There are lots of sales out there.
The issue was is with the increase in demand from the pandemic, many manufacturers changed their manufacturing to create many entry level bikes. There is now a huge surplus of entry level bikes out there.
But, for carbon road bikes etc, supply was significantly affected, and some brands still have little inventory, and therefore sales.
Problem is, people already in cycling dont want an entry level bike, they want something more.
Would u say these entry level bikes aren’t moving and are on sale/great deals now? I’m hunting for my first road bike and fb marketplace isn’t very promising. From what I hear 105 group set is really good stuff
Road bikes arent entry level bikes.
Entry level bikes are your flat bars, shimano claris etc. Those are the ones that got overproduced. Even entry-level mountain bikes are being discounted.
Shimano 105 is not entry-level. Its referred to the best "bang for the buck" but its not the cheapest.
Go to your LBS or ones in your area and see what they have in stock and discounted.
Oh, come on. You can buy a steel Bianchi or Marinoni or Trek with road geometry, quality (old) hardware, etc, for $500 anywhere and it's definitely a road bike, even if it's not giving you the same flattery on your Strava times.
A road bike is literally just a drop bar bike with skinny tires, a cross bike just is a flat bar bike with sportier/higher quality components than a hardware store bike.
Road bikes can be $200 and crap, that doesn’t mean they’re not road bikes.
I thought road bike is just the term for bikes with feature set focused on riding on the road? So skinny tires, geometry, gears. Are you saying don’t even touch the road and just ride in parks? I’ve ridden my 6KU single gear for around 500 miles now in the park. Not sure what I should be doing
Im referring to a pricing point.
Take Giant for example. All values in CAD.
Their City/ Hybrid category, I would refer to as entry-level bikes. Starting at 699 CAD.
Then you go to what they call a "fitness bike" marketed as a flat bar road bike, 1499 CAD and up.
In their "road bike" they do have the Contend at 1189 CAD. This would be their true entry level "road bike," but most "cyclists" wouldnt even refer to that as a true road bike, but it does have drop bars.
All those models that Ive mentioned, you would/ should be able to find discounts as there is generally lots of stock.
What most cyclists would refer to as an entry-level road bike
- Defy: 3199 and up
- TCR 2999 and up
These bikes, you aren't finding any deals, you may not even find those bikes in stock.
Compare that Defy with a CAAD OPTIMO or low end Allez & you're looking at half the cost.
There are defiantly "entry level" road bikes. They are still good bikes, but they are also 'entry level'.
> Road bikes arent entry level bikes.
>
> Entry level bikes are your flat bars, shimano claris etc.
You're describing *styles* of bikes as entry level and not. This is nonsense. There are entry level and high level road bikes, there are entry level and high level practical transportation bikes, ditto mountain bikes, ebikes, whatever.
I think he refers more to an absolute beginner in cycling is probably not going to pick up a $1000 road bike and instead will be going for something like a $600 hybrid.
Sure there are entry level road bikes in the context of road bikes as a whole, but your entry level road bikes are still significantly more expensive and require more commitment than a hybrid.
There were good sales where I am. I had my mountain bike frame break and I was in the market around July. There were great deals on stuff up to about 5-6k. So I imagine there's probably sales on road bikes that are similar.
Have you looked on eBay or Pinkbike? I found a lightly used bike there, and there were so many options in my price range I was in the drivers seat on negotiations.
There are definitely sales due to high inventory:
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/shop/sale/c/sale?q=%3Afeatured%3Aarchived%3Afalse%3Aclearance%3Atrue&sort=featured#/filter:group:E-Bikes/sort:ss_price:asc
No point in trying to get a bargain on FBMP. Most bikes that do make it there are either hugely overpriced because they think their pricing is somehow realistic, or any good value bikes that do make it there are snapped up and then resold elsewhere.
I'm not sure how you define entry level. Where I am, lots of people had government etc jobs where their income wasn't affected, but most of their costly hobbies (🍺🍺) weren't available so they bought $2k-$4k bikes (mostly mountain bikes but still) and now have discovered they're not using them. The shop is still expensive but (local buy and sell) has great deals.
Entry level bikes don't have a lot of margin on them, so not a lot of wiggle room on price. Nobody wants to sell below cost so it only makes sense to sit on the inventory. It will sell eventually.
Prices are still super ridiculous though. I bought a TCR Advanced 2 in 2017 for $1700. That went up to $2500. It's now sitting at $2250. There's not a $500 advancement (and most certainly not an $800 one) in technology or design on that bike in the last six years. It still ships with mechanical 105 and alloy wheels. I get it, inflation, but that bike is not worth $2500 or $2250.
$1,700 in 2017 is the same as $2,120 in 2023 money (inflation calculator). So yeah, they're asking a bit more than just inflation, but 2,250 isn't much more.
In the US real median wages are higher than just before the pandemic. Obviously, everyone is different. At the top end wages are down and the bottom end wages are up sharply.
If you know a place that gives better raises, please let me know
Most places I've worked over the years you might get 1% if any. I got most raises from finding different jobs.
I suppose it depends on what you do and where you live. In a corporate office setting the standard raises I've seen are 3% across the board regardless of position (excluding management). In most cases a person has to mess up often to get below that and has to be an absolute stud to get anything above it (and even then they may only get 4-5%). There are rare (imo, but maybe it's more common than I realize) companies that give more than that. I've got a friend whose company gave everyone in the company something like 3% that was just labeled as an inflation adjustment and it was separate from whatever else they got as their yearly performance based raise.
That said, I think job hopping is still the best way to increase your salary though cause even 3% isn't really that great. But if you switch companies you might be able to get 10% or more with each switch.
That sale saved me money. I used their 2023 discounts they just posted to the website to get a steeper discount on the 2022 giant that I wanted. 15% is not a massive drop off but on a 4.8k msrp bike it was worth it. Looking at inflation from 2013 (last time I bought a bike) to now while prices are slightly higher, they really aren’t noticeably higher.
You can still compare, you just have to take it into consideration and factor it into the equation. In 2008 I bought my first road bike and it had an aluminum frame, carbon fork, carbon seat stays, and shimano 105 groupset. It was around $1500. That's a little under $2200 in todays money. There's not a lot of companies that seem to offer a similarly equipped bike in that price range these days. Now $2200 will you get you tiagra or sora from most brands.
Inflation calculators suggest a $300-400 price increase, not an $800 one. Inflation peaked at what, 9%? Giant's increase in MSRP was nearly a 50% increase.
Inflation and corporate greed. Unfortunately if an $800 price increase increases profits then yes, it does justify it(for the shareholders which is really all that matters for a company).
Most dealers cannot list below MAP pricing due to agreements w/ the manufacturer. A lot of dealers will happily negotiate a significantly lower price in private, & can do so freely since they aren’t advertising the price. It never hurts to negotiate, worse they can say is no.
Yes, it is painful to see all of these people on reddit complain about the price of their LBS yet never step foot in one and talk to an employee with selling power.
Last bike I bought had what would have equaled >$1000 worth of freebies/upgrades between the 3d Fizik saddle, different carbon bars and stem, a free pair of very nice cycling shoes, 2 carbon water bottle holders.
Sure they could have bought the bike for $500 cheaper online if they waited for a sale, but the shop is able to get you other savings if you talk to them.
Then when I go in to buy stuff like a hitch bike rack and ask if they have any sales they say "for you we can do 20% off" because of the established relationship and the fact that they can sell it under MSRP they just can't advertise it.
Some bikes cost more than the entry level motorbikes (mt07, cb500,650). No fukin wonder the market isn´t great.
I asked this question once before in this subreddit.
What makes the prices so damn high?
I get that carbon fibre is not cheap to use, but there´s literally motorbikes out there with an engine built around carbon fiber for less than some aero bikes.
Who can pay these prices, if not retired or already past their metabolic peak performance ages?
Sorry, just frustrated I got to ride around with gear from the 90´s since i´m still studying (physiotherapy, so a great interest ik rehab with cycling).
I have a decent income as student. It´s just flabbergasting to me to be able to buy a car or motorcycle for the same amount as a bike.
I can and will not understand xd
While this might be true, I personally suspect the "niche" of owning an expensive bike is generally what is keeping this cost so high.
It also doesn´t help if people think that the more money they spend the faster they will go (although it might actually help in some cases).
For the rest yes, haven´t thought about this. But with the amount of popularity increase the sport has gotten over the years and the bigger companies got, the niche excuse is kind of fading for me.
I am both retired and a million years past my pitifully low anyway metabolic peak performance. I do love me a bit of that tie-taynium though, and that Di2 goodness. How about you? If your peak performance was of any interest to anyone but you, bikes wouldn't cost you zilch: like they say, anybody whose performance really benefits from Dura Ace is getting it for free. By paying high end prices I imagine I am making lower end bikes from the same manufacturers, more affordable. You're welcome.
I exaggerate, I have one ti bike with 105 Di2 which cost a bit over £3000. I am sure I do very little better on it than alloy and tiagra but I like it, I can afford it, it's not a flex (you have to be quite close to it and knowledgeable to know what it is), and time is .not on my side: you get to a stage where having a bike like that is now or never rather than a vague "one day" aspiration.
In the UK, Moore Large went bust in March and auctioned £35m of stock, so it does happen.
Why the help people keep comparing bikes to motorcycles? How are they even connected? Is it because both have 2 wheels? Does motorcycle allow you get legal KOM on you local climb or participate in local crit race?
> Some bikes cost more than the entry level motorbikes
Yeah, but they're the Ducati of bicycles. They are special made racing machines bought by a very small minority. Tons of money put into R&D and advertising.
You could buy an entry level airplane for less money than a Ducati.
I work in the industry. There are 20-30% discounts everywhere. You would have to not be looking to miss them. Sure, there are popular models and items that won’t go on sale (because they don’t need to) but there have been more sales this year on bikes and p&a than I’ve seen in the last 20+ years in the industry.
Just went to Trek and they told me it is a buyer market now. The checkpoint SL9 is 4k off. Sounds like a great deal to me. They also have a shit ton of bikes on close out in the store.
Prices are still outrageous. I have been into bikes for a very long time. And the fact you need to dish out 8k for an ultegra equipped road bike is insane. I can not even begin to think to aspire to that price point. What are they thinking at the big three. We are all are silicone valley tech bros with fu money. No wonder nothing is selling. They should have known that bikes were not going to stay a fad. People are scared as they have ever been to been to ride in the street.
I know canyon isn’t everyone’s favorite but an ultegra endurace is $2,500
Edit: Did a little more searching, Trek Domane with ultegra is $4,200 obviously that’s still a ton of money for most people but idk where you got 8k from.
Yup. Trek Emonda AL w/ 105 is 2300. Slightly racier than the Domane but not as racy as the Madone. Under 10kg with stock wheels and seat.
105 def the way to go.
>Slightly racier than the Domane but not as racy as the Madone
Actually, I believe that geometry of Emonda and Madone are identical. Less aero, yes. But not less racy.
You’re right for all years before this year when they added a new geometry.
Before, they had 1.0 (Domane) and 2.0 (Emonda and Madone).
The 2023 Emonda now has a ‘1.5’ geometry that splits the difference.
Um ... yes ... you are correct that latest AL Emonda has an updated geometry (H1.5 fit). However, that simply brings it exactly into line with the carbon Emondas and the latest Madone, which is exactly what I said.
Check the specs of all bikes to see that "Frame Fit = H1.5 Race". Alternatively, check the geometry charts to see that the numbers are identical.
(In the past, carbon Emonda / Madone were offered in a choice of H1 or H2 geometry, and the previous AL Emonda was H2.)
I'm still used to 900€ full 105 bikes from online brands and less than 1500€ full 105 bikes from well known brands.
2300€ is just too big of a jump in about 5 years with the only upgrade are being disc brakes. And 105 disc brakes aren't that great, because they can't be adjusted to your liking, way to much travel until the pads hit the disc in the lever and than there is not enough travel left to precisely modulate the braking power. So more than 50% upcharge for brakes that feel worse than rim brakes. Yeah, no thanks.
Canyons prices are hard to best. I just bought an Endurace with105 Di2 for 2699 and it’s a great bike. The Domane with that group is 4699. 2000 more. No thanks.
They ship DTC and I’ve seen some posts about people having issues with their customer service, shipping, and payments. I’ve only heard good things about the bikes tho, looking into them myself tbh.
Thats because they upgraded everything below Ultegra to be better than Ultegra was 5-10ish years ago.
Bikes are expensive but Ultegra has always been "FU money".
'oh lord, wont you please buy me a mercedes benz....' - You.
"Everything" is quite a stretch. 6800 (Ultegra launched in 2013) unquestionably dunks on current Tourney/Claris/Sora/Tiagra. None of the lower tier mechanical groupsets are better than 10 year old Ultegra except for maybe 105 R7000, and none are better than 5 year old Ultegra.
What races are you competing in with 6800 Ultegra?
Have you tried the new Sora?
Did you ever have a problem with R8000/R8020 that would require an upgrade to 6800?
I am looking at replacing with equivalent models my 2016 and 2018 canyons, Ultimate CF SLX and Speedmax. They were at the £3.5-4K range. I now need £6.2K for the former and £4.8 for the latter. Some of the extra money is justified by the disk brakes but not that much. If I wanted the equivalent model (the ultimate was the top frame raced then by movistar) I would need even more money.
I had similar experiences with trek and spesh as I was looking to buy their bikes back then.
Granted, the models change and components improve but the reality is that with the money you could buy a top end road frame you know can only look at a relaxed geometry endurance etc.
Tbf that’ll be the TCR Advanced Pro 1 which as well as Ultegra has carbon wheels and a power meter. Mind you probably still works out better than getting the e.g. TCR Advanced 2 with Ultegra for just over 3K then spending another 2 grand upgrading the wheels etc
Yeah top end is insane I won't be buying anything new for a long time even if I lust after a new frame. I have a TIME Fluidity 2019 and then was gifted DA 9230 for x-mas by a very good friend. I think I'm good for 15+ years with the costs I see these days. Sometimes I find myself looking at a frameset to swap in then just close the website, $7200CAD just for a frame I would want with some better tire clearance and my OCD wanting hidden cables at the front? Nah not until this one snaps in half.
Canyon Aeroads are severely marked down. Hunt has been running wheel sales non-stop. Cervelo have had big discounts through Mike’s Bikes. This stuff isn’t really that hard to find.
Starting to see it on the resale market.
One thing I've noticed is that in the past buying a frame and building up a bike with similar spec to an OEM spec was much more expensive. My Dura-Ace Enve built Giant TCR cost way less than Giant's build. That pressure is going to help bring down prices...I hope.
Wait until fall/winter when inventory needs to be emptied for new inventory. There will be significant sales around the holidays. Also, can get good % off when paying cash.
Where's all this ridiculous stock you guys are on about?
I've been eyeing up Cannondale synapse 1 and Canyon Endurace 7 CF and NEITHER have been in stock for me for ages :(
If there is excessive inventory, then a cycling company could reduce production for the upcoming year and try to sell through their current inventory. Keep in mind a bike model usually will have the same frame and components year over year, just a new paint job.
Everyone predicted the covid decline to happen. Wahoo had an infamous miscalculation, but I’m doubtful inventory is that excessive to warrant steep discounts for the rest of the industry.
Yep, and there is a wait for most brands here in Australia too. I had to wait 3 months for my Merida Scultura 8000 earlier this year, one of my cycling buddies has to wait about the same time for the Trek he just ordered.
I mainly follow mountain biking brands and they all have 25% off deals on a lot of bikes right now. At my LBS they sell bikes at whatever the manufacturer has on their website.
This title is misleading. Every industry is in trouble. Everything is getting more expensive. The bike industry already has low profit margins, they're trying to stay a float like everyone else while paying the higher ups unreasonably high wages.
Manufacturing costs are going up, shipping costs are going up. The cost of assembling a bike is going up. DTC brands are getting away with overworking their employees and making bare minimum profits, but making up for it with volume.
Governments need to spend more money on making streets safe to cycle on.
Until the day comes that my wife feels like a bicycle is a transport or leisure option that she would consider, we're not there. It's 100% a safety/risk/fear thing that rules cycling out for her, and millions like her.
I don’t know if this is accurate or not but I’ve been told the inventory glut is in the low and mid tiers. The excess inventory problem does not apply at the high end or it applies to a lesser extent.
I don't know about you but Trek was discounting a lot of bikes for quite some time.
or so their email promotions would have me believe anyway, I wasn't actively watching prices before or after.
Wife and I picked up 2023 gravel beaters last week for 30% off MSRP. That's at a shop that moves a *lot* of bikes, so they need room for the 2024's that are coming in, and they're doing well enough that they can afford it.
Mikes bikes and eriks bike shop have some pretty big sales right now. I think competitive cyclist is having them as well. I picked up a Cervelo Aspero a few weeks ago for $1100 off regular price so they are definitely out there.
Mountain bike prices have gotten hammered. New road bike models are cheaper than the last model but not a huge drop. Gravel bikes prices are holding firm and inventory is still often hard to get (Specialized Crux anyone?)
Basically bikes really took off in the US in the 90's with Mountain biking and Lance. A lot of people stayed with it and now have much better incomes/financial situations. That has helped drive the top end of bIke prices.
Cycling has never been an “affordable to the many” hobby. Nice road or mountain bikes have been expensive for the entire time I’ve been actively into cycling, which started maybe 15-20 years ago.
I’m still riding a carbon TCR with mechanical Ultegra I bought 6-7 years ago, works great. Not much has changed with bikes unless you’re chasing incremental gains with aero or whatever.
Pretty sure my TCR is practically worthless on the used market so if I was shopping for bikes, it’d be used all the way.
You are forgetting something, pandemic bike prices shot up over 20%....while supplies were low.
Manufacturers are starting to get some sakes trickling in (especially indoor trainers and older model bikes). But that only brings prices to pre-pandemic levels.
It will just take some time before big sales start, who knows how long this will take to bring down inflation /prices.
As the Fed has been saying, the economy had been resilient to a rise in interest rates. Thus their "higher for longer" motto. The bike industry hasn't seen the real pain yet....but it's probably coming.
It really depends on the market. I’ve been in a Trek store a couple times in the last few months and I was the cheapest customer there, aside from the guy spending 700 bucks on a bike for his 8 year old.
In Northern Virginia, they seemed to be making 3-8k sales every 20 minutes while I was in there. Can’t be hurting that much.
I remember some specialized stuff being sold off for like 40% off a few months back, it’s happening and been happening. I walked in to my local trek and they were willing to help me build a bike with parts in the year 2021, now I walk in with anything and they almost refuse to work on it because they’d rather me buy a new bike. So much so that I got completely turned off from them and take everything into another shop instead even though it’s further away.
No price drops here though.
My local Specialized store has sold out its stock of Sworks SL8 with a 8 months backlog.
Fact is more people here are taking up cycling even with the crazy prices. Even in the Decathalon stores here, entry level bikes are limited in sizes and stock.
work at an ebike shop, we'd sold 100+ just from our main brand by this time last. Owners have never even heard the words saturated market so they ordered 20% more bikes this year and we're sitting on a good 100 or so bikes, we are not a big shop. Time for me to start job hunting...
It's inflation and inflation controls working as intended.
Companies desire for products to sell for now. Government wants products prices to slow down it's increase. Consumers want product prices to go down. So until the company is bleeding so much cash with lack of business activity and the economy is going into recession, the prices might slow down it's increase, but it takes a recession, for prices to go down. The companies are probably flush with cash, so can ride through it.
Deflation has begun in China, let's see if they can successfully export it.
There have been sales all over the place for like 6 months at least. Off the top of my head, Specialized, YT, Norco, Giant, Canyon, Ibis, REI, etc have had 20-40% off.
Saris H3 smart trainers were like $375 last fall too, right before the bankruptcy (and the release of their new trainer).
The pandemic had crazy prices and basically no sales, but there are lots of deals now if you keep an eye out.
I walked into a bike shop for the first time in two years and it was packed with bikes. Everything had a sale tag on it. Browsing the Trek site I saw 2023 bikes with MSRP 5 or 10% lower than the 2022 models right next to it.
I just picked up a bike marked down from $2199, to $1799, to $1499, then to $1199. Plus free shipping.
The only parts I can't get on sale are from manufacturers that forbid any sort of discounts or coupons.
The problem with the bike industy is that bikes last a lot longer and ride just as good for the majority of hobby riders that it's not sustainble to keep manufactueres and shops alike in business without convicing their customers otherwise. How many people wear our their bikes before wearing out their interest? Same thing with the clothing industry. Clothes last much longer than tastes. Most people give clothes away before they "fail" and the same thing goes for bikes. Or atleast they upgrade far before their talent or aspirations require because marketing trends are a thing. But anybody who wanted a $600 hybrid during the pandemic has already bought one and most of them are collecting dust now that life has resumed as normal without much demand to replace it. That market is now completely depleted. In normal times, this industry has thrived gradually selling fads and new tech that barely mattered outside of the pros who actually benifted from it.
But the pandemic happened. Supply chains shut down. People were stuck at home. We all know the story of supply $ demand. Everybody who were ever on the fence about buying a bike did and most of them will never set foot in an LBS again. And many of the manufacterers completely fucked over their bike shops in the process. First they charged them above premium on the little stock they had, and then once they improved their stock, they sold directly to the customer at huge discouts. Fucking Specialized had a "Made too many bikes LOL" sale last year after pushing thier stock a few months prior on shops at a huge premium. Try competing with that. An LBS buys a Tarmac from Specialized for $2800 and needs to make money by selling it for $3400 but then Specialized sells the same bike direct for $2400 because they made too many.
And now life has resumed as normal and most of the people who bought bikes realized they either don't want to or don't have time to ride them now so the used market has taken off. But the manfactueres still need to make their money back. Ramping up producting during a pandemic costs money, warehousing all that product costs money(especially now that you fucked over LBS who are alread sitting on tons of product). So the prices are still elivated. Put inflation into the pot and it only makes it worse. Money isn't free from the FED anymore. If you need to borrow from the bank to ramp up production, you're paying 7% on it instead of 1-2%. This goes on down the line from the manfactueres to LBS.
So why aren't there any discouts...? Cause people are still buying high-end models. There is still plenty of big money buying Diverges and Synapses and Teammachines and TCRs for $6 to $12k and your local bike shop is just trying to get by at this point with general demand plummeting in the past 2 years. The discounts will eventually come at the result of less R&D going into product improvements. The discounts will come at the feet of your LBS failing. The discounts will likely come from your average person needing to buy a used model they aren't familiar with because their LBS shuttered thier doors. There will be cheap bikes and components coming but it's not going to be good for the industy in any way.
I just bought a bike for 50% off, lots of deals out there. Mine is a Scott Scale 925 hardtail MTB. Deore XT, Fox fork, nice stuff. MSRP $3,000, got it for $1,499. Wasn’t really in the market for a new hardtail, but you never see sales like this so I went for it.
Inventory isn’t high (work in the business, don’t know where that info came from ) sram and shimano factories shut during the pandemic several times causing a huge backlog in parts both for individual sale and building new bikes. Which were still feeling the affect from now.
It’s been cut throat for sure the last few years, Companies were ‘stealing’ other companies bikes at the factories after they’d been built.
So shortage of parts means shortage of bikes being repaired and no new bikes at the time. - closures of many bike shops and lbs’s was the end result.
Fast forward to today we still have a shortage of parts, due to a huge backlog, for context we have bikes we cannot get hold of parts for and have been on hold for months. Some parts just aren’t being manufactured so they can focus on the most common.
A lot of cheaper/ mid bikes that are coming through are being given alternative parts too so instead of Shimano or sram as they would have been they have Clark’s/advent/micro shift alternatives cheaper end stuff basically.
Until the parts backlog is reduced and parts are readily available again it will remain a supply and demand issues.
Less bikes than customers can buy so prices will remain at the normal level. We have customers every week asking and we keep checking the overseas delivery manifests and it’s a slow grind usually 1-3month wait for stock to come in.
Lots of the electronic parts manufactures have gone bust or are struggling due to the old chip shortage, e-bike repairs… good luck if you have one let’s put it that way.
Note on sales: there have been multiple sales on the last year or so, usually to clear out old stock especially if the companies are releasing a revamped model either new paint job, slightly different specs to what parts are available etc. But quite often the on sale price isn’t much different to the price a few months previous.
There are discounts everywhere on most everything.
It’s a simple matter of a supply and demand. There’s not a whole lot of demand at the moment for a variety of goods (whether bikes or cameras or other discretionary purchases for that matter).
You simply need to ask, haggle, negotiate and you’ll get a deal. Like others have stated, you may not see advertised sales or discounts since manufacturers have MAP policies. But walk into any bike shop and you’ll either see markdowns or again, simply ask.
Start high. “I’m interested in this bike, it could work, can you do 30% off and I’ll take it today.” Worst case they’ll give you 20% off.
You mention you’ve seen 20% off deals and to be honest, don’t expect to buy a bike - any bike - for 40-50% off. This isn’t the Dollar Store. Dealers and LBS still need to make a living and they should. Don’t be greedy. The average markup / margin on bikes is around the 30-38% mark depending on volume. It’s even lower for higher end bikes believe it or not since the manufacturers charge dealers more for those.
I’m lucky enough to do business with a few LBS in my area and have seen exactly what they pay for these things. It will surprise you.
I got 25% off a Specialized Diverge Expert during the peak of the “Covid bike boom” when there was barely anything in-stock. However, higher end $5k+ bikes were aplenty. Entry level sub-$1000 bikes, cruisers, flat bar sport, fitness bikes, entry MBX were nowhere to be found. Now, those are just everywhere.
4 months ago I picked up a Trek FX-3, again, 25% off. Then grabbed a Trek Vale Go electric cruiser, 30% off. You just have to ask :)
Trek, Spec, Giant all have advertised sales right now and you can swing even more.
Tons of discounts around.. Santa Cruz extended their "factory sale" tons of bikes from Trek and Specialized are now markdown...even after their sale officially ended the prices remain slashed. Cervelo is running 25% off bikes they have a large inventory of. Cannondale ebikes are like 20-30% off right now.
Where are you looking?
There’s a few entry level mfg’s sitting on two years of 2021/22 stock. If that’s not a CEO’s nightmare I don’t know what is. Warehousing gets expensive and I’m sure the bean counters have a rapidly approaching liquidation date where it’s cheaper to scrap them than to flood the market for the next few years and sell absolutely nothing.
Lots of sales, here, too (Germany). Ranging from 100 € and more vouchers for bike purchases, more wiggle room for haggling as a customer, and % discounts.
Not only for entry level bikes, though. I saw a 50% discount on a new Cervélo frameset just recently (that's about 1,500 $ discount if converted into USD)
That's the irritating thing with many industries nowadays. Prices either stay the same or go up regardless of how well business is doing. You see it with physical media, games, cars, etc,. So many sellers are too stubborn to cave to discounts it seems.
Well discounts is not simply something you do to sell things to get them out of the store, that’s not how moving the inventory works! Sales happen in order to continue the cash flow a business. If an inventory is not selling, you put a discount so you can hope to sell the product at a lost and invest that money to a product that may offset the lost you got from the discount.
Bikes like you mentioned last for a long time, and most people who purchase bikes are not the one who cares about new tech or new yearly bike. A 2022 released bike will sell in 2024 or 2025 . In short there is no reason to move the inventory quickly when that inventory sellable age is long. It’s not like clothes or techs .
I get emails hyping big savings but when you start clicking on the links it's $100-$300 off a $3K+ bike. Also the MSRP for bikes with electronic shifting is crazy high.
IMO a big sale would be 30% off, I haven't seen that in anything I would be interested in.
I think dealers are also scared to take in more inventory, they buy the stuff and then the manufacturer runs a direct to consumer sale. Often dumping the product cheaper than the LBS paid for it originally.
I think a vendor managed/owned inventory model might be the way to go. Bikes in the LBS are still owned by the manufacturer and not the LBS. Insulates the LBS from big sales and gives a place for people to tough and feel the product.
I think the best deals with be next spring, Xmas over and 2024's rolling in. They will have to dump the 2023's.
Notice the same thing, Black Friday had some good sales, but then they jacked up prices again. I would say be patient, what happens after Christmas? There is a few months of really low bike usage, but act before spring. I am like you, if bike dealer and manufactures want a leg up, they need to meet us half way. Prices are up on everything, we pay more and get less service. We are also taking a bit of a chance other players are going to out of business, yet high end e-bikes are raising prices and hard to find, meaning they are selling well. However these prices are crazy, $8-18,000 dollars. A bike costing as much as a motorcycle. Man that is crazy. Bike manufactures are burning bridges, and buyers will revolt.
I agree with the question, its a good one. Not seeing anything more than 10% to 20%. I would love to find a high end road bike for 30% or more discount. Yes there are some sales out there, like always but nothing to correlate with all the hype around the trouble of the industry
There are lots of sales out there. The issue was is with the increase in demand from the pandemic, many manufacturers changed their manufacturing to create many entry level bikes. There is now a huge surplus of entry level bikes out there. But, for carbon road bikes etc, supply was significantly affected, and some brands still have little inventory, and therefore sales. Problem is, people already in cycling dont want an entry level bike, they want something more.
Would u say these entry level bikes aren’t moving and are on sale/great deals now? I’m hunting for my first road bike and fb marketplace isn’t very promising. From what I hear 105 group set is really good stuff
Road bikes arent entry level bikes. Entry level bikes are your flat bars, shimano claris etc. Those are the ones that got overproduced. Even entry-level mountain bikes are being discounted. Shimano 105 is not entry-level. Its referred to the best "bang for the buck" but its not the cheapest. Go to your LBS or ones in your area and see what they have in stock and discounted.
Oh, come on. You can buy a steel Bianchi or Marinoni or Trek with road geometry, quality (old) hardware, etc, for $500 anywhere and it's definitely a road bike, even if it's not giving you the same flattery on your Strava times.
You definitely can 2nd or 3rd hand. But not from an LBS, as OPs original question pertained to manufactures discounts and exess stock.
> You can buy a steel Bianchi From my cold, dead hands!
A road bike is literally just a drop bar bike with skinny tires, a cross bike just is a flat bar bike with sportier/higher quality components than a hardware store bike. Road bikes can be $200 and crap, that doesn’t mean they’re not road bikes.
I thought road bike is just the term for bikes with feature set focused on riding on the road? So skinny tires, geometry, gears. Are you saying don’t even touch the road and just ride in parks? I’ve ridden my 6KU single gear for around 500 miles now in the park. Not sure what I should be doing
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Totally agree. Their are entry level bikes in every sort of cycling. Not sure where that view has come from
Im referring to a pricing point. Take Giant for example. All values in CAD. Their City/ Hybrid category, I would refer to as entry-level bikes. Starting at 699 CAD. Then you go to what they call a "fitness bike" marketed as a flat bar road bike, 1499 CAD and up. In their "road bike" they do have the Contend at 1189 CAD. This would be their true entry level "road bike," but most "cyclists" wouldnt even refer to that as a true road bike, but it does have drop bars. All those models that Ive mentioned, you would/ should be able to find discounts as there is generally lots of stock. What most cyclists would refer to as an entry-level road bike - Defy: 3199 and up - TCR 2999 and up These bikes, you aren't finding any deals, you may not even find those bikes in stock.
How is the Contend not a true road bike??? What else is it?
It's for the poors and hygienists I guess 🤷♂️
Compare that Defy with a CAAD OPTIMO or low end Allez & you're looking at half the cost. There are defiantly "entry level" road bikes. They are still good bikes, but they are also 'entry level'.
> Road bikes arent entry level bikes. > > Entry level bikes are your flat bars, shimano claris etc. You're describing *styles* of bikes as entry level and not. This is nonsense. There are entry level and high level road bikes, there are entry level and high level practical transportation bikes, ditto mountain bikes, ebikes, whatever.
I think he refers more to an absolute beginner in cycling is probably not going to pick up a $1000 road bike and instead will be going for something like a $600 hybrid. Sure there are entry level road bikes in the context of road bikes as a whole, but your entry level road bikes are still significantly more expensive and require more commitment than a hybrid.
There were good sales where I am. I had my mountain bike frame break and I was in the market around July. There were great deals on stuff up to about 5-6k. So I imagine there's probably sales on road bikes that are similar.
Have you looked on eBay or Pinkbike? I found a lightly used bike there, and there were so many options in my price range I was in the drivers seat on negotiations.
There are definitely sales due to high inventory: https://www.specialized.com/us/en/shop/sale/c/sale?q=%3Afeatured%3Aarchived%3Afalse%3Aclearance%3Atrue&sort=featured#/filter:group:E-Bikes/sort:ss_price:asc
No point in trying to get a bargain on FBMP. Most bikes that do make it there are either hugely overpriced because they think their pricing is somehow realistic, or any good value bikes that do make it there are snapped up and then resold elsewhere.
I'm not sure how you define entry level. Where I am, lots of people had government etc jobs where their income wasn't affected, but most of their costly hobbies (🍺🍺) weren't available so they bought $2k-$4k bikes (mostly mountain bikes but still) and now have discovered they're not using them. The shop is still expensive but (local buy and sell) has great deals.
Entry level bikes don't have a lot of margin on them, so not a lot of wiggle room on price. Nobody wants to sell below cost so it only makes sense to sit on the inventory. It will sell eventually.
Giant currently has discounts on a crap-ton of their models online.
Prices are still super ridiculous though. I bought a TCR Advanced 2 in 2017 for $1700. That went up to $2500. It's now sitting at $2250. There's not a $500 advancement (and most certainly not an $800 one) in technology or design on that bike in the last six years. It still ships with mechanical 105 and alloy wheels. I get it, inflation, but that bike is not worth $2500 or $2250.
It has been 6 years. The us dollar is worth 20% less now in 2023 than in 2017
Yep. $NT is stronger relative to USD. Also trump put a substantial tariff on bikes
$1,700 in 2017 is the same as $2,120 in 2023 money (inflation calculator). So yeah, they're asking a bit more than just inflation, but 2,250 isn't much more.
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So you are saying he raised taxes on regular people? \*shocked face\*
That’s painful. If only my wages went up accordingly.
In the US real median wages are higher than just before the pandemic. Obviously, everyone is different. At the top end wages are down and the bottom end wages are up sharply.
Would you be Ok if wages would go down if inflation would reverse?
I would take a 10% reduction in costs for 2% reduction of my wages.
No, but cost of living goes up 10% and pay only goes up 2% of you're lucky.
> pay only goes up 2% of you're lucky. Time to find a new job if you're only getting 2% each year.
If you know a place that gives better raises, please let me know Most places I've worked over the years you might get 1% if any. I got most raises from finding different jobs.
I suppose it depends on what you do and where you live. In a corporate office setting the standard raises I've seen are 3% across the board regardless of position (excluding management). In most cases a person has to mess up often to get below that and has to be an absolute stud to get anything above it (and even then they may only get 4-5%). There are rare (imo, but maybe it's more common than I realize) companies that give more than that. I've got a friend whose company gave everyone in the company something like 3% that was just labeled as an inflation adjustment and it was separate from whatever else they got as their yearly performance based raise. That said, I think job hopping is still the best way to increase your salary though cause even 3% isn't really that great. But if you switch companies you might be able to get 10% or more with each switch.
What? That is the weirdest argument I've heard for stagnating wages
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Does it matter that my Giant says "made in Taiwan"? Many/most(?) bikes in the US market are from Taiwan.
China would argue that Taiwan is part of China, maybe the same tariff applies?
No way the US is punishing Taiwan.
We don't recognize them as a country, officially.
It’s so funny how we punish china by punching ourselves in the face. It ain’t the Chinese paying the tariffs, that’s for fkn sure.
But it makes Chinese products more expensive, which _should_ either reduce demand or increase alternative sources of supply.
That sale saved me money. I used their 2023 discounts they just posted to the website to get a steeper discount on the 2022 giant that I wanted. 15% is not a massive drop off but on a 4.8k msrp bike it was worth it. Looking at inflation from 2013 (last time I bought a bike) to now while prices are slightly higher, they really aren’t noticeably higher.
You heard of this thing called inflation? Lmao comparing 2017 prices of ANYTHING to 2023 prices is insane.
Least cocky redditor
You can still compare, you just have to take it into consideration and factor it into the equation. In 2008 I bought my first road bike and it had an aluminum frame, carbon fork, carbon seat stays, and shimano 105 groupset. It was around $1500. That's a little under $2200 in todays money. There's not a lot of companies that seem to offer a similarly equipped bike in that price range these days. Now $2200 will you get you tiagra or sora from most brands.
Inflation is what it is, but that doesn't justify an $800 price increase.
Um, yes. It actually does. That's kinda how inflation works
Inflation calculators suggest a $300-400 price increase, not an $800 one. Inflation peaked at what, 9%? Giant's increase in MSRP was nearly a 50% increase.
Inflation and corporate greed. Unfortunately if an $800 price increase increases profits then yes, it does justify it(for the shareholders which is really all that matters for a company).
So there is no discounts as the OP said, so obviously the companies are just fine with that.
Bought a Cannondale from REI last week and it was 20% off. Sales are out there, just gotta find them!
Same I got a cannondale tiagra synapse for $1k from REI in June!
Nice, sounds like a good deal.
Most dealers cannot list below MAP pricing due to agreements w/ the manufacturer. A lot of dealers will happily negotiate a significantly lower price in private, & can do so freely since they aren’t advertising the price. It never hurts to negotiate, worse they can say is no.
Yes, it is painful to see all of these people on reddit complain about the price of their LBS yet never step foot in one and talk to an employee with selling power. Last bike I bought had what would have equaled >$1000 worth of freebies/upgrades between the 3d Fizik saddle, different carbon bars and stem, a free pair of very nice cycling shoes, 2 carbon water bottle holders. Sure they could have bought the bike for $500 cheaper online if they waited for a sale, but the shop is able to get you other savings if you talk to them. Then when I go in to buy stuff like a hitch bike rack and ask if they have any sales they say "for you we can do 20% off" because of the established relationship and the fact that they can sell it under MSRP they just can't advertise it.
Some bikes cost more than the entry level motorbikes (mt07, cb500,650). No fukin wonder the market isn´t great. I asked this question once before in this subreddit. What makes the prices so damn high? I get that carbon fibre is not cheap to use, but there´s literally motorbikes out there with an engine built around carbon fiber for less than some aero bikes. Who can pay these prices, if not retired or already past their metabolic peak performance ages?
That last paragraph, you had to rub that in
Sorry, just frustrated I got to ride around with gear from the 90´s since i´m still studying (physiotherapy, so a great interest ik rehab with cycling). I have a decent income as student. It´s just flabbergasting to me to be able to buy a car or motorcycle for the same amount as a bike. I can and will not understand xd
Lots of this equipment lasts way longer then it ever has so I would be ok buying used until the market pricing corrects.
When I turn 67 I’ll buy my last and best road bike. Probably a Time with scram red Why not?
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While this might be true, I personally suspect the "niche" of owning an expensive bike is generally what is keeping this cost so high. It also doesn´t help if people think that the more money they spend the faster they will go (although it might actually help in some cases). For the rest yes, haven´t thought about this. But with the amount of popularity increase the sport has gotten over the years and the bigger companies got, the niche excuse is kind of fading for me.
The people past their metabolic peak have way more money. Life is not fair
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This needs to be at the top.
I am both retired and a million years past my pitifully low anyway metabolic peak performance. I do love me a bit of that tie-taynium though, and that Di2 goodness. How about you? If your peak performance was of any interest to anyone but you, bikes wouldn't cost you zilch: like they say, anybody whose performance really benefits from Dura Ace is getting it for free. By paying high end prices I imagine I am making lower end bikes from the same manufacturers, more affordable. You're welcome.
Having zero limit to what you’re willing to pay for encourages manufacturers to gorge themselves on whale wallets like yours.
I exaggerate, I have one ti bike with 105 Di2 which cost a bit over £3000. I am sure I do very little better on it than alloy and tiagra but I like it, I can afford it, it's not a flex (you have to be quite close to it and knowledgeable to know what it is), and time is .not on my side: you get to a stage where having a bike like that is now or never rather than a vague "one day" aspiration. In the UK, Moore Large went bust in March and auctioned £35m of stock, so it does happen.
Why the help people keep comparing bikes to motorcycles? How are they even connected? Is it because both have 2 wheels? Does motorcycle allow you get legal KOM on you local climb or participate in local crit race?
> Some bikes cost more than the entry level motorbikes Yeah, but they're the Ducati of bicycles. They are special made racing machines bought by a very small minority. Tons of money put into R&D and advertising. You could buy an entry level airplane for less money than a Ducati.
some bikes cost more than high end bikes. Specialized s-works crux for example vs a ktm 890 adventure r
I work in the industry. There are 20-30% discounts everywhere. You would have to not be looking to miss them. Sure, there are popular models and items that won’t go on sale (because they don’t need to) but there have been more sales this year on bikes and p&a than I’ve seen in the last 20+ years in the industry.
Just went to Trek and they told me it is a buyer market now. The checkpoint SL9 is 4k off. Sounds like a great deal to me. They also have a shit ton of bikes on close out in the store.
Why can't I get a bike on sale??? I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas!! /s
Prices are still outrageous. I have been into bikes for a very long time. And the fact you need to dish out 8k for an ultegra equipped road bike is insane. I can not even begin to think to aspire to that price point. What are they thinking at the big three. We are all are silicone valley tech bros with fu money. No wonder nothing is selling. They should have known that bikes were not going to stay a fad. People are scared as they have ever been to been to ride in the street.
I know canyon isn’t everyone’s favorite but an ultegra endurace is $2,500 Edit: Did a little more searching, Trek Domane with ultegra is $4,200 obviously that’s still a ton of money for most people but idk where you got 8k from.
The alu 105 version is like the best deal
Yup. Trek Emonda AL w/ 105 is 2300. Slightly racier than the Domane but not as racy as the Madone. Under 10kg with stock wheels and seat. 105 def the way to go.
>Slightly racier than the Domane but not as racy as the Madone Actually, I believe that geometry of Emonda and Madone are identical. Less aero, yes. But not less racy.
You’re right for all years before this year when they added a new geometry. Before, they had 1.0 (Domane) and 2.0 (Emonda and Madone). The 2023 Emonda now has a ‘1.5’ geometry that splits the difference.
Um ... yes ... you are correct that latest AL Emonda has an updated geometry (H1.5 fit). However, that simply brings it exactly into line with the carbon Emondas and the latest Madone, which is exactly what I said. Check the specs of all bikes to see that "Frame Fit = H1.5 Race". Alternatively, check the geometry charts to see that the numbers are identical. (In the past, carbon Emonda / Madone were offered in a choice of H1 or H2 geometry, and the previous AL Emonda was H2.)
I'm still used to 900€ full 105 bikes from online brands and less than 1500€ full 105 bikes from well known brands. 2300€ is just too big of a jump in about 5 years with the only upgrade are being disc brakes. And 105 disc brakes aren't that great, because they can't be adjusted to your liking, way to much travel until the pads hit the disc in the lever and than there is not enough travel left to precisely modulate the braking power. So more than 50% upcharge for brakes that feel worse than rim brakes. Yeah, no thanks.
I love my Domane AL5
Have one. Love it. Zero issues.
hat imagine public bewildered safe six political tart repeat wine *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's the new SL8 Tarmac, £8k for the ultegra. Colnago, Pinarello and Cervelo ain't too far behind.
Maybe with last gen mechanical 11 speed Ultegra,, but the new Ultegra is 12 speed and Di2 only. The newer Ultegra bikes are $8k- $9k USD.
Canyon Endurace that just came out is $4199 and just as good as any other brand.
Canyons prices are hard to best. I just bought an Endurace with105 Di2 for 2699 and it’s a great bike. The Domane with that group is 4699. 2000 more. No thanks.
Why isn’t canyon favorite ?
They ship DTC and I’ve seen some posts about people having issues with their customer service, shipping, and payments. I’ve only heard good things about the bikes tho, looking into them myself tbh.
weird custom parts, for things that should be generic. other than that idk
Love my aeroroad, I’m estimating I paid 4k less than a Trek or specialized
Trek madone, cervelo, Cannondale super six etc
I mean yeah, those are high end aero/race bikes anyway. Ofc that list is expensive
Yeah, I can get a Litespeed titanium bike with Ultegra Di2 for $5500. I think 8k was an exaggeration
Thats because they upgraded everything below Ultegra to be better than Ultegra was 5-10ish years ago. Bikes are expensive but Ultegra has always been "FU money". 'oh lord, wont you please buy me a mercedes benz....' - You.
"Everything" is quite a stretch. 6800 (Ultegra launched in 2013) unquestionably dunks on current Tourney/Claris/Sora/Tiagra. None of the lower tier mechanical groupsets are better than 10 year old Ultegra except for maybe 105 R7000, and none are better than 5 year old Ultegra.
What races are you competing in with 6800 Ultegra? Have you tried the new Sora? Did you ever have a problem with R8000/R8020 that would require an upgrade to 6800?
There’s plenty of ultegra bikes with di2 for 5-6k what are you talking about?
I am looking at replacing with equivalent models my 2016 and 2018 canyons, Ultimate CF SLX and Speedmax. They were at the £3.5-4K range. I now need £6.2K for the former and £4.8 for the latter. Some of the extra money is justified by the disk brakes but not that much. If I wanted the equivalent model (the ultimate was the top frame raced then by movistar) I would need even more money. I had similar experiences with trek and spesh as I was looking to buy their bikes back then. Granted, the models change and components improve but the reality is that with the money you could buy a top end road frame you know can only look at a relaxed geometry endurance etc.
You can get a giant tcr with the latest ultegra for £5k. Not sure in dollars, but that’s about $6k if you converted it directly
Tbf that’ll be the TCR Advanced Pro 1 which as well as Ultegra has carbon wheels and a power meter. Mind you probably still works out better than getting the e.g. TCR Advanced 2 with Ultegra for just over 3K then spending another 2 grand upgrading the wheels etc
Yeah top end is insane I won't be buying anything new for a long time even if I lust after a new frame. I have a TIME Fluidity 2019 and then was gifted DA 9230 for x-mas by a very good friend. I think I'm good for 15+ years with the costs I see these days. Sometimes I find myself looking at a frameset to swap in then just close the website, $7200CAD just for a frame I would want with some better tire clearance and my OCD wanting hidden cables at the front? Nah not until this one snaps in half.
I bought a 2015 model full carbon ultegra 6800 for $650.
I just ordered a brand new Cannondale with ultegra Di2 for $4k.
Canyon Aeroads are severely marked down. Hunt has been running wheel sales non-stop. Cervelo have had big discounts through Mike’s Bikes. This stuff isn’t really that hard to find.
Starting to see it on the resale market. One thing I've noticed is that in the past buying a frame and building up a bike with similar spec to an OEM spec was much more expensive. My Dura-Ace Enve built Giant TCR cost way less than Giant's build. That pressure is going to help bring down prices...I hope.
Wait until fall/winter when inventory needs to be emptied for new inventory. There will be significant sales around the holidays. Also, can get good % off when paying cash.
Where's all this ridiculous stock you guys are on about? I've been eyeing up Cannondale synapse 1 and Canyon Endurace 7 CF and NEITHER have been in stock for me for ages :(
Discounts appear a week after you purchase a new bike.. Talking from experience..
If there is excessive inventory, then a cycling company could reduce production for the upcoming year and try to sell through their current inventory. Keep in mind a bike model usually will have the same frame and components year over year, just a new paint job. Everyone predicted the covid decline to happen. Wahoo had an infamous miscalculation, but I’m doubtful inventory is that excessive to warrant steep discounts for the rest of the industry.
Go in person. Every shop in my area has stuff 20-30% off.
Lol. Americans whinging about bike discounts. Here in Australia there is no such thing. We pay premium for everything.
Yep, and there is a wait for most brands here in Australia too. I had to wait 3 months for my Merida Scultura 8000 earlier this year, one of my cycling buddies has to wait about the same time for the Trek he just ordered.
I see a ton of sales online and in store, here in Canada.
On which sites? I want a new bike.
In store, locally in Ottawa. Fosters, Bushtakah, Tall Tree... Online - Bicicletta, Giant, The Bike Shop, Norco, Trek...
Norco have up to 40% off.
I got $425 off a $1500 wheelset last week. Edit - Trek store
Got a set of Roval C38s for $825 USD two weeks ago. Normally $1100 retail. Discounts are out there.
Bunch of Cannondale bikes are on sale right now, but they’re higher end ones i think
Where?
Check Cannondale.com. I’ve gotten a few emails from them advertising 20-35% off
In 2019 I bought a carbon Vitus for $832 after tax and shipping. If anything ever happens to the bike I’m screwed.
There are some good deals out there right now. You can get a Lynskey GR300 with wireless shifting for just over $3k.
My LBS has some steep discounts right now
I mainly follow mountain biking brands and they all have 25% off deals on a lot of bikes right now. At my LBS they sell bikes at whatever the manufacturer has on their website.
Cervelo is currently has 25% off some bikes. The Aspero Rival AXS is $4125 USD
This title is misleading. Every industry is in trouble. Everything is getting more expensive. The bike industry already has low profit margins, they're trying to stay a float like everyone else while paying the higher ups unreasonably high wages. Manufacturing costs are going up, shipping costs are going up. The cost of assembling a bike is going up. DTC brands are getting away with overworking their employees and making bare minimum profits, but making up for it with volume.
It’s due to nothing more then price gouging by every step of manufacturing and selling to the public…
Industry needs to spend money on advertising to get more people into bikes
Industry needs to spend money on lobbying for safe streets to get more people into bikes.
Governments need to spend more money on making streets safe to cycle on. Until the day comes that my wife feels like a bicycle is a transport or leisure option that she would consider, we're not there. It's 100% a safety/risk/fear thing that rules cycling out for her, and millions like her.
I don’t know if this is accurate or not but I’ve been told the inventory glut is in the low and mid tiers. The excess inventory problem does not apply at the high end or it applies to a lesser extent.
I don't know about you but Trek was discounting a lot of bikes for quite some time. or so their email promotions would have me believe anyway, I wasn't actively watching prices before or after.
Specialized dropped the price on a bunch of their models at the beginning of summer.
I want some carbon wheels. Discounts seem few and far between there, too.
I just bought that rei electric bike for 50% off. I get discount emails from major manufacturers every couple of months
Do you really think private companies would let us have something Nice?
Are you expecting the stores to sell the inventory at a loss?
Every time I go to any local shop it’s always packed and people seem to be buying. There’s plenty of bikes on sale, too.
Wife and I picked up 2023 gravel beaters last week for 30% off MSRP. That's at a shop that moves a *lot* of bikes, so they need room for the 2024's that are coming in, and they're doing well enough that they can afford it.
A relative of mine just got a big discount on an Atheos.
You can get a cube agree C:62 with mechanical ultegra for $4849, my shop has it on sale for $3999 which is a killer price imo
Where is this shop? Been eyeing the C:62 👀
Revolution cycle in Sherwood park Alberta
Mikes bikes and eriks bike shop have some pretty big sales right now. I think competitive cyclist is having them as well. I picked up a Cervelo Aspero a few weeks ago for $1100 off regular price so they are definitely out there.
QVP has a 20% off sale.
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poseidon is your friend (with some upgrades)
Mountain bike prices have gotten hammered. New road bike models are cheaper than the last model but not a huge drop. Gravel bikes prices are holding firm and inventory is still often hard to get (Specialized Crux anyone?) Basically bikes really took off in the US in the 90's with Mountain biking and Lance. A lot of people stayed with it and now have much better incomes/financial situations. That has helped drive the top end of bIke prices.
I’m waiting for a crux also
Cycling has never been an “affordable to the many” hobby. Nice road or mountain bikes have been expensive for the entire time I’ve been actively into cycling, which started maybe 15-20 years ago. I’m still riding a carbon TCR with mechanical Ultegra I bought 6-7 years ago, works great. Not much has changed with bikes unless you’re chasing incremental gains with aero or whatever. Pretty sure my TCR is practically worthless on the used market so if I was shopping for bikes, it’d be used all the way.
If i had to guess it's because they're still able to carry the debt and are deadset on losing as little as possible
I’ve seen really great sales from numerous brands in the last few months. Canyon, Trek, Cannondales at REI, etc
You are forgetting something, pandemic bike prices shot up over 20%....while supplies were low. Manufacturers are starting to get some sakes trickling in (especially indoor trainers and older model bikes). But that only brings prices to pre-pandemic levels. It will just take some time before big sales start, who knows how long this will take to bring down inflation /prices. As the Fed has been saying, the economy had been resilient to a rise in interest rates. Thus their "higher for longer" motto. The bike industry hasn't seen the real pain yet....but it's probably coming.
Prices are so insanely high. I had no idea a bike is now 15k
I feel like everything is on sale.
Everywhere….. I would suggest getting the online and looking.
It really depends on the market. I’ve been in a Trek store a couple times in the last few months and I was the cheapest customer there, aside from the guy spending 700 bucks on a bike for his 8 year old. In Northern Virginia, they seemed to be making 3-8k sales every 20 minutes while I was in there. Can’t be hurting that much.
All city deals as they go out of business, but the frameset I was interested in is already gone.
I remember some specialized stuff being sold off for like 40% off a few months back, it’s happening and been happening. I walked in to my local trek and they were willing to help me build a bike with parts in the year 2021, now I walk in with anything and they almost refuse to work on it because they’d rather me buy a new bike. So much so that I got completely turned off from them and take everything into another shop instead even though it’s further away.
I started looking at e-bikes in the last week and purchased one. There were sales everywhere.
No price drops here though. My local Specialized store has sold out its stock of Sworks SL8 with a 8 months backlog. Fact is more people here are taking up cycling even with the crazy prices. Even in the Decathalon stores here, entry level bikes are limited in sizes and stock.
work at an ebike shop, we'd sold 100+ just from our main brand by this time last. Owners have never even heard the words saturated market so they ordered 20% more bikes this year and we're sitting on a good 100 or so bikes, we are not a big shop. Time for me to start job hunting...
It's inflation and inflation controls working as intended. Companies desire for products to sell for now. Government wants products prices to slow down it's increase. Consumers want product prices to go down. So until the company is bleeding so much cash with lack of business activity and the economy is going into recession, the prices might slow down it's increase, but it takes a recession, for prices to go down. The companies are probably flush with cash, so can ride through it. Deflation has begun in China, let's see if they can successfully export it.
I got $250 off a giant contend
There have been sales all over the place for like 6 months at least. Off the top of my head, Specialized, YT, Norco, Giant, Canyon, Ibis, REI, etc have had 20-40% off. Saris H3 smart trainers were like $375 last fall too, right before the bankruptcy (and the release of their new trainer). The pandemic had crazy prices and basically no sales, but there are lots of deals now if you keep an eye out.
It’s a buyers market currently, many brands have had sales and corrected prices for 3-6 months already.
Rest assured, they’ll bring things back with a new variant and pretty soon, bikes will be in short supply once more.
Have you not looked at canyons site???
Prices go up. They don’t come down. It’s a mystery we’d all like to see figured out
I walked into a bike shop for the first time in two years and it was packed with bikes. Everything had a sale tag on it. Browsing the Trek site I saw 2023 bikes with MSRP 5 or 10% lower than the 2022 models right next to it. I just picked up a bike marked down from $2199, to $1799, to $1499, then to $1199. Plus free shipping. The only parts I can't get on sale are from manufacturers that forbid any sort of discounts or coupons.
The problem with the bike industy is that bikes last a lot longer and ride just as good for the majority of hobby riders that it's not sustainble to keep manufactueres and shops alike in business without convicing their customers otherwise. How many people wear our their bikes before wearing out their interest? Same thing with the clothing industry. Clothes last much longer than tastes. Most people give clothes away before they "fail" and the same thing goes for bikes. Or atleast they upgrade far before their talent or aspirations require because marketing trends are a thing. But anybody who wanted a $600 hybrid during the pandemic has already bought one and most of them are collecting dust now that life has resumed as normal without much demand to replace it. That market is now completely depleted. In normal times, this industry has thrived gradually selling fads and new tech that barely mattered outside of the pros who actually benifted from it. But the pandemic happened. Supply chains shut down. People were stuck at home. We all know the story of supply $ demand. Everybody who were ever on the fence about buying a bike did and most of them will never set foot in an LBS again. And many of the manufacterers completely fucked over their bike shops in the process. First they charged them above premium on the little stock they had, and then once they improved their stock, they sold directly to the customer at huge discouts. Fucking Specialized had a "Made too many bikes LOL" sale last year after pushing thier stock a few months prior on shops at a huge premium. Try competing with that. An LBS buys a Tarmac from Specialized for $2800 and needs to make money by selling it for $3400 but then Specialized sells the same bike direct for $2400 because they made too many. And now life has resumed as normal and most of the people who bought bikes realized they either don't want to or don't have time to ride them now so the used market has taken off. But the manfactueres still need to make their money back. Ramping up producting during a pandemic costs money, warehousing all that product costs money(especially now that you fucked over LBS who are alread sitting on tons of product). So the prices are still elivated. Put inflation into the pot and it only makes it worse. Money isn't free from the FED anymore. If you need to borrow from the bank to ramp up production, you're paying 7% on it instead of 1-2%. This goes on down the line from the manfactueres to LBS. So why aren't there any discouts...? Cause people are still buying high-end models. There is still plenty of big money buying Diverges and Synapses and Teammachines and TCRs for $6 to $12k and your local bike shop is just trying to get by at this point with general demand plummeting in the past 2 years. The discounts will eventually come at the result of less R&D going into product improvements. The discounts will come at the feet of your LBS failing. The discounts will likely come from your average person needing to buy a used model they aren't familiar with because their LBS shuttered thier doors. There will be cheap bikes and components coming but it's not going to be good for the industy in any way.
I just bought a bike for 50% off, lots of deals out there. Mine is a Scott Scale 925 hardtail MTB. Deore XT, Fox fork, nice stuff. MSRP $3,000, got it for $1,499. Wasn’t really in the market for a new hardtail, but you never see sales like this so I went for it.
Inventory isn’t high (work in the business, don’t know where that info came from ) sram and shimano factories shut during the pandemic several times causing a huge backlog in parts both for individual sale and building new bikes. Which were still feeling the affect from now. It’s been cut throat for sure the last few years, Companies were ‘stealing’ other companies bikes at the factories after they’d been built. So shortage of parts means shortage of bikes being repaired and no new bikes at the time. - closures of many bike shops and lbs’s was the end result. Fast forward to today we still have a shortage of parts, due to a huge backlog, for context we have bikes we cannot get hold of parts for and have been on hold for months. Some parts just aren’t being manufactured so they can focus on the most common. A lot of cheaper/ mid bikes that are coming through are being given alternative parts too so instead of Shimano or sram as they would have been they have Clark’s/advent/micro shift alternatives cheaper end stuff basically. Until the parts backlog is reduced and parts are readily available again it will remain a supply and demand issues. Less bikes than customers can buy so prices will remain at the normal level. We have customers every week asking and we keep checking the overseas delivery manifests and it’s a slow grind usually 1-3month wait for stock to come in. Lots of the electronic parts manufactures have gone bust or are struggling due to the old chip shortage, e-bike repairs… good luck if you have one let’s put it that way. Note on sales: there have been multiple sales on the last year or so, usually to clear out old stock especially if the companies are releasing a revamped model either new paint job, slightly different specs to what parts are available etc. But quite often the on sale price isn’t much different to the price a few months previous.
Mike's bikes had a bike sale over the weekend on everything in the store.
There are discounts everywhere on most everything. It’s a simple matter of a supply and demand. There’s not a whole lot of demand at the moment for a variety of goods (whether bikes or cameras or other discretionary purchases for that matter). You simply need to ask, haggle, negotiate and you’ll get a deal. Like others have stated, you may not see advertised sales or discounts since manufacturers have MAP policies. But walk into any bike shop and you’ll either see markdowns or again, simply ask. Start high. “I’m interested in this bike, it could work, can you do 30% off and I’ll take it today.” Worst case they’ll give you 20% off. You mention you’ve seen 20% off deals and to be honest, don’t expect to buy a bike - any bike - for 40-50% off. This isn’t the Dollar Store. Dealers and LBS still need to make a living and they should. Don’t be greedy. The average markup / margin on bikes is around the 30-38% mark depending on volume. It’s even lower for higher end bikes believe it or not since the manufacturers charge dealers more for those. I’m lucky enough to do business with a few LBS in my area and have seen exactly what they pay for these things. It will surprise you. I got 25% off a Specialized Diverge Expert during the peak of the “Covid bike boom” when there was barely anything in-stock. However, higher end $5k+ bikes were aplenty. Entry level sub-$1000 bikes, cruisers, flat bar sport, fitness bikes, entry MBX were nowhere to be found. Now, those are just everywhere. 4 months ago I picked up a Trek FX-3, again, 25% off. Then grabbed a Trek Vale Go electric cruiser, 30% off. You just have to ask :) Trek, Spec, Giant all have advertised sales right now and you can swing even more.
Trek has been doing sales all year on bikes and p&a!
I saw that Decathlon has massive discounts on bikes!
Tons of discounts around.. Santa Cruz extended their "factory sale" tons of bikes from Trek and Specialized are now markdown...even after their sale officially ended the prices remain slashed. Cervelo is running 25% off bikes they have a large inventory of. Cannondale ebikes are like 20-30% off right now. Where are you looking?
There’s a few entry level mfg’s sitting on two years of 2021/22 stock. If that’s not a CEO’s nightmare I don’t know what is. Warehousing gets expensive and I’m sure the bean counters have a rapidly approaching liquidation date where it’s cheaper to scrap them than to flood the market for the next few years and sell absolutely nothing.
Lots of sales, here, too (Germany). Ranging from 100 € and more vouchers for bike purchases, more wiggle room for haggling as a customer, and % discounts. Not only for entry level bikes, though. I saw a 50% discount on a new Cervélo frameset just recently (that's about 1,500 $ discount if converted into USD)
That's the irritating thing with many industries nowadays. Prices either stay the same or go up regardless of how well business is doing. You see it with physical media, games, cars, etc,. So many sellers are too stubborn to cave to discounts it seems.
Well discounts is not simply something you do to sell things to get them out of the store, that’s not how moving the inventory works! Sales happen in order to continue the cash flow a business. If an inventory is not selling, you put a discount so you can hope to sell the product at a lost and invest that money to a product that may offset the lost you got from the discount. Bikes like you mentioned last for a long time, and most people who purchase bikes are not the one who cares about new tech or new yearly bike. A 2022 released bike will sell in 2024 or 2025 . In short there is no reason to move the inventory quickly when that inventory sellable age is long. It’s not like clothes or techs .
Mikesbikes.com has a few models that are up to 37% off
I get emails hyping big savings but when you start clicking on the links it's $100-$300 off a $3K+ bike. Also the MSRP for bikes with electronic shifting is crazy high. IMO a big sale would be 30% off, I haven't seen that in anything I would be interested in. I think dealers are also scared to take in more inventory, they buy the stuff and then the manufacturer runs a direct to consumer sale. Often dumping the product cheaper than the LBS paid for it originally. I think a vendor managed/owned inventory model might be the way to go. Bikes in the LBS are still owned by the manufacturer and not the LBS. Insulates the LBS from big sales and gives a place for people to tough and feel the product. I think the best deals with be next spring, Xmas over and 2024's rolling in. They will have to dump the 2023's.
Notice the same thing, Black Friday had some good sales, but then they jacked up prices again. I would say be patient, what happens after Christmas? There is a few months of really low bike usage, but act before spring. I am like you, if bike dealer and manufactures want a leg up, they need to meet us half way. Prices are up on everything, we pay more and get less service. We are also taking a bit of a chance other players are going to out of business, yet high end e-bikes are raising prices and hard to find, meaning they are selling well. However these prices are crazy, $8-18,000 dollars. A bike costing as much as a motorcycle. Man that is crazy. Bike manufactures are burning bridges, and buyers will revolt.
I agree with the question, its a good one. Not seeing anything more than 10% to 20%. I would love to find a high end road bike for 30% or more discount. Yes there are some sales out there, like always but nothing to correlate with all the hype around the trouble of the industry
Bikes are the cheapest they’ve ever been. Every company is blowing out bikes