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I can confirm Jackson was genuinely happy to win the World Championship

Does this start a Pon to buy E13/Evil bikes rumor?

The thing is it's unridable in the wet without these berms, so now the track is not so technical, and mostly only steep. As you said they did a great job cutting some corners. But if you want to have fun, I can suggest everybody tries to ride champery in the wet. I did it twice, and twice I had fear for most of it. It's maybe not so great to watch, but it will make a great race I think.

But hey, the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association (BPSA, part of People For Bikes) gave Bob M. a lifetime achievement award just a few years later, so it's all good.

Bingo.

I've received emails from most component suppliers that they've raised prices 10-15%. Others who didn't send notices seem to have raised prices quietly. New product launches and updates are often price increases in disguise. The owner of Revel bikes was on national radio a few days ago saying that they'll show tariffs as line item at checkout, kinda like sales taxes. Beyond Revel, the story was of how US businesses who held off on price increases during the 90 day negotiation period are now resigned to raising prices if they want to remain viable. I've seen a few European bike-biz...

@jeff.brines are you tracking tariff related price increases and potential impact on sales? Looks like companies are finally running out of inventory and have started increasing prices based on new import taxes (RockShox Boxxer Ultimate now $2099, Troy Lee D4 now $667, etc).

My analysis is just about done, but for those hankering to get a jump on things, here are Fox's results. / and the conference call can be found here (or just wait a few hours and I'll post my thing...)

Not to diminish GM's financial mismanagement (or any of the other companies involved), but TARP made a profit for the US taxpayer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program

Hey everyone, not mad at anyone in this thread (besides maybe myself). I clearly have ideas and a delivery style that probably isn’t ideal for a mountain bike forum. Robot wrote a genuinely great post (he’s a better writer than me), and I realized there was no way for me to counter it. Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because I started turning into this (actual photo Tucker took of me this morning): Any frustration you see from me is with myself, not anyone else. I like friction. I like debate. What I don’t like is knowing...

Not sure I’ll ever finish the long blog post, so dropping a few thoughts here instead: YT did sell a majority stake to a PE firm. -Details are scarce. We don’t know the exact stake sold (just that it was over 51%), how many equity owners there really were (beyond the two founders), the deal structure, valuation, any earn-outs, if Markus retained a stake etc etc. -Without that info, blaming Markus might not be fair . Sure, flaunting wealth on Instagram is a bad look, especially during a downturn, but that’s social media for you. I’ve posted cringe stuff too...

Rob Roskopp did very, very well for himself.

Ease up on Markus gang… and let’s stop and imagine what the sizzle reels must look like for the people that sold him those hypercars… the owners of Pon!

I see zero signs of excessive personal spending which may or may not have been funded by company debt.

Most bike brands have been at the mercy of the big 3(ish*) for a few years now. Their orders are exponentially larger than the rest of the brands, and thus, due to whatever internal pressures they might be facing, drive the pricing we see today. YT is/was a disruptor, but they are still collateral damage as far as I can see. *major players differ by market

I wonder what's causing that chaotic variable pricing? 🤔 Perhaps a certain yam-tittied, geriatic orange ghoul at head of a certain government?

The global overstock issues continue. I'm guessing YT's investments in the USA are now considered liabilities, and they are finding it hard to do business with an unpredictable tariff environment. Right now, bikes from Taiwan are subject to both duties (~12% for regular bikes, 0% for e-bikes) and then another 32% for tariffs. And who knows what that tariff number will be next week. It's not looking good for other bicycle producing countries (Cambodia 32%, Vietnam 46%, China 34%). Bikes might be on sale now in the USA, but I imagine things are about to get a whole lot more...