"Backcountry" Sold in a Near-Bankruptcy Exit...

[RoosterCogset]

Somehow Colorado ended up with a decent share of online cycling stores -- interesting in itself. Good location for supply chain distribution?

Competitive Cyclist, Colorado Cyclist, TPC, Excel, Planet Cyclery. Excel is holding up ok still?

[fa63]

Competitive Cyclist is now based out of the Salt Lake City, UT area.

Originally Posted by RoosterCogset

Somehow Colorado ended up with a decent share of online cycling stores -- interesting in itself. Good location for supply chain distribution?

Competitive Cyclist, Colorado Cyclist, TPC, Excel, Planet Cyclery. Excel is holding up ok still?

[Mikej]

Colorado cyclist is gone -

[dmitrik4]

Originally Posted by .RJ

has private equity ever done anything good for a company

Nope

I’ve always had good experiences ordering from BC. Too bad; I expect that won’t be the case going forward.

[verticaldoug]

Originally Posted by EB

Whether or not PE is good for US companies or not is hard to say - there are as many awful examples out there as good ones. Based on what I have seen, from a macro point of view, it is largely financial engineering that generally provides great returns for the PE firms, decent returns for their investors, and very little that is generally new or useful to the public.

This is exactly the outcome you'd expect from a Tax Policy that favors capital over income- greater returns for Capital until there is too much capital to generate returns, then it should swing back to income. (Provided the workers are allowed to revolt) We aren't there yet.

[54ny77]

CC always had the best reviews of bike gear. Great online retailer while it lasted, fair prices and great service. Too bad its gone.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by 54ny77

CC always had the best reviews of bike gear. Great online retailer while it lasted, fair prices and great service. Too bad its gone.

Just to be clear, as of 9/11/24 Competitive Cyclist is still operating with no known plans to shut down.

[FriarQuade]

Originally Posted by dmitrik4

Nope

I’ve always had good experiences ordering from BC. Too bad; I expect that won’t be the case going forward.

Just to be clear, CC/BC hasn't been independently owned for a long time. They sold to PE the first time back in 2007 and sold again in 2015. If they've got what you need at a good price, there's still good people there to support. If you want to support your LBS, that's cool too.

We (Abbey) started selling to them in ~2011, thanks in part to Heisenberg. Our relationship with them has always been a positive one. They were very patient while we grew from something I was doing in my garage to what we are today.

[Heisenberg]

Originally Posted by FriarQuade

Just to be clear, CC/BC hasn't been independently owned for a long time. They sold to PE the first time back in 2007 and sold again in 2015. If they've got what you need at a good price, there's still good people there to support. If you want to support your LBS, that's cool too.

We (Abbey) started selling to them in ~2011, thanks in part to Heisenberg. Our relationship with them has always been a positive one. They were very patient while we grew from something I was doing in my garage to what we are today.

<3 I totes forgot about that part! Our merch teams were always good.

And to note, when the founders sold in 2007, it was to a publicly traded multinational (Liberty Media), not PE. Their executive hires were significantly less inept than the PE (TSG) firm’s crew they sold BC to, which is a… low bar.

Competitive Cyclist (hi Brendad!) was purchased by BC in mid-2011, and moved from Arkansas to Utah. Prior to the CC acquisition, BC’s bike business (RealCyclist and an MTB brand whose name escapes me) was something of an afterthought. Before the CC buy, I was photographing complete bikes on a 5x5ft set. It was amusing.

[RoosterCogset]

Don't forget SteepandCheap

[LJohnny]

Originally Posted by Heisenberg

<3 I totes forgot about that part! Our merch teams were always good.

And to note, when the founders sold in 2007, it was to a publicly traded multinational (Liberty Media), not PE. Their executive hires were significantly less inept than the PE (TSG) firm’s crew they sold BC to, which is a… low bar.

Competitive Cyclist (hi Brendad!) was purchased by BC in mid-2011, and moved from Arkansas to Utah. Prior to the CC acquisition, BC’s bike business (RealCyclist and an MTB brand whose name escapes me) was something of an afterthought. Before the CC buy, I was photographing complete bikes on a 5x5ft set. It was amusing.

SpeedGoat, originally from Laughintown PA>? They were my-go-to mail order in the mid 90s for mountain bike parts, bikes, gear… excellent in-house wheelsmith too.

[AngryScientist]

I'm currently in Boulder, and popped into a Backcountry retail store today.

Everything was fine, staff seemed happy and attentive. Scored a couple good deals on some clothing items.

I hope everything gets smoothed over and they carry on business as usual.

[Heisenberg]

Originally Posted by LJohnny

SpeedGoat, originally from Laughintown PA>? They were my-go-to mail order in the mid 90s for mountain bike parts, bikes, gear… excellent in-house wheelsmith too.

Nope, but the “goat” association confuses people. It was some hokey-ass name…

HuckNRoll.

[Andy sti]

Originally Posted by RoosterCogset

Don't forget SteepandCheap

I lived on SteepandCheap - waiting for that timer and the next deal to come up. I still have some Stoic merino shirts and jackets.

Chainlove was the bike equipment site.