Originally Posted by
Meconium
I blame whierless electronic shifting and down country bikes relabeled as short travel progressive "whips". To many small players trying to go big and the big trying to bigger. Bike companies should just all go in on stocking display/demo galleries that are inclusive to whatever brands who want to pay for a "booth". Fuck specialized,Trek and Giant "shops". Real bike shops should just stick to service and components. Like restructure component US pricing. Cut out distributors all together a manufacturers sell components directly to bike shops. Margins do not need to be low, manufacturing costs are not outrageous, sales and marketing is. Sram is the devil, Shimano, fine with the 5 year life cycle. Hayes is fine, Mezzer don't retool like an idiot. Silicon valley software shenanigans investment Tom foolery is a game and if you lose, Bitcoin it.