Cyclists blame "utterly ridiculous bike prices" for brands' ongoing struggles, after Giant's sales slashed again; Visma–Lease a Bike's cursed 2024 continues; Devastated Arsenal fan turns to... Lance Armstrong; Bargain hunting + more on the live blog

Yesterday, we reported that one of the world's largest manufacturers of bicycles, Taiwan-based behemoth Giant, had reported a 20 per cent slump in sales in the first quarter of 2024, with profits down 38 per cent as a result. Those financials were in comparison with the same months in 2023 when, you guessed it, the numbers were down on the year previous too.

> Giant sales down 20% and profits slashed by 38% as bike industry challenges continue

It's not just Giant of course, the story a now-familiar tale for the bike industry in a post-pandemic world, Shimano also reporting a huge fall in sales for the same first quarter a few weeks ago too.

And while it's worth pointing out that both of the massive names still posted profits during 2023 and the opening months of 2024, albeit significantly reduced, the news has prompted much discussion among our readers and the wider cycling community about everyone's favourite topic... no, not disc brakes... no, not helmets... no, not mechanical vs electronic groupsets... alright, one of everyone's favourite topics... the price of bikes.

Giant pointed to the ongoing inventory challenges in Europe and North America for the challenging picture. In very basic terms, pandemic = bike boom, bike boom = brands purchasing more stock to meet demand, pandemic ends and demand drops = less buyers for said stock, less buyers = stock sitting on shelves unsold. In short, not good.

> Is now the best time ever to buy a bike? What cycling industry turbulence and deep discounting could mean for you

We've seen a few surprise sales in recent weeks as a result, brands keen to shift stock. Specialized slashed gravel and mountain bike prices by up to 50 per cent, while Trek launched a major sale on its website too.

It's to all that context that the comments began rolling in on yesterday's story about Giant's finances, and boy did more than a few of you have something to say...

I wonder, anything to do with a decent bike costing £10K?

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) May 14, 2024

The most commonly made point was something along the lines of 'bikes are way too expensive, why would I buy another one if I don't have to?' N+1 blasphemy but probably a very realistic and sensible position for most of us. The other was that bike brands are misunderstanding what customers want...

"I simply don't understand"

"a nice bike now is £9k"

"why is no one buying?"

"do we need 13 speed?" https://t.co/CYdjIl14qe

— Stan (@geckobike) May 14, 2024

Dan Birchett: "The equivalent 2024 version of my road bike is £5,400. In 2016, mine was £2,200."

*Big sigh* (their name, not my comment): "It's why I'm still on my 2014 BMC. Yeah, it's rim brakes but the cost of an upgraded bike is prohibitive. I can easily afford the new offerings, but I'm not buying when there's no value."

David Williams: "Maybe the bike industry needs to look at reducing the cost of their machines."

Velo Retro: "I bought a fairly top flight road bike in 1991. Back then it cost around 5 per cent of a decent average salary. I would say that something comparable now, would be nearer 10 per cent. It would be interesting to see some objective data around affordability."

Rich Harle: "Almost as if pretty much every bike business in the country misjudged the Covid boom and overordered. Several large suppliers going bust, and now Giant struggling too."

Recycled-Carbon: "I went on a site the other day and saw a bike for 13k. I laughed out loud and shut the site."

Paul Hilton: "Perhaps they can now start selling bikes without people needing to take out small mortgages for them then? I'd love to get a new one but it's £5k+ for a decent one and £10k+ for a good one. Ludicrous."

Robert Marsh: "Utterly ridiculous bike prices now, plus lots of high tech forcing prices ever higher. Sure, some people will pay a huge premium, but not the mass market."

We could go on, but you get the idea... we haven't even got to the Facebook comments yet...

> New Aldi shop plans will "undermine only safe cycle route" in city and leave cyclists "filled with horror" – but supermarket chain says proposals "will promote cycling"

There's no stopping the big man...

"He's too 𝐁𝐈𝐆, he's too 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆, he's too 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐔𝐋!" 💪

Jonathan Milan shows why he's in the ciclamino jersey as he dominates the Stage 11 sprint finish at the Giro d'Italia 🚴‍♂️💨 pic.twitter.com/apjCfYwRYB

— Eurosport (@eurosport) May 15, 2024

Jonathan Milan powered his way to a second stage of this year's Giro d'Italia, thrashing his way past Tim Merlier in the final 100m. The Lidl-Trek rider has a firm grip on the maglia ciclamino points classification and with stage nine winner Olav Kooij out through illness it would take a brave (or perhaps foolish) person to back against the imposing Italian bagging another stage before the end of the three weeks.

Fabio Jakobsen and Team dsm–firmenich PostNL teammate Tobias Lund Andresen were two of the riders to hit the deck in a high-speed crash in the final kilometre. Thankfully everyone appeared to get back to their feet relatively unscathed, bar some uncomfortable-looking road rash and bruises.

No GC changes on the road, although everyone below the unfortunate Cian Uijtdebroeks takes a step up the leaderboard after the Belgian withdrew this morning due to illness.

The price of bikes and the state of the industry has certainly got the comments section talking, from semantic discussions about the definition of a decent bike, through questions about if more versatile models with wider tyres have ended the need for N+1?

Picking up on a few of the earlier comments about what constitutes, and how much a 'decent' or 'good' bike willl cost, Bowks suggested: "I think people might have a skewed view on what a decent bike is. Earlier this year, I got a 2023 Defy with 105 Di2 for £2.2k. Am i bothered that the cables aren't fully internally routed? Nope!"

Patrick9-32: "And that bike is almost certainly better than what £2.2k could buy you 10 years ago as well! Just because the top end moves up doesn't mean the reasonably priced stuff is getting worse.

"Cyclists really need to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if the bottom spec Spesh Allez (or seven other big brands equivalent in the same price ballpark) wouldn't actually do what they need... everything else is vanity unless you are racing for a living, and if you are, someone else is paying for your bike so you don't have to care what it costs."

peted76: "It's not helped that 'upgrading' bikes, which was what a lot of people would have done pre the disc revolution which really only took off around Covid time, just isn't possible for anyone still running rim brakes.. so you've a section of people who might have brought a new frame, groupset or wheels.. big purchases.. are left upgrading via the second hand market or making do until the money fairy lands a large wad of available funds in their lap in order to purchase a 'new bike' complete. That's money which has been taken away from the bike industry which would have been floating around in other times."

Zermattjohn: "The bike industry has sold us the gravel bike as the N+1 killer for about five years. So now we all have the one bike that does everything, why would we be thinking of buying another one? It's not just the high prices putting people off, it's the fact we don't need to buy."

fwhite181: "I think this is a good point. Road bikes have got ever more 'hardcore' (and obscenely expensive) and a lot of riders I know have discovered the joys of a bike that'll take 35mm+ tyres in winter, 28s in summer, and do pretty much all their riding. It does rather dent the need to have 3 bikes...

"The prohibitive cost of a 'decent' new bike isn't helping. Nor the fact that Decathlon (Van Rysel) have now thoroughly demonstrated that most of the cost of top-flight bikes from 'big names' is hype, not necessity. And the groupset market really should've matured into a good set of generics by now — the 5800-series 105 was about all the tech most people needed, but we're now being gouged for one more cog, 10 fewer grammes, microseconds-faster shifting. Please just make good stuff affordable. Shimano's entire product development cycle seems to be about locking out the patents and blocking competitors, not delivering good value products to customers. Rant over..."

Right on cue, mark1a was on the scene... "There's no such thing as 'too many bikes'."

That's better, although as perce pointed out, there is such a thing as "too many bikes I really like but can't afford"...

Life's a lot more straight forward for NickSprinck... "For me it is a lot more simple, despite their name, Giant don't sell bikes big enough for me..."

Deliveroo rider on a penny farthing might be one of the most west London things I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/fZF78RShYs

— Ned Donovan | فارس دونوفان (@Ned_Donovan) May 14, 2024

Amid speculation Jeremy Vine might have made a career change, the BBC and Channel 5 presenter confirmed it wasn't him BUT he has met the penny farthing pedaller before...

"This isn't me, but I've met this distinguished gentleman," he explained on social media. "I asked him why he was wearing a single black leather glove on his right hand. He said, 'If champagne is served, it stays colder for longer with the glove.' Not eccentric at all."

Man City winning the league four times in a row is a serious achievement to be fair, its up there with Lance Armstrong winning seven tours on the bounce

— Marc O'Reachtaire (@o_reachtaire) May 14, 2024

That'll be in reference to the alleged 115 Financial Fair Play charges against Manchester City, none of which relate to doping, that the club strenuously denies and is fighting. Anyway, good to see football fans taking an interest in cycling...

> Take a look at Tadej Pogačar's tricked-out Colnago V4Rs

While we're on the topic of industry news, Colnago bucks the trend of negative news stories, the Italian bike brand last month reporting that business is booming since it received Abu Dhabi investment, with sales "more than tripled". That Abu Dhabi investment sounds quite handy, where can I get me some of that?