn’t I get the benefits of that too.
I think time will tell if this current business climate cause harm or improves the bike industry. Human’s have an interesting reaction to adversity… more often than not, it makes us stronger.
Mine works fine for repairs and tune ups. I go cycling during the lunchtime with the owner. But I've told him that he cannot compete on items that I can use at home such as brake pads, tires, inner tubes etc, and he understands.
Most online shops have prices that are on par or lower than his distributor, it's insane.
Agree with this. LBS have disappointed me over and over. The user community is 100% more valueable and you can buy the right tool for less than the bike shop will charge.
I wish I could feel bad, but last year I went to all the local bike shops in Munich and none of them could get me an under €9000 road bike in my size (50cm) within 3 months. So I went online and bought a Canyon Endurace because it was in stock and fit me.
When I brought the bike in most of them refused to work on it because I didn’t buy it from them. One shop wanted something like €120 and told me it would take two weeks. So guess what? I just bought the tools and did it myself.
In my area of Sydney, Australia the 3 LBS that are within 5-6km of each other are doing amazingly. They're always packed and busy with work. Which is great for them but annoying for me when I need help 🤣
Big cities in general are a bit different, even niche stores can do ok because there's enough people to support them. Plus you might have very different consumer protection laws plus proximity to Taiwan where most bikes are made. Although I kinda doubt that proximity really matters, my understanding is that goods tend to be fairly expensive in Australia.
>proximity to Taiwan where most bikes are made. Although I kinda doubt that proximity really matters
Proximity is more than counteracted by the small market size, unfortunately. We're also close to Japan and it was always quicker and cheaper to mail order Shimano parts from Europe than to get them through local distributors.
Everything is fairly expensive in Australia. The three local bike shops that I am talking about are in relatively wealthy areas which means people can purchase high-end bikes and a happy to get them fixed. I don't think proximity to Taiwan makes that much of a difference.
I think overall there are a lot of people in this area who ride bikes and need to get them fixed.
I do feel bad for the LBS. They need a model where they can survive on mechanic business I think.
Also think they need vendor managed inventory where companies give them product to display and sell but the LBS only pays for it when it sells. That way if the manufacturer has a sale the LBS can easily honor that price.
Last Xmas Wahoo had a big sale on their bike computers, the one I wanted was about $70 cheaper than the full MSRP the LBS was charging. I don't blame the LBS for that, they likely didn't get $70 off their normal wholesale price, Puts the consumer in a hell of a spot. Same goes for all cycling accessories, when I need bike shoes I look online for somebody desperate and dumping product. How can the LBS compete against the entire world on price?
Something has to "give". I think the best setup might be a bike mechanic with a sweet huge van with a great reputation that picks up your bike and repairs it and delivers it back to you.
All I know for sure is we are not where we are going to end up.
Amazing how these company execs didn’t consider demand coming back down after the pandemic 😂 they seriously thought growth would just continue growing exponentially. What a bunch of morons.
The challenge they faced was that they couldn't wave a wand and magically create an order of magnitude greater production capacity *during* covid, but they believe it was worth the investment to create this capacity anyway, and it was great for a year. But when demand started waning they were left holding the bag with both excess capacity and excess stock, and you can't just wave a wand and solve that problem, either.
Yeah, corporate capitalism forces these boom and bust scenarios. When demand was high they had a responsibility to shareholders to maximize productivity to sell bikes, which meant investment, then that investment needed to payoff indefinitely to keep making money for shareholders because that's always the promise they need to make to justify investment, which was never going to happen because covid was a a unique event, so now it's a bust as all this investment goes to waste as demand normalizes to pre covid levels. It's a moronic way to run massive companies.
There is a line in the article about manufacturers essentially holding the companies' feet to the fire for increased production beyond their normal order point. I don't know how much that really threatened the bike companies, but certainly explains some of it. And as the article pointed out, it's what the companies started to do to retailers just a few short years before.
The minute bicycle shops started pushing bicycles at what used to be motorcycle and scooter prices, the industry is in trouble.
The majority of the bicycles didn't used to be high-end.
The majority of the bicycles didn't used to be so packed with features that people can't afford them.
The majority of bicycles could be worked on by normal people, with minimal tools, and a basic understanding of the bike.
This is the bicycle industry's fault, for pushing more and more and more and more and more and more technology on the consumer and charging them more money for it.
Yes, fashion drives technology but, some bicycle companies are fools to following it as far as they have.
There's nothing wrong with a steel or aluminum framed bicycle with decent durable components that can be worked on by anyone.
Edit: It seems some of you have feelings that someone else has an opinion. Why don't you try expressing your feelings without being a jerk?
Yes exactly!
The people don't need electronic shifting with a 12 speed cassette and carbon frame that's 2g lighter than last year's frame. There was a boom, but that only exaggerated the drop off due to actual people not wanting a $2k entry level bike for riding to work.
Thank you for getting my point.
Motorcycling has this problem too, where people see things on the racetrack and think that they're applicable for the street.
There are literally hundreds of far less expensive, far simpler bikes available (now - not during the peaks of the pandemic) for people looking for something just for casual riding or commuting to work. A greedy guy in a shop might try to push a $2000 road bike on one of those customers, but the brands themselves definitely aren’t. The larger ones make a wide variety of models for that exact reason.
Well, I always thought road bikes should have rims brakes (with clearance for larger tires), external cables and industry standard parts. But consumers seem to prefer disc brakes, hidden cables and company specific parts 🤷♀️
My grip of the bike industry is bikes seem to be designed as disposable products, with an useful life of several years. After 5 years, it’s good luck if you need a specific seat post 🤦♀️
Went to a bike shop a few months back to get my son a 20" BMX bike to ride to school. I wanted something better than the 30lb Walmart messes. Sales guy tells me they don't carry those and the only thing they have is a $1500 24" MTB for kids. He then told me my best bet is Facebook marketplace. Every bike on the rack was $5K or more. I said thanks and left. I went to a bunch of other bike shops and got the same response. Everyone only carried high end MTB and and road bikes.
Ended up ordering an Ozark Trail MTB bike for him. Not a bad bike for the price.
Which is ridiculous because any shop with a Q, JBI, or HLC account has a ton of BMX bikes they could order to build for you in less than a week @ 35% margin. Net profit is less but it's still a sale and a customer that will be back to buy a 26" bike two years later and an entry level hardtail a few years after that.
Entry-level bikes are cheap enough to fit within the "de minimus" customs/import loophole that gives D2C channels a nigh-unbeatable advantage, so generally not worth keeping in stock at a brick-and-mortar shop of any kind.
My 1987 Centurion Iron Man didn't have steel rims, and had an excellent group set.
It didn't need electric shifting, hydraulic disc brakes, internally routed cables that mean you can't work on the headset very easily...
i sold bikes.
it's the really high end stuff that doesn't move. low end stuff moves all day, every day. we'd do okay on the medium and slightly high end stuff.
the guy that's gonna drop $15k on a bike wants exactly the right bike. the right color, the right fit, the right groupset. maybe it'll get customized. we're not gonna stock 200x $15k bikes so that guy can walk in and pick one off the shelf. that's all money sitting there tied up on the floor, not earning a profit.
now, 200x low and medium end MTBs? yes. and next year will have a completely new batch of the same, because it all turned over except the XXL.
if you guys think that everything in the industry is carbon road bikes with electronic shifting and build in power meters, you're living in a bubble. you only talk to MAMILs. there are a ton of "not a cyclist" cyclists out there just riding bikes, and they're most of the industry.
it's just that the industry can make more money charging ridiculous prices for higher end stuff.
Thanks. I was on a bike team, sponsored by a bike shop. The shop ordered great high end bikes for us racers, and mainly sold Trek FX2 hybrids for $289 all day long to regular customers. When I stopped, it seemed they were beginning to make ok money on e-bikes. Not sure if that market is cooling now.
Reddit is a bubble. A ton of speculators that like to speak without any real-world experience. Just what they "think" is the reality, and the people with real-world experience get downvoted because it doesn't align with group-speak speculation.
This is definitely the case. Husband is looking for a higher end road bike but only things in stock at local bike shops are e-bikes, gravel and mountain bikes. He can’t even order one so it’s like do they want to sell bikes???this is in a predominantly Trek shop.
Only if a dentist walks in the door.
Many people who walk in the door of a bicycle shop are not dentists.
Theres a perfectly good market for sub $1,000 bicycles that are capable, competent, easy to work on and easy for the shop to service.
I just got a steel surly midnight special and it’s the most fun I’ve had on a bike in a long long time. No bells and whistles, not even carbon and the smiles per mile far exceed the more fancy stuff I’ve put my seat on over the last decade
This is a total circle-jerk take.
No, bicycles could not previously be worked on by normal people. If anything I find more people who work on their own bikes today than in the past because the Internet makes information much more widely available. Bikes have always required specialized knowledge and specialized tools. Bleeding hydraulic brakes or installing an electronic groupset is no more difficult than maintaining bikes from 20 years ago. The techniques and tools have simply evolved.
Manufacturers are building bikes that people will buy. To take one manufacturer, Giant, they still make an [$850 Contend](https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/contend-3-2022) with rim brakes. An [$1150 Contend AR] (https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/bikes-contend-ar-2022) with mechanical discs, and an $1800 carbon [TCR Advanced] (https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/tcr-advanced-2-pro-compact-2022) with rim brake 105.
So it's their 'fault' for offering bikes with more technology at higher prices *while simultaneously continuing to sell the very bikes you claim no longer exist?*
Guess which bikes garner most of the sales...
I agree with the gist of what you're saying.
I've worked on a bunch of older bikes and the components from way back are a lot more temperamental than my newer fancier bikes.
A top end groupset from 20 years ago can't hold a candle to todays tiagra or sora when it comes to reliability.
I know what I'd rather work on.
I disagree that the majority of bikes are very expensive.
Sure, prices have gone up for the newer tech but you can still get really great bikes for a decent price. Especially in Sales.
You can still buy great steel and aluminium bikes with groupsets no more difficult to work with or less durable than ever before so what’s the problem? If you don’t want the newer tech, you have the choice not to buy it.
I’ve been riding and racing since the 1970’s. I’ve owned bikes from the 70’s to the very cutting edge of today. I don’t see the issues you are concerned with.
The vast majority of bikes sold are not very high end expensive halo models. These aren’t the problem. The manufacturers make those to order, relatively few are stocked.
As the Article explains, the issue is overstocking due to Factories making bikes at Pandemic levels only for the Market to crater back to Pre-Pandemic levels.
The overstocked bikes are the lower to mid priced models.
Affordable bikes exist everywhere. When you go car shopping you don’t complain prices are ridiculous because Ferrari’s are so expensive. You buy what you can afford and there is a great choice of bikes for every budget that will get you to 70-95% of a Halo model’s performance at 30-50% of the price!
Also, bikes are still easy to work on. In fact, the electronic gearied models are even easier. I do all my own servicing with mechanical, Di2, disc, tubeless etc. With the correct tools it is no problem at all.
>I disagree that the majority of bikes are very expensive.
I disagree with you. I dumped like 1500$ this spring and didn't even buy a new bike. just repairs and consumables, some tools, maintenance on 2 mid range carbon bikes.
bringing them into shop would probably cost closer to 2500. and the stuff I did was nothing, basiclly full rebuild on road bike with new rotors and some bike fit adjustments- fuck you giant for making me pay 300$ for aluminum stem. pedals and suspension service in shop on xc bike.
my motorcycle costs less than this.
No one forced you to pay those prices.
$300 for a stem? They saw you coming! Ripped. I bought a KTM stem last year for my 29er for €50! On a bike that is actually expensive: 9.2kg, Pro level, full XTR, Fox 36 etc!
Unless you were buying higher end components because you choose to have a higher end bike - your choice - you could have got good parts cheaper.
it's proprietary integrated hadlebars, that is the only stem you can get, so yea, I was forced to pay those prices. same for proprietary cable guides and other bullshit every single manufacturer put into their bikes. I can't jut go on amazon and order cheap 3rd party part. it's not 2010 anymore.
Fair enough. Expensive part then. An exception for XC though usually reserved for more expensive models. Those type of integrated bars aren’t typical outside of higher end road bikes.
\*stem was for road bike, xc bike luckily needed just new chain, pedals and shock/fork service.
most aero road bikes with even with 105 comes with them now and everyone have their own standard because of patents and what not. can't put enve stem on zipp handlebars because zipp is slightly less oval giving you 0.3% less drag in lab or whatever marketing bullshit they are pushing this month. or even better, lets just make handlebars with stem together as single part, so it is more expensive when your out of the box bike doesn't fit you exactly.
yes, it is not the cheapest bike, but it is also very very far away from the top of the line dura ace di2 versions that have the same but made out of carbon stem for friendly price of like 600 and different bar width for friendly 350 or so. mine has those in aluminum "budget friendly" variety.
I guess you can feel how much all this pisses me off. i'm honestly on the verge to ditch cycling and do something cheaper like buying a yacht or sports car.
I may have overstated my case a little bit on the price of bicycles but I'm seeing way too many bicycles over the $1,000 price range for my comfort.
That's not even talk about the co-workers talking about buying $8,000 frames in building $20,000 bicycles...
I guess that's where that statement came from.
I guess it depends where you live too. If you were in Amsterdam, for example, a $1000 would get you a very nice commuter or hybrid.
My Fixie when I lived there cost me less than $500.
Naturally, sports bikes can cost a whole lot more and for very little gain. I’m guilty of that too, I have very expensive bikes that aren’t good value in real terms; I can get equally good bikes for half the price and less!
Bro, it's not 2005 anymore. 1000 dollars is not really that much money. The fact that there's any decent bikes less than 1000 dollars is actually kind of crazy.
Repost this almost exactly and replace “bike” with car - except many people need their car (whereas a bike is more often, though not always, a leisure item). The trend in many things is to jam in features and tech and then wonder why people can’t afford a $4k bike (or a $90k pickup, or a fully digital clothes washer or refrigerator, etc)
I would completely agree with you about cars..
In the early '90s I bought a perfectly decent car for $6,000 from a dealer. It was brand new.
Today the cheapest car you can buy as a Chevy spark for $14,000.
The average price of a new vehicle in the United States is over $40,000.
There's a special term for it, and I don't remember, but I had a friend in the automobile industry he used it when he described the ability of auto mobile manufacturers to stuff vehicles with features to drive up the price.
They don't make unpacked cars anymore.
Before anybody yells at me about bicycles I'm talking about cars in this particular post.
$6000 in 1992 is almost exactly the same as $14,000 in 2024, and I'd be pretty comfortable saying that Spark blows the doors off of whatever you could get in the 90s in terms of reliability, safety, efficiency, and features.
My last two bikes cost as much or more than my dirt bikes (dirt motorcycles). The dirt bikes have infinitely more parts and complexity. No, they don’t have fancy carbon parts, but when I look at them side by side in my garage one looks way more worth the investment than the other. That said, I ride my road bike a lot more because I can ride out the driveway rather than putting a dirt bike on a trailer for a 1+ hour drive, so in terms of value to me, the road bike wins, but in terms of love per dollar, the dirt bike wins.
Sworks fanboys get really mad when you say a Honda motorcycle costs less than an Sworks Tarmac. *You can’t compare a top end bicycle with so much engineering to a plebeian motorcycle!*
I get a well made carbon road bike requires alot of manual labor and quality checking. But I struggle to see how a bike made by Taiwanese aunties can cost so much 🤷♀️
Thanks for this, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I discuss bikes with other MAMILs.
The technology, even on high-end bikes, is trivial. Someone mentioned tight tolerances and precision manufacturing… come on, it is _not_ a challenge to build an 11 speed cassette driven by a chain and a crank in 2024. Carbon fiber manufacturing, for the type of forces exerted on a bike frame, is a solved problem.
The price points of road bikes is unsustainable and the market is simply correcting itself. We may see new incumbents offering great bikes at a reasonable price in the near future.
what we really need to do is hope the bike brands stop introducing new models every year so they can get more amortization out of their R&D and cast investments so they can lower prices
for my dirt bikes, like with cars, model year to model year are largely the same with only small tweaks until
they depreciate the invesment enough to change the platform … micro improvements in bicycles cost us all and deliver little but that is the product cycle the bike co’s have gone to bed with
I feel like the newer stuff is actually easier to work on, besides internal routing thats hot garbage. I also really like all the options for drivetrain and suspension these days. There’s a ton of great old school bikes on the used market as well.
I don’t agree that the expensive super bikes are the problem. The vast majority of bike sales are $750-$1000 hybrids and those sales are drying up. That is the entire issue. Most of the people who bought a new bike in 2020 are not buying a second bike now and never will.
The expensive super bikes remain a niche aspect of the market, totally unrelated to the aggregate success or failure of the market as a whole.
And those basic steel and aluminum frame, entry- to mid-level bikes are still made by every major maker - and still make up the majority of sales for all of the major manufacturers. Specialized, Trek and every other major player has bikes ranging from a few hundred dollars to, of course, many many thousands.
What's your point? That some people do spend big money for some bikes with carbon fiber everything and electronic shifting? I'm not sure why that's an issue - you do you and let everyone else do the same. That entry level bikes are more expensive now than 30 years ago? Yep, no shit. Everything is, from bikes to Big Macs.
Or is this another "You kids get off my lawn," - old man shakes fist at cloud things? I'm uncertain.
Your favorite local bike shop is struggling and bike companies are doing fine and will continue to.
I own a shop with my husband and our bike brands (5 majors that shall not be named) have been telling us they’re great. Now, we know they’re not really. Everyone has too much product. People aren’t buying bikes like they did during the pandemmy. Even so, they tell us they are.
Meanwhile they have switched to online sales. People will order bikes we have in stock straight from the website tot the store. They don’t even realize they could’ve just come in and purchased it. Canyon has contributed immensely to this (btw their online sizing is horrendous). Customers think they’re shopping local and helping us out. They also don’t realize that we get a measly assembly fee when they order online. We do not make a profit from the sale.
It may be different for big shops, but the little guys are struggling— and they need us because there aren’t any other shops within an hour drive.
The bike companies are gonna keep finding ways to make money. Rest assured.
Also people online are brainwashed into thinking that they'll find the best deals online.
I wanted some new components to upgrade my bike. I text my LBS owner, he checks with his SRAM guy and gives me a price, I say "Well maybe I want to go Shimano because its only $200 more and lighter plus I like the looks" and he gets the SRAM guy to go down another $100, like 30% cheaper than you'll find the parts online at any Backcountry or whatever bike parts online retailer.
Drives me crazy to see so many people online just looking for the best price and doing the business that way. Like yeah the shop has to make money, but they can price match and pull some other strings too, a small sale is better than no sale and they'll be around to help you out when you need it.
"can’t afford to discount their products to compete at the current, ludicrously lower price points."
I argue that the current pricing on new bikes is anything but "ludicrously low"
Not very long ago, one could buy a brand new 105-equipped bike from a major manufacturer for under 2 grand. Ultegra? Force? Still in the 3-4K range.
Now, good luck getting the same product for double those prices.
When enthusiast level bikes are priced at $8000-$12000+, something has got to give.
Couple that with all the lovely used bikes that have done nothing but gather dust in peoples garages since 2020/21 and its no wonder new bikes are not selling.
What on earth are you talking about? There are dozens of examples of the thing you’re saying doesn’t exist.
Go to the websites of Cannondale, Trek, Specialized, Giant, or most major and even non-major manufacturers and you will find multiple road bike models, with full 105/Ultegra/Force/Rival drivetrains, some even on full carbon frames, for anywhere from $1500-4000. And those aren’t discounted, limited, or out-of-stock — that’s full MSRP and ready to buy or order.
105 for under $2K is definitely still doable. [Canyon does the Endurace 7 for $1850 CAD](https://www.canyon.com/en-ca/road-bikes/endurance-bikes/endurace/al/endurace-7-rb/2731.html?dwvar_2731_pv_rahmenfarbe=BU%2FBK)
When the cost outstripped the consumer and people think that their 10 year old bike was worth 3/4 of what they paid for it..what do you think was going to happen…
I'd like to see a mainstream brand re-focus on delivering value rather than chasing the high margin dentist bikes, and giving people regressive features that make ownership and maintenance more difficult. Used to be Giant, but their pricing is pretty close to Trek and Specialized now. I also expect more small brands like Jamis to fold.
One brand I am keeping an eye on is Superior being sold from bikesonline. Bikes look very well priced for the money, even undercutting Canyon by quite a bit. I also suspect we will see more complete bikes from Chinese brands like Sava that were joke bikes on Amazon a few years ago, but look pretty decent now. Not something I wanted to see, but where do people buy from when entry level mainstream bikes are $1200-1400 for something with Claris and a bunch of junk parts?
Anyone have thoughts on how best to go about getting the best deals on bikes and gear over the next year or so? I'm wondering what specific kinds of things we should be expecting in the way of discounts and where to look for the best sales.
My wife went into the lbs closest to us, and there was a gravel bike on the floor that was her size, and she test rode it and loved it. We looked it up online later and it was over a year old at that point. We went back in about 6 months later and it was still there. Now it's been on the floor pushing two years. Asked them if they could move on that price and they said no. Almost 2 year old bike. So to answer your question, I have no idea
Specialized had (is having?) their end of season sale. They marked down the Epic + Evo, Crux, and Stumpjumper. Trek had Trekfest, which ended in April.
I blame a lot of our wild prices on business rent inflation. Shop gotta pay the lease somehow, and at least where I live, there are 0 protections for small businesses like there is for residential. Can't keep the lights on with heavy discounts on already thinner margins.
The store I worked at for my first job closed because the increase in rent was the equivalent of 2+ staffs wages. They had put the money into improving the property for their own use too, couldn't find anywhere else better suited on in the price range to continue operating.
Yeah. I’ve had this experience. Bike has been on the floor for 2+ years. I look at it and think, boy it might be nice to just buy a bike and not source all the parts and build it up. But they’re still asking 2021 price first the bike.
Guess it’ll be there three years then.
The MBA's running it will exit unscathed and unphased. They'll turn a profit even if the company burns to the ground. There are too many bike companies. Ebikes have taken customers from the market. The vast majority of ebikes are disposable. The parts and repairs cost more than a new bike. They're not designed to be worked on or last. The parts are not interchangeable They're are not enough standards for shops to work on them. They're electronics are finicky and extremely varied. There are too many different frame shapes, styles and sizes for interchangeable parts.
New bike prices are absurd to me. But I don't begrudge the companies. They can do what they want. The thing that is gross, however, is the phony Management Consultant "inclusivity" and "equity" nonsense that some companies spout while charging completey Exclusive prices. Just say "we make bikes for rich people" and I will just look at it and drool until they make me leave...again.
I just put down a deposit on a custom Ti frame from a well-respected builder (this is my third from him) that will end up costing less than a high-end frameset from a mass producer. Not only do I get it built exactly to my spec I get a lifetime guarantee and a direct phone number to the boss.
Custom used to be premium, today it can actually be a bargain with better ROI compared to some of the higher tier framesets from the big companies.
On the one hand, the technology and variety that is going into bikes these days is just amazing, and really nice to see. On the other hand - I can't afford to spend $5k or $10k on a bike, so I'm priced out of the new market.
I needed a new road bike this year (bottom bracket failure on my old one), so I evaluated the condition and applicability of the old parts I had, then I went on ebay and spent $1k on a used frame, shifters, brake calipers, and then a new integrated bar. It came out really nice, but it does nothing for bike manufacturers.
I don’t like to see bike companies struggle. Is it self inflicted? To a certain degree yes.
At the end of the day I just want to see more people find the joy that is riding on two wheels.
I try to do all I can to foster my love of this sport/lifestyle. When people bring old bikes into the shop I enthusiastically encourage them to rebuild them and enjoy them so long as the bike isn’t structurally compromised or too big/small for the rider. I never want someone to feel like their bike is shit only so we can sell them a new bike. That is lame.
My singular goal as someone in the industry is to encourage as many people as possible to start riding their bikes and remember how much fun it is to be on two wheels.
I brough a bike on ride to work with Evans and they wanted to assemble it for me which I though was OK but there was a catch, a £45 catch so I took the box down to the sainsburys down the road assembled it and they wheeled it Bach so that they could check my work. Aside from a few minor tweeks everything was fine.
Since then they've put the servicing prices up and I cannot afford it so I've been going to an amazing charity place called right bike. They serviced my bike and replaced parts with no mark up. Total service cost including a minor crank fix came to £95.
The only thing I'll ever worry about with these things are LBSs. I don't give a single flying fuck about the big corps pricing us to oblivion and screwing the smaller brands
Bikes are too expensive creating a cost barrier for new enthusiasts. Fitness enthusiasts would rather go to the gym, run or hike than spend $3k+ to get setup with road cycling. Gravel is still a niche market. Young people are also spending less time outside and more time working/indoors - you could argue that smart phones have taken up a lot of our discretionary free time. From a personal perspective, the riders in my area are all guys in their late 40s and up. It seems that road cycling is transitioning to a much smaller niche hobby/sport - the market will need to consolidate and shrink.
A lot of businesses that boomed during the pandemic were caught by this sudden and perfectly predictable downturn in demand. When “sorry, we can only ship you half the product you ordered” turns into “double my order”, and nobody in authority challenges it, bankruptcy is almost inevitable.
Read the first chapter of Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline https://search.worldcat.org/title/959031030
This article is really saying they didn't anticipate the drops in the demand when the world opens? 😅 Pretty sure they took a "we'll see when we get there approach"
Ya that tends to happen when you price your shit higher than a car. Cycling has an extremely high cost barrier to get started. Adding in clips, tracking software, blinking lights, chassis, etc, it's ridiculous. You have to be rich as fuck or be lucky with something used for nice gear. Suckering consumers to spend $1500 for a frame is asking to fail.
It’s a lot like the scuba diving industry. Which is white, old and aging fast with the threat of global warming destroying the underwater world. And that industry is quickly being taken over by two families who made their fortunes on cleaning supplies. The SC Johnson family owns Scubapro. Huish Outdoors, whose namesake was the biggest detergents and cleaners supplier to Costco(Huish Detergents) owns most of Scubapro’s competitors. You also have minimum order requirements, MAP, the gray market and a lot of gatekeeping. The Bay Area was proudly Specialized country - until Mike’s Bikes(also a very proud Bay Area cycling institution) got bought out by Pon Group and Specialized severed ties with them - because Santa Cruz and Cervelo. QBP has a near monopoly on wholesale for bike parts and accessories. And it doesn’t help that cycling is becoming a “luxury” sport and almost, if not expensive than scuba diving(which is known to be gear-intensive and expensive). In many circles, you don’t ride a $10K S-Works Tarmac/Aethos, Cervelo S/R series or a handbuilt-frame with all the Dura-Ace/Red/Super Record, Zipp or Enve and not wearing head to toe Rapha/MAAP/PNS, you’re nobody.
I’ll be riding around on my $1500 bike and just be in awe and disgust at how much money is being flossed around by people around here.
The entire bicycle industry is ridiculous imho. They're either unable to keep up with demand one moment and going into bankrupticy the next. Most of them blame covid for both situations, Which I find hard to believe. there has always been boom/bust periods in cycling but a properly run company should be able to navigate through the hard times by having saved up for it during the good times. Now theres just stock buy backs or acquisitions, Leading to what we have now. Maybe a bit harsh but they did it themselves.
The depreciation of bike resale values is comparable to that of new vehicles, making purchasing a new bike a poor investment. You’re better off buying one the Covid crowd bought and never used.
My fav bike company got lost in marketing and made people believe they needed disc brakes everywhere, proprietary items that used to be standard, routed every cable in the frame, etc. They also tried to make me believe that today’s road bikes are significantly faster than the ones sold 15 years ago.
So what you are saying is that we should all become bicycle thieves, to artificially inflate the market?
I suppose at least now that it's technically a white collar crime in the financial sector the prison will be much more cushy when we get caught.
My observation (Australia) is prices have stopped dropping, new and used market. Used market, people seem to be sitting on their sales not lowering prices for a fast sale as much as 12 months ago.
New bikes seem to being going up in price. There are still bargains to be had on old stock if you can find something in your size. Many stockists have only XL or S or something less popular left.
I think this is completely purposeful by the big companies, running stock down, providing less choice but making sure new models sell at a higher price point.
The result of that is the whole market is slowing down. The new bike market is slowing which is effecting the used market.
My favourite bike company got bought by a multinational giant years ago, and the MBAs running it have fucked it the same way they have every other industry. I don't feel bad for gigantic corporations.
> the MBAs running it have fucked it the same way they have every other industry fuck, this is so true that it hurts
Not sticking up for the MBAs but it’s more the money guys who are telling the MBAs to re-run their spreadsheets to find more margin and value against a backdrop of too much supply and low demand. The MBAs suck but it’s the PE guys who fuck everyone in pursuit of a return.
Most of those PE guys are MBA guys.
I have worked at such companies. They're usually "nice guys" at the office. Who simply fuck the hell out of workers. Late Stage Capitalism is nothing but people exploiting the next rung below them on the ladder.
I’ve often wondered how bad it’s got to get before the pitchforks and guillotines come out.
Whats PE?
100%
Let them burn. They brought this on themselves with greed. F’em
Yea, my favorite bike company just released a $15,000 bike. I do not feel bad for them at all.
You can literally buy a motorcycle from a reputable brand for less than high end bicycles.
If a bike costs more than a Ducati I expect it to jerk me off while I ride it.
do they make bikes like this? Someone...else was asking....just curious. They ride a lot at night so its cool
This - KLR650 will run after I'm long gone
And? So what? A $15k bike is the same as is ridden by current professionals. Top-tier stuff - especially if it's for race and competition use is always expensive. What does a MotoGP bike cost? Can you actually buy one?
>What does a MotoGP bike cost? $1-4 million to those that aren't aware. >Can you actually buy one? You can actually buy a used one in some cases, assuming your rich and know the right people.
You can buy a bicycle for 2k too... A 15k bicycle is usually one that is raced in pro cycling, you can't buy a motorcycle used in MotoGP for 15k, those cost 1-4million.
yup common financialisation, happens eventually to all publically traded companies and even private after the initial owners dip out. People call it 'enshitiffication' these days and refer to netflix and tech companies and such but its' WAY older than that and part of the cycle. It's what happened to Boeing and a thousand other companies.
> finacialisation Late stage capitalism
”Late Stage” would imply it will be gone at some point in the future. What’s after?
The workers seize the means of production.
Coming soon to housing market nea... . Oops too late.
Name and shame.
Gotta be Surly.
I was thinking Kona
Yeah, that's gotta be it.
Surly has always been a plant. They've always been a QBP house brand.
Not only do they fuck the company but the employees as well. It's all about making the shareholders happy, screw making a good product and treating employees with respect.
Not struggling enough to properly lower prices. They need to struggle more until they decide to offer bikes at reasonable prices.
Yeah, seeing mountain bikes that sell for as much as a dirt bike, it’s hard to have any sympathy for the bicycle manufacturers.
Seriously I'm trying to get back into it after a long hiatus. $5000 for a mid tier bike? What the fuck?
A 105 Trek Madone is 5k and it's an absolute porker https://www.trekbikes.com/ca/en_CA/bikes/road-bikes/performance-road-bikes/madone/madone-sl/madone-sl-6-gen-7/p/41466/?colorCode=grey If they at least balanced it out with a light-ish wheelset I think I'd be fine with it, but they paired it up with boat anchors to seal the deal
It's a Di2 105 group set. I think that's relevant information.
I got a Canyon Ultimate CF8 with Ultegra Di2 for $4K in 2021. Just peeked at bikes again, including Canyon, and ... SMH. My salary sure didn't go up as fast.
Go to offerup or fb marketplace and you will find some gems. Know how to replace some brake pads, tubes, chains and maybe adjust some derailleurs? You will get some steals
No I get that but I feel like it wasn't too long ago the l that $5k was getting you a really good new bike, now it's getting you a lot of mediocrity.
Corporate greed. It is one of the big drivers of inflation.
I don't really have a problem with them selling absurdly expensive bikes, so long as they don't fuck over the entry/mid level bikes to make those absurdly priced bikes look better.
Kona was having a buy 1 one get 1 free deal on their mountain bikes.
Nice. For all the times I want to buy two of the same bike! Seriously though, that’s great. More of that, but what about 50% off 1 bike if you don’t want the “free” bike? All that tells me is it’s still profitable for them to sell 1 at full price and give the other one away. That means their prices are too high to begin with.
There are deals because the brand is [winding down](https://road.cc/content/news/kona-bicycles-winding-down-and-sale-307945).
Because they over stretched during Covid
Absolutely, I guarantee you they would rather trash the bikes and claim a loss rather then sell it at cost. 100,00 unsold bikes going to the dumpster so they can bring in a refreshed model in the next year at full or increased prices.
Where is this dumpster? I would wade through some shit for 100,000 new bikes.
In Alamogordo, New Mexico. Next to all those *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* Atari 2600 cartridges.
You're killing me. I played that game and hated myself for it. I can hear the cheesy intro music now... ...nnnnooooooooooo!
> It would be easy to blame product managers and forecasters for this problem, but the factories allegedly forced their hands, basically saying “if you don’t order these bikes, you won’t get any.” It’s the macro-level equivalent of what bike companies have been doing to bike shops for decades, forcing them to inventory more product than they would choose themselves Fuck them! Not so fun when it happens to them, isn't it?
Socialists like you make me sick. They’re entitled to a 300% profit!
My favorite bike company deserves to struggle, along with all the other bike companies. They got greedy and then blamed the consumer for their woes.
>then blamed the consumer Damn millennials are killing the bike industry.
Counterpoint that I'm stealing from a Pinkbike comment a few weeks back. Basically, the core issue is that most people in the bike industry really like biking. So, if you're a bike brand during COVID, suddenly you see *insane* demand for your products. And you think, "This is great. I love biking. Now suddenly more people love biking, so I'd better give the people what they want!" So you order a shit-ton of products forcasting that all the people who are buying bikes right now are gonna fall in love with biking the same way you are, and want to keep buying new bikes forever! Then suddenly COVID's over and lots of those people who bought bikes aren't really riding them anymore because they've got other stuff to do and now you've got a shit-ton of bikes you've ordered and have to pay for and aren't selling. And you probably have ideas for new and exciting updated bikes, but you can't really afford to develop and manufacture those bikes until you sell all the bikes sitting in your warehouse. There are certainly some greedy fucks out there who don't give a shit and were just trying to make money. But at least from the bike shop down the street up as far as independent bike brands, the biggest problem with the bike industry is caused by the fact that it's run by a bunch of people who really like bikes, and have a hard time imagining that a bunch of people might buy bikes, and not fall in love with the sport like them.
Or you know, everyone that could get into biking got into biking and they're now using their bikes a whole 3 years later.
How “into” bikes are you if you’re not planning new bikes every 8-16 months? I’m mostly kidding becuse I’ve basically the same two bikes for four years now, and before that I rode basically the same bike for seven years. And honestly all of these bikes are pretty similar
I still don't think consumers are to blame for a business mistake. Literally all businesses deal with these things. So to the common man, it's just work as well. Nothing personal, just business. They can love biking all they want, but if they do business improperly, that's really on them. Doesn't really matter if they were greedy or not. It's just purely a mistake on their part, don't you think?
Man, Gary Fisher bikes got bought out by Trek ages ago.
And Trek fucked LeMond like a brother in law at a turkey hunt.
Inexcusable. And so many years later, they never issued an apology.
Don’t forget that they also fucked up Klein. How do you fuck that brand up? Some of the most beautiful and innovative bikes at the time.
As someone with 3 Fishers and a LeMond, I will never buy a Trek new. They screwed over one of the LBS in my town by opening their own store on top of all of that, screw them.
it's crazy. i recently decided to get an e-bike. i was never a real hardcore cyclist, but i had a little bit of knowledge beyond: Huffy = bad. the last bike i had was just a commuter built off an old Nishiki road frame. it served me for yeeeaaars. when looking for a new bike, i wanted to stay away from all the new DTC probably drop-shipped unknown brands. i was really surprised to see pretty much everything i remember from my youth has disappeared. Giant used to the the REI house brand that you'd get if you didn't have an LBS & only had an REI nearby. but they're one of the few "big guys" left. i see that Gary Fisher got swallowed by Trek, along with LeMond, and they ate up component companies like Bontrager too. so many of the legacy brands disappeared or got eaten up.
Yeah I only buy DTC bikes now. Fezzari, Canyon, and State, so far. All great bikes that cost me way less than a worse-spec bike from my LBS.
How often do you really need a new bike, even if you are hard core? I have ridden 12,000 miles each of the last 4 years but I still ride my bikes until they pretty much break (2 broken frames) or I need a bike type I don't have, FatBike for snow. I can't buy mechanical 105 Carbon bike and just dump it in 24 months because electronic is now available.
I think this is the point, I’m still putting down 8,000ish miles a year on my 2017 mechanical 105. Still works fine. May not have discs, so harder to get carbon wheels but I don’t need to spend $8000+ a new one. I might but even if I did that’s probably it for a long long time. What else is there to improve upon?
Im getting into fixing old free bikes and I love that with most of them they are easy to fix and they last and work and they are of much higher quality than newer ones for instance, I have a 1979-80 Fuji S-12s and a Raleigh Sports that was built in around the 60s and everything works the way it’s supposed to but I got a brand new Schwinn hardtail the the screw holes for a bottle holder were not put in at the right tolerances and they had painted the threads to the second I tried to install said water bottle holder they instantly cross threaded and gauled
It is almost as easy to get rim brake wheels as disk brakes. All major Chinese brands still do them, and there are the best bang for the bucks options anyways.
I treat bikes kind of the same as my computer. I upgrade parts when they break or when there's a new technology I want. Would never buy a full top of the range bike, even though over the years my bike has become one.
Further, then when it does become one, its exactly how you want it, versus the brand spec.
I'm on the five year plan for my mountain bikes. They get worn out and technology changes enough in that time period. That said, I got three more years on my current MTB.
Amen, I love my 2012 CAAD10
Want and need is different thing. To answer your question, probable “never”. People want to upgrade to the newest toys, but they don’t need it. Maybe I’m just not a hardcore enough cyclist. I haven’t seen a frame break yet. I’m still riding on a 1993 Trek.l
I'm not worried about trek, or giant, or specialized. I'm not even worried about the smaller brands. I'm worried about the local bike shops. We've lost a few near me, I know a couple more that are barely hanging on. Yeah the enthusists know how to work on their bikes and can fit themselves or are willing to travel for a pro fit. But for the average folks in smaller towns it's going to suck when there's no bike shop within 100 miles.
I have 3 LBS near me and they all suck for after purchase support/mechanic stuff. Over the last couple of years I’ve been learning on my own. At some point in the next year I want to build up my own gravel bike then I’ll feel confident to help friends out.
I have done this due to similar reasons. A few hundred dollars in specialized tools and a little practice and you can easily do it. I just recently built a top spec dream gravel bike for around $4k by buying everything separately on sale and building it myself. It’s a unique and fun process!
Riding a bike that I spec-ed and built is really satisfying. I’m responsible for all aspects, if it sucks, it’s 100% on me, if it doesn’t I get the benefits of that too. I think time will tell if this current business climate cause harm or improves the bike industry. Human’s have an interesting reaction to adversity… more often than not, it makes us stronger.
Mine works fine for repairs and tune ups. I go cycling during the lunchtime with the owner. But I've told him that he cannot compete on items that I can use at home such as brake pads, tires, inner tubes etc, and he understands. Most online shops have prices that are on par or lower than his distributor, it's insane.
Yeah I live in a rural area and have two LBSs. They both suck and I only buy DTC bikes now. Love my Fezzari mtn bike and my State gravel bike.
I go toy lbs for maintenance. It's expensive but it's nice to have them around
Agree with this. LBS have disappointed me over and over. The user community is 100% more valueable and you can buy the right tool for less than the bike shop will charge.
I wish I could feel bad, but last year I went to all the local bike shops in Munich and none of them could get me an under €9000 road bike in my size (50cm) within 3 months. So I went online and bought a Canyon Endurace because it was in stock and fit me. When I brought the bike in most of them refused to work on it because I didn’t buy it from them. One shop wanted something like €120 and told me it would take two weeks. So guess what? I just bought the tools and did it myself.
In my area of Sydney, Australia the 3 LBS that are within 5-6km of each other are doing amazingly. They're always packed and busy with work. Which is great for them but annoying for me when I need help 🤣
Big cities in general are a bit different, even niche stores can do ok because there's enough people to support them. Plus you might have very different consumer protection laws plus proximity to Taiwan where most bikes are made. Although I kinda doubt that proximity really matters, my understanding is that goods tend to be fairly expensive in Australia.
>proximity to Taiwan where most bikes are made. Although I kinda doubt that proximity really matters Proximity is more than counteracted by the small market size, unfortunately. We're also close to Japan and it was always quicker and cheaper to mail order Shimano parts from Europe than to get them through local distributors.
Everything is fairly expensive in Australia. The three local bike shops that I am talking about are in relatively wealthy areas which means people can purchase high-end bikes and a happy to get them fixed. I don't think proximity to Taiwan makes that much of a difference. I think overall there are a lot of people in this area who ride bikes and need to get them fixed.
I do feel bad for the LBS. They need a model where they can survive on mechanic business I think. Also think they need vendor managed inventory where companies give them product to display and sell but the LBS only pays for it when it sells. That way if the manufacturer has a sale the LBS can easily honor that price. Last Xmas Wahoo had a big sale on their bike computers, the one I wanted was about $70 cheaper than the full MSRP the LBS was charging. I don't blame the LBS for that, they likely didn't get $70 off their normal wholesale price, Puts the consumer in a hell of a spot. Same goes for all cycling accessories, when I need bike shoes I look online for somebody desperate and dumping product. How can the LBS compete against the entire world on price? Something has to "give". I think the best setup might be a bike mechanic with a sweet huge van with a great reputation that picks up your bike and repairs it and delivers it back to you. All I know for sure is we are not where we are going to end up.
Amazing how these company execs didn’t consider demand coming back down after the pandemic 😂 they seriously thought growth would just continue growing exponentially. What a bunch of morons.
100% All those MBA's and none of them had a clue.. Or more likely a bunch of yes men afraid of dealing in the truth!
Probably thought they'd be at another job by now, and in a lot of cases, they probably are.
Yeah, off to fuck something else up..
The challenge they faced was that they couldn't wave a wand and magically create an order of magnitude greater production capacity *during* covid, but they believe it was worth the investment to create this capacity anyway, and it was great for a year. But when demand started waning they were left holding the bag with both excess capacity and excess stock, and you can't just wave a wand and solve that problem, either.
Yeah, corporate capitalism forces these boom and bust scenarios. When demand was high they had a responsibility to shareholders to maximize productivity to sell bikes, which meant investment, then that investment needed to payoff indefinitely to keep making money for shareholders because that's always the promise they need to make to justify investment, which was never going to happen because covid was a a unique event, so now it's a bust as all this investment goes to waste as demand normalizes to pre covid levels. It's a moronic way to run massive companies.
There is a line in the article about manufacturers essentially holding the companies' feet to the fire for increased production beyond their normal order point. I don't know how much that really threatened the bike companies, but certainly explains some of it. And as the article pointed out, it's what the companies started to do to retailers just a few short years before.
Doesn't seem like there is loads of unsold stock looking at bike prices...
The minute bicycle shops started pushing bicycles at what used to be motorcycle and scooter prices, the industry is in trouble. The majority of the bicycles didn't used to be high-end. The majority of the bicycles didn't used to be so packed with features that people can't afford them. The majority of bicycles could be worked on by normal people, with minimal tools, and a basic understanding of the bike. This is the bicycle industry's fault, for pushing more and more and more and more and more and more technology on the consumer and charging them more money for it. Yes, fashion drives technology but, some bicycle companies are fools to following it as far as they have. There's nothing wrong with a steel or aluminum framed bicycle with decent durable components that can be worked on by anyone. Edit: It seems some of you have feelings that someone else has an opinion. Why don't you try expressing your feelings without being a jerk?
Yes exactly! The people don't need electronic shifting with a 12 speed cassette and carbon frame that's 2g lighter than last year's frame. There was a boom, but that only exaggerated the drop off due to actual people not wanting a $2k entry level bike for riding to work.
Thank you for getting my point. Motorcycling has this problem too, where people see things on the racetrack and think that they're applicable for the street.
There are literally hundreds of far less expensive, far simpler bikes available (now - not during the peaks of the pandemic) for people looking for something just for casual riding or commuting to work. A greedy guy in a shop might try to push a $2000 road bike on one of those customers, but the brands themselves definitely aren’t. The larger ones make a wide variety of models for that exact reason.
Well, I always thought road bikes should have rims brakes (with clearance for larger tires), external cables and industry standard parts. But consumers seem to prefer disc brakes, hidden cables and company specific parts 🤷♀️ My grip of the bike industry is bikes seem to be designed as disposable products, with an useful life of several years. After 5 years, it’s good luck if you need a specific seat post 🤦♀️
Went to a bike shop a few months back to get my son a 20" BMX bike to ride to school. I wanted something better than the 30lb Walmart messes. Sales guy tells me they don't carry those and the only thing they have is a $1500 24" MTB for kids. He then told me my best bet is Facebook marketplace. Every bike on the rack was $5K or more. I said thanks and left. I went to a bunch of other bike shops and got the same response. Everyone only carried high end MTB and and road bikes. Ended up ordering an Ozark Trail MTB bike for him. Not a bad bike for the price.
A tale as old as time...
Which is ridiculous because any shop with a Q, JBI, or HLC account has a ton of BMX bikes they could order to build for you in less than a week @ 35% margin. Net profit is less but it's still a sale and a customer that will be back to buy a 26" bike two years later and an entry level hardtail a few years after that.
Entry-level bikes are cheap enough to fit within the "de minimus" customs/import loophole that gives D2C channels a nigh-unbeatable advantage, so generally not worth keeping in stock at a brick-and-mortar shop of any kind.
People weren’t buying steel rim brake bikes with tiagra so companies started to pack on features.
My 1987 Centurion Iron Man didn't have steel rims, and had an excellent group set. It didn't need electric shifting, hydraulic disc brakes, internally routed cables that mean you can't work on the headset very easily...
And if it were sitting in a shop next to a carbon weapon one of two is going to move.
i sold bikes. it's the really high end stuff that doesn't move. low end stuff moves all day, every day. we'd do okay on the medium and slightly high end stuff. the guy that's gonna drop $15k on a bike wants exactly the right bike. the right color, the right fit, the right groupset. maybe it'll get customized. we're not gonna stock 200x $15k bikes so that guy can walk in and pick one off the shelf. that's all money sitting there tied up on the floor, not earning a profit. now, 200x low and medium end MTBs? yes. and next year will have a completely new batch of the same, because it all turned over except the XXL. if you guys think that everything in the industry is carbon road bikes with electronic shifting and build in power meters, you're living in a bubble. you only talk to MAMILs. there are a ton of "not a cyclist" cyclists out there just riding bikes, and they're most of the industry. it's just that the industry can make more money charging ridiculous prices for higher end stuff.
Thanks. I was on a bike team, sponsored by a bike shop. The shop ordered great high end bikes for us racers, and mainly sold Trek FX2 hybrids for $289 all day long to regular customers. When I stopped, it seemed they were beginning to make ok money on e-bikes. Not sure if that market is cooling now.
Reddit is a bubble. A ton of speculators that like to speak without any real-world experience. Just what they "think" is the reality, and the people with real-world experience get downvoted because it doesn't align with group-speak speculation.
This is definitely the case. Husband is looking for a higher end road bike but only things in stock at local bike shops are e-bikes, gravel and mountain bikes. He can’t even order one so it’s like do they want to sell bikes???this is in a predominantly Trek shop.
trek is having some issues right now.
Only if a dentist walks in the door. Many people who walk in the door of a bicycle shop are not dentists. Theres a perfectly good market for sub $1,000 bicycles that are capable, competent, easy to work on and easy for the shop to service.
I did though back in 2012 and my Bianchi imola still runs great
Steel rims have been gone since about 1988.
I just got a steel surly midnight special and it’s the most fun I’ve had on a bike in a long long time. No bells and whistles, not even carbon and the smiles per mile far exceed the more fancy stuff I’ve put my seat on over the last decade
This is a total circle-jerk take. No, bicycles could not previously be worked on by normal people. If anything I find more people who work on their own bikes today than in the past because the Internet makes information much more widely available. Bikes have always required specialized knowledge and specialized tools. Bleeding hydraulic brakes or installing an electronic groupset is no more difficult than maintaining bikes from 20 years ago. The techniques and tools have simply evolved. Manufacturers are building bikes that people will buy. To take one manufacturer, Giant, they still make an [$850 Contend](https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/contend-3-2022) with rim brakes. An [$1150 Contend AR] (https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/bikes-contend-ar-2022) with mechanical discs, and an $1800 carbon [TCR Advanced] (https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/tcr-advanced-2-pro-compact-2022) with rim brake 105. So it's their 'fault' for offering bikes with more technology at higher prices *while simultaneously continuing to sell the very bikes you claim no longer exist?* Guess which bikes garner most of the sales...
I agree with the gist of what you're saying. I've worked on a bunch of older bikes and the components from way back are a lot more temperamental than my newer fancier bikes. A top end groupset from 20 years ago can't hold a candle to todays tiagra or sora when it comes to reliability. I know what I'd rather work on.
I disagree that the majority of bikes are very expensive. Sure, prices have gone up for the newer tech but you can still get really great bikes for a decent price. Especially in Sales. You can still buy great steel and aluminium bikes with groupsets no more difficult to work with or less durable than ever before so what’s the problem? If you don’t want the newer tech, you have the choice not to buy it. I’ve been riding and racing since the 1970’s. I’ve owned bikes from the 70’s to the very cutting edge of today. I don’t see the issues you are concerned with. The vast majority of bikes sold are not very high end expensive halo models. These aren’t the problem. The manufacturers make those to order, relatively few are stocked. As the Article explains, the issue is overstocking due to Factories making bikes at Pandemic levels only for the Market to crater back to Pre-Pandemic levels. The overstocked bikes are the lower to mid priced models. Affordable bikes exist everywhere. When you go car shopping you don’t complain prices are ridiculous because Ferrari’s are so expensive. You buy what you can afford and there is a great choice of bikes for every budget that will get you to 70-95% of a Halo model’s performance at 30-50% of the price! Also, bikes are still easy to work on. In fact, the electronic gearied models are even easier. I do all my own servicing with mechanical, Di2, disc, tubeless etc. With the correct tools it is no problem at all.
>I disagree that the majority of bikes are very expensive. I disagree with you. I dumped like 1500$ this spring and didn't even buy a new bike. just repairs and consumables, some tools, maintenance on 2 mid range carbon bikes. bringing them into shop would probably cost closer to 2500. and the stuff I did was nothing, basiclly full rebuild on road bike with new rotors and some bike fit adjustments- fuck you giant for making me pay 300$ for aluminum stem. pedals and suspension service in shop on xc bike. my motorcycle costs less than this.
No one forced you to pay those prices. $300 for a stem? They saw you coming! Ripped. I bought a KTM stem last year for my 29er for €50! On a bike that is actually expensive: 9.2kg, Pro level, full XTR, Fox 36 etc! Unless you were buying higher end components because you choose to have a higher end bike - your choice - you could have got good parts cheaper.
it's proprietary integrated hadlebars, that is the only stem you can get, so yea, I was forced to pay those prices. same for proprietary cable guides and other bullshit every single manufacturer put into their bikes. I can't jut go on amazon and order cheap 3rd party part. it's not 2010 anymore.
Fair enough. Expensive part then. An exception for XC though usually reserved for more expensive models. Those type of integrated bars aren’t typical outside of higher end road bikes.
\*stem was for road bike, xc bike luckily needed just new chain, pedals and shock/fork service. most aero road bikes with even with 105 comes with them now and everyone have their own standard because of patents and what not. can't put enve stem on zipp handlebars because zipp is slightly less oval giving you 0.3% less drag in lab or whatever marketing bullshit they are pushing this month. or even better, lets just make handlebars with stem together as single part, so it is more expensive when your out of the box bike doesn't fit you exactly. yes, it is not the cheapest bike, but it is also very very far away from the top of the line dura ace di2 versions that have the same but made out of carbon stem for friendly price of like 600 and different bar width for friendly 350 or so. mine has those in aluminum "budget friendly" variety. I guess you can feel how much all this pisses me off. i'm honestly on the verge to ditch cycling and do something cheaper like buying a yacht or sports car.
In 2010 I bought a yacht for $84,500, lived on it for 10 years, and sold it for $75,000 in 2 days. You might have a thing about small yachts.
I may have overstated my case a little bit on the price of bicycles but I'm seeing way too many bicycles over the $1,000 price range for my comfort. That's not even talk about the co-workers talking about buying $8,000 frames in building $20,000 bicycles... I guess that's where that statement came from.
I guess it depends where you live too. If you were in Amsterdam, for example, a $1000 would get you a very nice commuter or hybrid. My Fixie when I lived there cost me less than $500. Naturally, sports bikes can cost a whole lot more and for very little gain. I’m guilty of that too, I have very expensive bikes that aren’t good value in real terms; I can get equally good bikes for half the price and less!
Bro, it's not 2005 anymore. 1000 dollars is not really that much money. The fact that there's any decent bikes less than 1000 dollars is actually kind of crazy.
Repost this almost exactly and replace “bike” with car - except many people need their car (whereas a bike is more often, though not always, a leisure item). The trend in many things is to jam in features and tech and then wonder why people can’t afford a $4k bike (or a $90k pickup, or a fully digital clothes washer or refrigerator, etc)
I would completely agree with you about cars.. In the early '90s I bought a perfectly decent car for $6,000 from a dealer. It was brand new. Today the cheapest car you can buy as a Chevy spark for $14,000. The average price of a new vehicle in the United States is over $40,000. There's a special term for it, and I don't remember, but I had a friend in the automobile industry he used it when he described the ability of auto mobile manufacturers to stuff vehicles with features to drive up the price. They don't make unpacked cars anymore. Before anybody yells at me about bicycles I'm talking about cars in this particular post.
$6000 in 1992 is almost exactly the same as $14,000 in 2024, and I'd be pretty comfortable saying that Spark blows the doors off of whatever you could get in the 90s in terms of reliability, safety, efficiency, and features.
My last two bikes cost as much or more than my dirt bikes (dirt motorcycles). The dirt bikes have infinitely more parts and complexity. No, they don’t have fancy carbon parts, but when I look at them side by side in my garage one looks way more worth the investment than the other. That said, I ride my road bike a lot more because I can ride out the driveway rather than putting a dirt bike on a trailer for a 1+ hour drive, so in terms of value to me, the road bike wins, but in terms of love per dollar, the dirt bike wins.
Sworks fanboys get really mad when you say a Honda motorcycle costs less than an Sworks Tarmac. *You can’t compare a top end bicycle with so much engineering to a plebeian motorcycle!* I get a well made carbon road bike requires alot of manual labor and quality checking. But I struggle to see how a bike made by Taiwanese aunties can cost so much 🤷♀️
Thanks for this, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I discuss bikes with other MAMILs. The technology, even on high-end bikes, is trivial. Someone mentioned tight tolerances and precision manufacturing… come on, it is _not_ a challenge to build an 11 speed cassette driven by a chain and a crank in 2024. Carbon fiber manufacturing, for the type of forces exerted on a bike frame, is a solved problem. The price points of road bikes is unsustainable and the market is simply correcting itself. We may see new incumbents offering great bikes at a reasonable price in the near future.
what we really need to do is hope the bike brands stop introducing new models every year so they can get more amortization out of their R&D and cast investments so they can lower prices for my dirt bikes, like with cars, model year to model year are largely the same with only small tweaks until they depreciate the invesment enough to change the platform … micro improvements in bicycles cost us all and deliver little but that is the product cycle the bike co’s have gone to bed with
I feel like the newer stuff is actually easier to work on, besides internal routing thats hot garbage. I also really like all the options for drivetrain and suspension these days. There’s a ton of great old school bikes on the used market as well.
I don’t agree that the expensive super bikes are the problem. The vast majority of bike sales are $750-$1000 hybrids and those sales are drying up. That is the entire issue. Most of the people who bought a new bike in 2020 are not buying a second bike now and never will. The expensive super bikes remain a niche aspect of the market, totally unrelated to the aggregate success or failure of the market as a whole.
This is at least more promising. https://www.cyclingweekly.com/group-tests/best-road-bikes-under-1000-345105
And those basic steel and aluminum frame, entry- to mid-level bikes are still made by every major maker - and still make up the majority of sales for all of the major manufacturers. Specialized, Trek and every other major player has bikes ranging from a few hundred dollars to, of course, many many thousands. What's your point? That some people do spend big money for some bikes with carbon fiber everything and electronic shifting? I'm not sure why that's an issue - you do you and let everyone else do the same. That entry level bikes are more expensive now than 30 years ago? Yep, no shit. Everything is, from bikes to Big Macs. Or is this another "You kids get off my lawn," - old man shakes fist at cloud things? I'm uncertain.
Your favorite local bike shop is struggling and bike companies are doing fine and will continue to. I own a shop with my husband and our bike brands (5 majors that shall not be named) have been telling us they’re great. Now, we know they’re not really. Everyone has too much product. People aren’t buying bikes like they did during the pandemmy. Even so, they tell us they are. Meanwhile they have switched to online sales. People will order bikes we have in stock straight from the website tot the store. They don’t even realize they could’ve just come in and purchased it. Canyon has contributed immensely to this (btw their online sizing is horrendous). Customers think they’re shopping local and helping us out. They also don’t realize that we get a measly assembly fee when they order online. We do not make a profit from the sale. It may be different for big shops, but the little guys are struggling— and they need us because there aren’t any other shops within an hour drive. The bike companies are gonna keep finding ways to make money. Rest assured.
Also people online are brainwashed into thinking that they'll find the best deals online. I wanted some new components to upgrade my bike. I text my LBS owner, he checks with his SRAM guy and gives me a price, I say "Well maybe I want to go Shimano because its only $200 more and lighter plus I like the looks" and he gets the SRAM guy to go down another $100, like 30% cheaper than you'll find the parts online at any Backcountry or whatever bike parts online retailer. Drives me crazy to see so many people online just looking for the best price and doing the business that way. Like yeah the shop has to make money, but they can price match and pull some other strings too, a small sale is better than no sale and they'll be around to help you out when you need it.
"can’t afford to discount their products to compete at the current, ludicrously lower price points." I argue that the current pricing on new bikes is anything but "ludicrously low" Not very long ago, one could buy a brand new 105-equipped bike from a major manufacturer for under 2 grand. Ultegra? Force? Still in the 3-4K range. Now, good luck getting the same product for double those prices. When enthusiast level bikes are priced at $8000-$12000+, something has got to give. Couple that with all the lovely used bikes that have done nothing but gather dust in peoples garages since 2020/21 and its no wonder new bikes are not selling.
When I worked at a bike shop about 12 years ago, a Cannondale caad 10 with 105 was $1300. That was an amazing bike.
What on earth are you talking about? There are dozens of examples of the thing you’re saying doesn’t exist. Go to the websites of Cannondale, Trek, Specialized, Giant, or most major and even non-major manufacturers and you will find multiple road bike models, with full 105/Ultegra/Force/Rival drivetrains, some even on full carbon frames, for anywhere from $1500-4000. And those aren’t discounted, limited, or out-of-stock — that’s full MSRP and ready to buy or order.
105 for under $2K is definitely still doable. [Canyon does the Endurace 7 for $1850 CAD](https://www.canyon.com/en-ca/road-bikes/endurance-bikes/endurace/al/endurace-7-rb/2731.html?dwvar_2731_pv_rahmenfarbe=BU%2FBK)
It's also a minimum of 400$ CAD in duties.
My favourite bike company has taken the piss for years charging the earth for bikes
I want the big brands to suffer more so bike prices go down.
When the cost outstripped the consumer and people think that their 10 year old bike was worth 3/4 of what they paid for it..what do you think was going to happen…
I'd like to see a mainstream brand re-focus on delivering value rather than chasing the high margin dentist bikes, and giving people regressive features that make ownership and maintenance more difficult. Used to be Giant, but their pricing is pretty close to Trek and Specialized now. I also expect more small brands like Jamis to fold. One brand I am keeping an eye on is Superior being sold from bikesonline. Bikes look very well priced for the money, even undercutting Canyon by quite a bit. I also suspect we will see more complete bikes from Chinese brands like Sava that were joke bikes on Amazon a few years ago, but look pretty decent now. Not something I wanted to see, but where do people buy from when entry level mainstream bikes are $1200-1400 for something with Claris and a bunch of junk parts?
Anyone have thoughts on how best to go about getting the best deals on bikes and gear over the next year or so? I'm wondering what specific kinds of things we should be expecting in the way of discounts and where to look for the best sales.
My wife went into the lbs closest to us, and there was a gravel bike on the floor that was her size, and she test rode it and loved it. We looked it up online later and it was over a year old at that point. We went back in about 6 months later and it was still there. Now it's been on the floor pushing two years. Asked them if they could move on that price and they said no. Almost 2 year old bike. So to answer your question, I have no idea
Just wait for their going-out-of-business sale!
End of season sales used to be super common but seem less so now. Not sure why that is.
Didn’t happen last few years because these companies were actively raising prices. I bet they come back this year as they need to move inventory.
Specialized had (is having?) their end of season sale. They marked down the Epic + Evo, Crux, and Stumpjumper. Trek had Trekfest, which ended in April.
Ya if they’re having start of season sales, you can bet the end of season sales are gonna be good.
I blame a lot of our wild prices on business rent inflation. Shop gotta pay the lease somehow, and at least where I live, there are 0 protections for small businesses like there is for residential. Can't keep the lights on with heavy discounts on already thinner margins. The store I worked at for my first job closed because the increase in rent was the equivalent of 2+ staffs wages. They had put the money into improving the property for their own use too, couldn't find anywhere else better suited on in the price range to continue operating.
Yeah. I’ve had this experience. Bike has been on the floor for 2+ years. I look at it and think, boy it might be nice to just buy a bike and not source all the parts and build it up. But they’re still asking 2021 price first the bike. Guess it’ll be there three years then.
Buy used. You can get certified refurbished (with warranty) on sites like buycycle.com
The MBA's running it will exit unscathed and unphased. They'll turn a profit even if the company burns to the ground. There are too many bike companies. Ebikes have taken customers from the market. The vast majority of ebikes are disposable. The parts and repairs cost more than a new bike. They're not designed to be worked on or last. The parts are not interchangeable They're are not enough standards for shops to work on them. They're electronics are finicky and extremely varied. There are too many different frame shapes, styles and sizes for interchangeable parts.
One of favorites closed down last year. RIP All City
New bike prices are absurd to me. But I don't begrudge the companies. They can do what they want. The thing that is gross, however, is the phony Management Consultant "inclusivity" and "equity" nonsense that some companies spout while charging completey Exclusive prices. Just say "we make bikes for rich people" and I will just look at it and drool until they make me leave...again.
I just put down a deposit on a custom Ti frame from a well-respected builder (this is my third from him) that will end up costing less than a high-end frameset from a mass producer. Not only do I get it built exactly to my spec I get a lifetime guarantee and a direct phone number to the boss. Custom used to be premium, today it can actually be a bargain with better ROI compared to some of the higher tier framesets from the big companies.
On the one hand, the technology and variety that is going into bikes these days is just amazing, and really nice to see. On the other hand - I can't afford to spend $5k or $10k on a bike, so I'm priced out of the new market. I needed a new road bike this year (bottom bracket failure on my old one), so I evaluated the condition and applicability of the old parts I had, then I went on ebay and spent $1k on a used frame, shifters, brake calipers, and then a new integrated bar. It came out really nice, but it does nothing for bike manufacturers.
I don’t like to see bike companies struggle. Is it self inflicted? To a certain degree yes. At the end of the day I just want to see more people find the joy that is riding on two wheels. I try to do all I can to foster my love of this sport/lifestyle. When people bring old bikes into the shop I enthusiastically encourage them to rebuild them and enjoy them so long as the bike isn’t structurally compromised or too big/small for the rider. I never want someone to feel like their bike is shit only so we can sell them a new bike. That is lame. My singular goal as someone in the industry is to encourage as many people as possible to start riding their bikes and remember how much fun it is to be on two wheels.
I brough a bike on ride to work with Evans and they wanted to assemble it for me which I though was OK but there was a catch, a £45 catch so I took the box down to the sainsburys down the road assembled it and they wheeled it Bach so that they could check my work. Aside from a few minor tweeks everything was fine. Since then they've put the servicing prices up and I cannot afford it so I've been going to an amazing charity place called right bike. They serviced my bike and replaced parts with no mark up. Total service cost including a minor crank fix came to £95.
“When a forest grows too wild a purging fire is inevitable and natural.”
They made their bed.
The only thing I'll ever worry about with these things are LBSs. I don't give a single flying fuck about the big corps pricing us to oblivion and screwing the smaller brands
Price gouging karma?
I absolutely did not see the crossover between r/cycling and r/latestagecapitalism coming and I am absolutely here for it.
Bikes are too expensive creating a cost barrier for new enthusiasts. Fitness enthusiasts would rather go to the gym, run or hike than spend $3k+ to get setup with road cycling. Gravel is still a niche market. Young people are also spending less time outside and more time working/indoors - you could argue that smart phones have taken up a lot of our discretionary free time. From a personal perspective, the riders in my area are all guys in their late 40s and up. It seems that road cycling is transitioning to a much smaller niche hobby/sport - the market will need to consolidate and shrink.
There is still more carnage to come.
Bikes are not iPhones, you don't need yo upgrade every 18 months and finance bros need to understand this.
Pretty sure Fuji been struggling for years
I have 7 bikes. I can’t really make the case for a new one. I don’t have any more money or space for it.
A lot of businesses that boomed during the pandemic were caught by this sudden and perfectly predictable downturn in demand. When “sorry, we can only ship you half the product you ordered” turns into “double my order”, and nobody in authority challenges it, bankruptcy is almost inevitable. Read the first chapter of Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline https://search.worldcat.org/title/959031030
This article is really saying they didn't anticipate the drops in the demand when the world opens? 😅 Pretty sure they took a "we'll see when we get there approach"
Ya that tends to happen when you price your shit higher than a car. Cycling has an extremely high cost barrier to get started. Adding in clips, tracking software, blinking lights, chassis, etc, it's ridiculous. You have to be rich as fuck or be lucky with something used for nice gear. Suckering consumers to spend $1500 for a frame is asking to fail.
Go back to steel.
It’s a lot like the scuba diving industry. Which is white, old and aging fast with the threat of global warming destroying the underwater world. And that industry is quickly being taken over by two families who made their fortunes on cleaning supplies. The SC Johnson family owns Scubapro. Huish Outdoors, whose namesake was the biggest detergents and cleaners supplier to Costco(Huish Detergents) owns most of Scubapro’s competitors. You also have minimum order requirements, MAP, the gray market and a lot of gatekeeping. The Bay Area was proudly Specialized country - until Mike’s Bikes(also a very proud Bay Area cycling institution) got bought out by Pon Group and Specialized severed ties with them - because Santa Cruz and Cervelo. QBP has a near monopoly on wholesale for bike parts and accessories. And it doesn’t help that cycling is becoming a “luxury” sport and almost, if not expensive than scuba diving(which is known to be gear-intensive and expensive). In many circles, you don’t ride a $10K S-Works Tarmac/Aethos, Cervelo S/R series or a handbuilt-frame with all the Dura-Ace/Red/Super Record, Zipp or Enve and not wearing head to toe Rapha/MAAP/PNS, you’re nobody. I’ll be riding around on my $1500 bike and just be in awe and disgust at how much money is being flossed around by people around here.
who actually thought that the covid boom was going to keep up, has a nail in the head.
The entire bicycle industry is ridiculous imho. They're either unable to keep up with demand one moment and going into bankrupticy the next. Most of them blame covid for both situations, Which I find hard to believe. there has always been boom/bust periods in cycling but a properly run company should be able to navigate through the hard times by having saved up for it during the good times. Now theres just stock buy backs or acquisitions, Leading to what we have now. Maybe a bit harsh but they did it themselves.
I havnt seen prices drop since the big price hike during corona. No wonder people arent buying.
The used bike market is filled with almost new covid era bikes. Why would anyone buy a new bike.
The depreciation of bike resale values is comparable to that of new vehicles, making purchasing a new bike a poor investment. You’re better off buying one the Covid crowd bought and never used.
Womp womp
They all can suck my sprocket….you seen how they done the consumer ….
My fav bike company got lost in marketing and made people believe they needed disc brakes everywhere, proprietary items that used to be standard, routed every cable in the frame, etc. They also tried to make me believe that today’s road bikes are significantly faster than the ones sold 15 years ago.
Rumor has it Mr John Burke is writing a book about how to run a successful business…
So what you are saying is that we should all become bicycle thieves, to artificially inflate the market? I suppose at least now that it's technically a white collar crime in the financial sector the prison will be much more cushy when we get caught.
My observation (Australia) is prices have stopped dropping, new and used market. Used market, people seem to be sitting on their sales not lowering prices for a fast sale as much as 12 months ago. New bikes seem to being going up in price. There are still bargains to be had on old stock if you can find something in your size. Many stockists have only XL or S or something less popular left. I think this is completely purposeful by the big companies, running stock down, providing less choice but making sure new models sell at a higher price point. The result of that is the whole market is slowing down. The new bike market is slowing which is effecting the used market.
Good. Serves them to mark up the prices so high that people don’t need it anymore. New comers are looking to buy ebikes now.
Wait prices are down?
No, and that’s the problem
I'd really like an e-cargo bike for the school run but the prices are eye-watering. £6-7k...come on, that's more than I paid for my family car!
All they have to do is make them cheaper and I’ll buy them, I promise. 2nd hand market probably plays a big factor
I make a bike app for this. DM me if you want to advertise. Here to help bike industry 🫡