GCN Tech Show - The tariff tantrum, and the effects on the bike industry and riders

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Interesting.

I have a 10 year old carbon 27.5 MTB. Which is still great and has had some parts renewed.

But really, I ask myself how many more years does it have? So I’ll probably be in the market for a new one in the next year or two.

Commentary like this gets me a bit anxious to buy now for fear of kicking myself in 2 years when todays 5k bike is 9k+.

Like Gym equipment pre/post covid.

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Do it. Trust me.

Higher prices are coming and with the extreme tariffs on Chinese goods, it is going to get ugly.

National retailers are now striking a much different tune than even a few weeks ago. Our customers told us to stuff it when we first told them that they were getting a price increase as a result of tariffs. Now, they are softening their tune and saying they expect vendors to share the burden.

The dance continues, but higher prices are coming.

Again, what is the worst case scenario here? Prices don’t change but you still have a new bike. Not the end of the world since you have been considering it for awhile.

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It might be possible that outside US bike prices will go down (at least temporarily) due excess inventory. But I am not sure this applies to higher-end models, those have lower production volumes and typical customers are less price-sensitive.

As video suggested, go to cycling holiday outside US with empty bike bag, buy it at destination, ride for two weeks and then go home with bike as used personal item. Of course, holiday itself offsets possibly lower price but at least now you have bike and nice holiday :slight_smile:

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Trust me dear americans, bike prices will be your smallest problem…

Nevertheless I think cheap (< 2000 USD) bikes will suffer more from tariffs, than the more expensive bikes. But then I don’t know what margins are normal in bicycle industry.

I would buy the cheapest possible bike with the components you want now, so you can later combine those components with a nice domestic frameset. Or even sell the components domestically.

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People have no idea what is coming….product shortages and higher prices are coming.

We just notified our customers that we will be exiting a key opening price point item that we can only source from China. We are the #1 supplier of this product into the Us market, doing the private label business for CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, among others. It will cease to exist now in the US.

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If you can find the bike of your dreams now, buy it! RIDE ON!! Riding is cheaper than therapy…

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Leaves my short list. Jeffsy, Sentinel, haven’t looked at spectral.

The Jeffsy is on an additional 15% off right now and was already 2k less than the sentinel v3 at the same spec…..AND Jeffsy has carbon wheels vs AL on the sentinel top spec.

I pushed the button today. Got a Jeffsy Core 4, Black Magic on 15% off the already marked down price.

I wanted sram, so had to be core 3 or 4. The cost to upgrade to 4 is basically the same as a 50% off MSRP on the carbon wheels so….yeah.

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That was a trick a lot of uk mtb riders did in the late 90’s and early 2000’s to take advantage of US exoctica.

You might want to consider putting an old bike in the box you can dump upon arrival so your cases weigh roughly the same both ways and avoid closer scrutiny.

And even then customs could take the serial number and determine when , where and how it was purchased.

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Luckily, I’m not in the new bike market. But I’m concerned about consumables.

But that also applies to consumables on my vehicles. My van is 30 years old. While reliable, I’m not getting any spare parts for it made in America, and never will. No one is ever going to make parts in America for it.

Everyone driving an older car is going to get a bit of a shock when they need a timing belt as scheduled maintenance and have to decide between driving a time bomb, or paying double for parts.

Hey y’all,

This is the type of topic that can easily move away from cycling and become unproductive, so let’s all do our best to keep things tidy!

Thanks for all your contributions so far! :handshake:

For what it’s worth, I’ve heard that a few of the big brands have already moved towards price increases. It’s hard to imagine bikes getting any more expensive.. We’ll see what happens! :face_with_peeking_eye:

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Meh, my current rides work just fine, I’m not going to rush out to buy some overpriced new bike just because a threat of future price increases.

In recent years, the industry seems to be getting farther and farther away from focusing on the affordable bike. Maybe tariffs will be exactly what the industry needs to kick their *** back into focusing on the lower end.

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My LBS told me that Wahoo informed them that distributor (so LBS’ cost) pricing was going up, but that the MSRP on Wahoo’s site was staying the same - essentially Wahoo is squeezing LBS’ margins. I wonder if other companies that also sell direct will do this same thing

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Great way to lose all your LBS business…which, honestly, may not be much these days.

I would expect some suppliers to attempt to shift more of their business direct to consumer, but if they don’t raise their retails, their margins are still gonna take a massive wallop. Can their company structure support the loss of those margin dollars? Guess we’ll find out!

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Heard on Morning Joe: ‘This is shaping up to be the worst April for the stock market since the Great Depression’. Yikes…

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And the pain is self-inflicted. :skull:

Glad I got my new Trek bike just under the wire :zany_face:

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If only they would put a tariff on GCN presenters waving their arms around like demented wind farms.

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Yeah its pretty funny to see Trek increasing prices, meanwhile my local Trek store is packed to the brim with $6-8,000 (msrp) 2024 inventory on fire sale that they can’t move.

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It’s a beautiful bike, but how many would sink that kind of cash into a bike that expensive right now.