Do we really understand what’s happening to the cycle trade?

[Cugel]

I can say for certain that I do not understand what's happening to the cycle trade. I've just been searching for a normal everyday bicycle component of a reasonable quality and have failed. What has happened? Gravel bikes north of a couple of £k everywhere I look but not a solitary decent quality 27.0 polished silver seatpost to be found unless I import it from Japan.

I declare the cycle trade officially broken

If you buy and learn to use a metal working lathe, you may be able to take 27.2mm seat post and turn it down by 0.2mm. An alternative is to hand sand it down, taking measurements over 57 points every 21 sanding strokes to ensure that you're sanding it evenly. Another way is to bang the 27.2er in with a hammer, hoping the seat tube will just stretch.

Why not, though, just buy a shiny new gravel bike? I've heard that Amazon has them for £199.99 and ebay for even less!

*****************
I haven't been in a bike shop for ten years now. They never seem to have what one needs. Do they still have them ones where an irascible curmudgeon is in charge, shouting at you when you ask for something because he (its always a he) judges your request stupid and not what he would recommend? I used to love going to them shops, just to wind up such fellows. Does anyone recall Huey, I think it was, at Ribble Cycles in Watery Lane, Preston? Many local cycle clubs had members whose second hobby was Huey-baiting.

[oaklec]

Why not, though, just buy a shiny new gravel bike? I've heard that Amazon has them for £199.99 and ebay for even less!

I doubt it would have a good quality 27.0 polished seatpost for me to use

[Bmblbzzz]

Just imagine the pain if you needed wanted one in orange or lime green to match your early 90s mountain bike!

[Cugel]

Just imagine the pain if you needed wanted one in orange or lime green to match your early 90s mountain bike!

I think you'll find that vivid pink was the de-rigueur colour for one's seatpin (and bar-ends) at that time. Some liked that marigold but it was already taken by the rubber gloved fetishists, really.

[mattheus]

..however we're always in the middle of something- not at the end, and I very much look forward to reading posts from gravel bike riders, when the next design of bicycle crashes like a wave onto society, something like 'I don't know why people are buying these new pedal powered hover bikes, you could ride that terrain on a mid 2020's gravel bike... its all a sales gimmick'...

Love it.

[Cugel]

..however we're always in the middle of something- not at the end, and I very much look forward to reading posts from gravel bike riders, when the next design of bicycle crashes like a wave onto society, something like 'I don't know why people are buying these new pedal powered hover bikes, you could ride that terrain on a mid 2020's gravel bike... its all a sales gimmick'...

Love it.

Ooooh - where can I buy a pedal-powered hover bike? I've always wanted something rather better than them big float things for pedalling about the West Wales bays and inlets.

[Cowsham]

A thing that still baffles me is how young folk with low incomes complain about the price of housing but at the same time can afford to buy pizzas getting them delivered at £18 a pop every night. ( probably a lot more in England. ) Some still paying a sky subscription dear as a mortgage of twenty years ago. Won't even mention "Drink smoking / vapin. Not something I do so can't comment.

A 10% deposit on an average priced house in 2024 will be around 1,500 pizzas. Though lenders will insist on a higher deposit for many borrowers.
A 10% deposit in 1985 was around 500 pizzas, though it was easy to get on the property ladder with 5%.
At the same time as saving for the deposit, people have to find the rent. This century alone the average has gone from 28% of net average salary to 45% in England as a whole, and from 40% to 75% in London.
This idea that the pizza munching feckless young just need to do what we did decades ago is nostalgic nonsense that doesn't hold up at any sort of scrutiny.
And I challenge anyone with just a Hayes manual and some hand tools to fix any modern car. I was pretty competent thirty years ago, last time I looked under the bonnet (Of a hire car) I couldn't even name the parts.

There's definitely been a big uptick of trade in fast food shops ( here at least ).

Just tonight I was in a local chip shop of which there are 6 or 7 in the small town. Not often I'll go in one cos I can't stand the grease but was getting a portion of onion rings for the wife. I counted 7 staff and all working their butts off trying to cater for the queue of people lined up to the door. The prices have recently doubled since I was last in a chip shop but people are buying it like it was their last meal. I don't understand how, if there's a cost of living crises, they can afford it.

I don't accept the lie that eating healthy is more expensive than eating unhealthy -- there were people spending more on one fast food night for their family ( I assume ) than would buy a half decent bicycle.

[Cowsham]

The new NIC hike the labor government wants ain't helping retailers many more will close this incoming year. NI also don't get the large business property rates rebates the rest of the uk gets.

[djnotts]

I wonder if Raleigh typical of the big names? I associate them with low- to mid-range bikes, so perhaps the companies badging the >5 grand models are in a better shape? And the poor quality, possibly not legal, e-bikes readily available are taking the utility market?
Whatever, quite a large loss:

"Iconic bike manufacturer Raleigh has suffered losses of £30m, according to its accounts.

The firm - founded in Nottingham in 1887 and once the biggest bicycle maker in the world - confirmed a loss of £30.1m before tax in 2023 in its annual financial statement published on Tuesday - compared to losses of £6.8m in 2022.

Raleigh previously confirmed redundancies in Nottingham in 2024 following a review of the business at the end of 2023 and vacated its headquarters in Church Street, Eastwood, to move to new premises less than a mile away.

The firm has said "strategic changes" following the review had left the company in a "strong position" once the market returned to a more stable state, post-pandemic." (BBC News.)

[djnotts]

^ 2024 results will be more informative!

[Cowsham]

Loads of cycle manufacturers had a boom of trade during the pandemic and didn't factor in the natural slump in sales after.

Scaling up production, buying in new infrastructure and staff to do so can mean the manufacturer can't easily ramp down production and cut costs when sales are low.

We seem to have the ideology that growth is essential to survive but what we really need is sustainability and the agility to change when required.

[djnotts]

^ Yes, but is there also an increasing divide between market segments? What new bikes I do see out are very much, to my eyes and wallet, at the expensive end. 3 grand minimum. The bike press reviews best budget bikes, with price tags of 2 grand! Gravel after market forks at 1 grand!

[Bmblbzzz]

The price of second-hand BSOs might give a clue. If those are low, there's probably not much demand at the lower utility end. If high, it might be that there's increasing market segmentation and the big cos are, for probably sensible profit margin reasons, moving upmarket.

[djnotts]

The price of second-hand BSOs might give a clue. If those are low, there's probably not much demand at the lower utility end. If high, it might be that there's increasing market segmentation and the big cos are, for probably sensible profit margin reasons, moving upmarket.

Beneath low, can't give 'em away round here!

[Cowsham]

The price of second-hand BSOs might give a clue. If those are low, there's probably not much demand at the lower utility end. If high, it might be that there's increasing market segmentation and the big cos are, for probably sensible profit margin reasons, moving upmarket.

Maybe there's too many makes trying to move into higher end market to avoid the imported low value bikes territory?