It’s no surprise the bike industry seems to be struggling across the board. Check out the video above to see what the industry is doing wrong and what we can do to help. Source’s for all articles used below.
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https://road.cc/content/news/rapha-announces-loss-ps106-million-304903
https://road.cc/content/news/wiggle-chain-reaction-announce-105-job-cuts-304833
https://road.cc/content/news/probikekit-set-close-300465
0:00 Intro
0:40 Online Retailers
2:10 Local Shops
5:10 Climbing Prices
8:13 Bespoke
9:54 What is Working?
11:36 What Does it All Mean?
13:37 Closing Thoughts
15:22 Post Credits
#cycling #roadbike #procycling #shoplocal #trekbike #bike #bicycle
28 Comments
Local bike shop owners are a bunch of haughty assholes. Meanwhile I have walked into a Giant box store and been sold a chain and had it on my bike ten minutes later. This video presenter really must have rose tinted glasses because he is so far off of reality it's frustrating. T. Cycling for 2 years so as someone new to the sport this is my experience. I will never go to a local shop again
In 1977 Ellis Briggs hand built me a 531 steel racing frame to my specifications for £75. I still have the receipt. I had to do a lot of saving as an apprentice mechanic, but it was within reach of a 17 year old. Accounting for inflation, according the Bank of England, in today’s money that’s £421.09. The cheapest frame Ellis Briggs supply today is £3000.
Halfords have announced they are stopping manufacturing parts. Trek are downsizing their UK HQ. Felt bikes is in troubles. Isla(?) bikes are going. The list goes on. Have you seen the price of a bog standard basic hybrid bike lately? Ludicrous! Absolutely ludicrous. You have the likes of the GCN YT channel focusing on expensive racing bikes as if justfying that a 3 or 4 grand racing bike that we need to get back to – what a joke!!! Even those prices are ludicrous. No bike – absolutely no bike – needs to be that expensive.
After brexit, it's just been a pain to purchase things outside of the UK, from the UK. On top of that I already got to pay 25% tax on stuff as well as toll added on top. In the end it's just less attractive to purchase things from Chain reaction and so on. Internet has changed a lot, and very often it's not much to save by purchasing abroad from where I live. I spend more time evaluating my online purchases now, and availability is yet another factor that is just constantly fluctuating.
All I'll say is I hope the market will normalize sooner than later, because customer service has also face planted long time ago. So often I'm facing: Who the hell do you think you are…
Btw this isn't just the bike industry. It's all over the place, where roles has changed where the workers see themselves as the customer all of a sudden, so you as a customer need to serve them. That's where things get weird when I need to remind them who's got the wallet, and they obviously take offence by that just to sink deeper down the rabbit hole…
As a customer I expect to be updated by default if they want my business. More and more I'm just being ignored, and I have to remind them that I cannot possibly know what they have or have not done because they haven't said a word. Then they take offence when I claim that I need to be updated and that's very important if you want to sell anything in this world. If you keep the customer in the dark he/she will easily just bail on you with good reasons.
Personally I hate that we've come to a place where transactions are just become more and more impersonal, because I 100% have no desire to talk to lots of shops now because I'd rather spare my self the frustration. If I can acquire something with no human contant then I'll do that instead. They'll eventually see how much fun it is when it's lights out for them, and that there are really consequences in the real world.
I loved cycling. Got into it when I was in my early 20s. Back then I got a great used specialized mtn bike for less than 500. I can't afford to buy a new or used bike of that quality anymore and I'm a lawyer now 😂
$190 for a jersey is ridiculous
After a lifetime of cycling I've learned that my older gear isn't what keeps me from being competitive. Its me. For years I tore up competitive group rides on older gear. Now I'm older and slower, the same gear still serves me as well and I have the self-confidence and awareness to either accept where I am or find groups that fit my abilities. Yes, support your LBS…not the corporate stores.
When you call a ridiculous looking outfit a kit you are marketing to a niche. Now the niche is complaining about the Uber niche ( from former roller blader who used to believe the bike lane was for me too)
It's for the Doctors, lawyer's, bank managers , self contractors that want to be the coolest on Saturday morning rides 😂
Rapha. Sounds like gaffa, not mafia
The LBS is done…..and the reason is beanie wearing, horned rim hipsters telling cyclist what they should think. It's nice that you have the stones to do these videos, but we as long time cyclists have seen "you" try to tell us what to think for decades.
My attitude is we're NOT all winners, but we ARE all contenders. AND the FFF rule: Freedom. Fun. Family. if anything impedes upon those three f's – get rid of it. Doesn't matter what you ride…FFF. 🤣😅😇
I’m not a road bike guy, I’ve always been into BMX bikes. The exact opposite has happened to bmx, it’s become more affordable and better. 15 years ago you couldn’t buy a complete bmx and have it be ready to go to the park on or cruise. Today in 2023, complete bikes are almost as good as a custom bike built from the frame up.
You lost me at Rayphia.
This is completely on point, not just for the road scene but also for MTBs. I raced dual slalom in the 90s as a kid and a little downhill. There was a big difference in prices back then between top end and entry level even then. The difference was that most people road entry level and upgraded their way through. There was always a flash git on the XC rides with a Pace or some such but most just weren't anywhere near.
For various reasons I dropped out of the sport until 4 years ago when I bought a hardtail enduro. It's easily the most capable bike Ive ever riden offroad but I take it to a bike park and the price gap between what I'm riding and most other bikes is £3-4k. Trust me those people are not £3-4k faster than me.
What I dont see is young kids on the trails these days, not unless they come from a wealthy background. Its pricing normal people out of the sport because its needlessly pricing most kids out of the sport. Most older people in cycling got into it as a grom, but lets face it, kids are the future of the industry not us. What family can afford to drop a minimum of £3k on a kids bike? If the Industry doesn't create and support reasonable entry level bikes now there will be no future of the sport in 15 years time.
you appear to have highlighted the problem by accident. the consumer is only interested in price and then moans (see your video) when manufacturers & retailers go bust.
Wonder where this came cultural idea from? Oh yes, it came from the US.
Constantly reducing everything down to a commodity, with a lack of diversiy and the ability to sell on anything else other than price. Funny given the preacher. Another murican constantly talking about himself.
<sigh>……..humans.
brilliant video! I agree with you… the bike industry is in major trouble…. i feel like it had been on the tech + innovation = more money marketing journey and forgotten what their product is all about and why people actually enjoy cycling. also I feel that the tech for techs sake culture has been adopted by product design graduates who want to be progressive in the bike industry…. hence we now have over complex CAD designed, electronic , disc braked, battery running, chip guided bikes….. but has all this made bikes better…? They are definately more costly to buy, own and run. They are also less well made, more fragile, heavier, ( yes really) and dead to ride. well done generation greedy.!
Lovely that super-high-end stuff is available, and hey – if I won the lottery, I'd buy a few. But compared to when I started, there's a massive gap in the 'workingman's bike' area. Something I can train and race on, that has 105-level components and some room to upgrade. Those bikes used to fly off the shelves!
Hot take: the local bike shop is LESS important than ever, since every bike maintenance or repair task has like 1000 videos on YouTube. Especially simple road bikes. Come on man, everyone knows that.
It's economics.
Make $10,000 profit on one single bike, or make $10,000 profit selling 100 bikes. 🤷♂️
Dude amen
As a serious recreational rider who came to biking through commuting and messengering, the bike industry has been disappointing me for decades. But here's my rule of thumb:
Unless you are in a profession where you can deduct the price from your taxes, you probably shouldn't spend more than one paycheck on your bike.
I was a frequent customer of a LBS for 20+ years that was amazing! Friendly and knowledgeable staff. Great vibe. Cool local rides. Stylish club kits, etc. Probably spent over $20,000 during the course of that time but never regretted it as I really enjoyed being part of that community. Then the ownership must have received a deal they could not refuse and became Specialized Factory stores. Gone are the days the "good buddy discount", hanging out and just browsing, the quick while you wait derailleur adjustment, and so on. This has forced me to change my expectation on the sport. Through Instagram, I found a local mechanic who works out of his garage and now does all of my road and mountain bike services. He even built up my YT Decoy. The guy is amazing, detail-oriented and always finds time for me and all at a fraction of what a shop would charge. This is where I think the industry is headed. Side hustles by people who genuinely love the sport and provide the personal experience we remember during the Golden Age of cycling.
3×8 old aluminium bike here
I just want to share that I bought the gozone recumbent bike and it started grinding after 20 hours. I made it 77 hours and then returned it to walmart. It cost $205. It goes both ways I guess.
The terrible level of standardisation across brands must be a killer for the local bike shops too. So many different tools needed to be able to work on everyone's bike. It's bad enough for us to tinker at home with a handful of different brand bikes.
100 $ for a bike seat is still really, really expensive.