Rick Vosper
All articles by Rick Vosper
The more things change, the more they stay the same, and 2024 will be no exception
It's been a tough year for suppliers and retailers, and to get a sense of what happened on a nationwide basis, I reached out to Patrick Hogan, senior research manager for the PeopleForBikes Coalition. Fortunately, 2023 is finally over, and the new year offers a slightly less bleak picture.
Sure, bike shops are going out of business, but new ones are stepping up to take their place at an equal or greater rate.
The Quadrumvirate members may remain constant, but there's plenty of change in the rest of the top ten over the last 13 years.
Staying small and lean seems to work, at least for some non-aligned dealers.
The more things change in the bike business, the more they stay the same.
It's the middle of summer and inventories are still up while sales are still down. So what do we do now?
Inventories are up, sales are down. So why are bike companies still spending millions on professional road racing teams?
More Americans are riding bikes now than at any point during the past 20 years. So why aren't they buying new ones?
Between record high inventory levels and record low sales, spring can't get here soon enough. So where the heck is it?