Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
I haven't bought new for a long time, the used market in bicycles is so vast that it seems a shame not to adopt one. (or five.)
Bike sales in decline
- Thread starter Smokin Joe
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
For a given population size, there is a finite market in any kind of item you care to think of. Things can happen to increase demand on a temporary basis, but often all this does is bring forward otherwise future purchases, which then results in a lull once the temporary demand is satisfied. Take the motor industry and the recent Road Tax changes. If I had been intending to buy a new small car that would qualify for zero or £20 PA VED and I knew the tax was going up to £140 in April, I would have bought the car earlier, especially if I intended to keep the car for years. With low rate finance available to anyone deemed credit-worthy, many thousands will have done exactly this. Hence the quiet second half of the year.
Same goes for the C2W salary sacrifice scheme. People with supporting employers have been taking advantage of the scheme on the basis they'll make the most of it before some politician comes along and moves the goalposts.
With durable goods, once you've got one of something, that's it for the life of the object. OK, there is always a rate of attrition with all things that means some replacement demand - but it may be less than it first appears in the case of bikes. Take thefts; if a car gets stolen it can't be used under it's original identity because motor vehicles are registered and subject to licencing. Not bikes though. A lot of stolen bikes simply get recycled, either as complete bikes or as parts. The total real pool of cycles therefore does not diminish at the same rate that cycles get stolen. Some get smashed up and dumped without doubt, but many others continue to be used, either unwittingly - or in the full knowledge that the rider has bought a stolen bike.
The fact that so many usable machines are being dumped in skips etc tells me we have pretty much reached saturation point. Those who want a bike or bikes have mainly already got them, plus there are plenty of people with an existing bike who don't want it, and are happy to flog it secondhand or simply chuck it away, if only of low value. Loads of youngsters in my area ride bikes, mainly because they can't afford car insurance, but at least 80% of them are the cheap entry level mountain bikes/BSO's bought online or via chain retailers. Very few of those riders will have the financial means or inclination to buy "decent" machines, and they are not going to be patronising the traditional independent bike shops that are suffering from a loss in demand. On a personal level, I have no intention of buying any new bike. I've got one I've owned for years, plus I've now got a couple of scrappers FOC that I can fix up as hacks for peanuts. I couldn't care less if my bikes are not 2018 models, or they aren't in the latest manufacturers colour scheme, so I'm not going to replace a perfectly usable bit of machinery just for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses.
Same goes for the C2W salary sacrifice scheme. People with supporting employers have been taking advantage of the scheme on the basis they'll make the most of it before some politician comes along and moves the goalposts.
With durable goods, once you've got one of something, that's it for the life of the object. OK, there is always a rate of attrition with all things that means some replacement demand - but it may be less than it first appears in the case of bikes. Take thefts; if a car gets stolen it can't be used under it's original identity because motor vehicles are registered and subject to licencing. Not bikes though. A lot of stolen bikes simply get recycled, either as complete bikes or as parts. The total real pool of cycles therefore does not diminish at the same rate that cycles get stolen. Some get smashed up and dumped without doubt, but many others continue to be used, either unwittingly - or in the full knowledge that the rider has bought a stolen bike.
The fact that so many usable machines are being dumped in skips etc tells me we have pretty much reached saturation point. Those who want a bike or bikes have mainly already got them, plus there are plenty of people with an existing bike who don't want it, and are happy to flog it secondhand or simply chuck it away, if only of low value. Loads of youngsters in my area ride bikes, mainly because they can't afford car insurance, but at least 80% of them are the cheap entry level mountain bikes/BSO's bought online or via chain retailers. Very few of those riders will have the financial means or inclination to buy "decent" machines, and they are not going to be patronising the traditional independent bike shops that are suffering from a loss in demand. On a personal level, I have no intention of buying any new bike. I've got one I've owned for years, plus I've now got a couple of scrappers FOC that I can fix up as hacks for peanuts. I couldn't care less if my bikes are not 2018 models, or they aren't in the latest manufacturers colour scheme, so I'm not going to replace a perfectly usable bit of machinery just for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses.
MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
I'm not sure that 'entry level' is so simple to understand as someone appears to have been laughing so hard that they have missed the double meaning marketing/upsell aspects of the phrase.
Johnno260
Veteran
- Location
- East Sussex
We have reigned spending back, as day to day bills have increased, weekly shop is now daylight robbery.
Any purchases are well considered before we spend.
It will hit small business the worst, some highstreets near my have so many store closures it's quite sad.
A 2nd winter bike would be awesome, but likely hood is I will cycle through the winter on my Merida and make sure the bike is well cleaned and maintained.
Any purchases are well considered before we spend.
It will hit small business the worst, some highstreets near my have so many store closures it's quite sad.
A 2nd winter bike would be awesome, but likely hood is I will cycle through the winter on my Merida and make sure the bike is well cleaned and maintained.
MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
A lot of what is being described here is the difference between wants and needs, most of the bike industry falls under the want category. Wants always get sacrificed over needs, well nearly always.
When people refer to buying a second winter bike, then we are well and truly into the realms of Want!
No offence meant @Johnno260 btw. It’s your cash to spend exactly how you like it.
No offence meant @Johnno260 btw. It’s your cash to spend exactly how you like it.
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Depends on the price range you are talking about. Ebay is full of £20-25 buy-it-now used budget- model MTB's that could serve as winter hacks. I could have bought enough of them this afternoon to fill my entire garage if I wanted There's an abundance of cheap used machinery around if you aren't too picky and just want something with two wheels. You'd have to be pretty skint not to be able to find that amount of money.
roadrash
cycle chatterer
- Location
- sitting on the edge of wigan pier
I honestly don't think you need a second bike to ride in winter
snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
I can't help thinking the industry has itself to blame for any slump by selling a mountain bike to anyone and everyone regardless of what the bike was needed for. It disturbs me to look in a bike shop window full of bikes, not a mud guard to be seen and all with more gears than I can count on my fingers.
Unfortunately the influence of sport has put emphasis on speed and performance which results in bicycles which require regular maintenance and regular replacement of expensive lightweight parts which soon sickens the newbie or returning cyclist who just needed a solid bike with chain guard and hub gears to travel a few miles to work every day.
Unfortunately the influence of sport has put emphasis on speed and performance which results in bicycles which require regular maintenance and regular replacement of expensive lightweight parts which soon sickens the newbie or returning cyclist who just needed a solid bike with chain guard and hub gears to travel a few miles to work every day.
The thread is about “bike sales in decline” and aimed at the current situation of brand new sales at shops.
Your points are all valid and there are definitely great deals, at all levels, out there in the second hand market. You can’t really count those as new bike sales though tbh.
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
The big increase in cycling in recent years is a lot due to people taking up commuting, and commuters need bikes that are fairly robust, cheap enough to swallow the loss of by theft or damage, and not constantly need money spending on them. The big-volume MTB tyres also cope better with the appalling state of our roads full of potholes and badly repaired roadworks patching.
I think the "not enough mudguards, too many gears" phenomenon has two root causes; full mudguards add to the cost of making a bike, so leaving them off might shave say a tenner off the build budget. At BSO level, £10 is a significant chunk of the price of a bike in percentage terms. Adding an extra rear cog to the freewheel or an extra front chainring is far cheaper for the manufacturer and also enables them to go down the "ours is bigger than theirs" route when trying to sell you one of their 18 speed MTB against a rival's mere 10 speed - even if the 10 speed is better engineered. Extra gears for no reason other than to boast about them has to be seen as a type of bling for bikes, like tinted windows and silly low profile tyres are bling for cars. They are trying to appeal to the same sort of purchaser.
OP
OP
Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
The trouble is most of them are BSOs which were very poor quality to begin with and will have been bought by people with no knowledge or interest in looking after them. By the time you've replaced the knackered drive train, the neglected bearings, worn out tyres and whatever else is falling to bits your £25 bargain will be anything but.
