What the hell is going on in the bike industry? Wiggle Chain Reaction turmoil discussed plus pro cycling's idiot problem on the road.cc Podcast

It's much simpler for me and applies to alot of the cycling retail industry who have been struggling lately.

They just stopped selling stuff I wanted to buy.

Ironically it's articles/podcasts like this that push businesses that are borderline surviving on money flowing in, into administration, because people's reaction is exactly as yours.

stonojnr wrote:

Ironically it's articles/podcasts like this that push businesses that are borderline surviving on money flowing in, into administration, because people's reaction is exactly as yours.

Ironically it is retailers actions in taking peoples money long after they know they will not be able to deliver the goods that make people react like that.

The guitar Marty McFly played in Back to the Future ( a Gibson ES345) wasn't introduced by Gibson until 1958. 

perce wrote:

The guitar Marty McFly played in Back to the Future ( a Gibson ES345) wasn't introduced by Gibson until 1958. 

That ruined it for me, they went to so much trouble to make it realistic with the time-travelling DeLorean and that then blew the whole illusion with that simple error. Would you believe a friend tried to justify it by saying maybe it was an ES335, thinking the series numbers went in time sequence, when as any fule kno the 335 and 345 were released concurrently (and of course in any case the 335 has dot inlays whereas the 345 has parallelogram ones)? Needless to say they are no longer a friend!

I must admit I thought it was a 335 at first. I wish I could afford either.

perce wrote:

The guitar Marty McFly played in Back to the Future ( a Gibson ES345) wasn't introduced by Gibson until 1958. 

I've often wondered whether Marty's parents ever discussed how their son grew up to look and sound exactly like a kid they once knew in 1955. 

mark1a wrote:

I've often wondered whether Marty's parents ever discussed how their son grew up to look and sound exactly like a kid they once knew in 1955. 

And what was Mrs McFly's reaction when Calvin Klein underpants first came out?

Yep, that bit always seemed a bit far fetched to me.

I've always said there's no money in bikes - at least not in a world that requires, like the music publishing industry, consumers to buy and re-buy essentially the same product presented differently. 

Guilty as charged.  Haven't bought a new bike for myself in 15 years, and that's despite currently owning several. Go back the 1980s for the last complete new bike before that, a Claud Butler Special from, I think, Freewheel (which I crashed).

Guilty some times of buying wheelsets and groupsets from Germany back when you could.  Haven't engaged a bike mechanic (except for that unfortunate incident with the stuck seat post 2 years ago) in ages, in fact I provide that service free to my local repair cafe. 

Gradual drift away from Wiggle/Chain Reaction in recent years - Tweeks, Singletrack, SJSC, Spa, Ebay (e.g. Hopkinson, High on Bikes), Tredz. There's a slight feelgood factor when your items arrive in a repurposed cycling branded box and have come from a business with a real world shop somewhere.

There was a nice starter toolkit and a torque set on the Wiggle Black Friday sale pages - the other cycling items seemed to be the usual odds and ends like the 46 cm handlebars. 

Well there you are. WE are the problem with the bike industry.

Similar story myself. Also only one brand new bike in decades (last year's least-maintenance-possible commuter - now almost rebuilt after its 6 month holiday care of a bike thief). Foreign wheels also (Rose - alas now...)

In my defence I'm often getting *components* (although not top end) and am happy to use SJS for novel bits, put some business the way of the LBS for stuff I can't do or am lazy doing (same as you with seat post).

For me that's an attractive facet of cycling. Probably explains why politicians are so down on cycling - it tends to the wrong kind of economics for them to sell eg small scale, local / independent, secondary or tertiary businesses (eg. repair, resale).

Fundamentally it doesn't naturally concentrate large sums of money, isn't about "new" or shiny or "disruptive".

Is this also an age thing? If you keep that "I'm going to change the world / make my fortune" perspective perhaps things cycling will never be particularly inspiring? Unless you reinvent the cycle as something it isn't!

Mind you there has always been a high tech end to cycling. But that's the sport side. There are some "more fancy" changes at the regular consumer end though.
Many of the Dutch are now on relatively high tech bikes compared with a couple of decades ago eg. Gazelle and others now do suspension, alloy frames, more gears - and increasingly e- bikes. Same as cars - the Dutch don't all suddenly *need* these, but they promise convenience and people can afford them...

Smoggysteve wrote:

I'll never wear out the rims. I'll not need to upgrade the integrated bars and stem. I'll never have to change a single cable . It's doesn't have a single one!  

Sounds like when the entertainment industry tried to get us to buy all our old movies and music on digital formats for twice the price (& profit) until people discovered how easy they were to share for free. 

They had tours, streaming and TV to fall back on, we have chains, tires, and brake pads I guess.

the entertainment industry is something else that's ready to collapse. Music is all created for high profit, low expenditure sales. The risks are low and it's all about making quick money. Streaming has killed the album. The experimental innovation. As music industry experts have said many times. You wouldn't get a Sgt Peppers today. The producers are too scared of change. They pay the artists a pittance and unless it's an artist you already really followed you are not likely to risk buying an album and listening to it from start to finish. No exposure means no new breakthrough artists with a fresh new sound. 
 

you could trace one genre back to another based on the bands influences. Not sure how sampling and auto tuned nonsense really influences the next generation. It's not their music to begin with 

Smoggysteve wrote:

the entertainment industry is something else that's ready to collapse. Music is all created for high profit, low expenditure sales. The risks are low and it's all about making quick money. Streaming has killed the album. The experimental innovation. As music industry experts have said many times. You wouldn't get a Sgt Peppers today. The producers are too scared of change. They pay the artists a pittance and unless it's an artist you already really followed you are not likely to risk buying an album and listening to it from start to finish. No exposure means no new breakthrough artists with a fresh new sound. 
 

you could trace one genre back to another based on the bands influences. Not sure how sampling and auto tuned nonsense really influences the next generation. It's not their music to begin with 

Personally I've always felt that those who produce genuine art of any kind ought to pay us, the viewers, listeners et al, to "consume" it. After all, they do it for the love of their subect and to impart what they feel are important insights for all, don't they?  But why involve any financial transaction at all?

Far too much is turned into nothing more than another mere product for sale. Doing so often demeans, degrades and reduces it to some form of low quality but popular thing appealing to the greatest number. With popular musak its boom-banga-bang! I love you baby! (Or, sometimes, "I'm fed up becus....").

Another syndrome is the transformation of art objects into ridiculously expensive collectible investments, hidden in some rich person' safe. If such art is meant to impart important insights to all & sundry, how come only the rich are allowed them?

Don't worry, I know the answer. 

************

Put all the genuine artists in a garret with only enough "basic income" dosh from the taxes to buy their materials and feed themselves. (Perhaps a drug allowance may also be awarded to some). Make their product public property destined for anyone who wants a copy, rather like providing pavements or public lavatories or libraries or museums or .....

********

Mind, I'm very willing to pay cash for good bike bits I wants. After all, the money has to get distributed somehow. But hang on!  Have I told you of my "Alternative to capitalism and wage slavery as the main income distributor" scheme? Well, it's like this .... [Deleted by the forum anti-boredom & daft stuff monitor]

Gosh, are you sure you're only 94? This sounds like a vision of art which the lugals of Ur and Kish could have recognised. And to be fair it's probably still valid with minor tweaks - the artist as the servant of the powerful, to produce art demonstrating, validating and enhancing their status.

The wage of the artist is bread, not caviar - indeed.

Mind - does the same apply to forum posts?

chrisonatrike wrote:

Gosh, are you sure you're only 94? This sounds like a vision of art which the lugals of Ur and Kish could have recognised. And to be fair it's probably still valid with minor tweaks - the artist as the servant of the powerful, to produce art demonstrating, validating and enhancing their status. The wage of the artist is bread, not caviar - indeed. Mind - does the same apply to forum posts?

The art (or is it a low crafty) of the forum post!  I get paid exactly what mine are worth, cash-wise. In terms of casting pearls before .... well, all sorts of human animals, their value is moot but definitely nothing to do with pund notes.

I imagine you yourself will be printing and making a book of all my posts, so you can consider their pearls after the lecky has gone and feral robbers are bangin' on your door whilst demanding your emergency tins of beans and bags of rice. The book o' Cugel posts will be no use whatsoever, though. 

Unfortunately, cycle retailers like wiggle and others involved in the health/fitness industry such as Garmin, peloton, wahoo etc were unrealistic expecting the boom experienced during 2020-21 to continue. Covid lockdowns mint Jim's closed and people looked to cycling to get their fitness kick. This combined with furlough meant many money to burn which meant health related expenditure on the likes of expensive bikes and equipment went up, however, this was only going to be short lived as people weren't going to be spending the same amounts annually. Obviously the cost of living crisis since early 2022 and the current economic uncertainty hasn't helped.

As I recall there was a shortage of Shimano stuff during lockdown with demand exceeding supply, and this apparently was the bottleneck in bicycle production worldwide. Shimano protested that to meet the surge in demand would mean building a new factory, but they didn't think that would be a wise investment. Seems they were right.