Article about the national bike shortage on You & Yours, next on Radio 4.

Thought someone might be interested…

bike supply less than demand trust me …..

suppliers all sold out of anything half good ….

agreed,

its hard to get stuff for customers at the moment.

would appear so – some bikeconomists should be out on their arses!
My LBS is blaming cyclescheme for lack of higher end stuff (!) 🙄

The upside being that we'll not be hit by the usual late season stock being dumped on the market cheap, forcing us to reduce prices on the bikes we paid for earlier in the year.

That happens every year, sometimes worse than others admittedly, it's hardly a bike shortage, it's just manufacturers making sure they don't have massive surpluses!

mtbfix thinks like me… i like.

that is one thing we are happy about, we have a little stock of stuff thats selling well zestys etc but the entry level bikes are a tad problematic, Marin £350 upwards type thing. Great wee bikes too.

My road bike had to be shipped over from the continent.

Thanks Trek 🙂

Article starting now on Radio 4

Agreed big shortage this year, especially on road bikes.

Specialized, Trek and Marin have brought forward some of their 2010 bikes in order to fill the gaps (we would normally expect to see them in September).

Yeeurgh! – I'm listening to Radio 4

my giant was the last one at the factory, and they didnt have the one i wanted, so i had to get the next modal up (what a shame).

I am not to sure if this is a good thing…

I am not to sure if this is a good thing…

Its not usually good when demand exceeds supply of anything. LBS may not be left with stock they have to discount, but how many are missing out on sales because they can't order the bikes their customers want? I for one would have made a semi-impulse purchase on a £1k bike if the shop had "yes, we'll have that in for you by the end of the week!".

Pashley orders in June 2009 up 80% from June 2008…!

Apparently, order numbers at importers were typically decided last November when the economy was looking very bleak, and sales have been much higher than anticipated.

so what did the R4 article say?

I sent a complaint in, the pashley "rep" implied that they and Brompton were the only UK manufacturers.

I came over all angry of Rossendale and emailed the programme and layered it on thick about Hope and Orange.

It was a bit week as a story, explaining that mountain bikes were about "chunky" tyres and hybrids were a combination of "racing bikes" and "mountain bikes"

Ah well at least the sport got a mention.