The NEW Performance Bike
 

It looks like Performance was purchased, and the website is running again under their new ownership.

Anyone know anything about it now?

I'll be honest, I didn't know how much I'd miss Performance until they were gone. I particularly liked their newest lines of "in-house" made Ultra bibs and their Ultra helmet. The quality was so good I thought they were really on an upswing in the cycling market, then they were gone.

It is owned by AMain Sports and Hobbies out of Chico, California.

Last time I looked the performancebike.com website had the same inventory and pricing as amaincycling.com.


-Tim-

And Nashbar as well. As far as I can tell, the biggest differences were the color of the web pages.

Is that a good thing or bad thing?

Their Ultra shorts are my favorite. I'm glad to see that they brought them back.

I keep getting the Performance Bike emails, but the big difference is that so much is out of stock, has a limited selection, and no local pickup. My first impression was is was clearing out what little was left since so many items were not even listed or were out of stock.

I will stick with Universal Cycles. Performance was good when they had a store to inspect the quality of the items and especially the sizing of jerseys and shoes, the two main items I bought at Performance. In my opinion cycling shoes and clothing sizings bear little relation to real world sizings so online ordering is a crapshoot. But now that option is gone.

Don't miss Performance. I never, ever entered their stores.
Jon

I bought a pair of Forte Metro ST 700x35 tires on Sunday. Got an email confirmation, and a subsequent confirmation that they shipped. The clickable tracking number in the email takes me to UPS and shows that as of today (Wednesday) I should have them tomorrow by end of day. The tires were the same $13.99/ea. as in the store, but of course now I payed $12.25 shipping.

Total cost $40.23, or ~$20 apiece. That's still a bargain for decent tires these days. I really like these tires, and I couldn't find any 700x35s at any bike shops in town. My next choice would have been a pair of 700x32 Kenda Kwests from an LBS for about $25 apiece.

I've run the Kwests in that size before (or possibly 700x34) and they were okay, but didn't 'speak' to me like the Metros.

But I was already familiar with the Forte Metros. I can't see myself buying an unfamiliar tire online. I need to see, touch and feel the tires before buying, and that can't be done online.

Ah the good ole days. Many BF threads on how Performance and Nashbar were killing the LBS and aluminum frames were the ones that were going to assplode.

Definitely a bad thing.

mm does it matter? Quality of selection has gone down so much. I used to love Nashbar but it's even worse. Just stick with Jenson, Universal Cycles, Competitive Cyclist/Back country

I remember AMain from when they were exclusively R/C stuff-- and they were never a go-to for online shopping, because they were expensive to the point of only being an option when they offered a big coupon. I doubt their pricing model has changed since they expanded into sports. If I'm gonna pay retail/near-retail, I might as well continue shopping at the LBS and keep them in business. Which is what I do.

amaincycling.com has a decent selection of small parts and flat rate $1.99 shipping.

Their prices on some gear such as Assos is in par with other US online retailers such as Competitive.


This is very interesting. I had not seen where AMain/Performance was offering former Performance products but only AMain inventory. They seem to have resurrected the Ultra bibs but they look different from the ones I've seen.


-Tim-

Guess I'm too new to know the backstory here.

Up until the beginning of this year, I was just a casual rider, with a 20-year-old mountain bike and blissfully ignorant of The Bike Forums.

We had a Performance store nearby and I used them for tubes and misc accessories. Prices and selection were good. On occasion, used their repair shop and in one case, they fixed something for me at no charge.

One day in January, I drove by and noticed the "STORE CLOSING" banner. Popped in and picked up a nicely discounted Giro helmet. Over the next month, my wife and I, like vultures hovering, visited weekly, picking up a number of additional accessory items and clothing. With each visit, I paused and looked longingly at the new bikes, thinking it could be a good time to upgrade my ride. Each visit revealed increasing discounts of 25%, then 35% and finally, a nicely equipped 29er hardtail with disc brakes and a mix of Deore and SLX components was marked down to $880 from a retail price of $1600, too good to pass up.

A negative effect on the other LBS? Likely. At least temporarily. But in fact, riding the new bike sparked a renewed interest in cycling, enough so that within a couple of months, I decided I wanted a road bike. By this time, too late for Performance, so I began to acquaint myself with the local bike shops, eventually spending a tidy sum all told with a CF road bike, pedals, shoes and added accessories.

In a way, I guess my LBS can thank Performance for that. :D

Me too. But I just ordered a pair yesterday and they're back ordered. I don't know when I'll get them. Maybe I should order 2?

Forte Metro Tires ordered from Performance came to the office Thursday. Mounted them and rode home. Tires came in plastic bag, no box, but were in perfect shape.

Those were nice tires, I use them on my commuter/beater bicycle. The only issue I had with them was their weight (quite a bit heavier than other similar size tires), but for the price they couldn't be beat. When the shop near me was going out of business I bought 4 of them and that should last me quite a while.

The shop near me was in a convenient location so a great place to stop and pick up tubes, tires, and tools (a great selection of bicycle-specific tools that was second to none). Their on line shop looks very generic, nothing on the site that makes them stand out from all the other on line merchants.

Performance/Nashbar was in bankruptcy, right?

Maybe some company picked up the brand for a very low price out of bankruptcy. No more big box store or small box store expenses. Just mean and lean.

Old inventory mostly gone but the supply chain stayed intact, maybe. That's the value, plus old customers who still scrounge around for deals.

Remember the guy who said "No Cervelo for you!" ??

Those are good tires, I used them for years and am still not sure if switching to a different tire with a flat guard was the right thing to do after getting a series of flats a couple of years ago.