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hey Guys,
thought i'd give you a heads up about the current state of the bike trade, thought i'd put it here in G&OT as it's sort of an across the board thing.
but anyway, obvs i'm sure you've noticed that there has been a pandemic, so last March we all went in to lockdown, all of a sudden gyms, pubs and everything closed, but luckily for the bike trade we were allowed to remain open as we are deemed "essential", so every person who was furloughed or was home looking after kids etc suddenly wanted something to do, and it was uncharacteristically sunny pretty much from March to September, this meant as i'm sure you know bike sales went crazy! which created a shortage of bikes.
it also created a shortage of basic parts, chains/cassettes and chainsets, tyres/tubes especially anything entry level, base model rear mechs etc.
so here we are a month in to 2021 and it's still looking dodgy. right now it's not too bad and stock availability is ok-ish depending on what you need.
but for example, i ordered some Squish kids bikes in September, they were supposed to be here in late November, they are still not here. i ordered the 2021 Kona range in May 2020, the first lot sold out and i couldn't get any more, i ordered the 2022 Kona range in October of 2020, they will start arriving hopefully in early July. it's similar with Orange and Ridgeback as well.
basically it's a nightmare.
looking at stock i have had several reps tell me they will run out of stock in March, stock that would usually last through the summer, and they can't get any more, they can order it but it's just not getting made quick enough and obvs it's not just the UK asking for it. so i have ordered excess stock early in the year to try and cover what i may need come the summer so that hopefully i don't run out, Topeak pumps for example i usually sell about 35 of the joe blow model each year, i have ordered 24 now (due end of this month) bearing in mind i currently have 5 in stock. it's not that i can't order stuff, it just goes on back order and sits there, if i get half way through those pumps by April i'd order another 24 but it's likely that the next lot they will get will be in September which means i'd just have to wait or look for another brand option in the meantime, i did that last year but the alternatives were also sold out!
so what i am basically saying is i am stock piling, and i hate that, i'm not that guy that goes buying 5000 toilet rolls, but in this case i am sort of forced in to doing it with my popular lines.
not that i want to start a brexit conversation (so please don't) but this is also having an affect, you may have seen that Canyon currently are not not sending to the UK, well neither are Kona until the rules are better explained, it's currently looking like if they send a single bike like normal they would get a £75 charge on it, that said if they send 5 bikes together it will still be £75, i haven't really got to the bottom of what this charge is for but Kona are currently looking through the new rule book to see how they can deal with this, basically they are trying to get around it but in real terms it will mean a price rise coming, turns out both Specialized and Trek are also putting their prices up as a result.
so my advice at the moment, and i am telling my customers this as well, is go look at your bikes and see if it's likely you'll need parts etc in the next few months, or bring it in to the shop by the spring and try and get a head of the shortage that will be coming otherwise you may be without your bike because you can't get parts.
so there you go, go spend money on the bits you know you'll need now! (ideally in an independent shop
)
thought i'd give you a heads up about the current state of the bike trade, thought i'd put it here in G&OT as it's sort of an across the board thing.
but anyway, obvs i'm sure you've noticed that there has been a pandemic, so last March we all went in to lockdown, all of a sudden gyms, pubs and everything closed, but luckily for the bike trade we were allowed to remain open as we are deemed "essential", so every person who was furloughed or was home looking after kids etc suddenly wanted something to do, and it was uncharacteristically sunny pretty much from March to September, this meant as i'm sure you know bike sales went crazy! which created a shortage of bikes.
it also created a shortage of basic parts, chains/cassettes and chainsets, tyres/tubes especially anything entry level, base model rear mechs etc.
so here we are a month in to 2021 and it's still looking dodgy. right now it's not too bad and stock availability is ok-ish depending on what you need.
but for example, i ordered some Squish kids bikes in September, they were supposed to be here in late November, they are still not here. i ordered the 2021 Kona range in May 2020, the first lot sold out and i couldn't get any more, i ordered the 2022 Kona range in October of 2020, they will start arriving hopefully in early July. it's similar with Orange and Ridgeback as well.
basically it's a nightmare.
looking at stock i have had several reps tell me they will run out of stock in March, stock that would usually last through the summer, and they can't get any more, they can order it but it's just not getting made quick enough and obvs it's not just the UK asking for it. so i have ordered excess stock early in the year to try and cover what i may need come the summer so that hopefully i don't run out, Topeak pumps for example i usually sell about 35 of the joe blow model each year, i have ordered 24 now (due end of this month) bearing in mind i currently have 5 in stock. it's not that i can't order stuff, it just goes on back order and sits there, if i get half way through those pumps by April i'd order another 24 but it's likely that the next lot they will get will be in September which means i'd just have to wait or look for another brand option in the meantime, i did that last year but the alternatives were also sold out!
so what i am basically saying is i am stock piling, and i hate that, i'm not that guy that goes buying 5000 toilet rolls, but in this case i am sort of forced in to doing it with my popular lines.
not that i want to start a brexit conversation (so please don't) but this is also having an affect, you may have seen that Canyon currently are not not sending to the UK, well neither are Kona until the rules are better explained, it's currently looking like if they send a single bike like normal they would get a £75 charge on it, that said if they send 5 bikes together it will still be £75, i haven't really got to the bottom of what this charge is for but Kona are currently looking through the new rule book to see how they can deal with this, basically they are trying to get around it but in real terms it will mean a price rise coming, turns out both Specialized and Trek are also putting their prices up as a result.
so my advice at the moment, and i am telling my customers this as well, is go look at your bikes and see if it's likely you'll need parts etc in the next few months, or bring it in to the shop by the spring and try and get a head of the shortage that will be coming otherwise you may be without your bike because you can't get parts.
so there you go, go spend money on the bits you know you'll need now! (ideally in an independent shop
)
