Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

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Tangled Metal
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by Tangled Metal »

I'm sorry but Dawes and their galaxy bikes, indeed their whole range, got a bit old fashioned and kind of stuck in the olden days. A bad reputation for catering to an older generation, perhaps older than most still on here?? IMHO they just look old. Paint them black and put flat bars on them and you'd not see much different to the bikes being wheeled into factories back when we manufactured the modern world. Well not quite but not far off in image among my generation, I'm late 40s BTW.

Then quality issues came in, no longer made over here, etc.
Valbrona
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by Valbrona »

In contrast to some, I think they should have stopped UK manufacture about a decade before they actually did.
I should coco.
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Sweep
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by Sweep »

rogerzilla wrote:The Surly LHT is the standard touring bike now, judging from the number around.

Price seems to have shot up the last few years though as they seem to have marketised its reputation as rufty tufty sensible basic to the point that it is no longer rufty tufty sensible basic. And personally I don't favour the horizontal/near horizontal top tube.
And in my book they relinquished the merits of rufty tufty sensible when they let the standard build go beyond 9 speed, which in a rufty tufty sensible touring world I see no need for at all.
So in my book I am afraid they have disappeared into the marketing dark void - better to build/cobble together something yourself.
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fastpedaller
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by fastpedaller »

I've never seen the appeal of a Dawes Galaxy, always seemed to be a case of 'buying a name' to me and demonstrates the power of branding.
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DaveP
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by DaveP »

I used to collect bikes from Dawes midlands distributors for delivery by one of the natinal courier companies. The people there just loaded boxes on trucks. Their biggest hoarding related to their range of golfing equipment.
You just ended up with the feeling that management had little active interest and little contact with the end users. There were usually more boxes labelled Elswick than Dawes...
Trying to retain enough fitness to grow old disgracefully... That hasn't changed!
rogerzilla
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by rogerzilla »

Not much choice for Surly in sticking with 9 speed. Shimano's relentless marketing machine means Surly can't buy nice 9 speed kit new. Even basic Deore has gone to 11 and 12 speed. There's also a break in compatibility between 10 and 11 speed, so buying into 10 speed or less puts you on a road to obsolescence and a massive "upgrade" later.
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horizon
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by horizon »

fastpedaller wrote:I've never seen the appeal of a Dawes Galaxy, always seemed to be a case of 'buying a name' to me and demonstrates the power of branding.


That's maybe because you weren't in the market for that sort of bike at that time and that price point. AFAIK, Dawes were the only company really (apart possibly from Raleigh) that catered for the off-the-peg, 531, loaded, lightish-weight touring market. My recollection is that it was either very lightweight or very street, verging on park-keeper with the odd Chopper thrown in. There wasn't much choice.

In fact, far from the Galaxy market now being a small, specialised one, I would say it has exploded across lots of different bikes from MTBs to gravel and audax to cross. And for those who still want a Galaxy (like myself), there is Thorn, Spa etc as others have said, not to mention Surly.

What has done it for Dawes is globalisation, i.e. changes in manufacturing, marketing and distribution and the sheer economics of scale, not the disappearance of this market. The DNA of the Galaxy lives on, Dawes perhaps in name only.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
pwa
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by pwa »

Arguably the Spa tourer frameset I now do most of my cycling on, along with the Thorn Club Tour that preceded it, are continuing the Galaxy tradition. But unlike the Galaxy they originate on the drawing boards of real, known individuals, who I can name and can generally trust to put things in the right places. To me Dawes is just a brand with no face and no personality.
thelawnet
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by thelawnet »

rogerzilla wrote:Not much choice for Surly in sticking with 9 speed. Shimano's relentless marketing machine means Surly can't buy nice 9 speed kit new. Even basic Deore has gone to 11 and 12 speed. There's also a break in compatibility between 10 and 11 speed, so buying into 10 speed or less puts you on a road to obsolescence and a massive "upgrade" later.


11 speed and 10 speed are compatible; the problem is 9 to 10.

there are essentially 3 ratios :

7-9 speed road (plus old 10 speed road) + mtb
10+ speed road, including 'gravel'
10+ speed mtb

'T' series parts are still 10 speed for Deore XT, which is still sensible stuff not like the giant-cassette rubbish they like to put out now, the only real issue is the absence of compatible 10-speed drop bar shifters.
Boring_Username
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by Boring_Username »

Interesting responses. In my youth, a Dawes Galaxy was the touring bike, without question. I've really been more interested in audax style bikes since, so have lost touch with developments in touring bikes. I had not realised that along with other previously premium brands (Karrimor, AEG, etc) the brand had been used and abused so severely.

Coincidentally, I'm looking to buy my first ever proper touring bike in the new year, with an eye to a bit of full on camping across the UK to start with and then Europe when things calm down. Guess I'll be knocking on Spa's door, by the sound of it.
mercalia
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by mercalia »

fastpedaller wrote:I've never seen the appeal of a Dawes Galaxy, always seemed to be a case of 'buying a name' to me and demonstrates the power of branding.


When I bought my Dawes 1-Down back in 2000 it was a choice between that or a Galaxy. One thing that decided it for me was the stupid 52 teeth of the outer ring of the Galaxy, a massive thing I would never use
pwa
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by pwa »

mercalia wrote:
fastpedaller wrote:I've never seen the appeal of a Dawes Galaxy, always seemed to be a case of 'buying a name' to me and demonstrates the power of branding.


When I bought my Dawes 1-Down back in 2000 it was a choice between that or a Galaxy. One thing that decided it for me was the stupid 52 teeth of the outer ring of the Galaxy, a massive thing I would never use

And in that year the likes of Thorn were equipping tourers with properly thought out gears for people with real legs. Some of us had decided by that point that we wanted to buy touring bikes from people who knew about cycle touring. When I bought from Thorn I knew I was buying from people who were very opinionated about bike stuff, and sometimes I thought they were wrong. But at least they cared and put a lot of detailed thought into it. The same applies to Spa, though I disagree with them a lot less. But Dawes? A faceless brand that sometimes seems not to know what they are doing, and perhaps don't even care.
robert17
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by robert17 »

I'm surprised that Ridgeback still make a few tourers. My 2008 Voyage is still going well. It does have new wheels and most of drivetrain. In fact all apart from the 2200 shifters which are still going, if a little creakily.
AndyA
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by AndyA »

The last Dawes Galaxies were really bad bikes, terrible cable routing, suspect geometry and a few other flaws that spoke of half-baked design.
There are loads of options for an upper-middle end steel touring/gravel/commuting/audax type bike now, I'd say that the Genesis CDF and Speci Tricross ate Dawes' lunch ten years ago and Dawes only got worse from there
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speedsixdave
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Re: Dawes to stop making the Galaxy due to lack of demand...

Post by speedsixdave »

Although recent Galaxies were not what they might have been (and my wife's 1982 Galaxy is a pretty terrible touring bike for a number of reasons) this is quite sad news I think. I don't know if people still go into bike shops to look at bikes and consider what they might buy but not that long ago Galaxies could be seen on the shop floor in city-centre bike shops like Evans, and could potentially be pointed at by sales staff as a possible option for a new buyer.

As we all know the 'classic' tourer is a good fit for lots of sorts of cycling. Although better tourers are available from specialist shops, the average post-lockdown punter going into a bike shop now looking for a bike has even less chance of being pointed towards a touring bike than they did this time last year, and that's a sad thing.
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