Quote:
Originally Posted by KidWok
Here's another thought. The bike companies got stupid the last 20 years and now it's finally caught up with them.
Let's take Dura Ace for example. The 74xx series lasted 11 years. 7700 lasted 8. 7800 lasted 4.
Colnago...The C40 was around for 10 years. Then replaced by the C50. Then the C55, C59, and C64.
Mavic started the wave of disposable wheel systems with the Helium. Then everyone got into the habit putting out "New and improved" year after year.
The bike industry moved towards a path of forced obsolescence with all of the ridiculous marketing claims driving people to buy buy buy. And they did...for awhile. I think it gets harder and harder to get people to do that when they just unloaded a few grand on a really sweet bike a couple of years ago. We see it in here all the time in the classifieds...prices are soft and people are always saying "if I wasn't already sitting on so much stuff". Plenty of people here are sitting on enough hardware that they won't wear out in their lifetimes.
To either counterpoint those who say it is due to people buying mail order and from overseas, I'd say it was the bike industry that cannibalized itself.
Tai
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Very true. Add the effect of the fact that the sport is shrinking in terms of participation. The industry has tried to maintain the sales level of the time period when participation was at an all time high. To do that they have had to shorten product cycles and turn the market into a "new product" one.