Many brands have (thankfully!) moved away from constant yearly changes which tends to lead to forced discounts of “old” stock ahead of “new” models coming in.

Tends to be just “a model” now which might have minor changes but basically stays the same for 3-4 years before a more tangible refresh.

Shimano does the same with its groupsets, usually working on a 4-year product cycle before the next iteration.

Doubt they’ve been making any Zee stuff for a few years at least now.

Just got a new set of the (12-year-old design?) Saint brakes though – and they are amazing.

OP – 2024 seemed unusually low on new bike launches. Feels like we’re in a fallow period due to the lack of R&D during the Covid bike boom plus brands wanting to flog their unsold stock before they launch new models still?

Does anyone do model years anymore? I thought it had fizzled out.

It was crap for shops. By the time you’d stocked up on the current year the new stuff was announced in autumn and you had to start your 40% sale and order all the same stuff again in the new colour.

Slow sales + ebikes taking up development time. Also SRAM + Shimano releasing new groupsets next year (mechanical transmission + new XT/XTR).

I mentioned this on the GT thread but I can’t remember Santa Cruz ever having any meaningful reductions in previous years.

Noticed that too (and took advantage of!) – they’re one of the brands that rarely had significant discounts in the past, but almost the entire range had 40-50% off during Black Friday before returning to 30% selected bikes only afterwards. Overstocking since Covid and the downturn in the economy combining I guess.

Those level of discounts will have a knock-on effect into 2025 with reduced sales as I suspect many who’d planned to buy a new/2025 year model bike took advantage of the discounts and bought earlier than they planned.

As others said above, there’s some companies selling old stock still and a lot seem to be opting not to refresh anything for 2025 to avoid having to discount old models that are basically the same.

I’m seriously looking for a new road bike in some shape or form and stocking and spec’s are a mess.

Loads of stuff still being specified with what is presumably warehouses full of 11s groupsets that obviously isn’t selling as in some cases you could buy a ‘2024’ bike that had 11s 105 for less than the ‘2025’ in the same colors but with 12s 105 and still have enough left over to buy a R7120 groupset at Merlin!  Same with SRAM XPLR / Shimano GRX, the 11s stuff is probably fine, but I’m upgrading a 20 year old bike with 10s, I’ll be keeping whatever I buy long enough that I’d like it to be at least contemporary now.

I’m holding off until Jan, with any luck the heavy discounting of old stock is an indicator that RRP’s will have to be cut / discounts offered to keep cashflow going which will be great for consumers.

Laughs in Zee & Saint.

It’d be nice at least if they updated the lever so it worked with whatever I-spec they’re up to now.

i posted this on the Trek Fuel Exe thread, similarly relevant here :

iaincFull Member
agree some cracking deals on these just now, higher spec ones available in every size at around half price, with a bit of googling.  I think it just highlights the savings on a new but 23 or 24 model expensive bike.  My initial reaction was around the huge ‘depreciation’ associated with ebikes, but looking at same model year regular bikes from Trek and others the savings to be found are comparable, so it’s not just ebikes.

It does confirm that the second hand value, should you wish to move one of these on, having paid original full or near full price, is a losers game.  I think this is more the case with ebikes due to the likely problems with motors and batteries when out of warranty.

I did look at selling my hardly used and heavily upgraded 2020 Levo SL earlier in the year, and surmised I’d be better keeping it even if I do only rode it once a month or so, as I’d be lucky to get much over 2k for what was a 10k bike.

Back to the Trek, if I was looking for another ebike I’d be buying one for sure, infact my LBS, Sprockets have my size in stock and half price…

Plenty of brands electing to do continuation models (2024 holdover) rather than “2025” bikes

Sign of the times and unprecedented on this scale. I can’t remember it happening before!