Re: anemic industry's retrenchment continues

On 3 Feb 2025 20:58:25 GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:

Mark J cleary <mcleary08@comcast.net> wrote:

On 2/3/2025 8:06 AM, AMuzi wrote:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/longstanding-us-brand-closes-
another-company-makes-layoffs/ar-AA1ycvIb

 
This is interesting in that I see bikes as things that people need and
want. The amount of variance among consumers for bikes is quite large.
Here is my take.
 
1.
 People like myself who are serious cyclist. They ride usually for
recreation and even performance. They tend to be knowledgeable about
bikes and can do much of there own work or the basics. To me this group
is not huge but does draw some serious technical innovations. The money
spent here is quite out of proportion to the number overall percentage
of the industry. This folks draw the big $$. Naturally some in this
group can afford and have others do there mechanical work.

>
For bike manufacturers the draw for this group is the margins are good for
higher end bikes, ie bikes getting on for 10k or above!
>
I’d not suggest that these groups are particularly good at maintaining
their bikes, surprisingly number who can’t change a tube even.
>
Depends on the type of riding one does, I’m unusual in that I do ride in
locations away from places you can get help or phone reception, generally
the MTB so need to be self sufficient.
>
>

 
2.People who ride bikes purely for fun off and on and probably only in
really nice weather. They might be retired or just get out around the
neighborhood. This group is large in number but probably not in demand
for new stuff. This group though relies heavily on having maintenance
and work done by shops or mechanics places that do bike repairs.
 

Lot of these are bikes that live their lives in the shed. Dragged out on
first sunny day!

3.
People who ride bike for real transportation and need. They use these
bikes for work sometimes and to get around. In effect they use a bike
like someone like myself would drive a car. They need to keep on going
repairs and parts, the whole gambit of things related to keeping the
bike running. They probably can do some of there own work but not
always. This group is actually I believe a pretty heave consumer of
cycling industry but the do not draw the attention. This might not be
the picture of the industry in US but in other countries huge,
 

I have two bikes for utility different flavours ie a road and a MTB though
it has city tyres and mudguards so can cope with wetter roads.
>
I have a very local bike shop that I use for stuff I can’t do or can’t be
bothered to get tools to do, my ability to do maintenance is rather reduced
post brain injury so one of the ways life is more expensive!
>

To me if you are in the bike industry and want to survive you have to
have a target market and know your customers and needs. In turn they
need to know what you have and turn to you for items. I love high
performance fast recreational cycling but I believe on the whole that is
not much of the real industry.
 
Am I wrong?
 
 

Roger Merriman
>

My Catrike has 40,000 miles and has never been in a bike shop,
although most of it has been replaced once or twice.

--
C'est bon
Soloman