Duncan74 wrote:
This thread has kinda worried me about the state of triathlon at the moment. Almost a week after the EC article and the thread opening, there's been less than 10 comments on what I think would be described as one of the highest profile bikes in the sport (of triathlon). And most of those are fairly 'meh'.
Compare/contrast to the past where the rumour there may be a launch of a bike in 6 months gets 150 posts a day with what we want, what we don't want, why it's too expensive (before we see the price), etc.
I'll go a little wider and comment that the above thought isn't isolated to this one issue, it's also related to the way that Torhans shuttered up last month without a single mention on here. My inbox is being bombarded with sales from tri-related companies with what even I as a consumer can see to be unsustainable discounts. Sure, sometimes at this time of year there's some jostling for position to be in people's minds as they get their kit shopping done for Norhtern Hemisphere Spring, but my feel this year it's people needing some $ in to keep the lights on.
Am I just overthinking this, or is anyone else seeing/thinking similar? Perish the thought that we have finally reached the point of maturity where we just spend more time actually training and racing than creating spreadsheets to optimise the next purchase we *need* in order to secure our 86th place........
IMO you hit several nails on the head. The industry is struggling (still), having trouble meeting demand for certain products while being overstocked in other categories. If you track prices on pinkbike.com you can see even the high end used market is struggling. Especially mtn bikes, almost makes me want to go back into mtn bike racing, almost.
The new bike market the high end bikes are very expensive and inventory levels still haven't normed to pre-pandemic equivalents. If I was going to start racing again no way would I buy new. My guess is costs have risen as fast if not slightly faster than new bike prices and or there are cost increases that are coming and that is baked into the prices (labor, increased shipping rates etc)
Recently was helping an athlete who wanted a new to them "kill the competition aero bike". Found a P5disc w/PM and 808's for <$5500k USD. Why would you buy new when you can get a race ready rocket for 2016-2018 prices?
I suspect the peak posting period on ST was around the peak participation period in triathlon. My guess is the current posts on ST track participation in the sport and I suspect they track the white male 45-65 AG's most closely. Us dudes are aging out/forced out by injury/moved on to other endurance activities such as gravel or just gotten more social focused and less performance focused. We've gone from training to staying in shape.
To marcag's point I've also noticed an uptick in posts on FB in regards to specific topics. Specific races, bike fitting, aerodynamics. Maybe people are looking for more tailored and less broad based places to go for that info. Although I have found that info on FB to be less accurate, less knowledgeable, more guessing. You get what you pay for I guess.
Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching Insta