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Brines – thanks for those finance blogs, some solid reads in there. I’m subscribing. On Rapha (and bike apparel in general), saw someone in the thread say, “Walmart bought it, I’m out.” Bit unfair, no? It wasn’t Walmart—it’s the Walton grandsons. Say what you want, but they’re bike fans. And if we’re being honest, if any of us were billionaires, we’d probably scoop up some cool bike brands too. I think they’ve also got their hands in Allied and Wahoo? Honestly, not the worst portfolio if you’re trying to uplift cycling. Rapha’s got a new CEO too, and from what...

When the poors started showing up to group rides in Rapha on last model year's bike, PNS and MAAP were standing by ready to rinse the REAL roadies with even more muted earth tone offerings.

Honestly their knee pads were so good if they focused more on practical apparel for MTB and less on rinsing roadies for everything they had, I feel like they could do very well. That said, I thought rinsing roadies for their last penny was a nearly recession-proof model. Kinda like a constant of the universe. Death, taxes, roadies overpaying for microscopic gains to their cycling experience... Need to grab another pair before they can't be found anymore.

Side point here, we know its a bit of a pain to bust out the tape measure to figure out what size Chain Mag you need. Anyone who takes the time to do this for a bike we haven't catalogued yet and emails it to me, I'll fire you a 30% off code. Jeff AT ralibike.com

I don't think the rest of the country understands that 100 square miles of the US was almost completely wiped off the map. Not just some flooding and mold. Rain and hurricane force winds have changed the course of our rivers & streams, simply eliminated most any road in a way you can't comprehend, flooded most anything that has never flooded in history & wiped out the lives of those close to us in numbers we won't know for a long time to come. And yet, online all I read is "when do you think i can come ride?" None...

I just watched the highlights reel and I would hands down rather TMac go balls out on that canyon gap then watch double back flips all day. To each their own.

Actually children, Nabisco used to be a sponsor of team GT and the American national series… then a bunch of idiots started diluting mountain biking with sideshows and splitting the racing disciplines into separate venues, and now it’s pretty unlikely you will ever see real corporate sponsorship in American racing ever again.

You are missing my entire point. My example was a hypothetical one and was really to show yes, you can in fact compete in a market and the customer can ascribe value to your offerings. It was not to suggest Neumann's Own is somehow kicking Oreo's butt, but was to say through competition and how you approach a market you may find a niche (even through different marketing and product offerings) other companies may miss, or you may be able to compete at higher margins through your ability to recognize jobs or expenses that do not create value. In theory...

Hmmm. Strange way to think. While I agree slopestyle riders carry very little overall value based on how the market works (in this case, the market of "entertainment"), your rationale is full of all sorts of holes. This response requires the reader to hit the intersection of economics and philosophy to understand why what you write isn't just wrong, but a bit scary if someone actually believes it to be true. Lets first just pretend you have this all powerful wand where you can wave it and entire industries, career paths or similar vanish from existence. Whatever value those people...

Anytime I hear a statistic quoted in a sentence that starts with "Dude, like..." I know its probably not something that actually comes from anything remotely resembling the scientific method. That said, I'm happy to be shown I'm wrong here, so by all means, please go dig up whatever you are basing this on... The one shocker in this thread for me is just how bad many people are at understanding supply, demand, value and broadly speaking, markets. While I am the first to admit that a market is rarely "perfect' its by far the best way to ascribe value...

Woah. I actually applaud CWs coming out and being real about this. I keep trying to find an analogy for this. The best I can come up with is stand up comedy. If you are a huge act, like Chappelle, you can go get paid anywhere you want. If you are an open mic person, you won't draw a dollar but you do get to use the stage to grow your brand of comedy. Crankworks puts a ton of resources into the "stage" for these riders who are mostly unknown (open mic people on a great stage). While I don't...

They're bargaining for pay from people who don't pay them and have no responsibility to do so. If you aren't making enough as a professional bike rider to cover your expenses and make a living you should reevaluate your choice to be a professional bike rider. I'd love to make the money I make now riding bikes. I'll be first in line if someone is cutting checks to cover what I don't make off my ability or marketable value. That's not some hot take, it's economics.