This video from Delany interviewing the guy at X-labs is worth a watch. Sounds like X-labs isn’t messing around and doing a full assault on the US market. They will support direct to consumer, but I was surprised to hear that LBS/Dealers will be their primary sales path. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out with the established brands. There is lots of typical marketing speak in the interview, but I thought the comments about the broken economic model in the bike industry were spot on. Just too many hands in the pot and too many steps/players in the supply chain. It appears that X-labs will lean on shimano for shifters and derailleurs, but they are doing their own cranks and wheels (and even tires on some models). So, almost everything under their control. It will certainly be interesting to watch for the next couple years to see if they can make it happen.
Even if I never buy an X-labs bike, I’d love to see some disruption in the industry. Hopefully, it will force some of the established brands to reinvent their business models (painful as that will be for a while). It’s just bad for cycling when nice bikes are costing $5k - $15k.
