Checking performance online and they have a nice discount the problem is that I'm not going to pay 700 bucks for a campagnolo crankset at all :) The rest of the stuff is ok to high priced IMO... who knows what is going to happen.

What performance needs to do is to fill up trucks with junk and show up in every bike swap meet just to sell all the stuff they are stuck with...

not surprising.

i went to a local performance about a month ago to stock up on a few gels, bars, etc. (always a nice selection at decent prices) as well as a couple of tools, and the store looked threadbare. depressing, it sure seemed like something was up. big tables of clearance items.

back at its peak it was chock full of stuff (and it was a huge space) and had regular foot traffic every time i visited. it used to be a nashbar way back when.

the internet has just hammered retailers like that to no end.

http://www.rentistoodamnhigh.org/upl...50410_orig.jpg

Malls, mini-malls and strip malls just don't deliver the foot traffic anymore, anywhere. And perhaps the innovation-drives-replacement formula is not efficient for the bike biz. How can Trek 'brick' a brazed SLX frameset?

Although, if Giant bought all the steel tubing mfctrs...

How long until QBP gets stores? Just one big-ass-loan away, I'd bet

As I understand it, the original owners of Art's Cyclery closed up the business, but a couple of the former employees bought the brick and mortar part of the operation, and are making a go of it as an LBS.

I do not know anything about the economics, but this is sad to read also in the sense that I remember when I lived near a Performance shop, that store served a much more broad base of cyclists, from beginners to growing children to families, etc.) than the fancier, more focused, stores in the area did. That was nice to see, and that Performance was always pretty full and well-stocked. The staff was very nice, too.

Both types of stores were good, and useful in their own ways. I wonder where the clients Performance was serving will go now? The more upscale lbs didn't cater to them at all. Are there other similar brick and mortar stores, chains like that, around anymore after this?

REI is an excellent place for the "common guy" cyclist to shop. their new house brand "Co-op" bikes are well thought out, have decent parts spec and reasonable cost. they stock pretty much anything a regular cyclist needs to ride and carry everything from balance bikes for a toddler to nice road and gravel bikes to fat bikes.

I second the REI notion. Less high-end shop snobbery, usually there is a pretty knowledgable person or two to point you in the right direction.

This is a niche that Performance used to fill, but I wonder if that was part of their poor performance. Once you sell somebody a nice $1200 Fuji to start their cycling career, their next bike is probably a $2500 Cervelo or Giant or Trek, i.e. something not sold at Performance. You can only go so far selling a crapload of tubes and the bottom end of serious-cyclist clothing.

REI 1) Sells some well known brands for that next step in bike acquisition 2) Markets cycling as part of a broader outdoor recreation lifestyle, so they aren't 100% dependent on the hardcore cyclist to keep their stores open.

I thought Performance shut down in the mid 1990's.

I've ordered a lot of stuff from them over the years but lately they're just not the go to, maybe it was their selection? prices? wonky web site? I dunno. I miss the eclectic selection in the old Performance and Nashbar catalogs from the early 90s but maybe I'm just being nostalgic.

*On a side note just as I was writing this I caught a cold call from my Competitive Cyclist rep to see if there was anything I was looking for he could help me out on price for and to keep a heads up for Black Friday deals. Wow! that's pretty amazing personal touch customer service and maybe indicative of the kinds of services retailers need to do in this climate. I'm not even a high $$$ customer.

Art's is outta biz????

Do you mean their mail order biz is no more but the shop is still there?

.

Went to Performance today to do a return and picked up a handful of things: ScratchLabs nutrition, some 1" threadless spacers, SupaCaz tape, couple tubes, and a quick-link. That's all I could find or justify.

A significant number of products were "not on sale" - Shimano, Stages, Wahoo, Marin, Garmin, etc. - maybe that changes before too long.

Nice people run the Performance shops here in Beaverton and Tualitin (Great PDX) - hope they get taken care of.

ASI bought Performance Bikes and Nashbar two years ago.
Bad investment.
Dropping the chaff to try and maintain profitability.
Their other brands are doing solid business though.

I've bought a few small things over the years: gloves, tubes, levers, etc. My friend got a really nice deal on a Fuji a few years ago. It worked well for him since he has weird geometry and wanted to test ride before committing. He used his performance bucks or whatever they're called to get a GPS as well.

Customer service was good and their service department seemed good as well.

"F" performance. Karma. About 12-13 years ago I returned a crankset that failed and I assumed they'd deal with it under warranty. Instead they shipped it back to me with a letter stating their "techs" determined I intentionally broke the crankset and they would no longer do business with me.

I contacted the person who wrote the letter and then emailed her pictures of the same failure from different forums. They stood by their "techs" and I filed a dispute through the credit card. I got my money back and then they "banned" me from purchasing through performance.

I never missed them.