Possible demise of CRC / Wiggle

@superstarcomponents ,

Thisisnotaspoon sums it up very nicely. There are plenty of places to buy bike parts cheap. Not many have the breadth of choice CRC and Wiggle do, making it easier to buy everything in one place. But they also have a great reputation. The look after you, you know the bits will turn up, returns are easy (and they don’t argue the toss with you) and they show what’s in stock.

Compare it to some other places –

CRC – it’s cheap, it’s in stock, it’ll arrive quicky, returns are easy, customer service is good

Tredz – it’s cheap, it may or may not be in stock, it’ll arrive eventually, returns are easy, customer service is unknown.

Superstar – it’s cheap, it’s in stock, it’ll arrive quicky, returns are impossible, customer service is dire.

I’d order from CRC every time on that comparison.

Superstar have actively moved away from bike components and have been clearing remaining stocks at bargain prices for a few months so why is Neil continuing to bang on about CRC/Wiggle?

Superstar CS was pretty good when I had a faulty freehub on one of those silly-cheap wheelsets this year TBF.

And I see them as competitive with CRC or whoever on the stuff they do really well, like chainrings and headsets. I go to Superstar first for those.

I’ve found superstar after sales service to be very decent including returns. Very straightforward.

@frankconway, he’s not banging on about them its the subject of the thread. Most of what he has said has been valuable to it. I guess he just asking what & why were people drawn to using them so much and would we all still do if the prices went up. Ive used CRC for years generally because they tend to have all I need in one place at my budget. If it increased in price I would probably still use them for most things just due to ease ordering and know what I’m getting with regards Service/delivery etc. Also used Superstar over the years and after sales has been spot on for me with any issues etc.

I know what the thread subject is.
Neil’s posts don’t read like those of a bog standard punter; go back through the thread to inform yourself.
For clarity – I have nothing against Superstar; one of my bikes – an ex team race bike – has some of their anodised Ti parts and I have a wheelset for a build.

superstar customer service have been spot on for me too – also I thought they were ditching the wheels but sticking with the rest of the bike related business

and fwiw neil is a small business owner of a bike related business – so his insights have been very interesting to me at least, like a view from an insider – I for one welcome his posts

But what does Uberbike think about it all 😀

But what does Uberbike think about it all

20% off everything*

*discount applies to green 107mm bcd chain rings and magura hs33 brake blocks only.

@frankconway. Apologies I didn’t mean to imply that you did have anything against Superstar components just seemed odd picking up someone for talking about the subject of the thread, I suppose that’s STW for you. I have read the whole thread and agree he doesn’t sound like a normal punter but I guess that’s because he isn’t, being from the industry which CRC etc are in I suppose he has a bit more insight than someone like me, who is basically clueless to how it all works.

I don’t know, I remember the days of Superstar being Neil’s one man operation, yet you’d get fobbed off from one “department” to the other until being told you’d obviously installed it wrong.

There was a case on here that became a bit of a forum meme of some guys cranks failing mid ride, he “fixed” it by hitting it with a rock to get back to the car, the warranty was rejected because they’d been fitted with the rock which wasn’t in the instructions.

There was even a batch of brake pads where seemingly everyone’s failed with the material falling off the backing. That’s probably happened to me at some point with almost every brand, but there was clearly a flaw in superstars with everyone complaining about it, but again no one could get any refunds or acknowledgement that there was a problem out of Neil.

I’ve got no particular axe to grind with Neil, and wish him luck in whatever industries he’s CNCing for now, and do still use his brake pads, but it’s beyond parody for him to say things like:

Lifeline was ……………… Generic catalog stuff done on minimal margin.

and

maybe the lure of cheap stuff out of China was too powerful

Shame really

But it’s completely irrelevant to this thread, (and every other thread Neil happens to post on) much as some folks seem to wish it were. – not specifically you TINAS.

How about Rapha…

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/rapha-posts-pound12m-loss-marking-six-years-in-the-red

How is Rapha still standing – or is just the usual accountancy nonsense passing moneys to a parent company so it looks like a loss to pay no tax….

I have read the whole thread and agree he doesn’t sound like a normal punter but I guess that’s because he isn’t, being from the industry which CRC etc are in I suppose he has a bit more insight than someone like me, who is basically clueless to how it all works.

To be fair, the comments where he knows what he is talking about (bikes and bike bits) have veen very insightful, it’s the bits where he’s slagging off competitors based on his own exotic understanding of insolvency and the law that have been unenlightening.

Ralpha must be making a profit – flogging a top that costs £5 to make at £100 is a great business

Re Rapha, firstly, I can’t see how they’re losing so much, but anyway, if you’re losing £15m year after year, wouldn’t you call it a day?

Benko is gone from signa then so the rot really is at the top. Fingers crossed that means that splitting off the sports group might give them chance to save some or all of the group.

https://www.reuters.com/business/austrias-benko-hand-signa-over-restructuring-expert-investor-2023-11-03/#:~:text=Nov%203%20(Reuters)%20%2D%20Austrian,Peter%20Haselsteiner%20said%20on%20Friday

Ralpha must be making a profit – flogging a top that costs £5 to make at £100 is a great business

Don’t know what they are like these days but the last things I bought from them – a winter jersey, a summer jersey, a windproof gilet and a winter lightweight jacket are all still going strong after around 8 years of all year round use so they have yet to get any repeat business from me since I bought them all those years ago.

Bought loads of wheels from SS- returned one with a Pacenti rim that cracked, it was rebuilt onto something else, no quibble.

Small update re: orders – ordered some derailer hangers this week and they arrived Friday. All. Good. 

Rapha may have a good margin on sales but they also have ridiculous prime city centre stores with tumbleweed blowing through. Doesn’t really seem like a sensible model for such a niche product.

Ordered some derailleur hangers and most of the  pivot bolts for my sons vitus. All arrived in a day or so but also, surprisingly,  all packaged separately!

I’ve got frame, forks, wheels and other parts, all now with Parcelforce. 2 separate orders placed this week, coming in 5 separate consignments on Monday

flogging a top that costs £5 to make at £100 is a great business

Which £100 Rapha items cost £5 to make, and who makes them? Would be interested in a piece of that action!

Also, would like to know if all their workers are voluntary, rents free, shipping done by mates as a free favour… etc. Also if they’ve found a cost free way to work around all the Brexit barriers hitting the likes of CRC/Wiggle and everyone in the niche world of cycling that needs a wide geographical customer base.

But when sanity returns I quite fancy making some nice new pedals

Please be a clipless mechanism with a nano body.

It’s much more interesting than joining the race to the Bottom cycle industry at the moment.

Regrettably when the bike industry gets there there will be another industry queuing up to commit hari-kari.

Someone in my family lost their job in the Wiggle / CRC warehouse location in Wolverhampton – not a nice end to 2023 for him….

Neil / Superstar you really seem to be derailing this thread as people pick you up on some contradictions and strange musings (Why not comment as just Neil, repping Superstar is irrelevant surely?) and I cant help do it myself as you say you don’t want to join the ‘race to the bottom’ but then post up pictures of you re-making chainrings whole selling them off for 30% off for less than £25.00 – isn’t that joining in by definition?

The reality here is CRC etc wont be the last to fall due to current circumstances and I don’t think this is industry specific, a few friends are saying their work is deathly quiet right now, the covid money has ran out now and the warehouse shelves are full of goods.

Going to be a difficult 2024 overall I feel.

I’m posting as Neil SuperstarComponents because people trolled me when I posted without saying that over a decade ago. It’s got nothing to do with increasing Superstar sales, like I’ve said the bike industry is so borked I’m mostly doing other stuff. While everyone was riding the Covid boom I was making high end components for Covid testing machines.

there is a huge difference in models. Superstar manufacturing product to sell at a very competitive price is a profitable and viable business. I’ve spent very little time and effort of new products in the last few years while this corporate deathmatch played out.

a corporate buying £100 RRP pedals from Asia for a landed price of £35 and selling them for £35 with free postage isn’t viable. It was just a sign of desperation for cash flow or similar.

the statement of negative 40% margin they made says it all.

Neil SuperstarComponents

This is again de-railing the thread a little but nowhere did I say you were posting as SS to increase sales (Though no other business owner is here commenting in this manner, so it may be having that effect?)

You can post as Neil as much as you like without mentioning SS – you are an individual aside from company owner – so long as you aren’t doing so to deliberately plug your own product while criticising others, which you arent this time, all adding ‘superstar’ to ever reply is doing is to cause people to comment on your business etc

There is a huge difference between business models but you say the industry is in a ‘race to the bottom’ and then knock 1/3rd of the price from a product (and others) you are currently manufacturing, not old stock to clear, how isn’t that joining the ‘race to the bottom’ and actually becoming a contributing factor in it?

The drive to discount in order to sell is absolutely going to cause some business to fail, perhaps the most bizarre thing is (If this is also relevant to the cycle world) that we have been told lead-times are increasing on production overseas for parts we use at work due to factories reducing staff numbers and hours, so once all this stock is sold off at bargain prices we may end up with brands struggling to re-stock in a reasonable time frame when required = more financial pressure.

I’m posting as Neil SuperstarComponents

I always preferred Fruit, Tango and your other log-ons 😂

But Neil just needs to walk away from the this

No, It doesn’t help he let’s him self be baited but he [alone] doesn’t, everyone, you included who can’t keep on topic and seems to think bashing Neil or SS on threads that have the square root of fa to do with Neil, his businesses or his products need to walk away.

You might take umbrage with what Neil says about CRC wiggle, fine, comment by all means about why he’s wrong and what your opinion is or the facts are

Whether you think he’s hypocritical because of his business practices or not it is in no way relevant to this thread. Neither Neil directly nor SS have put crc wiggle in this position.

If you wish to have a conversation about the failings or merits of SS go start a thread about SS.

Yep. I really appreciate the input we get on this forum from a number of industry professionals. Hope they don’t get peed off with those with some kind of axe to grind and leave, or contribute less.

christ the bad experience stories with ss are like, what 15 years ago?  Time to move on chaps.

my pedals and chainrings have been spot on and still going strong.  headset was a bit crappy though…

back to crc….my hanger order has turned up so it seems business as usual despite all the horrible stuff hanging over the staff

People change.

You might take umbrage with what Neil says about CRC wiggle, fine, comment by all means about why he’s wrong and what your opinion is or the facts are

We did, it was him that started some nonsense about us ganging up on him, sorry, trolling because he was talking nonsense about administration and his interpretations of it.

He dug it up, others followed.

Well its obviously cathartic for Neil, now he is a success, to come back on here and discuss the industry he was in for so long, obviously glad to be out of, and at the same time troll a bit the forum that gave him so much grief in the past. Interesting anecdotes as well.

Surprising people still rise to it.  I am sure he will drift off at some point and I wish him well.

Considering he is so ‘out of’ the bike industry its interesting to see social media posts showing him making chainrings and stating shimano etc will be coming soon, followed by selling them off at a sub £25.00 price tag, as I say earlier this is also at odds when Neil claims to not want to be part of a race to the bottom, well if that’s not being a contributor I don’t know what is.

I have zero issues with SS as a company, honestly I see the events of 10 years or so ago as the mistakes of a young person starting out in business and getting things wrong – Neil you seem to be the kind of guy that gets a bit excited and doesn’t think things through before posting online and thus sometimes rubbing people up the wrong way / making little sense.

Its drawn this thread well off topic now anyway so a back on topic question – Has CRC, Wiggle & Hotlines gone into administration or is it just Wiggle at the moment as Pinkbike suggest?

No, It doesn’t help he let’s him self be baited but he [alone] doesn’t, everyone, you included who can’t keep on topic and seems to think bashing Neil or SS on threads that have the square root of fa to do with Neil, his businesses or his products need to walk away.

He made a series of false claims about what happened in the past and got called out for them – and he seems to have it in for me in particular and has had several of my posts deleted when I rebut his lies.  He did astroturf on here.  thats well known

Cathartic to talk utter shite just to get a rise out of people?

Frankly I can think of better uses of my life but whatever gets you through the day..