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Y’all are acting like bike financing (which is what leasing is, btw) is some brand-new idea. It isn’t. The basic tools have been around forever. In its most archaic form, its not all that different from opening a store card at your favorite big-box retailer. What bikes still lack is a real underwriting structure where the lender can tie the loan to the asset itself. When I finance a $100,000 truck, the bank holds the title until I pay it off. If I stop making payments, they can repossess the truck, sell it at auction, and recover at least some...

I feel like you answered your own question when you said " a ton of people already do it for SXS, boats, and motorcycles." If the SXS, boat, and motorcycle people are making money by financing their overpriced toys, why would high-end bike companies not want to get in on the action with their overpriced toys? Yes, financing a high-end shiny ebike is completely unnecessary, unwise, financially imprudent, all of that. But so are cigarettes and gambling, and they're doing great!

Not to totally rip off Bicycle Retailer but their home page is full of interesting stories I missed right now... -Amazon to stop selling e-bikes that exceed 28mph in CA (no more Surrons via Amazon) -Giant reports April sales (3%) -GoPro sale or merger being considered (how'd I miss this!? Wild! Insta360+DJI ate their lunch) -Leatt continues to crush; sales up 27% y/y in Q1. -Merida and Ideal sales down (14%) and (22%) respectively y/y

So my qustion is, can tin foil hats be used to thickn rotors?🤣

Apologies for locking the thread. Totally by mistake (again).

Honestly this is kinda funny to hear. I feel a kinship with other countries who's domestic automakers wield immense political power, and use it to exclusively enrich themselves at the cost of the common citizen.

Can we get a separate thread for requesting separate threads so it doesn’t clog up this thread?

Gas Gas had the right idea with the moto-inspired replaceable plastics kits for their ECC ebikes. How many carbon frames become landfill waste from rock strikes or crashes where a sacrificial "fairing" could have taken the blow? If the industry wants to improve durability, this is the right place.

Would love to see this convo moved over to a thread called “thermoplastic debate/discussion” or similar. This is a dead end technology for now but I understand that a lot of you like talking about it.

I thought downhill was governed by what makes the sport look cool and not by what makes it faster, you can’t tell me that banning a skin suit due to the majority of male athletes being self conscious in the search of speed is any different to putting a massive stupid looking wheel on the front of a bike to make it look like a Penny farthing ? If 32” wheels are allowed then so should ski suits be allowed if it’s helping gain speed in a sport that can come down to thousands of a second missing qualifying! On...

Trust me, Porsche isn't in financial trouble. Like, not even remotely. They just strategically like to appear as if they are, for political- and lobbying reasons. Only slightly related rant: The automotive industry in Germany on a wider scale is once again trying to apply political pressure in order to achieve massive tax cuts, subsidies and erode labour protection laws. It's the same old story; They're feigning financial trouble and mass job insecurity as a bargaining tool for political leverage. And yes, our automotive sector is so large and influential that they can sort-of hold the entire country hostage until...

The shop I work for has received word from Santa Cruz and Cervelo that they are currently buying a bunch of Fazua motors and parts to have continued support for their bikes that use the motor, so at least on that end there should be warranty support and availability but for how long I'm not sure.

This is a good point, and it is worth slowing down on for a second. When people read what I write and say, “Well, I see their bikes everywhere, they must be selling,” or “They make great bikes,” I think they are missing part of my argument. Specialized, Santa Cruz, Trek, Orbea, Canyon, and plenty of others all make incredible bikes and people like those bikes. That is not the issue I'm keying in on. The issue is what happens when revenue falls, inventory builds, margins compress, and the industry fails to snap back after a historic boom. At that...