The real discussion point here is:
Independent Bike Dealers (IBD) that are a separately/privately owned entity acting as a “dealer” for a brand. These sometimes have 2 or more brands on site, with one leader and the others as lower tier brands.
Manufacturer owned stores like the Trek and Spesh super stores that are not owned at a local level, but by the larger MFG entity. These most commonly have only the single brand in question for bikes and accessories.
I thnk @aecky01 post illustrates a number of missteps Wahoo has made over the years…how much some of them are impacting the current financial situation, however, is unknown.
Rival watch has been extremely lackluster in sales. From Day One, it lacked features that should have been there at launch.
KICKR Bike: It is undeniable that they have an excess of inventory of thsi bike…it is has basically been on sale for ~6 months at varying price points. Wheter this inventory excess is the result of overestimating the market size / opportunity or excess production following the pandemic bubble nurst (or a combination of both) is unknown…but the einventory is definitely a drag on their books.
Speedplay pedal acquisition: The integration of Speedplay into Wahoo took WAY too long and they lost market share of pedals as a result. This was compounded by a much-harder-than-expected development of their power meter pedal. Realistically, they should never have made this acquisition. It did not fit their product expertise.
ROLLRS: Just a dumb product idea. Never should have gotten out of the concept stage.
WahooX / Sufferfest / RGT acquisitions / development: Again, this was outside their area of expertise and they should have stayed on the sidelines (or just gone after TR). I definitely disagree that this is a key yo their future success. They are a hardware company whose revenue is fueled by big ticket purchases. Subscriptions are never going to be enough to shift that dynamic. It can ease the burden, but no way can they become a software company first.
Zing!
That may be true for Trek and Specialized, but my LBS owned by friends of mine is branded as a Giant store. I am not sure of the arrangement, but Giant has invested in the brick and mortar of a second new location for this shop. We also do have a Spesh superstore in the area. It looks like a large car dealership. Every product in the store in store is Spesh with the exception of items that company does not own or produce. This location also sells other brands, but does not display them in the store. As an addendum: Giant supplies much of the frames used by Spesh. These come from their factory in Taiwan.
I noticed a giant price cut on the Wahoo Roam on Amazon Japan. It is even bigger if you include the weak yen. That never used to happen. Bad sign. As a user of Wahoo products, I’m concerned. Even if you prefer Garmin, I think you can agree that the world is better with solid competition.
please please please don’t make me go back to using a Garmin. it was bad. very bad.
Overall great list and I am in 90+ % agreement.
Agreed. Apart from automatic tri transitions, which is a really small niche to cater to, I wouldn’t know any other standout feature. I think this was probably the worst decision, because it diverted valuable software dev resources from their cycling computers. I wouldn’t be surprised if that hasn’t contributed significantly to the slow-down.
We also shouldn’t forget Apple: they are clearly taking aim at the sports market: definitely slower than most of us want to, but their auto transition feature for triathletes is a clear indicator what they want to do. As a small company, do you want to go head-to-head? IMHO Wahoo should have e. g. tried to make an app for the Apple Watch first if they really thought they could contribute something. Get their feet wet and see what works and what doesn’t.
Or better, not have invested those resources at all.
IMHO the price point is still too high. In my opinion, the price should be as much or lower than a high-end trainer plus a cheap, potentially used bike. To me it looks like the best dedicated trainer on the market, though, just too rich for my blood.
Completely agreed. From your list, this one is the sole exception where I’d say that the products they have released are good. According to the usual suspects the power meter pedals work really well and price-wise they are at the upper end of the accepted range.
I don’t think the product idea is dumb, it is the exact right product for a really small number of people. And that to me is the issue. Just like their smart watch, this was an unwise investment.
Looking at ways to garner service revenue is a viable strategy. But given the maturity of the market, you really need to know what you are aiming for. Wahoo has bought together a lot of pieces, and combining them makes sense if you only look at the features on paper. However, integrating and developing them is a huge lift and IMHO they did too much too fast without knowing exactly what they were going for. They are competing against Peloton, Zwift and TR, all of which have mature products, many users and even then (at least) two of them are in financially difficult waters.
Zwift might as well just wait and see. If Wahoo goes belly up, they could snatch up a share of the company for cheap (e. g. the bit that developed trainers and associated patents). That would also indemnify them from future patent suits.
Anything is possible, but it’s less of a “wait and see” vs a “drag their feet” aspect since they are a defendant in the suit. They are subject to the courts schedule, along with their lawyers ability to stretch out the proceedings. But they can’t just plop on the couch & eat Cheetos in the meantime. 
No idea how that will run parallel to Wahoo’s external financials in the meantime. Sure is an interesting time as a bystander though.
True, but there as ways to delay trials by filing additional motions.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. A larger organisation may make a speculative approach to test the will of the shareholders.
The bottom line is the shareholders resolve, liquidity and the exec’s team ability to deliver the rescue plan.
Add the economic headwinds we are all facing into the mix which against a 15% cull on headcount suggests the shareholders are confident but not comfortable for the short to medium term.
Wahoo is still an LLC? If yes there are no shareholders.
Same here…I have a Bolt Ive had for at least 4 years…one time I had trouble uploading a ride. I had two 820’s that were paperweights.
This was the absolute definition of a company telling people what they want, vs asking. Not sure about road, but I can say for certain that 90% of the trainers I see people on at cross races are the Feedback omnium, and for good reason. Its cheap and portable. The ROLLR is neither of those. Had they hit the $350USD ballpark, it probably woulda been a slam dunk, instead its a trainer that 99% of people have only seen on online reviews.
Ive never seen one of their watches in the wild
I get on strava and I follow exactly 1 person that uses RGT. Everything else is real rides, TR or Zwift.
Speedplay has always been such a small market. SPD and Look pretty much rule the road world, with Time and speedplay battling for 3rd. Youre not gonna convert those people by rebranding the same pedals and having the internet flooded with complaints about bearing play on nearly new pedals.
Yes, Feedback Omniums are all over the place here in Japan at road races, too. However, I think that more professional riders with a bit of a budget would like the ROLLRs, since I do see people with a “proper” indoor trainer at times, too. That’s what I meant by “The market is really, really small.”
Yeah, but I don’t think that price point was in the cards, at least not with the product as it is now.
Me neither, but I haven’t participated in a race in about a year.
The bearings have been redesigned after Wahoo took over. I cannot say whether that has solved the problem, but Wahoo has at least addressed it in the redesign. Assuming they were successful, then the redesigned Speedplay pedals and power pedals are a good product. I don’t mind them battling for 3rd place, because Speedplay pedals have loyal owners. With Wahoo’s reach, I reckon they could have held 3rd place and perhaps even advanced to 2nd place.
Interestingly, it would seem that Wahoo’s broad product range did cause Garmin to improve the quality of their products. There’s still more to be done, but Garmin Connect is really growing on me and I like my Fenix 7 watch. Both I think benefited from the pressure from Wahoo on one side and Apple on the other. The head unit UX still has much to be desired but the 1040 reviews seem more positive.
This combined with the points above make it more challenging for Wahoo to compete, esp. with the very broad product catalog that all of you have pointed out. Don’t assume your competitors will sit still.
I have to say the single feature that keeps on selling my on Wahoo head units is the zoom feature: I can use the two “volume”-like zoom buttons on the right side of the display to change the number of fields. It is ingenious, very simple and super effective. Unless I have missed something (I don’t think I haven’t seen a 1040 up close anywhere), Garmin doesn’t have that.
I guess the problem is that Wahoo’s operation couldn’t sustain the amount of development work necessary.
None of these are groundbreaking or revolutionary. They have bought/created products that are in some respects no different to the mature products on the market.
I look at the list and there is nothing there that I would buy that is an improvement on my own kit and my own kit is 2-3 years old.
Products don’t have to be revolutionary or groundbreaking to be worth buying. Hardware-wise, my Wahoo cycling computer does pretty much everything I want. I’d like some features Wahoo has added to its second-gen Elemnt devices like an ambient light sensor and a color screen. Other than that, I would just like some software features such as integration with lights. I’m pretty sure I’ll use my Bolt v1 until it breaks (it has some stuck pixels, perhaps due to abuse, but it is fine otherwise).
You can see this with trainers: the Kickr V6 is essentially identical to the V5, which, in turn, isn’t that much different from the Kickr you could buy 5 years ago. That’s totally ok in my book, it is a mature market. (The same goes, of course, for all competitors.) Hence, the innovation you do see is hitting a lower price point (think Elite Suito or Elite Justo) or with additional accessories. Maturity does make product differentiation difficult, and in principle, this means a company should look for new markets.
Note that all of this also applies to Garmin and plenty of other companies. E. g. if I had a Garmin Edge 530, I don’t think I’d be biting my nails and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 540. Likewise, v2 of Garmin’s/Tacx’s bike is a mild improvement over v1, and many of those improvements have been rolled into the production run of the v1 bike. (Ditto for Wahoo’s bike.)
@Chawski Have you tried RGT? Personally I find RGT’s physics to be superior to Zwift and the radio feature is great. I rode Zwift for a while and really don’t see the allure.