Frasers Group To Relaunch Wiggle and Chain Reaction Websites

🤔 Well that’s two websites I’ll try to avoid in the future 🤷‍♂️

Based upon their previous acquisitions, you’d have to imagine a £5.99 delivery fee etc.  I can’t see them not selling half decent bike kit/spares (in addition to driving their own brands into the ground with inferior quality etc) as they’ll easily rank on Google for anything they list.

I think what lots of folks forget is that Ashley’s shops specialise in selling to the general public what the general public want, and they’re very good at it. As as been mentioned on the thread already, Sports Direct is a money making machine. In a away that [conspicuously] CRC-Wiggle, as it turns out, wasn’t.

There’s probably enough online kit sellers who specialise in the sort of kit that folks on this forum want to buy, if there are too many, another over-leveraged one is going to go bust soon, if there are too few, then maybe resurrected CRC-Wiggle will get back into the specialist market again. But as that isn’t Ashley’s AoE, I doubt it frankly.

Maybe Nukeproof will become another BSO brand, maybe dhb will suddenly be in the Ath-leisure wear market, maybe they won’t, if they have the things that I want to buy, I’ll buy them, if not I’ll get my 12 speed just-so-labelled-product that meets my niche requirements for acceptance the trail head car park from somewhere else…

Sad demise of CRC.

I doubt Mike Ashley will lose any sleep over losing a customer base who can’t have been profitable. They focus on low cost items and that’s a formula they are annoyingly successful at.

They will also create some jobs probably for those made redundant.

Quote (editing functions seem to be missing on STW) “Based upon their previous acquisitions, you’d have to imagine a £5.99 delivery fee” quote

Just been looking for a specific pair of running shorts. Available at, and with delivery charge of:

Sports Direct – £9.99
Field and Trek – £5.99
Frasers – £4.99

Go figure. 🤔

Well that’s it resurrected and full of crap

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/falcon-xc18-mountain-bike-821793#colcode=82179308

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/muddyfox-recoil-26-inch-ladies-mountain-bike-938442#colcode=93844224

Well that’s it resurrected and full of crap

As predicted, it’s a reskinned version of the Evans site.

On the plus size you can sort by discount now….

This is the bit i don’t understand…. WHY ? If you have the Evans site, what’s the point of creating a new webiste with the CRC name ? There must be something i’m missing here other than them having 2 websites selling the same thing.

Because it gives a bigger market share. If 5 of the top 10 Google results point to 5 of your shops and your competitors have one each then you’re more likely to get the sale.

But surely that depends on you actually selling the things people are Googling for ? If they stop selling the things, then no amount of searching will bring up their site. If they go to the lower end market of stacking crap and selling cheap, then does it matter how many websites you have ?

a bigger net catches more fish

Why would they “stop selling things”?

Actually have a look at what they are selling, the site is chock full of Adidas, endura, Trek, Cannondale.

I’m fairly sure one of the most successful high street businesses minds knows how to spend and make money.

Any news on nukeproof warranty. Are the New CRC just going to tell you to do one? All a bit confusing if you bought something 8 months ago and were oblivious to the changes

On the plus side, you can now sort by highest discount. Boom.

And it’s a sad day when the only bike brand being sold by CRC/Wiggle that appeals to me is Brompton. No interest in Trek, Whyte, Cannondale, PInnacle or Cube, especially compared to the bike brands we’ve lost (Nukeproof, Vitus, Ragley).

Not just a rebranded Evans (though the products are and I’m sure the tech is). There looks to be consistency with the old sites structure and a different mix of products between the sites.

But now I know where to buy my new ‘breaks’:

Tried to log in and thankfully neither of my log ins works any more, so they haven’t got hold of our historic details.

I clicked on a Trek Rail

“SORRY – THIS PAGE COULD NOT BE FOUND
You may have entered an incorrect URL or the page you were after no longer exists.
Worry not though, let us help you get back to where you need to be.”

Nice that they’ve kept some of the CRC features 😀

(oh that’s on Wiggle, the CRC one works ok. CR selling Trek and Spesh eh? whatever next? Muddyfox?? 😂 )

Guess which “Fox” brand’s products you get when you click on this on the homepage…

…the team behind this site clearly have no knowledge of their products.

The Fox link with the Fox head logo takes you to the right products. Oh, I see what you mean.. yeah the “brands” list only has one Fox – to the clothing… they have some work to do 🙂

The Fox link with the Fox head logo takes you to the right products. Oh, I see what you mean.. yeah the “brands” list only has one Fox – to the clothing

Errr, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I knew that they were two different brands, and I’ve got Fox forks and a load of Fox clothes/gloves.

That’s fine bails… you’re not running a “bike shop”.

Guess we now know where some of the CRC stock went as well. Some prime, nukeproof and lifeline on the ‘new’ CRC site. No pictures yet as you’d expect.

Just had a quick flick through the Wiggle site and was intrigued to notice that the Nut Butter section of their Sports Nutrition sections is offering chamois cream, yum!

https://www.wiggle.com/nutrition-and-body-care/sports-nutrition/nut-butter

This is the bit i don’t understand…. WHY ? If you have the Evans site, what’s the point of creating a new webiste with the CRC name ? There must be something i’m missing here other than them having 2 websites selling the same thing.

The brand names are worth a fortune alone. Less applicable to the seasoned buyers here, but there will be plenty of people unaware of the changes who are buying into the reputation of the brand.

Just as big though, is search engine optimisation. Both CRC and Wiggle feature heavily at the top of search listings, and probably way above Evans. That’s huge. They’ll likely take a hit with the sites changing, but if there have been any changes to the site (I’ve not really looked), it’ll be to optimize that. Lots of consideration around URLs, redirects and metadata. Virtually everyone who searches for bikes/parts/clothing will be exposed to one of these brands.

As above it comes down to a bigger net catching more fish.

Not only will there be a £5.99 delivery fee, but there will also be a £5.99 click and collect fee. But at least you might be able to collect for your local Sports Direct

Good job I’ve acquired enough bike spares in the fire sale to last me about five years then

(slight exaggeration but also not)

A load of garbage then. Pinnacle and other naff tat coupled with a dreadful returns policy.

Also, who is buying a Bontrager stem?!

Pinnacle are great bikes and not long ago had a big generally positive thread in this forum.

Also on the site are a metric shed load of 5:10 which despite not being as amazing as they were when everyone bought them for 20p were also the subject of a largely positive thread here not long ago.

But obvs it’s cooler to be an ill informed snob.

I’m far more concernes about Nukeproof and DHB than I am about the websites. Fingers crossed something is happening there.

Errr, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I knew that they were two different brands, and I’ve got Fox forks and a load of Fox clothes/gloves.

Two brothers who competed in MX set them up IIRC and it was literally a heads/tails decision on the logos.

A load of garbage then. Pinnacle and other naff tat coupled with a dreadful returns policy.

Pinnacle made some really good mid-market bikes for quite a while and were ahead of the curve with gravel bikes. R&D seems to have halted since the takeover but there’s still nothing wrong with an Arkose.

Also, who is buying a Bontrager stem?!

I’ve got Bontrager bars on not-a-Trek.

Stooge bars on my Vitus.

And Nukeproof in the spares box.

So I think the answer is “people who are happy with the right part for the job rather than getting hung up on which parent company owns them”

Not dissing Pinnacle, used to have a very quick hybrid back in the day.

Have also got a bike with various Bontrager parts (non-Trek!)

My comparison is simply one of the Wiggle before and this, they aren’t the same and any such ‘relaunch’ is more of a re-brand IMO.

Pinnacle are great bikes… But obvs it’s cooler to be an ill informed snob.

Who is ill-informed?

Pinnacle were great, when (was it Jameso of this parish?) designed them and Evans was Evans.

Looking at the range currently online there’s only a few bikes and I don’t think any of them have been redesigned since 2020 ish. It looks to me like Fraser Group are just running their stock down so they can replace them with more catalogue bikes stickered up as Muddy Foxes (or more likely Nukeproof & Vitus now).

Pinnacle | Bikes & Clothing | Evans Cycles

If Pinnacle were great when they came out then they surely still are great because as you pointed out… they are exactly the same bikes, just a bit cheaper.

If Pinnacle were great when they came out then they surely still are great because as you pointed out… they are exactly the same bikes, just a bit cheaper.

you obviously don’t work in manufacturing podge. I’ll draw a parallel with the website to illustrate. If an investor buys out a website but not the actual bike business behind it, and the people behind it, they get a website. One that sells fox clothing under a fox forks banner. If an investor buys a bike brand & IP but not the design team, supply chain team, and expertise behind it, they get to ask a factory to make that design. Is what comes out the factory any good? They’ve no idea. Is it a fox fork or a pissing glove? No idea! Let’s go and ask the Nukeproof qa manager. Oh no, wait, he was laid off. What about the guy that designed it? Nah he’s collecting the dole.

But obvs it’s cooler to be an ill informed snob.

we’re not I’ll informed slobs, we’re just angry (and sorry, don’t mean to direct that anger at you) and disappointed that once good companies have gone.

Perhaps direct your anger towards the people that broke your once loved companies and not invent some random fantasy scenario where one of the UK’s largest & most successful sports retail businesses, one that already has a vast number of brands and products made all over the world, has no idea what it’s doing.

Podge find me a great Pinnacle mountain bike currently available from Evans?

Oh no, they’ve sold out, what a damming reflection on how terrible they are that everything has been bought.

Pinnacle established themselves with the Arkose, which you can still buy if you don’t mind being unfashionable by 30 seconds and the Lithium is a great little hybrid, I know because there’s one in my house.

😀

If you want to persist in believing Pinnacle remain a good current brand under Fraser Group, have at it.

FWIW I have a 2015 Arkose in my garage, I also think it’s great.