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

[SIL4]

I bought my 2016 Gran Tour 725 on a whim with some proper touring in mind, before my plans changed, and so it never got used as intended and I had planned to sell it, but it's now temporarily acting as my road bike over winter and so will be keeping it: great finish, rides nicely and the quality is a good as anything else I've owned.

[PH]

took their eyes off the ball completely, moved down market and joined the likes of Raleigh, Falcon, Claud Butler etc.

Well, the share price keeps rising, so why do you think they took their eye off the ball, rather than decided to play with a different one?

[SIL4]

If what they make sells and makes money, that's great for shareholders and for the customers who buy their products...I guess the point was that the shift in the perceived quality and range of their product left some of those previous and potential customers wanting, which I can kind of understand.

[MarcusT]

The market demands make or break a model.
Today, most new bike sales in the touring niche are bike packing and gravel bikes. The Galaxy unfortunately is neither.
Even the LHT is losing ground to Surly gravel and alternate touring bikes.

[Bonzo Banana]

It's a shame but I think we saw this coming. Dawes just seemed to buy in the lowest price parts and loosely configure a touring bike. When I saw they were doing them with aluminium frames I thought they'd lost the plot when it comes to their core appeal. No doubt to the accountants they saw that aluminium frames were cheaper nowadays so that dictated the spec.

The only Dawes bike I've ever owned is a Dawes Kingpin folding bike. Very innovative for its time and beat the Raleigh Twenty to market. I did often put a Dawes Galaxies into my ebay watchlist but always went for more than I was prepared to pay.

The Dawes Galaxy could have easily continued as a touring bike top seller, it's all about the right spec at the right price. I just feel their spec was wrong on many occasions. You can allow for one or two bad component choices but it seemed like a lot of wrong choices and missing features. I look at what Thorn is offering and while prices are high I feel you have a product fit for purpose right out of the door.

Someone like Thorn should license the brand and model and do a true Dawes Galaxy of 2021. There is no reason for the iconic touring brand and model to disappear. You wonder what is left of the Dawes brand anyway. Their recent Kingpin folding bikes have been very generic chinese models sold at extremely high prices compared to other brands importing the same models.

[Tangled Metal]

My local Evans cycles (now closed because Mike Ashley didn't get his rent reduction demand met aiui from local reports) only ever had a handful of touring bikes. One was always a Dawes. However, the shop assistants talked me through the bike options for loaded touring and they simply bypassed Dawes with a rather dismissive comment. Basically their view was that why buy a Dawes when even budget touring brands made better for less.

I think they recommend a £900 ridgeback tourer over a much more expensive steel version galaxy they had in stock. It was only in stock because someone ordered it to take a look intending to buy. Apparently the buyer walked away from it and the deposit needed for Evans to bring it into stock. The manager told me they'd try and get rid of it and would never buy one in except if they were sure it's for a sale. They do however like to keep at least one proper touring bike from one of the other brands because they are better and sell. That's alongside the gravel bike varieties such as crois de fer and similar.

I think it's inevitable Dawes would stop selling and making them when larger bike chains don't like to even have them in stock anywhere in their stores and warehouse.

[markjohnobrien]

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

The frame is massively overpriced -£650 -700 for the new disc trucker frame. Good frame; ridiculous price increases across the whole of the Surly and Salsa ranges over the last few years (same company owns both).

[alexnharvey]

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

The frame is massively overpriced -£650 -700 for the new disc trucker frame. Good frame; ridiculous price increases across the whole of the Surly and Salsa ranges over the last few years (same company owns both).

Couldn't agree more. It's about time someone ate their lunch. I suppose you could argue that a few smaller companies are nibbling at the edges, Spa, etc.

[rogerzilla]

You'd think there'd been a political event that had trashed the £/$ rate, wouldn't you?

Everyone is importing frames from the Far East and no-one is immune. You could drop £2000 on a British-built frame, of course!

[Bonzo Banana]

When you go to the Dawes site now its a bit depressing. Just a collection of generic Chinese or far east bikes at inflated prices. When you look at the ebike section they don't even keep brands separate with Falcon and Claud Butler models listed. Tandem just seem to have lost direction but maybe sales show otherwise. Does seem like a brand in retreat though and the fact the Galaxy is no more makes me feel long term these brands will disappear. They don't seem to do anything that Halfords don't do better for a lot less. I would say many of their bikes are similar to the low cost Apollo bikes at Halfords and don't even reach Carrera level.

https://dawescycles.com/bikes/

Looks like the Falcon brand is no longer being used on their site so that whole brand is gone. When you go to their list of brands that is no more. Yet the site still exists if you search for it directly. What sort of company would forget to create a link to one of their own brands which actually has loads of models.

https://falconcycles.co.uk/our-bikes/

Here is one of their bikes, a high tensile steel touring bike with low end freewheel drivetrain probably made in somewhere like Sri Lanka. I'm actually surprised they didn't put Dawes Galaxy on that, maybe next year.

[PH]

You'd think there'd been a political event that had trashed the £/$ rate, wouldn't you?

Except the $ price has also risen by the same proportion.

[whoof]

In July 2014 a $800 bike would cost £468, today it would cost £635. That's a 36% increase.

[PH]

If what they make sells and makes money, that's great for shareholders and for the customers who buy their products...I guess the point was that the shift in the perceived quality and range of their product left some of those previous and potential customers wanting, which I can kind of understand.

I agree, it's that idea that they took their "eye off the ball" that I question. I'm suggesting (I have no insider knowledge) that it could have been a company decision to look elsewhere for their profits, rather than a failure on their part.

[PH]

In July 2014 a $800 bike would cost £468, today it would cost £635. That's a 36% increase.

Doesn't work like that, the £ price of a Surly has often been higher than the $ price, they've both gone up by around 30% in the last five years.

[Sweep]

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

The frame is massively overpriced -£650 -700 for the new disc trucker frame. Good frame; ridiculous price increases across the whole of the Surly and Salsa ranges over the last few years (same company owns both).

Agree totally.