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Yeah, this in spades. It really is wild. It even goes down to the raw materials, which I didn't really think of until speaking to someone who is familiar with trying to get tubes. Reynolds are having issues supplying certain tubing because they can't get the raw materials to manufacture the tubes.
I was at my LBS last week and they were having to talk a customer through getting a rear hub because they couldn't get one through a distributor. Industry 9. 16 week wait. The customer was like 'What is Boost? What is an XDR driver? Sorry, what do I need to ask for?' etc etc.
I recently bought an entire groupset just to have in stock in case I break any parts of the group on my only bike. And I feel really lucky to have it!
JB
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Global shortage of components is becoming a massive problem, at all levels…..
Small/independent bike shops that rely on workshop for cash flow are struggling as they just can’t get any parts that need replacing, so are losing money on labour, and losing profit on any parts that they would have replaced. Many independent mechanics are resorting to buying parts at full RRP from Wiggle etc just so they can get repairs/services done and at least make some money on the labour.
Big brands have warehouses full of frames that they are unable to build into bikes and fulfill orders, which is starting to cause big cashflow problems for the ones don’t have millions in the bank to dip in to.
The huge surge in demand for bikes/parts last year, combined with factories being closed due to lockdown has meant not only are they trying to catch up with the back log, they also have to deal with a much higher demand. Combine this with the fact that global shipping chain is totally fucked as there are still so few planes in the air, and it’s no wonder there is basically zero stock of anything currently, and it is impossible to buy bellow RRP, and RRP on everything will be going up a fair whack over the next year if it hasn’t already.
Shimano factory in Malaysia shut down again due to local COVID lockdown a month or so back - not sure if it has opened again yet, but this will only add to the knock on effect.
Things won’t be back to pre-covid ‘norm’ for a LONG time unfortunately! I think it’s fair to say the old norm of being able to buy groupsets from Merlin at 60% of RRP are probably gone for good. Or for a good few years at least anyway.