What? No bikes at RBW?

[Jim M.]

Anyone else notice that bikes are mostly out of stock at RBW? I'm not sure if that's a good thing (they're successfully selling everything) or bad thing (they're not keeping up with demand.

jim m

walnut creek

[Joe Bernard]

Demand is nice but I'm not sure it's good that they can't keep up with it. You can't sell bikes you don't have. 

[Mark Roland]

Bikes are mostly out of stock everywhere. Riv is lucky to be getting semi regular production runs shipped to them.

Still hard to find many parts, too.

Not sure what forum or thread, but I pointed out that Rivendell's business model has been going this way--batch shipments of a single model, sell them off, in comes the next batch--for a while. This is helped by the dealer network, whereas a while back it was almost all web. Now I imagine Blue Lug takes 25% right off the top, then the rest, then Riv.

More and more small production run companies are doing this; a good example is Acorn Bags.  They announce an upcoming release, and most everything is sold through within a few hours of going live. My local brewery does the same thing with their beers. You sell the stuff that doesn't cost a fortune to sit on in the warehouse--parts, clothes, the odd frame here and there--while you wait for the next container ship. Keeps better tabs on your capital outlays, too. From outside appearances, it seems to be working okay. I hope it is.

[rlti...@gmail.com]

Tumbleweed is about to get a batch of frames in and they don’t expect any more to come in until next summer. Sourcing is getting tougher.

Even getting parts for appliance repairs is a pain. We need to get our washer fixed and our repair guy says it’s crazy how hard it is to get any parts now. 

Robert “mad world” Tilley

San Diego, CA

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 13, 2020, at 8:07 PM, Mark Roland <absolut...@gmail.com> wrote:



--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/a785a34c-b817-4020-a3b6-b6bc2f561563n%40googlegroups.com.

[Jason Fuller]

Rivendell, Crust, and bike brands of that size all operate on a budget that doesn't allow any significant inventory - pre-sales and ensuring batches are sold swiftly is key to keeping the budget balanced 

[Ben Mihovk]

Isn't trying to keep a bunch of frames/products in stock at all times part of what got them into financial trouble in 2018? 

Grant is pretty clear about how big he wants Rivendell to be (and how big he doesn't want it to get). I don't know if this number is still the target, but I've read or heard him say that about 800 bikes per year is all Rivendell is looking to sell. They know what they need to sell to hit a number that gets everyone a fair wage. I like that about the company...and if they grew drastically and needed more than the handful of great people they have to run it, it'd lose a little of its appeal to me. 

[Marc Irwin]

Bikes are selling out everywhere in the world.  The local shop around the corner from me usually keeps about 300 in stock.  They now have about 20 thanks to a fall shipment.  It's a generally good thing I think.

On Friday, November 13, 2020 at 8:26:54 PM UTC-5 Jim M. wrote:

[velomann]

Have you been to your LBS recently? This is definitely not exclusive to Rivendell. At least here in PDX the demand continues to exceed supply, and the small repair shop I fill in for has been chronically unable to get basic parts from QBP since early summer.

I've sold more bikes on CL, more quickly, with less dickering in the past 4 months than I did in the previous 5 years. I'm gad Rivendell is benefiting from that pent up demand. I checked a couple days ago and the only new Sams left are Dark Gold sz 48, which means they basically sold out their 100 (+?) in less than a week, with several in smaller sizes going to Blue Lug right off the top.

I'm currently taking a Traffic and Transportation (Zoom) class at Portland State through their School of Urban Planning. We've had guest speakers every week who are deeply embedded in transportation policy, and Covid 19 has been a real Litmus test of community resiliency and issues of transportation equity. (BLM ties in here as well as Biking While Black is a real thing). Much of our discussions are what is this all going to look like, post-pandemic. Everyone expects bikes to remain big; we're not going to return to to planning that prioritizes Single Occupancy Vehicles and petroleum.

Mike M

On Friday, November 13, 2020 at 5:26:54 PM UTC-8 Jim M. wrote:

[Joe Bernard]

I understand the reasoning for Riv to be out of bikes to sell, I'm just biased and don't like it. I think they're the greatest bicycles in the world and everyine in a bike boom should be going to shops full of them (like Schwinn when I was a kid) and buying them! 

[Jim M.]

On Saturday, November 14, 2020 at 11:14:03 AM UTC-8 velomann wrote:

Have you been to your LBS recently? 

Yes, RBW is my LBS.

 

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Mike: Wow, this is fascinating. I wondered what would become of the bike boom after the pandemic. I world that gives more priority to bicycles is a world I can look forward to! 

Bikes at Rivendell... My mom’s neighbors love to bike. They biked across the entire US, coast to coast so they are attracted to Riv-type bikes. When they saw Mom’s Cheviot they were enamored. They asked me how to get one. One does not just get a bike from Rivendell, I thought. How do you explain this? Most bike stores (in years other than 2020) have inventory; you walk in with cash, leave it there and walk out with a shiny new bicycle. I offered the neighbor an awkward explanation, encouraged him to get in on the upcoming Platypus sale. Bikes are very hard to get from Rivendell.

But see, this is not new. In November 2012, I was getting a Betty Foy. Keven had convinced me it was just the right bike for me, and after I was committed and excited and had my credit card ready, he said, “Great. Well, I’ll have to see if I can find one buried in the warehouse; otherwise you’ll get one in March.” Woah. Let that sink in. I lucked out and he found one, but that would have been a very disappointing and long wait.

I do wish Riv had more bikes on hand. I hate that they miss out on sales because they have no inventory. I’m not criticizing; I don’t know what goes on there, but I’m allowed to wish they had more bikes...

Leah

On Saturday, November 14, 2020 at 11:14:03 AM UTC-8 velomann wrote:

[Brady Smith]

The Riv model is hard to explain to non bike nerds. I made a half -hearted effort at convincing my wife to let me replace my Jamis Aurora frame with a Sam when they were about to go live and she said something to the effect of “Why not just wait and make sure we don’t need this $1500 for something else?” Riv sold out while we were talking and the re-stock for Sams wont come for another couple years. I may not ask next time!

[Eric Daume]

I’m looking forward to a big selection of lightly used bikes in a few years. 

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/df37c97d-207e-47ac-878c-9cabb7570ee1n%40googlegroups.com.

[Collin A]

Its a bummer that you have to know you want the bike, the correct size, and know when it will be released, all without doing a test ride on a $1500+ frame. I was lucky when I bought my first Riv that I was able to test ride a Hunqapillar, Clem, and Sam to figure out size and feel. Seems like those days are over, which sucks for the consumer, but great for Riv I guess.

Cheers,

Collin, formerly within walking distance of Riv at my first job, now in Sacramento

[Jason Fuller]

I know that this group of folks see Rivendells as immensely practical bikes, which they are, but they're also boutique, premium bikes. With this in mind I think it's pretty reasonable that one would pick out the frameset they want, save up the money, and wait for availability and be ready to go as soon as they are. The decision to buy one ought to be before they're available. That said, I do hope they are able to stock more again soon: ideally there'd be two or three models available in most sizes at any given time and they'd rotate through the catalog every couple years this way.  

I know I am personally terrible for hanging onto one bike for a long time, but that's what people should be doing with a Rivendell, so these waits of a few months to maybe a year or two would only happen a couple times in a rider's lifetime, or even only once.  I hope to put 50,000 km on my Sam Hillborne.. that's my goal! 

[dougP]

Last century, the Japanese figured out "just in time" inventory.  The mantra was "inventory is evil", meaning better to have the money in the bank than tied up in parts.  The model of announcement then pre-sale then delivery takes that to the next step.  Increases cash flow & reduces storage requirements.  BTW, been in a couple of local shops recently & both had boxed bikes stacked up the aisles.  When I asked, they said they were rolling them out the door as fast as they could build them & having them in house gave them faster turnaround. 

dougP

[Mark Roland]

The company I work for uses kanban to determine what parts to fabricate. These are then used to build a number of different final products. This is a bit more complicated, since Rivendell doesn't actually make anything (except maybe saddle goop).  They also can't really practice Just in Time ordering, since there is such a lead time involved with bicycles. And now with the pandemic, even more shaky, because the lead times are longer and less certain. (Aside: This has exposed the fragility of the global economy and supply chain.) So it's more like a feast, then a bit of famine, repeat, with a yearly sales goal reached via spikes on the graph rather than a steady state line. Any way you slice it, being a Rivendell-sized company with Rivendell-type business tenets is a tough row to hoe.

Then there is the consumption part, which Jason brings up. My platonic ideal would be to have had a Clem L from 16 years old until I was dead. But since the main activity for most of us is consuming, that is hard to do. And if everybody did it, the economy would be in the tank even sooner. Due to a few odd circumstances, I find myself with an embarrassment of riches--three Rivendells (All Hillibikes--El Clem, Susie, Hubbuh). I have some angst knowing I will not possibly be around long enough to imbue all three of them with the patina and beausage they deserve. Nobody said life was going to be fair.

[Andrew Stevens]

Salsa ran out of their 2020 allotment in mid April, purportedly. We ordered Surlys in August, and werent given the option of sizes/models, just paid for a certain number of bikes, with a delivery timeframe is "October-February." All Surly completes have been pre-allotted to bike shops through next summer, and aren't being added to distributors websites for B2B (business to business) purchases. We were unable to source 26x2" tubes for 6 weeks, because production was so backed up in China/Taiwan

I imagine Rivs long distance planning and good relationship with their manufacturers keeps their production times more consistent, but everyone is feeling the production times slow down. 

Here is a New York Times article about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/nyregion/bike-shortage-coronavirus.html