With all the news saying the bike industry has an overstock problem I’m having a hard time finding a new bike.
I’m trying to find a carbon trail bike, xo1 spec, ultimate or performance elite suspension around the L/XL size.
No one has stock, when asking bike shops both specialized and trek are months away from having anything. I want to support local mainly for future maintenance and warranty issues so ordering from a big online company is out.
Does the bike industry have a stock issue or do they have a forecasting issue they’re not willing to admit?
Where are you located? Spesh and Trek dealers have some issues. Mfgs were selling under booking order prices direct to consumers. That’s not an easy business model for dealers.
If you want to support smaller businesses, maybe look into smaller brands but still national ones. Yeti, Pivot, Ibis all make better MTBs than Spesh/Trek
I ran into this same problem earlier this year. I was looking at XO1-level XC bikes and found it vanishingly difficult to find anything in stock. I asked my LBS (Trek dealer) and they said a lot of stock was sitting in containers waiting to enter the USA. Reading between the lines I think this may have been fallout from the Giant import ban. I eventually found a demo bike after a lot of searching, but I found the overstock/nothing in stock dichotomy somewhat bewildering.
Remember, your LBS has to buy the bike from the mfg first. They aren’t selling on behalf of the mfg unless it’s a factory store. There are price dynamics at work. Our very own Escape Collective has a great podcast on the boom and bust of COVID. The person from Sports Garage has an excellent take on this and everyone should listen to it.
And if you don’t want to wait: why not talk openly to your LBS, ask how much they get of a new bike and offer a similar amount of money for regreasing* and assembling your directconsumerbike.
/* a bike mechanic once told me that he regreases all new bikes because the factories apparently don’t do it well. Not sure if this is still true?
It’s less of a thing these days but in the old days for good customers I’d disassemble hubs, BB’s, headsets and pedals and verify proper installation and bearing count, regrease and reassemble.
Direct to consumer bike sales - Assembly
As previously mentioned, most if not all of the shops in the area will do this regularly for a reasonable fee. I don’t know what they would be regreasing, but the Cup n Cone days…
I did a whole summer disassembling every SR pedal we received on new bikes. At least 50% of them were missing one or more bearings per pedal. They all clicked. Pita. Hubs were typically poorly adjusted and poorly greased. Bottom brackets were particularly short lived in the old days. Little to no sealing. Proper sealed bearings, the cassette hub, and brifters, greatest things to come along.
Tariffs are also slowing down some frame imports. Have you checked out Allied? Great MTB’s and they have availability. Seems since they are assembled here they get some tariff exemptions