[Closed] has CRC, planet x etc had their day?

CRC rarely the cheapest now. Hardly ever use them any more.

Evans? It's all about the French and Germans now, a quest for the cheapest ever...
Awaits some moves from the if manufacturers to sort out wider distribution and even pricing continent wide and more control on oem...

Evans pricing is better than it use to be, they price match and you can collect from a store which can be handy.

Alltricks and German sites still generally the cheapest though...

Evans are pretty competitive with the Germans, at least on the XT 11 speed stuff I looked at recently. Not OEM stuff from either.

all depends what you want to buy. I don't specifically buy from one shop. wiggle seems to be expensive for most things I'm purchased recently.

Mantel is the new player in town.. Had some great buys from there

Wiggle overtook CRC last year 😉

Evans saw a considerable drop in turnover and lower margin, like much of the bike industry

Planet X a different beast now, explicitly following the Sports Direct model of snapping up defunct heritage brands and using them to label up cheap imported kit. Hence you can buy the exact same frames with Planet X, On One, Holdsworth, Viner, Tomac etc branding.

Still get the odd warehouse full of bankrupt old stock that they clear out (I reckon those Carnac shoes I got a pair of and they're still selling are at least 10 years old), but not directly competing with the big boys and their steady supply of mainstream stuff.

CRC lost it's edge the same time they [s]screwed up[/s] upgraded their site, everyone's long sick of their permanent DFS-like sales and I reckon they stopped being people's go-to bargain supplier a while ago. Wiggle and CRC's edge is in combining free postage with free Collect+ returns encouraging speculative purchases - Planet X charge both ways unless you have a big basket, and I've just bought a CX skinsuit from Evans knowing I may be spending a few quid to send it back only because no one else had it in that size for that price. They're almost a mail order shop of last resort for me.

I get bored of searching on the wiggle site. Their web team could do a whole lot more to make it useable on a tablet.

I still buy a fair amount from CRC. Price wise they're much the same as the Germans for Shimano stuff now as are Merlin who I seem to be using more and more.

Tyres I tend to get from Germany for its reasons....Schwable and Conti ar still way cheaper from Bike Discount etc.

rcz are good for very low prices with their email discountsbut it's pot luck on what they have and are selling on. They aren't a crc or wiggle. I got my pikes off them for something like £315 but not seen them in since. They were selling dt Swiss forks for about £160 the other day though.

Halfords have improved massively. Good range online, to store next day and price match everyone.

Not used PX since they went over £50 for free shipping.

I've had loads of stuff from CRC recently. They seem to be cheap for the bits I'm after. That said I've had loads of stuff from Wiggle and Evans too. I haven't ordered any bike stuff from Germany. Mostly because I've had problems with other stuff from Germany. The return postage always puts me off.

Halfords have got better. They are still pricey, but every now and then I get a bargain. Plus I cycle past it every day so it's convienent.

I was looking at CRC for some sales bargains (drivetrains, lights). They sell a lot of different products, but loads of it is tat. I couldn't be fussed to look through it all and bought from elsewhere. PX seem to sell whatever CRC can't/won't bother selling.
Seems that I'm fussier nowadays

AFAIK German sites are competitve as they have a way of avoiding UK VAT.

I bought a gear change cable today for €2.50 from a real bike shoo, long may such things continue

Madison dealers can price match Shimano stuff if you ask and take in proof of the lower price.
They will even match the Germans and the likes of CRC.
They just don't advertise the fact they can do it.

The wiggle website has always been user unfriendly even compared to onone

Tbh I buy from wherever I can find stock these days, which seems to be a semi regular issue

Gave up with tat from PX a long time ago. CR still get a lot of my money, but their sales seem a bit pointless now. Wiggle don't seem to have much I need other than TA chainrings. Merlins are really good for sorting and delivering very quickly for me, but their sale prices seem more expensive now than Black Friday. I bought some tyres from them for £40 a pair on BF and are £46 a pair today. Have bought from the germans and were a lot cheaper than in the UK , so may sway a bit more that way for the future.

AFAIK German sites are competitve as they have a way of avoiding UK VAT.

I bought a gear change cable today for €2.50 from a real bike shoo, long may such things continue

I've been making a few purchases from Evans. Their prices are generally good, delivery is good and I can swap my Tesco vouchers at 2:1 so everything is immediately a better deal.

Mantel is the new player in town.. Had some great buys from there

Just used them to order a light and motion urban 800. Fair price and delivery included.

German shops can not avoid their own domestic Vat of 19% no matter where in Europe it is sold. Otherwise the country you import into would charge their Vat on it.

All the german sites sell with UK vat rate of 20% whereas it is only 19% in their domestic market, which is why you sometimes think there is a price hike to UK buyers. The reason they are cheap is because of the exchange rate. It was only 2 years ago when a Euro was worth 87 pence whereas for the past year it has been hovering around the 71 pence mark. That represents a 20% price drop for us 🙂

I tend to use Evans for the reasons above. They price match all the uk big hitters, less chance of the kit being not exactly as described e.g. Merlin and double tesco vouchers. They have never let me down so what's not to like?

As said above.. I use Evans a lot more these days as they price match and there evoucher scheme if you spend X amount is also good.

welshfarmer - Member

The reason they are cheap is because of the exchange rate.

Not just that; in fact probably mostly not that, because it also effects price pointing in the first place. Bottom line is different markets have different price structures via their local distribution networl. Schwalbe tyres frinstance wholesale at a lower price in Germany than they do here. Same as Santa Cruz in the states but local enough that we can realistically cross borders.

This, incidentally, is how you can tell CRC etc haven't had their day- and also why it doesn't really threaten them. If this imbalance ever becomes truly problematic it'll no longer be worth running price differential strategies so the manufacturers will change their price (fixing) strategies. But what proportion of UK buyers are actually shopping at bike-discount.de?

I still use Wiggle now and them, but mainly for smaller parts. HiBike and similar Euro shops seem to offer the same products at a good saving depending on exchange rate, but I also use PX sometimes also.

I wouldn't say CRC have had their day, but I use them a lot less these days.

Evans, now that there's one in Durham, I can conveniently collect.
They pricematch so it's a no-brainer, living where I do, for stuff that might need returning for whatever reason, or clothing that I may need to check for size.

I still use internet (CRC etc.) for stuff that can't fail, like the spokes and chain links I'm about to order, they fit through the letterbox so order and forget.

welshfarmer - Member
The reason they are cheap is because of the exchange rate.

Not just that; in fact probably mostly not that,

Exchange rate has a lot to do with it. Same with Thomann (music shop) that I have purchased quite a bit from.
When the £ was weak the prices were close to UK and not worth bothering with.

Not sure if this will change if we leave the EU (would we then pay import charges?)

I still use CRC and Wiggle and find both good on prices for the things I buy. I can usually find stuff cheaper (or at least the same) form eBay shops though.

i think it's more indicative of how certain suppliers have been screwing the vice on the big internet suppliers, both by tightening up their supply chains and threatening to restrict supply.

Of course, this is somewhere between 'questionable behaviour' and 'clearly in breach of' all sorts of anti competition and resale price maintenance laws, but, well, that's how the bike trade works...

Halfords have been pretty good for me.

Find the item, price match cheapest online then 10% off for BC membership.

Nice

No one supporting their LBS then?

I guess saving a couple of quid is more important than helping our local economy, or even national economy if you go shopping overseas.

No one supporting their LBS then?

I guess saving a couple of quid is more important than helping our local economy, or even national economy if you go shopping overseas.

There's an irony there eh? I wonder how many LBS owners support their local buisnesses.

There's an irony there eh? I wonder how many LBS owners support their local buisnesses

Mine do, and I support then where ever I can. A shop here is more worthwhile than the internet. A way that the lbs can compete is something I hope for, give them the same prices that the internet can get and it would be a game changer

CRC may not always be the cheapest but are usually very close and they have really good customer service.

You can't even call wiggle, which personally I find a bit arrogant so rarely give them my money.

my last 3 orders (Shimano road wheels, MTB seatpost/stem and MTB bars)have gone to Wiggle simply because they had the same stock as CRC but considerably cheaper on each item

shipping was quick (3 days) and no issues, found the experience very painless

I noticed they now have an App for IOS and Android, not used it yet but would be interested to see if it works well

The best thing about Wiggle and CRC is being able to browse sale products ranked by biggest discount. It's an oddly entertaining insight into a dark netherworld of stuff no-one actually wants to buy at full or even online discounted price.

I'm sure this isn't really their intention, but it beats actually buying anything. 😉

Ninfan has hit the nail on the head.

There seems to be an awful lot of identical pricing around on some items, ever see Schwalbe Magic Mary Super Gravity at anything less than a few pence under £50. There's lots more examples and none of them serve the end customer.

http://bikesy.co.uk/

Is good for finding the cheapest UK prices.

@sq225917

Probably due to not being profitable for the retailer if they price it any cheaper. It would serve the end customer even less if retailers decided to lose money and go out of business just to suit the Internet bargain hunters. The public seem to need educating as the the margins the end retailer has to play with. Companies exist to make money, not pamper to your whims.

Longtime lurker...

Cheers IRC, I'm one of the guys who put Bikesy together.
Glad you've found it useful, we're adding more retailers to it all the time so it should keep getting better and better.

And @sq225917

There seems to be an awful lot of identical pricing around on some items, ever see Schwalbe Magic Mary Super Gravity at anything less than a few pence under £50. There's lots more examples and none of them serve the end customer.

Do a search for them on Bikesy, you'll be surprised how much cheaper you can get them for some days...

The trouble with the LBS round here is their range. It is usually quite restrictive, if I've done some research on buying something and then go to the LBS 90% of the time they won't have it.

We have two new shops opened recently. One is mainly road based and has a reasonable range of Cannondale and Trek road bikes, a basic range of maintenance kit, gels etc... The clothing is mainly black, pink or hi viz yellow and twice the price you can get online.
The other shop is very much a specialist MTB shop, aiming at the high end/bespoke build market. But again have a very limited range of clothing, gear and maintenance kit. I understand this, it must be very expensive to stock a shop with a limited range let alone a wide range.

This is where the internet wins for those informed or willing to do their research. You can pretty much always find what you want and it would take less time than doing a special order at your LBS. I think CRC and PX/On-One will be fine long term, but the market is beginning to look more and more crowded.

(The MTB shop will probably get business from me for servicing though!)

ever see Schwalbe Magic Mary Super Gravity at anything less than a few pence under £50.

Merlin seem to price them lower, but as a result they're usually out of stock.

Just got some new 650b Marys for myself and a pal from Germany for £31 each, posted.

Schwalbe Magic Mary Super Gravity at anything less than a few pence under £50. There's lots more examples and none of them serve the end customer.