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I've never ridden the SJ15, don't need to as I rode a SJEVo for 3 years and every single thing that I wanted them to fix (i.e. leverage progression, sta, and BB height mainly), Spesh went in the opposite direction. The one thing they had done right (CS length) they went backwards on.
Not surprised that bike is a crash and burn. A used SJevo with a Cascade is flat a better bike. I liked mine with the Mullet shock clevis thing, but still running as a 29er. That fixed a lot of crap by making the BB adjustment actually useful as well as the long CS position functional, steepened the STA, and helped the bike pedal notably better. Those 2 changes really modernized that bike.
And Commencals handle great but are turds. They are expensive, sold from a tax haven, D2C, are heavy, and have an incredibly high failure rate.
They need to send their geo to Vietnam and have them made in CF so they will quit breaking and weigh 3#s less. And just the warranty savings alone should allow them to hold costs the same.
Re: "Jose Gonzalez Joins Canyon As Director of Suspension Technology" -PB
Reading between the lines, did Trek shut down their socal suspension lab or is it still going?
As far as i know, it's still in Santa Clarita. It was moved into the Trek store over there, instead of being in it's own building.
I guess this goes here? Brutal/funny commentary on Trailforks/Outside use of AI images:
I noted this in the comments section—another great and informative piece from FortNine. However, at 13:01, when discussing Pierer’s investments (acquisitions), the video overlays an image of a KTM e-bike while the narration states, "they invested 300M in e-bikes."
While Pierer Mobility has indeed made significant e-bike investments (Raymon, Puello Family, Husqvarna E-Bikes, GasGas, etc.), KTM Bicycles is not part of Pierer Mobility or KTM Moto. This is a common misunderstanding, but an important distinction—KTM Bicycles remains an independent company, operating as it has for many years, and is not involved in Pierer’s restructuring.
Just wanted to clarify, as this mix-up has led to some confusion in the industry.
Two thoughts
KTM
Good callout by Stik. The root of the confusion seems to be that most people don’t know who Pierer Mobility is. So in casual conversation, you often hear, “Yeah, it was e-bikes that sunk KTM,” which is technically true. But that quickly gets misinterpreted as “KTM e-bikes sunk KTM,” which—ironically—is not true.
AI-Generated Content
Like it or not, this is here to stay. Ethics aside, companies like Outside using DALL·E, Stable Diffusion, or similar tools will become standard. No more royalties or payments to photographers, ultra-low costs, and continuous improvement—this train isn’t stopping and the outputs are improving vastly in crazy short amounts of time. We can complain all want, but its akin to an old man yelling at the wind.
What will be even trickier is how AI gets integrated into traditional photo and video shoots to maximize content production. Modern marketing demands high-volume content, and AI will be a core part of making that happen. Maybe the rider is real, but everything else is augmented. Weird. Wild. Strange.
I definitely hope so too, but I'm a little hesitant about the company that bought them. Ridleys have had some significant issues before, specifically with their seat post wedges on the Noah and Noah fast road bikes. They used aluminum bolts that would strip out way to easily, and getting replacement parts was a pain.
I don't think this is a big concern. Lots of brands have had problematic proprietary seatpost clamps and headset/steerer issues on roadbikes in the past few years, none of those designs have moved over to the brands mountain bike range. It would be like saying a companies road bike performs poorly in aero testing so I think their mountain bikes will be bad, it's a non related issue from a completely different product type.
Some staff from the previous incarnation of Nukeproof have been brought on to the new place, so hopefully they continue to make simple well performing bikes in future. Hopefully spares remain easy to obtain, even in the demise of the previous incarnation of Nukeproof, you could get spares from Ascend Components.
Welp...
I wonder how many companies are marking up inventory that is already in their warehouses?
This isn't necessarily something that would be done in bad faith. Sometimes you have to price for replacement cost. If you can't afford to replenish your inventory, you can't continue to sell.
And if you are looking for bad faith, you could potentially find it in the opposite as well: a shop/brand undercutting the competition by pricing product that was already in inventory well under the current cost of that item.
First, let’s establish a few key assumptions:
Soft Market: Raising prices in a soft market is challenging.
Cheers!
Jeff - thanks as always for the insight. Not trying to be a smart ass (this time), but wonder how many bike companies fully understand, yet alone practice, this level of analysis. I'm sure the big boys do, but on the larger spectrum of all bike companies, what percentage do you think have the sophistication necessary to navigate these issues?
I hope it's a high percentage, because this is a lot to put on the industry right now. Wishing all the smaller companies the best and want to see them succeed.
I'd say the question is how many companies can afford a CFO or a similar role. Unless said person is part of the start-up and goes above and beyond what the compensation is.
Intense launches Frame First bike builder - https://intensecycles.com/pages/frame-first
Interesting new concept and that flow diagram makes the process seem so simple!
But what happens when one of your preferred components is OOS or backorderd for months? Can a shop deliver a partially built bike that's waiting for a part to restock or customer supplied parts not available on QBP? Who deals with compatibility checking?
From my experience with custom builds you can get about 80% of your first choice parts but then you have to compromise with alternatives, wait or internet your way to your spec. Will be interesting to see how this program pans out.
Generaly it works ok with Orbea's system doing this, only once did my shop have a hold up, that one was due to Maxxis being out of the customers tire choice.
I was able to get Orbea to just send the bike from Spain to NZ sans tires, and I fitted some I had in the shop (and was credited by Orbea for them).
When I built my Bird Aeris AM9 in 2019, I only bought the dropper (Reverb) aftermarket as it was cheaper than in their configurator and I threw the carbon cranks off and put GX ones on. With the Aeris 9 build I did 2 years ago I asked what can I do without and not taking a drivetrain (I put it together by parts later) would mean I would get 'aftermarket' prices for components vs. prebuilt bike prices. In the end I went with a complete bike sans wheels and dropper as I already had wheels and I chose a OneUp 240 dropper and shelved the drivetrain (the intention was to put it on the AM9 to replace the worn out drivetrain before selling it).
Their configurator gives you the option to basically choose every single component bar the drivetrain, that comes as a kit. Don't know how other brands handle it.
Well, the trade war has officially begun.
Good luck to any companies that have significant cross border trade, particularly the small ones based in Squamish and Vancouver area.
It doesn’t even look like this is digitized, the buyer needs to print the form and hand write their choices in and then the shop will need to transcribe the order… too many variables and chances for entry errors in my opinion. I may be wrong but I didn’t see a list of said components to choose from. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get this.
QBP is also the last distributor that we'd look at for ordering parts, because their stock/brands/availability was trash in Canada. Its possible its better in the States, and that because of this deal, they may stock more generic parts... but generally when i see these two brands partner up, I'd be concerned that this won't work in the long run.
Its crazy how much bouncing around Intense has done in the last 10+ years. I wish them both well, and in concept i think its a great idea for the consumer.... i just hope that they are able to pull it off.
Love the question.
Honestly, I don’t know. My guess is that most outdoor companies spend some time thinking about important factors like tariffs and inventory turns, but few take a truly critical look at their business to position themselves for long-term success and durability.
To your second point, I completely agree, I want to see SMBs thrive. Don’t forget, something like 98% of companies in the U.S. generate under $100M in revenue. When I considered how to engage with clients, I aimed for a scalable, cost-effective approach that wasn’t limited to well-funded companies. What I came to realize is services like mine aren’t always needed on an ongoing basis. In fact, if I do my job well, a temporary engagement can deliver the same strategic insights as a full-time CFO, without the bias of someone protecting their biweekly paycheck. This adds the additional benefit of me being far more willing to say the unpopular (but honest) thing to the founder/CEO.
What makes this work is pairing the right (not-so-expensive) software solutions with a bit of management coaching. This ensures that once I step away, the management team can keep their eye on the ball and steer the business effectively - without getting stuck in 24/7 spreadsheet or KPI hell. I know I’m talking my own book here, but my big point is that strategic financial planning, forecasting and automation while integrating all your data so you can see what the hell is going on isn’t just for companies with deep pockets.
To that point, my first client, in the outdoor space, has already seen great results. His anxiety levels have lowered, he knows what to focus on, and he's spending less time on reports and syncing all his systems.
I'll do a bigger post on this later, but it seems to me there is a greater likelihood of recession than I expected even 8 weeks ago.
A few data points caught my eye today:
Buffett Indicator: Currently sitting at ~2.1 standard deviations above the mean, signaling historically expensive equity valuations relative to GDP.
Atlanta Fed GDPNow: Forecasting a sharp economic contraction of -2.8% in Q1, a significant shift from recent strength.
Polymarket: Pricing in a 40% probability of a U.S. recession in 2025, reflecting rising concerns among market participants.
If a recession materializes, especially alongside broad tariffs, ongoing inventory imbalances, and margin compression, this road could be longer than it already is. :-/
I saw that it was QBP after my initial post… they are my least favourite vendor. Not all parts are available to all shops. This won’t be for me, it’ll be hard for a shop to not lose out on labour and time with this model. It’s a great direct to consumer play if anything. Who even owns a printer these days
From Apricitas Economics post this morning;
The costs of these actions are enormous, covering $1.3T in US imports or roughly 42% of all goods brought into the United States. If households and companies tried simply to import the same goods from the same countries as last year, they would now be forced to pay an 11.5% effective tariff or more than $370B in total
So yeah, shit creek without a paddle it is.
Does anyone know if Intense is going to put their ebike frames into this program? That would be a real differentiator.
Does anyone have any insights on how ride concepts is doing? Lots of sales on their sights, reduced styles and no new styles for a while. I love my RC vice shoes and hope they don't go away anytime soon.
Didn't Fox buy them out a while back?
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