down turn in bikes sales and spares

Do you need it?

Ex-gear queer here but I buy nice new shiny ancillaries and buy secondhand frames instead. My Santa Cruz Butcher can do anything a Santa Cruz Bronson or Tallboy can. It can roll across stuff just fine and it can descend like a stabbed rat if someone decent was on it.

At what point do we stop buying into ‘2015 brings you the best bike yet’.

650b isn’t a fad. You’d be crazy not to buy that wheel size, far too much has been spent by manufacturers. It might not be any different to 26, but I’m absolutely convinced it’s here to stay.
If you like the way the Giant rides, buy it. They are great bikes, even if some have dubious colour schemes.

Yeah, but pay fell in real terms and isn’t recovering at all, underemployment’s still massive, generally speaking there are less pounds in pockets.

Yebbut in the good old days, how much of the cash in people’s pockets was borrowed on credit cards and loans? Hopefully the current generation of spenders has learned a lesson on credit.

I’m worried now about the 650b fad issue

Personally I wouldn’t worry about that- IMO it’s past the tipping point now, enough manufacturers have gone all in on it that it’s not going to disappear.

It’s not like the lack of a consensus on thru-axles for road bikes, which would put me off buying one at the moment if I were in the market.

Look at the prices:

http://www.stif.co.uk/mtb/list-top/bikes-and-frames/santa-cruz/7/all/8/0/

What does carbon save you? circa 500gms?

When i was buying my bike this year i had a few models in mind, had a go on most of the ones i wanted and went with a Banshee Spitfire. 2 reasons really. 1, i could use all of my existing kit and transfer it over from my 5 spot and 2, interchangeable dropouts so i could run either 26″ or 650b.

I am very surprised there are not more companies offering this type of frame where you can run whatever wheel size you want. Plus there are also 3 geometry settings which are so easy to change to and from.

But yea OP. Its that time of year i reckon. 🙁

hora – Member

Do you need it?

Don’t start coming on here asking questions like that – most of us want support for buying stuff that we clearly don’t need when we post on here, not more doubt.

Having said that, is that bike Kryton looking at one with the ‘Giant’ only head tube standard? I’d be more worried about them ditching support for that than 650B stuff disappearing.

wwaswas – nope, it has “standard” tapered steerer aka Overdrive not the Overdrive 2. The latter would have stopped me buying it also.

We run a small motorcycle/try-to-get-into-bicycles project/parts/titanium fasteners business and sales have dropped off over the last month or so. I don’t know why. It may be that we’ve had a particularly good summer which, looking out of the window, is still continuing so people are riding instead of rebuilding/tinkering.

Anybody want some discounted Ti?

Most of us are gradually getting older with time and slower yet we want the best kit available, then ontop of this we must have numerous coaching sessions.

When do people actually stop and relax/just ride for fun and stop trying to pretend they are Kyle Strait on the DVD’s?

Who is Kyle Strait?

Well that proves he’s living in the past.

Hora, whilst you’ve decided to relax, some of us have decided to have different goals. Different strokes etc… Don’t knock it, its a choice for everyone and we’re all free to make that choice…

Anyway I’m off to place an order for a gopping bike that matches the colour of my helmet and glasses at least, and is described by several vomit inducing buzzwords.

ttfn

Also many of we older riders may be alienated by the dog straining for a crap cybercreased fugly monstrousites which pass for frames these days. Having your bike covered in lurid, in your face garish decals may appeal to a certain demographic but it I find it a turn off.

It’ll soon date.

hora – Member
It’ll soon date.

An excellent excuse to buy a new bike then, and if not, there’s plenty that spray frames.

At what point do we stop buying into ‘2015 brings you the best bike yet’.

late July, 2015

I’d be disappointed if 2015 didn’t bring the best bikes yet. I can’t think of a year in which bike technology as a whole went backwards even if blips like flippy shifters sometimes give that impression.

there’s plenty that spray frames.

Carbon may be a bit tricky for the average paintshop under the arches.

Still- my alu Butcher is going signal yellow next week 😀

Hmm. It’s not too bad in my workshop. Sure, October has been quiet, but that’s seasonal, and it looks like I’ll smash last Octobers workshop figures by quite some margin.
I’d hit last years workshop figures before the end of last month, so I’m happy.

this year Autumn/winter happened suddenly from a long settled dry warm period, well it did in Yorkshire. speaking to other high street traders around town, the bottom suddenly dropped out of high street shopping on Monday 6 October when it suddenly changed to cold wet and windy and hasn’t really recovered 2 weeks later. Someone just turned the light switch off on a good long summer

650b is as here to stay as anything is in this industry. Which isn’t reassuring, because that was true of 26 inch 2 years ago. So what that basically means is there’s no reason to specifically doubt that 650b will stay, but that absolutely everything on your bike is now fair game and might suddenly be obsolete tomorrow.

So don’t not buy a bike because it’s 650b. But also don’t trust the bike industry, because it absolutely will **** you for a dollar and your £5000 bike might be old hat 1 minute after you buy it, for no good reason at all.

scotroutes – Member

Who is Kyle Strait?

Renowned maker of kneepads.

Another not buying a bike for a while.

The arrogance of 650b and the price of new kit has put me off buying a new bike – the introduction of road discs will lead to new standards and I just can’t be arsed with it all.

It’s put me off the bike media too, tbh.
It was a fait accompli, I understand that.
But not one negative article about 650B in the mainstream media?
Not one acknowledgement of the pointlessness and arrogance of it all?

So I don’t read any of it these days, STW aside.

I’ll stick with the current stuff until I can’t get the bits and then either do something else or buy secondhand.

Renowned maker of kneepads.
[/quote]Not the lead singer in a crap eponymous band of his siblings then?

Who can afford to buy and change bikes every year?

Who needs to do that?

The wheel size thing has p****d me off as well, and will probably delay me buying a new MTB.

I’m sure 650B and 29″ are both here to stay, the industry has invested far too much in them to suddenly do a U-turn and go back to 26″.

However as I’ve invested quite a lot in upgrading my MTB, I may well investigate the idea of building a new one, rather than buying whole.

With regard to road bikes – I bought a MY14 Giant Defy 1 a few months back, which I really like.
However the same applies to road bikes – I’ll not replace it until the situation with disc brakes sorts itself out.

The wheel size thing has put me off the idea of buying bikes or looking at reviews.

The industry gets what it deserves. Sorry.
exactly that.

the reason I’m contributing to lack of 26″ sales is NOT because I don’t want 26, and about to buy 650b. It’s because I’m sitting waiting for the industry to sort itself out. So the industry better think again whenever they use the words “sales of 26 have plunged” as a sales pitch trying to promote 650b.

I don’t want to buy 650b or 29, because it’s 650b/29. But in 2-3 years time I may buy whatever is the standard.

In the mean time, I’ll keep riding what I have. And the last bike I bought was intended to be a bike for life.

If the “industry” has shot itself in the foot being greedy, then that’s not my problem.

Just because a ‘standard’ has bern introduced, there is no guarantee of it sticking. Who remembers 1¼ headsets?

Wheelsize thing, which also contributed to cancelling of mags.

The wheel size thing has put me off the idea of buying bikes or looking at reviews.

The industry gets what it deserves. Sorry.

Plus 1.

PS, add forks,headsets stems+bars, 9+10+11, and even before that I had a problem with the extensive variety of mech hangers that seemed totally over the top.

My options now seem to be stick or twist(new bike) – which I might have done if I was young and trendy[and was prepared to do same for gf so eases carrying tubes/spares etc] – I’m neither, I started mtb on a 7 speed and am happily bimbling around on a 2005ish Orange 5, me and the gf have 4 ‘old standard’ bikes, with a fair level of spares interchangeability etc, given our ages we’ll (*hopefully) be finishing our careers on ‘old standard bikes’ and I’ve stockpiled accordingly.

The Orange was bought new(*admittedly at bargain price) but the discs were to me a quantum change (worked better, much less maintenance and no hideous screeecwrecchhhhh either on muddy days) and the suspension was much more advanced (I went from elastomer and underdamped coil) – bar sizes and wheelsizes don’t (imho) give anything like that level of gain.

+1for disc brakes and suspension being game changers in their day. The very fact that there is still a wheel size debate still running suggests to me that the new wheels sizes , whichever one you choose, are not game changers. It they were our trendy freinds with new bikes would be at the top of hills waiting whilst us old schoollers were still puffing up the hill. I dont see that out on the trails.

I also think that those of us who have been around for a while have got sceptical of the big bike brands marketing hype. To me when i read the mags and corporste webs sites I hear the following…. you know that bike we sold you a few years ago that was the best bike you were ever going to get….. well weve decided it wasnt that great after all and now we want to tell you about this new wonder bike that reinvents every detail of the old bike.

Change for change sake. Did the old octalink bb ever have anything wrong with it. Lasted forever, stiff in a real world sense (not lab test stiff) and silent running.

There’s nothing wrong with square taper BBs.

I hate his thread. I haven’t ordered my new bike because of it.

All I wanted was a better platform on the rear end and something faster than my Yeti that’s the right size. And now you all talk as though it’ll be the wrong bike again soon. And if I buy it, who’s going to buy my yeti bike or frame? Two outdated bikes in 12 months and a shed full of tied in cash.

Boo. 🙁

Which makes me think I should keep my yeti and pile of 26 spares for the fun days out and go and buy a £1500 anthem 29er for endurance events.

Why would anyone want to buy your Yeti if it’s not good enough for you?

It is good enough for me. It’s lacking a platform back end and the (marketed?) capability of bigger wheels for speed over long distance. Hence my second post.

Hence, by buying the Anthem I’m effectively throwing the Yeti in the bin. Why not buy the 29″ anthem for e long days and nights out and use the yeti for the fun times?

Sounds like a first world problem, head turned by marketing bs, mid-life crisis.

Keep your bike; ride it and enjoy it.

Good advice methinks.

Was discussig thi and agreed that actual suspension and actual brake smade a difference
the kille ris My Ornage 5 is pretty much like every other Orange 5 ever made in 26 flavour

10 or 11 gears is not any reall difference over what i have it is just spread differently
If they want to get me to spend 4k on a bike they need to make what I own obsolete as I am not doing it to get 11 gears. That is what they are trying to do in some cases it is working in some ways it is not. They need to persuade those of us daft enough to spend 4 k on a bile to do it. Wheel size is there new way
IMHO they will have to accept they will need to service all standards. Fork choice is not great but i guess i will make do with some 650 b if I need to change.

Whatever you buy is going to be Superseded….

I really wouldn’t worry about it…just buy ride and enjoy..don’t overthink it.

it if you ride it enough you’ll wear it out anyway it’s only another consumable 🙂