The rising price of cycling — why are bikes more expensive and how is the industry coping?

[swldx...@gmail.com]

A ​recent feature and video here on road.cc looked at how the price of bikes and other cycling-related products have risen sharply in recent years, outstripping the rate of inflation. Plenty of discussion ensued in the comments beneath the article –prompting us to take a closer look at the subject in the latest episode of the road.cc podcast.

Host George, as well as Jamie, who penned the original piece, are joined for the episode by Colin Williams of FLi distribution, who talk through the issues involved from an industry point of view.

While it’s tempting to interpret the price increases as being down to brands, distributors and retailers aiming to maintain or increase their margins, and thereby their profits, Colin talks through some of the difficulties the industry is facing and which mean that the bottom line of companies operating within it is getting squeezed as never before.

And many of those issues are ones over which businesses operating in the sector have absolutely no control – for example, the disruption to the supply chain and manufacturing brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, which also resulted in a huge surge in the price, worldwide, of shipping containers, forcing costs to soar.

For the UK, Brexit has also had a huge influence in forcing up the price of products imported from the EU – and bikes are no exception.

That may seem counter-intuitive to many people, given the role of the Far East as the powerhouse of global bicycle manufacturing.

But as Colin explains, the fact that many brands service the European market through distribution operations within the EU means that typically products will arrive in the UK from the bloc – adding on not just administrative burden but also costs for distributors and retailers here, with at least some of that additional expense passed on to the consumer.

Given the cost of living crisis, which as has been highlighted by a number of retailers and brands within the cycling industry is forcing people to defer or abandon altogether planned discretionary purchases, it’s not the most uplifting podcast episode we’ve done – but it is one that helps explain what if leading to those price increases we’ve seen.

https://road.cc/content/news/rising-price-cycling-why-are-bikes-more-expensive-298937

[Spike]

swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> For the UK, Brexit has also had a huge influence in forcing up the price
> of products imported from the EU – and bikes are no exception.

What utter tosh.

A German firm found a way of importing bicycles and their components into
the UK, that actually allowed them to REDUCE THEIR PRICES PERMANENTLY.

If they can do it, then UK bicycle firms should stop wailing and do
something similar.

> https://road.cc/content/news/rising-price-cycling-why-are-bikes-more-expensive-298937

Canyon reduces UK bike prices, citing better exchange rates, shipping costs
and customs charges

The German brand has made permanent reductions to numerous models such as
the Aeroad, Grail and Ultimate, telling road.cc it has "...been able to
reduce the cost of importing bikes to the UK" and pass on the savings

by JACK SEXTY
MON, JAN 23, 2023 18:11

Bucking the current inflation-fuelled trend which has seen the prices of
just about everything go up over the past year, Canyon has permanently
reduced the prices of most of its bikes in recent weeks, some of them by
significant amounts. With the news popping up on numerous Canyon-themed
forums on social media and first reported by BikeRadar (link is external),
examples include the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 7 eTap, down to £4,799 from
£4,949, and the Canyon Grail CF SLX 8 Di2, down to £5,099 from £5,249.

Commenting on the reductions, Canyon's Global Communications Manager Ben
Hillsdon told road.cc: "...we’re always looking at how and when we can
offer better value for customers around the world. On this occasion we’ve
been able to reduce the price of bikes across the board for UK customers.

"This is due to a combination of things – better exchange rates, shipping
costs, customs charges – all contributing to mean we can drop the prices of
our bikes in the UK.

These aren’t sale prices by the way, so yes, we can expect these prices to
be stable for quite some time."

You may remember that we reported the opposite scenario over two years ago
now, when Canyon was one of three bike brands we'd noticed had raised their
prices, some by as much as 12% in a year. At the time, reasons such as
increased costs with supply chains and logistics, currency fluctuations and
the general extra costs associated with the pandemic were given, all of
which have now understandably eased somewhat.

To provide an example of how significant Canyon's savings could be due to
this more recent combination of better exchange rates, shipping costs and
customs charges, as the brand puts it, a 2023 Canyon Aeroad CF SL 8 Disc is
now priced at £3,849 on the Canyon UK website (link is external), which is
£100 less than the 2021 model after that price increase and just £50 more
than the 2020 model, even after a year of rapid inflation.

As far as we know, the reductions only apply to the UK and are not being
applied in other territories... so what's the elephant in the room?

Well, we're pretty sure these UK-only reductions are down to the ironing
out of some issues related to one very divisive thing, which is Brexit of
course. When asked to clarify which part of the journey from manufacturing
in Asia and onto the UK that Canyon has saved on, Hillsdon confirmed that
the brand has "...been able to reduce the cost of importing bikes to the UK
and we’re able to pass those savings on."

While Brexit-related red tape - such as the 14% duty applied to bikes
arriving in the UK from the EU - was a step too far for Rose Bikes (and
even Canyon for a brief period) who promptly ceased shipment of all bikes
to the UK in late 2020, there are ways retailers have been lessening the
impact of this red tape.

As detailed on the Brexit legal guide website (link is external), EU-based
retailers may be able to store goods that are destined for the UK in bonded
warehouses: "Customs warehousing is a procedure by which non-EU goods may
be stored in EU territory without being subject to import duties. Duty
becomes payable when the goods are released into free circulation", the
article says.

While Canyon wouldn't confirm exactly how it had cut its costs of importing
to the UK, the brand sells a lot of bikes to UK customers, so this
workaround could make sense. Vice-versa, retail giants such as Gymshark and
Asos have bypassed Brexit-related import duties when selling to European
customers by setting up distribution centres in the EU.

While we predicted over-supply as the end stage of the pandemic's impact on
the bike industry in our feature and video on the rising cost of cycling,
Hillsdon told us: "In terms of supply, customers seem to be loving Canyon
bikes more than ever – we’re showing over 20% growth since 2016 – but
referring to this Financial Times Article (link is external) from
end-November 2022, you’ll see our CEO talking about supply getting better
although one year more to get back to normal. So we’re not immune from the
market situation, but, thanks to our direct-to-consumer model, we’re still
able to offer customers a wide range of bikes, allowing Canyon to continue
in its very positive trend."

Could bike prices drop even more? While there's never a bad time to buy a
bike, it seems like the prices of most Canyon bikes in the UK will be lower
than those 2022 peaks for some time yet...

<https://road.cc/content/tech-news/canyon-reduces-uk-bike-prices-298821>


--
Spike

[swldx...@gmail.com]

QUOTE:For the UK, Brexit has also had a huge influence in forcing up the price of products imported from the EU – and bikes are no exception.ENDS

ANY SINGLE "BENEFIT" FOUND YET?

NO - SMUGG WAS SACKED BEFORE ANY WERE FOUND.

[Peter Granger]

Most normal people put their “shouting makes me right” phase behind them sometime before primary school.

[JNugent]

Who, in their right mind, *cares*?

[Spike]

I do that sometimes, in order to reflect back to Mason what his infantile
attitude looks like, but that Google Killfaux(TM Peter Grainger) is just
soooo efficient - in someone’s eyes, at least.

--
Spike

[swldx...@gmail.com]

Correction - he found a tunnel that was in metres instead of inches - well worth the £80bn lost every year due to Brexit.

[Spike]

‘Bicycles Imported From Germany Cheaper After Brexit’ just isn’t the kind
of headline you want to see, but could well apply to this piece:

[swldx...@gmail.com]

Then he had the nutcase idea of being able to buy Champagne in PINT BOTTLES - which would never be made anyway.
BREXTARD INDEED.