Hiro11

I already talked about trying to buy a bike at the end of last year to no avail. My largest local shop (Specialized, Giant, Pinarello, QBP dealer) is quoting 2023 delivery dates for many of the most popular complete Giant and Specialized models. Yes, 2023. There's no way this is going to look better in a few months.

My other recent experiences trying to buy bike stuff:
1. Continental GP5000TLs are out of stock in 28mm everywhere in the US with no sign of when they're coming back in stock. You can still get them from somewhat sketchy European sites.
2. I tried to buy shoe covers over the weekend. I'm a size 10. No major brand has nice, durable shoe covers in stock in my size, i looked for over an hour. Ended up buying cheap Chinese ones from Amazon.
3. I wanted to buy a Lazer Sphere Mips in a certain color and a certain size. It has been out of stock for a few months at every site and every bike shop in the US. Same is true of several of the most popular Kask models and sizes. I ended up ordering one on backorder.
4. Certain gloves, cables and chains have been hard to get a hold of for a few months now. I've been able to get what I'm looking for, but you have to search around and you have to be willing to wait weeks or months.

I get it that these are all very specific (and popular) items in very specific (and popular) sizes. Yes, it's easy to find alternatives. Yes this is a First World Problem. Still, it's interesting to me that it's the off-season here in North America and still a lot of stuff is running in short supply. By this summer, I think it's going to get really bad. I know bike shops in my area are very worried about bare shelves all this year. I would buy anything you think you might need now.