[Gromski]

I’m currently part way through a build and so I’ve been busy looking to buy various bits and pieces, but it seems thos bits just aren’t available.

Specifically I’ve been trying to buy a Force AXS gruppo, but they’re nowhere to be found with any of the usual UK suspects. Thought I’d take a look at the German sites we used to be able to import from; nothing available there either that doesn’t involve a back order. Had a quick look to see if there’s anything in the US and (from the few retailers I checked) it looks like the same story.

I’ve had similar issues with a few tyre brands too – specific sizes that I think should be in stock but have run down to a single tyre or aren’t available at all.

Is there about to be a bunch of new product released and so retailers have run down on their inventory? Is it pandemic? Is ti Brexit? Is it all of the above?

Topic

[Recoveryride]

Shimano is just as

Shimano is just as problematic, though I sourced a GRX rd from r2bike (Germany) – and paid less than UK rrp, and somehow didn’t get stung for VAT. Campag is marginally better, though choice is limited.

The general consensus is that it will be July at the earliest before things are back to anything like normal, and probably at least October before you can get what you want, in the size/configuration you want, with no wait.

There’s always stuff on eBay but prices are mad. Good condition, currrent gen stuff is going for almost rrp.

A better option can be to buy the bits from a range of sources; I managed to do that for a Force AXS wide groupset but decided against it and went with GRX in the end.

The bike situation seems to have eased a bit; a fair few places now have reasonable stock levels, but it’s largely the top half of the market – there’s not a lot about in the sub £3-3.5k area. Sub £2k bikes in 52-58 are selling within a week of arriving, consistently.

[Nick T]

There’s a bit of shipping

There’s a bit of shipping crisis currently going on owing to a shortage of containers in China, as SRAM outsource their production to various Chinese factories they’re likely to be affected by this, hence the low stock

[EddyBerckx]

This has been happening for

This has been happening for  around 9 months tbh.

Coild be another 6 months before it starts to ease up. Bike boom related to the pandemic plus bike and parts shortage related to the pandemic plus delays related to the pandemic and brexit almost certainly hasn’t helped.

 

good luck in your search. Maybe eBay to get you going?

[Author]

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