State of the industry: a running thread

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Takingabreak said:
I wonder if the UK cycle to work scheme was the starting point for the mess the industry is currently in. It seemed like over the course of a couple of years what were £599 bikes became £999 bikes as the scheme became popular.
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Echoes of MP's Expenses, in lieu of pay rise?
 
Takingabreak said:
I wonder if the UK cycle to work scheme was the starting point for the mess the industry is currently in. It seemed like over the course of a couple of years what were £599 bikes became £999 bikes as the scheme became popular.
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I agree. It felt like whatever discount there was simply ended up being priced in. I feel similarly about solar panels. I had them installed about a decade ago, and now a similar installation costs around the same despite the massive drops in prices. Looking at recent installations in my area, it still takes around a day to day and a half to install them so clearly somethings going wrong somewhere.
 
As usual, costs get passed to the end user whilst any benefits go elsewhere. Like green/carbo neutral energy - £40 of every annual electricity charge in the UK goes to pay for running the gas-fired power stations used when the wind farms are shut down because the wind speed exceeds the safe maximum for the generators. And the bright idea of the DoE to set levels for heat pump installations has resulted in boiler prices being increased by £100-150 at the end of the month so manufacturers can pay the fines imposed for missing their quota.
 
Tootyred said:
Intetesting article.....

Quote.....

"The sale of new petrol and diesel cars is to be banned from 2030.
Hydrogen, carbon capture and nuclear are other ways it hopes to meet this target"

Wow...im going to hold out for a nuclear car then.....bit like mr fusion in "back to the future" i assume.

Good to have the context right isn't it.....lies, damned lies and statistics...
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Context is everything. Both statements relate to the net zero target described earlier in the article. We don’t need nuclear cars as we have electric ones that could potentially be powered by low/no carbon energy sources.
 
I’ve been following this thread off and on for ages now - and very grateful for it as I’ve had a gift voucher for £100 for Wiggle that I’ve done nothing with for 18 months
….Anyway seeing that it might be worthless piece of paper soon I bought some cycles shoes that I don’t actually need but will come in handy at somepoint.
… so thanks guys


Regarding this thread and for the casual observer can you answer this, as 39 pages in (for the uninitiated at least) I’m still none the wiser

If people assume the prices in the shops are grossly over inflated and there’s a realignment going on due to over supply

Where’s the money gone / going

If the independents can’t make even a modest margin - it’s not them

If the the large retailers are bankrupt it’s not them either

Importer are folding - which kinda rules them out

That only leaves the manufacturers,

Seriously - have we all been questioning the prices and assuming they are super inflated and a cash cow for shareholders somewhere in the food chain when in reality modern bikes genuinely do cost that much and people have simply just stopped buying ….and there simply never was any big cash reserves sloshing around to weather the storm ?


i’d be interesting to hear from Darren at Silverfish on what he thinks

Or for someone to review and summarise this thread (so far) and perhaps given what the facts tell us look at what 2024 holds


By the sound of things by the end of 2024 this industry is going to be very different
 
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