Is the inflated Bike market finally crashing?

ebarker9 said:
escapecollective.com

How did the bike industry get into such deep trouble?

A deep dive into what went wrong in the supply chain during the pandemic
escapecollective.com escapecollective.com

Series of 4 podcasts focusing on this topic, starting with COVID. Only the first episode is out so far, but I've found it interesting.
Click to expand...

I listened to this yesterday. Pretty interesting how Shimano played it. Maybe they were already maxing out production for the inevitable “recall” they had on their cranks.
 
The Cliff Notes version.

Bike Companies sold 900 Billion bikes during Covid and made a Gajillion Dollars.

All of the CEOs retired with that money.

No one had any bikes.

As soon as the manufacturers caught up with demand, everyone decided playing Call Of Duty was more fun and sold the bike they bought for $3 on Facebook.

Instead of selling the bikes now stockpiled in warehouses, bike companies all came out with brand new models of every bike in their lineup making every bike in the warehouse obsolete.

The companies are now selling bikes for $3 on Facebook Marketplace and don’t have enough money to pay anyone to Promote the new models that no one has heard of so they’ll be on Facebook Marketplace for $3 in 6 months.

It’s now cheaper to buy custom built Ti bikes at MSRP than EP a bike from the Company you work for.

By this time next year we’ll all work for Amazon.
 
jdog said:
Truly.


I just listened to it and it is now very clear to me that I have deleted much of this time from my memory. Although it feels like like can only be Pre-covid and post-covid.


We are still very much NOT back to normal in so many ways, but I am glad that we are no longer living in such fear of other humans.
Click to expand...
Oof. Wish I could forget. I remember days on end of just trying to locate parts for repairs. How she had time to have phone conversations with customers is beyond me. If I answered the phones, nothing would get done.
 
And this:

www.bicycleretailer.com

Shimano annual sales down 30% in bike division

TOKYO (BRAIN) — Shimano announced full-year 2023 sales in its bicycle division of 364,679 million yen ($2.42 billion) on Tuesday, a 29.5% decrease from the year before. Operating income in the division was down 55%, to 65,251 million yen. “Although the booming popularity of bicycles cooled down...
www.bicycleretailer.com www.bicycleretailer.com
 
Steve Vai said:
The Cliff Notes version.

Bike Companies sold 900 Billion bikes during Covid and made a Gajillion Dollars.

All of the CEOs retired with that money.

No one had any bikes.

As soon as the manufacturers caught up with demand, everyone decided playing Call Of Duty was more fun and sold the bike they bought for $3 on Facebook.

Instead of selling the bikes now stockpiled in warehouses, bike companies all came out with brand new models of every bike in their lineup making every bike in the warehouse obsolete.

The companies are now selling bikes for $3 on Facebook Marketplace and don’t have enough money to pay anyone to Promote the new models that no one has heard of so they’ll be on Facebook Marketplace for $3 in 6 months.

It’s now cheaper to buy custom built Ti bikes at MSRP than EP a bike from the Company you work for.

By this time next year we’ll all work for Amazon.
Click to expand...
They’re much better at telling stories than you
 
Yea, I liked this one too. Lots of interesting little tidbits and perspectives includng the 7Mesh guy's perspectives.
 
Bike N Gear said:
And this:

www.bicycleretailer.com

Shimano annual sales down 30% in bike division

TOKYO (BRAIN) — Shimano announced full-year 2023 sales in its bicycle division of 364,679 million yen ($2.42 billion) on Tuesday, a 29.5% decrease from the year before. Operating income in the division was down 55%, to 65,251 million yen. “Although the booming popularity of bicycles cooled down...
www.bicycleretailer.com www.bicycleretailer.com
Click to expand...
Just got through all three episodes and it's really fascinating. Episode one mentions Shimano's reluctance to manufacturer beyond 5% but still resulted in this loss. No mention of SRAM, but they may be in worse shape.
 
Bike N Gear said:
As a dealer that went through this, that was the least interesting thing to me. The whole PTSD inducing series just reinforced what I already knew. Hoping for a part 4 cliffhanger where it all gets better. LOL.
Click to expand...
Curious on how long you've been selling bikes? Cause the 80% retention rate quoted by suppliers is simply ridiculous. Besides the pandemic when was your best period of growth for bikes sold? Not net sales figures, just raw numbers
 
qclabrat said:
Curious on how long you've been selling bikes? Cause the 80% retention rate quoted by suppliers is simply ridiculous. Besides the pandemic when was your best period of growth for bikes sold? Not net sales figures, just raw numbers
Click to expand...
Been open here since '95. The total volume of bikes was probably the best in the early days when kid's actually got bikes. Our Edison location would average 8 BMX bikes per day plus whatever else. I did more high end MTB but still a few BMX bikes a day. Then kid's started getting phones, computers, game stations and BMX died. If I get one phone call per 3 months enquiring about buying a BMX bike now, that would be a lot.

Like they said in the podcast. The pandemic just stole future sales. Being a small store, I probably had less than 200 bikes in inventory when the lockdown started. Every last one, and a few of my own were gone within a month. If I knew then, what I do now, I should have retired the day after that last bike was sold. I'd never seen that much cash in the checking account with no place to spend it. Instead, we began fixing bikes. Then the fun began of just hunting for parts every day.
 
Bike N Gear said:
Been open here since '95. The total volume of bikes was probably the best in the early days when kid's actually got bikes. Our Edison location would average 8 BMX bikes per day plus whatever else. I did more high end MTB but still a few BMX bikes a day. Then kid's started getting phones, computers, game stations and BMX died. If I get one phone call per 3 months enquiring about buying a BMX bike now, that would be a lot.

Like they said in the podcast. The pandemic just stole future sales. Being a small store, I probably had less than 200 bikes in inventory when the lockdown started. Every last one, and a few of my own were gone within a month. If I knew then, what I do now, I should have retired the day after that last bike was sold. I'd never seen that much cash in the checking account with no place to spend it. Instead, we began fixing bikes. Then the fun began of just hunting for parts every day.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the hardest part is quitting while you're ahead. I'm sure I'd be the guy with 900 bikes in storage if I were in the business. Hopefully that's not you they're talking about...
 
Bike N Gear said:
Been open here since '95. The total volume of bikes was probably the best in the early days when kid's actually got bikes. Our Edison location would average 8 BMX bikes per day plus whatever else. I did more high end MTB but still a few BMX bikes a day. Then kid's started getting phones, computers, game stations and BMX died. If I get one phone call per 3 months enquiring about buying a BMX bike now, that would be a lot.

Like they said in the podcast. The pandemic just stole future sales. Being a small store, I probably had less than 200 bikes in inventory when the lockdown started. Every last one, and a few of my own were gone within a month. If I knew then, what I do now, I should have retired the day after that last bike was sold. I'd never seen that much cash in the checking account with no place to spend it. Instead, we began fixing bikes. Then the fun began of just hunting for parts every day.
Click to expand...
Jesse from Marty's was telling me how when he was a kid they'd be filling every possible square inch of the store & basement storage with kids bikes leading up to Christmas. Everybody would be working late assembling as many kids bikes as they could. Completely doesn't exist now.
 
Bike N Gear said:
Been open here since '95. The total volume of bikes was probably the best in the early days when kid's actually got bikes. Our Edison location would average 8 BMX bikes per day plus whatever else. I did more high end MTB but still a few BMX bikes a day. Then kid's started getting phones, computers, game stations and BMX died. If I get one phone call per 3 months enquiring about buying a BMX bike now, that would be a lot.

Like they said in the podcast. The pandemic just stole future sales. Being a small store, I probably had less than 200 bikes in inventory when the lockdown started. Every last one, and a few of my own were gone within a month. If I knew then, what I do now, I should have retired the day after that last bike was sold. I'd never seen that much cash in the checking account with no place to spend it. Instead, we began fixing bikes. Then the fun began of just hunting for parts every day.
Click to expand...
Could part of the decline be that most parents just buy their kid a Walmart bike now?
The BMX bike my parents got me was from a bike shop because the cheap Walmart bikes didn't exist then.
 
Santapez said:
Jesse from Marty's was telling me how when he was a kid they'd be filling every possible square inch of the store & basement storage with kids bikes leading up to Christmas. Everybody would be working late assembling as many kids bikes as they could. Completely doesn't exist now.
Click to expand...
The divide between a bike store bike and the kmart bike became too wide. And then enter in the mid-level-crap-bike at Dick's you no longer have the average person going to a shop for a kids bike.

That being said, the crapass wheelie bikes will sell like hotcakes.
 
JPark said:
Could part of the decline be that most parents just buy their kid a Walmart bike now?
The BMX bike my parents got me was from a bike shop because the cheap Walmart bikes didn't exist then.
Click to expand...
I don't think so. My son is 23. Every year I'd ask him if any of his friends had or rode bikes. Very few did. Wasn't a money thing in my town.
 
JPark said:
Could part of the decline be that most parents just buy their kid a Walmart bike now?
The BMX bike my parents got me was from a bike shop because the cheap Walmart bikes didn't exist then.
Click to expand...
Cheap bikes were always around. They used to come from Sears or other department stores. Still, every kid used to have, want, need and live on their bikes. No more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom