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Beginning off this Friday nonetheless fairly in the beginning of the yr, it’s arduous to miss a little bit of a rollercoaster the Biking Business is on for the time being. We’re nonetheless seeing loads of new product bulletins and plans to launch a brand new wave of recent highway, gravel & mountain bikes. However on the identical time we see struggles for manufacturers massive and small. But, it’s not all doom & gloom, for instance, each Eurobike & SRAM are increasing.
Loopy occasions.
Biking Business Ups & Downs
I’ll hold this temporary, because it’s actually only a smattering of reports bites which have swept throughout my desk within the final ten days or so. However in a time of world financial uncertainty, I can’t actually ignore the ups & downs of my very own business, even when I’m typically reporting extra on technical gear than the businesses behind all of it. It’s in any case, the success of those corporations that retains me gainfully employed.
Look Mum No Fingers shutters London cafe & workshop
The one which curiously appeared to be the tipping level for me was the shuttering of the Look Mum No Fingers cafe in London. I feel actually I used to be there solely as soon as. Nevertheless it had been an establishment for greater than 12 years. And had been one of many earliest, and longest-running profitable examples of a mixed-function biking neighborhood store – a restaurant, a bar, and a motorcycle workshop wrapped up in a single. Like many others within the service business, the pandemic had been arduous on Look Mum No Fingers, and so they needed to lock up for good. Right here’s hoping these behind the scenes will bounce again quickly. You may hold a watch out for them nonetheless through social media… fingers crossed.
Machines for Freedom calls it quits
Earlier at first of the month, Specialised put an finish to their inclusive girls’s attire firm Machines for Freedom. Based by Jenn Kriske to assist break down boundaries to entry that proceed to maintain many potential cyclists from getting on the bike, Machines for Freedom was all about making riders of all shapes & dimension comfy in efficiency biking gear. There are few corporations which can be so open about making a protected house for riders exterior of the comparatively slim fit-cyclist-assumption from moving into driving bikes. Machines for Freedom was a type of. And whereas it’s unlucky that they apparently weren’t worthwhile sufficient to proceed, they did construct a welcoming neighborhood. That hopefully will reside on, and we’ll attempt to hold a watch out on social media for them, too.
Parlee recordsdata for chapter
We hope this isn’t by any means the top of Parlee. However reported on by business information web site Bicycle Retailer, Parlee Cycles submitting for Chapter 11 chapter safety is fairly troubling information from the premium customized carbon framebuilder that’s been round for greater than twenty years. Owing about twice as a lot as they’ve in belongings for the time being, the bike maker will want a severe restructuring to make their enterprise sustainable once more.
Parlee believes that chapter safety ought to permit them to ship to present & future clients, whereas they shore up environment friendly operation and settle their money owed. In keeping with Parlee COO Jamie Bradley, “There have been a confluence of things, from COVID-19, from provide chain challenges, to inflation pressures on all the enterprise. And, so my view is, this isn’t one thing distinctive simply to our business. However I feel the biking business goes by way of a number of ache proper now. I’d encourage everybody to remain constructive, to help one another by way of what’s a difficult time.”
Fingers crossed for Parlee. We’ve been masking them because the early days of Bikerumor, and hope to see many extra of their sparking bikes sooner or later.
MIPS claims a 50% decline in helmet demand on the finish of 2022
One other troubling tidbit from Bicycle Retailer this week was a narrative on decreased MIPS Safety gross sales final yr that highlighted a 50% This autumn 2022 decline in helmet gross sales on the finish of final yr. MIPS’s total annual gross sales didn’t sink almost to date, however their CEO Max Strandwitz cited, a “drastic slowdown within the bike sector within the second half of the yr” that had a “substantial detrimental affect” on the model’s total gross sales. And helmets are a reasonably core a part of biking, proper? If cyclists aren’t shopping for new MIPS helmets to journey safely, will they hold shopping for new bikes and different gear that’s much less important?
Eurobike continues to increase in Frankfurt
On a extra upbeat be aware, the most important bike business tradeshow (and the final one standing), Eurobike introduced this week that they anticipate a full home this summer season once they return to a second yr at their new location in downtown Frankfurt, Germany. Citing 400 extra new exhibitors on high of a profitable line-up final yr, the 2023 version of their present will increase its show space this summer season to satisfy elevated demand for sales space house.
Explaining their development, Eurobike says, “The worldwide curiosity exhibits that the bike and light-weight electromobility business is again on the highway to normality and desires a number one international commerce truthful.” The e-mobility reference isn’t misplaced on us, as we do see extra development not solely in efficiency e-bikes, but additionally as ebike various transportation, a welcome development.
We’ll be there once more, and look ahead to extra new tech to dig by way of and share.
SRAM expands in Taiwan
One final little bit of silver lining from Bicycle Retailer this week is information that SRAM is ramping as much as open one other, entirely-new 100,000m2 manufacturing facility in Taiwan subsequent yr. Slated to be nearly 1/3 bigger than their different 4 amenities in Taiwan – which we toured again in 2015 – this new Taichung manufacturing unit is supposed to spice up manufacturing effectivity to assist meet growing demand for biking parts, and prone to construct extra capability for SRAM‘s rising portfolio.
