The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread

They could offer free flooring and incredibly low costs to dealers all over the world for these bikes and get them out of their storage places.

I'm sure if the average motorcycle dealer could get free inventory, and a cost of $1.5K for an e-bike payable once it was sold, they would have a million takers.

Once some were sold, they could offer a larger discount to have the dealer pay up front for a container. 

Also, are the utilizing Alibaba, e-bay, Amazon to liquidate? X-mas is coming up!

I dunno. Motorcycle dealers are having a hard enough time selling motorcycles right now. 

The Craftworks website has gone off the air, which I think might end my hope for a new generation of ENR

Heard rumors of BMC stopping with Scor

Don’t beat yourself up. If KTM had a penny for every time someone made this mistake they wouldn’t be in so much trouble. 

Oh no!,what a shame

From Skills with Phil, GT is donezo. 

Pon called it quits for them 

BRAIN article out too:

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2024/12/17/gt-bicycles-pausing-new-product-releases-reducing-workforce

"To ensure a sustainable and successful future, we are implementing a strategic reorientation to align with evolving customer preferences"

"Instead of selling well designed affordable bikes for intermediates and beginners were going to fleece you all with overpriced over-marketed bikes instead"

Enjoy you 10K Santa Cruz you can't put Shimano on.

…yet…

Rockguardz closed.

GT restructuring isn't a surprise to me. The only value they brought to the market was name only IMO. Another round of Horst link bikes in a sea of Horst link bikes, geo that was too neutral/old for market preferences, spec packages that didn't align with others (even from C dale!) in B&M retail, and a BMX line that was pretty much run of the mill at best. The company used to be an innovator in product and in spectacle. I'll forgive the loss of spectacle cuz that costs serious coin, but the pure plainness of what they've pushed out for the last number of years is what contributed maximally to their present state. 

My GT story;
In the years 2000-2001, I was working as a team technician and road manager for Schwinn Toyota RAV4 Racing, GT also was owned by Questor at the time. Our challenging experience began in August 2001 during a World Cup race in Arai, Japan. My company credit card was suddenly declined, and we started hearing rumors from the United States that Schwinn/GT was going bankrupt.

Despite having our hotel pre-paid, we—myself and team members Elke, Leigh D, and Deldycke—found ourselves in a precarious situation. The office was giving us vague reassurances about potential loans and future payments, but the reality was much grimmer, credit cards were toast and paychecks had stopped. We headed to Mammoth for the National (with I think Tahoe world cup following?) I distinctly remember one industry executive from GT arriving at a Mammoth race in a new high-end European car, telling us everything would be fine—but it wasn't.

For the remainder of the racing season (August and September), both team staff and athletes continued to represent the brand without pay. We completed our final races at the Vail World Championships 2001, which coincidentally occurred during the 9/11 tragedy. Before I headed up to Vail, I loaded up the race semi truck/trailer at the Schwinn boulder office with all spare equipment, frames, and parts. In the parking lot on Sunday after the races I divided these assets among team members, hoping we could recover some of our lost wages and expenses.

That winter, I attended a bicycle swap meet in San Diego with my wife Leigh, selling some of our equipment. A component sponsor's manager even tried to stop us, claiming we couldn't sell the items—but we did anyway. The financial impact was significant: I was owed around $20,000, and Leigh was owed nearly $100,000 in wages and bonuses from her end-of-season titles and wins. Prominent riders like Peaty, Lopes, and Alison Dunlap similarly never received their promised bonuses, all of the Schwinn and GT BMX racers and freestylers and dirt jumpers as well.

We were given legal options: accept a flat fee of around $500-$1,000 or wait for a potential bankruptcy settlement. Leigh and I chose to wait, and about 14 months later, when Pacific Cycle purchased the brand, we received some compensation—I recall I got $6,000 or so and Leigh received 15-20k?

Around Jan/Feb of 2022, the 'new' GT approached me to reform the team and asked me to manage it. Initially reluctant, I eventually agreed. Those three years were challenging. At every dealer visit and race event I encountered overwhelming anger from customers and dealers. The brand's reputation had been severely damaged.

Many believed GT's decline began with the tragic death of its founder, Rich Long, in the mid-90s. While the word "iconic" is often overused, GT truly was an iconic Southern California—perhaps even American—brand, especially considering its incredible BMX legacy.

GT has struggled since the late 90s, particularly after Long's death and the subsequent leadership changes. Despite everything, I hope the spirit of GT bikes lives on in some capacity. Wishing the best to all GT peeps during these sudden developments.

Regarding GT, a friend who lives in Cali just dropped me a message, saying that it's not as bad as it looks, that they will get rid of the 1000 bucks Zaskars and are looking to reposition GT as a ”top shelf brand” in the next two years. Don't know what his sources are, but he is an active rider on th West Coast and definitely closer to the action than I am.

Mx

I kinda doubt people will just start to see GT as a top shelf brand all of a sudden just because they want to position themselves as one. 

Making your bikes more expensive isn’t going to change your brand perception, just means less people will buy it because the value is worse compared to the competition. 

I don't question your judgement, I actually agree with it, but I can only say what has been said to be, no extras. It's only fair like that.

Mx

This is making no sense at all, you can't ''pause'' a brand, lay off staff & athletes just to try to position yourself as a premium brand the year after.

They're actually doing the complete opposite of what's required to reposition GT as a premium brand within the next two years.

If they half-ass it, then I'd agree the pause probably wouldn't be a good way to reposition. On the other hand, if they kept going along as normal and then release a very competent and premium bike tomorrow, I doubt many consumers would take it too seriously.  But if they're planning on dumping a ton of capital into GT in the refresh then the pause is probably the way to go. it would have to go something like this:

1. get rid of everything they have now. No more cheap or discounted GTs out on shelves, sales floors, or websites.

2. wait long enough for people to forget about those cheap, discounted GTs on shelves, sales floors, and websites. This is probably less time than we'd like to think.

3. Spend millions on engineering, product development, tooling and production to make a completely relaunched lineup of premium bikes. You'd probably need to launch 3-5 models right out of the gate to do this successfully.

4. pick up some high profile riders of the day and get them racing whatever the most popular discipline at the time is, in addition to mass media campaigns ensuring your bikes are going to be the cream of the crop (remember they're all new and fancy and bespoke, right?).

5. do 3. and 4. all while making no money whatsoever for years. 

Personally, I think PON would be stupid to do the above rather than just putting more money into the Santa Cruz blender - it seems like if someone took that approach, the brand with the biggest target on its back would BE Santa Cruz, aka themselves. 

I would imagine they're trying to paint a hopeful picture for the future because that's much better than saying, "Yeah, we're going to shit and will be a second rate big box brand from here on out, because that's what PON decided." (I'm not saying that's where the brand is actually headed, but just pointing out that Polyanna, hopeful messaging is a coping mechanism for brands to use when faced with tough, painful situations).

In Canada GT has been a shit-tier big box brand for years. They're a Canadian Tire/Walmart equivalent brand. Sponsoring WBP did nothing to help the image. 

No offence, but that's some industrial grade hopium right there. 

Others have pointed out how incredibly unlikely that is. 

All I'll say is that they already own Santa Cruz and Cannondale, do you really believe they'd gut there mid-budget firm to reposition it to compete in the same market as their other 2 companies? 

GT is dead. Long live GT

That there? That's one helluva story. 

It will be interesting to see where this goes.. Laying off staff and sponsored riders is a great way to reduce overhead..  I don't know what current inventory levels are like since I'm no longer working for a GT dealer.. But, they are most likely heavy and have a backup in Taiwan like a lot of other players have right now. Keep the product guys on board and give them more time to come up with something really cool that will grab people's attention when the time is right..

My opinion is the GT has lacked an identity and direction for a while now.. Not terrible bikes, especially on the blowout prices, but not much to really wow a customer. The graphics redo a couple years ago was flatter than a fast foot soda the next morning.. I would totally grab a Sensor or Force and use the savings towards some upgrades if the funds were there for me.. Hopefully GT doesn't go away, but they need to figure out what to do with it..

The rebrand...

To me the magic of gt was wether you were a 10 year old who needed a bike to get to his friends house or a high end dh bike they often had a good performing model for the dollars versus the competition.  But that’s something that’s really hard to do and isn’t as profitable as the make low numbers for obscene prices model that most stockholders and CEOs seem to be gearing towards these days.

@Stiksandstones 

Didn’t the nyc-based Bankruptcy judge sell Questor GT/Schwinn to Pacific on 9/11/01 between the times the first and second planes hit the twin towers?  

Everyone I ever knew that worked at post 9/11 GT tells that as part of the lore.  

I don't know why people get so revved up because of the above I wrote, considering I mentioned where it comes from. We are on a forum, where we are passionate about bikes and people often drop rumours and things they hear. This is the case here. I personally doubt that this is how you revitalise a brand, but again, that is not my opinion, I reported what has been said to me and been transparent about it. 

From the pack of brands that PON owns there is big variety that covers a lot of areas and some are dormant. Kalkhoff make great city bikes, cargo bikes are on the rise in all of Europe, from what I know, Gazelle is THE Royal Dutch brand and, Cervelo have a good perception in the road world, from what I recall, and last time I saw a Caloi ad was probably in 1999, but it is not relevant, as they cater to a South American public. Coming to our MTB world, I imagine you leave Santa Cruz alone, if you are PON (but I really don't know how full those warehouses are), but what do you do with the others? Why do they keep the Iron Horse brand? Schwinn could be more than cruisers, right? Cannondale has been downgraded from a pioneer of tech to something rather bland and sad and the same is valid for GT too. There is too much overlap between the two. 

I assume GT can always return to their BMX roots one way or the other and in the MTB world there have been good signs with bikes like the last Fury or the Force and Sensor. Sure, it's a long time ago, but I recall riding their fresh 27.5” bikes at Eurobike in 2014, and man did they feel nice and of good quality! But the Helion and the..., erm... Zaskar FS? Nah, man! If you make entry level hardtail on various price points, why not at least give them heritage names (you have a bucket of those)a and make them in happier colors with cool graphics? People will always be suckers for looks. Keep the Zaskar a flagship, but make ONE Avalanche, ONE Karakoram etc. Their hardcore hardtails weren't bad either, but man did they look ugh! I think there are companies that can be inspiration, like Marin or even Kona. Oh, and how about making a steel singlespeed rigid 29er in triple triangle design, with optional racks? Or have I been doom scrolling too many resto mods on IG lately? Anyway, Triple Triangle is an asset that others don't have.

I think it's time to end my little wishful rant here.

Cheers,
Mx
 

Anyone heard rumblings about Rocky Mountain?