Frasers Group To Relaunch Wiggle and Chain Reaction Websites

Thanks for the positive comments on Pinnacle. I think we did ok there, did the right things. I was thinking how it’s true FG/Evans now haven’t done a lot with the bikes since 2020/21. The Ramin 2020 was great, geometry was sorted, but Pinnacle wasn’t a name in MTB and Evans didn’t sell many. Frasers Group kept ordering Arkoses and will do as long as they keep selling, even without any updates since then they’re still relevant bikes I think, particularly for that market. But the fact they didn’t pile in the Pinnacle orders in 20/21 like everyone else and haven’t done much with own brand bikes since then .. some might say that was the smart thing to do given the state the industry is in now. They can just sell everyone else’s overstocks, hoovering up bargains. I’m not sure a lack of activity in recent years is much indication of what they might do as and when the market picks up.

What happens with all the tooling for manufacturing megas/gigas etc. Surely a lot of money was spent on manufacturing ability and they wouldn’t want to just scrap it.

Does that mean somewhere in Taiwan would would continue to churn out bikes since the kit to do so is already bought and paid for?

the fact they didn’t pile in the Pinnacle orders in 20/21 like everyone else and haven’t done much with own brand bikes since then .. some might say that was the smart thing to do given the state the industry is in now.

I was going to say something similar, I suppose you just have to look at who’s buying who’s websites and brands now to see how a brief ‘boom’ that some exploited more than others has reshaped the bike industry. I doubt anyone would have predicted Fraser Group buying up more cycling assets back in ~2019.

I think I’ll probably still skim the wares on wiggle for time to time, I never visit the Evans in town, but if anything did take my fancy I assume I could order it to that store for pick-up(?).

Some interesting snobbery on display in this thread too, basic old 7 speed bikes and spare innertubes are probably still the backbone of the bicycle retail world despite 10k ego chariots existing they’re the exception not the rule.

Does the fall of the retail giants mirror the trend in cycling? There seems to be less people who dabble these days. As a student I worked at Evans for 5 years and we had a solid base of folk on basic but functional bikes (say 800 – 1k hardtails or basic tiagra ally roadbike)  but all were out regularly. I dont see that many of this type of rider these days. IMO The average rider at my local TS has a much better bike now than 15 years ago.

But these days shops tend to sell either high end bikes, or family hikes like decathlon / halfords etc. I don’t think you can keep everyone happy. People after am expensive bike want the experience from a high end place and want experienced staff who are passionate. People who want kids bikes and cheap hybrids on c2w are out off by the lack of choice. That’s kind of how it was before the big players tried to do everything isnt it.

Wiggle and crc catered for the experienced cyclist who knew what they wanted, and probably still can. You might not buy a bike anymore, but people will still pick up bargain conponants and clothing. And they’ll pivot vitus, NP, ragley etc brands to ensure that stores like evans ( which cater for the less experienced cyclist) walks in and can see a shop floor of choice, without knowing they’re all in house owned.

It feels like the industry couldn’t sustain a place to keep everyone happy. But it does worry me that mtb is possibly becoming a bit elitist and quite far from its roots.

But it does worry me that mtb is possibly becoming a bit elitist and quite far from its roots.

roots would be what? Depending on when and where you started biking that could be fireroad clunking; roughstuff backcountry exploration; one (rigid) bike to do it all; the downhill/freeride vs XC dicotomy; “all mountain”; rigid singlespeeds making easy trails hard again?

mountain bikes are better and cheaper than ever. £500 on a halfords voodoo hardtail is a bike I would take over anything pre ~2005ish for any mountain biking.

I know there’s 100 different niche pigeonholes these days but they are only a way of describing things, the bikes transcend categories better than anything in the past.

Evans doing some odd stuff with workshop and pricing apparently, some very odd choices that don’t seem very customer friendly.

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mountain bikes are better and cheaper than ever. £500 on a halfords voodoo hardtail is a bike I would take over anything pre ~2005ish for any mountain biking.

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But now we hit perception verses reality

If you owned a simple bike in the 1990s and turned up at trail bread everyone’s bike looked like yours. If you now turn up on a £500 bike or even a £1000 bike you would have a great bike by historic standards. But looking at the bikes almost everyone else is riding you would realise that your kit is way behind what everyone else is riding.

Now you might say @why worry about what everyone else is riding” but people do. I’d say currently mountain biking looks really expensive. Whether it is expensive or not

It depends when and in the 1990s and where. I certainly wasn’t imagining a downhill race

Riding at Woburn, in the lakes or peak there was a time when every bike pretty much looked the same.

I did some xc races where everyone was on a rigid rim braked bike. You could tell the ti one’s of course. Some cost a fortune. But they were functionally similar.

I was basically agreeing with this point

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As a student I worked at Evans for 5 years and we had a solid base of folk on basic but functional bikes (say 800 – 1k hardtails or basic tiagra ally roadbike) but all were out regularly. I dont see that many of this type of rider these days. IMO The average rider at my local TS has a much better bike now than 15 years ago.

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On my last trail centre trip even junior served to be on a FS e-bike. I saw one group on west I’d call basic bikes

 The big difference around that price seems to be that as things have settled down with geometry and wheel sizes, teens are more likely to be riding a  2nd hand Carbon Enduro than a new lower-spec bike.

theres a nice alloy spesh in the classifieds right now (not related to me in any way). £700 and even that may be high as its been there for a week with no comments.

Good if not top spec. 5ish years old. 1x drivetrain, dropper, non-obsolete brakes.

“where everyone was on a rigid rim braked bike. You could tell the ti one’s of course. Some cost a fortune. But they were functionally similar.”

If you found xc bikes from the rigid and rim brake era to be indistiguishable from each other:

Then you probably wouldn’t find a functional difference between this and the latest s-works costing 15 times as much.

Thats not intended as a dig by the way, in a blind test and on bikes correctly set up for us, most of us would struggle to differentiate between them I’d wager.

Well ok there’s a fairly obvious visual distinction between hardtail and full suss

If you want a full suss to fit in at the trail centre, here’s a £1.1k 4 bar full suss with black stanchioned rockshox, one-by, a dropper, and a pair of minions.

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/mountain-bikes/boardman-mtr-8.8-mens-mountain-bike-2021—s-m-l-xl-frames-371014.html

I’m sure there will be some boardman snobs but for feeling like you’ve got similar to everyone else that seems to fit the bill.