ridelikeaturtle

Yikes, you have my sympathy. Unfortunately, we're all at the mercy of the pandemic... and I hope we all get used to this, because I think it was inevitable, pandemic or not, that there cannot be "continued growth" in everything, immediate response & delivery times, and stupid inexpensively low prices - especially for services, which I think must go up, so that people can not be living in poverty while working 40hrs a week.

I feel I got lucky in that I bought my second-ever brand new bike (the first was in 1995!) in August 2020, not long before it all came to a head.

Now I've waited >1 month for things to arrive via post, that used to take a week max; and bc of Brexit, a big market for... everything... for me in Ireland, is now gone, and I have to look further afield (Spain, France, Germany... even Israel and Russia) for some things.

phrantic09

I'd look for something else TBH. I've seen Canyon availability, my Giant Revolt shipped two days after I placed an order. Excel has the Caledonia w/ Ultegra in stock for $3,500. Not every bike is a long wait time, but you may need to look around.

August West

The mountain bike I had put deposit down on last July never showed up. The latest estimate as of a few weeks ago was May or June. I got tired of waiting and got my deposit back. If bikes ever become available again I'll pursue the MTB again at that time. In the mean time, I'm enjoying road riding enough I don't miss it.

Iride01 

You haven't had to pay for it yet have you? When I ordered my new bike last March 2020, I didn't pay till it came in. No deposit either. Thankfully it only took a few weeks.

Giant, Trek and Cannondale all make good similar bikes to the Roubaix. As do many others. I thought I saw some new Specialized bikes the other day in my LBS, but I was just in and out, so I didn't get close up.

KiwiDallas

Thanks, all. In reply to Q's:

- I put 20% down as a deposit. The LBS offers 10% off accessories if you buy a bike. So they've been very good about giving me the 10% off, even though I haven't actually bought a bike. (Vapor-bike discount)

- Oh, I'd have moved on from Specialized months ago and looked for something else, but ... that FutureShock stem, with the little shock absorber in it, is the real attraction. I ride on bad pavement, my wrists get pounded and go numb, and I kinda need my hands to work normally. I play guitar and type on internet forums.

=K

jaxgtr

yikes. That was my worry back in August when my arrival date on my Domane kept getting pushed back. I decided to go Project One and got it pretty quick, 10 days. I understand now, depending on what your setup is, some of the Project Ones are taking much longer. Glad I got mine when I did.

guachi

I ordered a Project One Domane SLR 7 last week and it was estimated at 60-90 days minimum. Some options, all of which I avoided, added up to 180 days for the bike.

On the other hand, the SL7 had a delivery time of May 2022.

eduskator

They charge you a deposit because it counts as a ''special order'' when you want/buy a bike they don't have in stock, regardless of if they have already ordered the bike or not. I am not saying I'm in agreement with this, but this is what they do. Well, in my area at least!

The market is crazy right now, 2021 Giant road bikes are either almost all sold-out or reserved in advance with delivery dates going up to October 2021.

I bought one from a nearby LBS last weekend they had secured from Giant Canada, and I had to pay the 20% to reserve it. They will receive it in 4 weeks. They even charged me a 30$ Freight/PDI that I only saw when I came back home and consulted the email invoice (what the?).

y2zipper

I got pretty lucky with my emonda sl6 pro. Ordered in June 2020 and waited like 120 days. Now everything's like a year out.

LBS owners I know have said that they are basically buying any inventory that becomes available because it will sell.

mstateglfr 

Get your money back and just buy a different bike. Future Shock cant possibly be worth this.
Buy a redshift stem if you need handlebar suspension and go actually ride a new bike.

I get that youve bought accessories for 10% off...how much can that really be though?

NoWhammies

I'd look for something else. Plenty of bike brands out there and they may have the bike in the size and with the groupo you're looking for.

As a side note, we bought Mrs. NoWhammies a new Specialized this year. When we picked the bike up, the salesman told us were lucky to get the bike. The shop was not expecting any more 2021 bikes in stock, and it was only March. He wasn't sure what the summer was going to look like when families came in to purchase a bike only to be told there were no bikes in stock.

Sy Reene

So what's the crux of the issue? The manufacturing facilities of the frames or the groupsets are sitting idle? Specialized oversold and way underestimated what their supply chain was going to be able to make and ship by? Or the Point of Sale, order entry platform wasn't real time back to the sources, so they presold eg. 5x more bikes than would ever have been possible to produce?

jaxgtr

Yea when I ordered by Domane, it was an issue getting the cassette I wanted and tires. I opted to go with stuff they had in stock and just bought the cassette I wanted and tires off the interwebs which all came in about the same time the bike was delivered to my bike shop. My lead time for the bike was 3 days doing that.

blakcloud

I tried to order a Trek Checkpoint a few weeks ago. The Trek shop said I had to pay in full and it was scheduled for January 2022 though I might get it sooner. I am a little hesitant to drop five grand on a bike that I might not be able to ride this year.

To the OP sorry to hear about your dilemma. I would hate for you to get your money back and two weeks later the bike shows up. Depends on how much of a gambler you are.

jaxgtr

That does not sound right....I only had to put down 10% then paid in full when it came in. Sounds scammy to me. In fact, I originally ordered the SL7, so they reversed my original down payment back to me on the SL7, and then opened a new transaction for the new down payment.

chaadster

I dunno the answer, but that I’ve been waiting two months for a SRAM Force AXS hydro gruppo my be indicative of shortages throughout the supply chain.

Iride01 

Me too. I wouldn't pay for unknown delivery dates, or for dates more than a week or two away. I'd just ride what I have currently or what ever is available inexpensively right now. Then once bikes start flowing through the shops regularly I might be willing meet the shops pre-pay policy.

But still, look for other shops and find out what their policy is. And if you have reasons normally to be in other cities far away, check them too.

lasauge 

The issue is a cascading series of disruptions in the supply chain due to the pandemic and this isn't unique to Specialized: bikes that would have been sold throughout 2020 were all sold in the spring of 2020, and manufacturers shipped everything in the pipeline to retailers who had bare sales floors, which means that items that should have been available in the first half of 2021 were sold through before the end of 2020. It's like a whole year of output just got vacuum'ed out from the supply side of the bike industry, and booming sales sound like a good problem to have, but it's not like these are normal times where manufacturers can ramp up production to meet adjusted demand, because the lead times for OEM parts have also gone way up and the shipping times for everything going to and from factories has increased too. Then, as if that wasn't enough, there's a whole extra layer of complication in the way orders are placed/allocated to dealers and retailers. Put all this together and you have a recipe for delays and confusion, which is exactly what we're getting. The only thing anybody can do whether we're on the manufacturing, retail, or consumer end of the business is wait patiently for things to get back to normal.

Sy Reene

Nice rundown. But in the case of the OP, who ordered his bike 6 months ago, and was told the wait was 2 months, which turned into 4, then at 6 months turned into basically 'we have no idea' -- it's seems hard to say what the issue is because Spesh doesn't even know what to project as a ship date. Some of the above stories that holdups could be due to things as mundane as just the tires seem ridiculous to us on BF.

dbf73

fwiw, kudos to Trek and LBS for exceeding expectations. Ordered Emonda SL7 in August was told delivery in late November and it showed up early November. Halfway through the wait shop told me if I had ordered then wait was out to May

KiwiDallas

One more update from the OP -

Well, I'm halfway to saying to hell with it. I just ordered a Redshift Shock Stop handlebar mount.

If it's any good, I may just cancel the order for a new bike.

=K

KiwiDallas

Okay, I have one question about the RedShift ShockStop stem:

Where have you been all my life?? This thing is terrific!

=K

chaadster

If you’re unfamiliar with names like Girvin and Softride, you should find it a kick to learn about the development of the suspension stem from the golden era of MTB.

Redshift have done a great job modernizing the concept and making it more acceptable to the road-going crowd, and the gravel trend has created a whole new segment where it really makes sense.

The Clumsy Oaf

Just to add to this: There are a lot of ships at anchor waiting WEEKS to dock at the Port of Los Angeles and there are at least 14 ships at anchor at the Port of Vancouver, for whatever reasons.

ExPatTyke

Talking to the guy at the LBS I use for repairs (he's a one man band in very small premises who does repairs and servicing only, no new bikes) a couple of weeks back - he said that one of the main causes for delays on bikes is parts, and that he's finding it hard to get hold of parts. The UK wait on some Shimano parts is apparently up to 3 months, and is likely to get longer as the larger buyers (i.e. bike manufacturers) are getting first call on the parts as they become available. Scarcity of parts of course is causing prices to be pushed up and new bike prices are only going to increase.