The Pro’s Closet?

[joetron]

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.

This is great stuff.
However, good distributors are great. I do mostly service and components and at least 80% of the stuff I sell comes from Q. I can fill a whole store from one place, within a day or two with free shipping. The little margin gains I would get from going direct with everything would be far offset from the time spent and freight.
So good distributors are ok.
I think SRAM is ok, Shimano might net out a little better over time, but again, getting a whole build kit from one company(that generally has better availability in the US) is kinda cool. Kinda terrifying too.

[evdog]

But it's a lot easier for the average idiot to wrench on their mountain bike than it is for the average idiot to wrench on their motorcycle. So service departments make money.

They must be doing ok on service revenue. All the dealers around here refuse to work on any moto that is more than 10 years old.

[buttahflake]

I keep checking to see if prices are coming down, and, no, they are not.
When will I see swanky Red/Dura Ace road bikes for $2900?

[simple]

I keep checking to see if prices are coming down, and, no, they are not.
When will I see swanky Red/Dura Ace road bikes for $2900?

Last seen in 2004

[climberevan]

I keep checking to see if prices are coming down, and, no, they are not.
When will I see swanky Red/Dura Ace road bikes for $2900?

Pro tip: rim brakes.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Last seen in 2004

Shit, I think I paid more than that on pro-deal for my Dura-Ace road bike when I got it in 2004. Canuck bucks though…

[rideit]

I keep checking to see if prices are coming down, and, no, they are not.
When will I see swanky Red/Dura Ace road bikes for $2900?

Did you try in Rutland?

[TrueNorth]

I keep checking to see if prices are coming down, and, no, they are not.
When will I see swanky Red/Dura Ace road bikes for $2900?

I'd sell my rim brake Dura-Ace full carbon road bike (Argon 18 Gallium Pro, size M) for $2900 US. Not sure about the cost of shipping from Canada though.

[buttahflake]

Pro tip: rim brakes.

I currently have rim brakes on carbon wheels. Does it rain where you are? Because all it does is rain here this summer, rim brakes and carbon wheels, when wet, are sketchball!

[stuckathuntermtn]

What if the industry moves to even more inconvenient cable routing? Will that help?

[climberevan]

I currently have rim brakes on carbon wheels. Does it rain where you are? Because all it does is rain here this summer, rim brakes and carbon wheels, when wet, are sketchball!

Last month I rode Monitor pass CA 89 (2400' descent, 50+mph) in the rain two weekends in a row. It was super fun, and my carbon rims were perfectly fine for it. One must simply remember that it takes a few seconds to dry the rims before the brakes will do anything.

Those will likely be the only rain rides I do all year, however. If I rode in the rain regularly, I'd probably be more inclined to ride my gravel bike with discs. Ms CE and the other guy we were with were very happy to have their discs.

[buttahflake]

Yeah thanks, pretty familiar with braking and whatnot.
Lap

[Jtlange]

The continued bounce is going to be hard to predict. Manufacturer's can't just shut down production and rely on their current inventory, which is why you see current product being moved at reduced prices.

I'd predict a slight pull back in the future, but to be honest, I think the market is going to shrink as well.
I don't think it's a strong time for secondary sales at the moment, and while it might be slightly better in the future it won't go back to the pandemic level seller's market.

Can confirm, selling a bike right now sucks

[TrueNorth]

A store in Canada with a similar business model to TPC is closing. All their bikes are gone, and the leftover inventory (mostly new shoes and clothing, some odds and ends of parts) is 75% off now
https://www.cyclingavenue.com/en/sale

[XXX-er]

La bicycletta a long time road shop in Vangroovy has just gone tits up

[Eluder]

I've sold two bikes this year, I ignored covid pricing trends and just priced them fair and they sold in good order. Both size small even.

Pros Closet needs to come to terms with the fact they are gonna lose some money and drop their prices. The longer they wait the more they bleed. They seem set on a certain margin and all that is out the window at this moment.

[jm2e]

I keep waiting for Fox 40 groves to come down. Based on that, there has been no change in the market.


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[Duffman]

Is the depression in the used bike market primarily at the higher end? I've been trying to find a basic entry level FS bike (light trail or XC non race, no getting rad here and no Strava times , casual singletrack mostly ) in a small for my wife and haven't come across any screaming deals yet. I guess there is less room to move down at the lower end of the market.

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[rideit]

Exactly.

[iriponsnow]

I recently was turned down for a trade in @ TPC. They informed that only 2k bikes were of interest to them.

[rideit]

Meaning bikes that they can sell for 2k?

[jm2e]

I’m gonna guess the implication is that they waaaay over bought $6-8000 bikes and now they’re learning that people looking for used bikes generally want something significantly less expensive than a premium new bike. But hey, I’m not a hippie town venture capitalist, so maybe I’m wrong.


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[iriponsnow]

[iriponsnow]

Meaning bikes that they can sell for 2k?

yes

[MiddleOfNight]

I’m gonna guess the implication is that they waaaay over bought $6-8000 bikes and now they’re learning that people looking for used bikes generally want something significantly less expensive than a premium new bike. But hey, I’m not a hippie town venture capitalist, so maybe I’m wrong.
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yea i found this too. was looking for a used mtb spring of '22, and the 1 - 2 year old stuff they had wasn't much (if any) cheaper than a new whip .. soo what's the point. i worked OT and bought something new.

as an aside, they still push ads to my phone and computer 16 months later.