Kona bikes close. Stages power meters close. Rapha laying off US staff. All in one week.
The high end of recreational #cycling has become increasingly unsustainable. Prices are too high for consumers, and companies locked into a system where they cannot reduce costs. A house of cards
@keraba that's ok, I agree mostly. My regular bikes are both over 15 years old. My race bike is newer but not top spec. I chose the bits I wanted, so I could fix them without proprietary tools or computers. A lot of the so called progress has not made bikes any better, and is just the search for greater profit. And ultimately that becomes loss
@ronanmcd Worrying and sad news. Kona's touring range used to be comparatively affordable but with prices hikes from 1299€ in 2014 to 2499€ in 2023 for a Kona Sutra - that's hard to justify. High prices for proprietary parts and groups are another trend that worries me, repairs have become very expensive.
@chris i was racing last weekend and noticed this around me. I was one of few on circular (ie normal) seat posts. When companies close, or move to new products, those posts will be irreplaceable. It's a bad business
@ronanmcd Yeah, same with some racks and screws with obscure diameters or integrated bike lights. But there is nothing worse than this e-bike with proprietary parts and build-in battery that needs an app and a connection to a server - what could possibly go wrong.. (they since went bankrupt but apparently McLaren / Lavoie bought them 🤔 https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/the-pulse-vanmoof/
@ronanmcd@chris interesting as I was watching a video comparing vintage to modern bikes and made the exact same point about seat tubes. I had no idea it was so commonplace to use custom and incompatible parts!
@etenil@chris I come from a background of constant messing with parts - replacing, sawing and drilling them. It was never too much of a concern. Now you have companies who can charge what they want - they have the one piece that fits!
@ronanmcd Kona is gone? Wow. But it seems like it. Maybe there’s a squeeze between low-end junk and ultra high-end. Ultra high-end can’t keep the shop open.
Also, when I look at, say, the Cube bikes range, where are tens of models separated by €100 each, and so many brands, each with loads of barely distinguishable models…
@kevinteljeur The Stages one is even crazier. Giant manufacture for them. Giant are now suing for loss of products being made, and those already supplied and un-paid. And one of the Stages heads jumped to Giant a few weeks previously.
@ronanmcd Yeah, they're all just rebranded Giant bikes at this point, with a handful of bespoke build at the high-end, and generic stuff at the low-end.
Wild, the global bike industry is basically like Irish yoghurt. Two factories and a load of label printers.
@alan There are a few other wheel companies too that could fall in the same bracket. Scribe have been mailing frequently, and several others seem to have come out with whopping expensive products that offer little more than bragging rights - the kind of things that people don't need
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