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Originally Posted by FlashUNC
Just as you asked for people not to imply things you didn't say, that street goes both ways.
The point many, including myself, are making is that the sideline stuff increasingly seems like the front and center stuff.
Rather than selling really good bikes, it's some either ill-executed attempt at a lifestyle brand, or just Grant's personal interests expressed as a business. Which, yes, that's basically all Riv has largely ever been, but when the #1 item listed in the holiday gift guide is an axe, or there's a couple thousand words on the blog extolling soap varietals, something has clearly gone pear-shaped in the approach to the market.
Again, the kind of riding that Grant and team has espoused for decades is THE trend in the industry, and instead of making hay while the sun shines, they're asking folks to buy gift cards to help replenish a reserve that needs to be deeper than it should be, a year after holding out the hat to very clearly keep the lights on.
It's not that they're not Surly. Far from it. They should be eating Surly's lunch. And owning a segment they've basically created with really kick-ass bikes and kick-ass accessories. What's there today by any external expression is not that.
If anything, what you construe as "they're not Surly" is some exasperation from those who recognize Grant and Riv's work for the visionary stuff it is, and that the guys who got it before anyone else now seem to be badly missing the plot for reasons that escape a lot of us, even with all this radical transparency.
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I see no evidence that the bikes themselves aren't selling. The problem seems to be on the parts end, where they're being undercut online for stuff that anybody seems to be able to offer at fire sale prices now. That's just the reality of our new Amazon World, and there isn't a helluva lot Riv can do about it..they're certainly not the only company being affected.
Frankly the fringe stuff may be a calling card that still works for them to the extent it does. It's just a hard time out there all the way around.