Predictions For The Mountain Bike World In 2023

I predict an increase in indoor e-biking (Zwft type stuff)

I honestly can’t tell if this is satire or not.

😀

I predict more riders cutting their cloth and dropping down to cheaper transmission parts – including 10 and 11-speed – as the cost of living stays high and they realise there’s hardly any difference to the posh stuff in use.

Carnage in the bike market. The supply chain is in bits, and I predict many going bust, buy outs etc. BIG shakeup of the bike industry just around the corner. Hold on tight folks!

Worrying prediction, do you think many brands were too optimistic in the Covid boom? Or just cashflow/supply chain problems making firms vulnerable?

4 X to start to return

i predict not many sales of frame onlys anymore

transition carbons now £3999 and yeti sb from 4299 to 4500

FOR A FRAME only

by the time 2024 comes around theyll either be heavily discounted as they havent shifted, or the RRP will go up and beyond £5k

I honestly can’t tell if this is satire or not.

Seriously. I can see more and more riders investing time and money into indoor set ups, and indoor races. There has already been the Zwift academy stuff for general riding and various high profile Zwift road events, surely only a matter of time before the tech allows close enough replication of off road riding? XC will be first, and DH will be last as you will need some serious VR tech linked in along with more on bike sensor technology to make it a thing due to the gravity element. DH will be where it tips over completely into e-game territory and EWS could be a hybrid.

Seriously. I can see more and more riders investing time and money into indoor set ups, and indoor races. There has already been the Zwift academy stuff for general riding and various high profile Zwift road events, surely only a matter of time before the tech allows close enough replication of off road riding?

OK, all very reasonable.

I thought you meant people using e-bikes on Zwift

Worrying prediction, do you think many brands were too optimistic in the Covid boom? Or just cashflow/supply chain problems making firms vulnerable?

Not prediction but fact to some extent. A lot of brands ordered (in hindsight) too much product during covid. There’s overstock through the whole supply chain so it’s a double whammy of reduced cashflow while sales are down and the value of the stock is reduced.

I predict an increase in indoor e-biking (Zwft type stuff) competitions to involve XC as well as road cycling utilising the new steering technology that is starting to find its way into peoples pain caves. Bringing

Wii-Fit up to date for mid life crisis fitness types?
Fitness computer games to people who really always were gym types, not outdoor types?
Racing to Cat 4 level riders who are scared of the carnage in the weekly crits?
; )

I predict an increase in indoor e-biking (Zwft type stuff)

Nah, 2021 was probably peak Zwift/Peloton opportunity.
Now covid is no longer a thing the money that people (scared of exercising outside) would throw at smart trainers and subscriptions can be lobbed at thier local gym again, that’s where they want to be in a shared space with people from their own their own social and income brackets leering at one another for 20 sweaty minutes on a treadmill, then spending 2hrs in a sauna…
Zwift is unlikely to offer that experience any time soon…

where they want to be in a shared space with people from their own their own social and income brackets leering at one another for 20 sweaty minutes on a treadmill, then spending 2hrs in a sauna…

I can see a business opportunity opening up in front of us here team STW. Virtual gyms with virtual spas. We supply VR headsets and a paddling pool with a heater, feed them lots of veg so they fart a lot. Hey presto, we have a hot tub with bubbles

There has already been the Zwift academy stuff for general riding and various high profile Zwift road events, surely only a matter of time before the tech allows close enough replication of off road riding?

I’ve no idea if indoor cycling will continue to grow. But surely we aren’t even able to reproduce a road race yet? Well in anything other than pedalling. Or has my sarcasm detector failed again

Seriously. I can see more and more riders investing time and money into indoor set ups, and indoor races.

Peak Zwift is tomorrow at 6pm. All the predictions are for a drop from last year, continuing down from the high point reached in 2020.