Troul 

I hear the prices wont matter due to the lack of purchasing power. Might just balance out or possibly lower the material prices.

Reflector Guy

The local shop by me is a Trek dealer, along with a few other smaller ones. I was in there today, and they had about a dozen new bikes-in-boxes awaiting assembly. Looked impressive, but who knows.... These might be bikes people have been waiting for for months!

eatsleepcycle

Whilst groupset manufacturers have struggled to keep up with demand (which, comprehending manufacturing and the limitations of expanding quickly is completely understandable) not all bike shops have "run out of bikes". When COVID first hit a lot of bike shops closed their doors and cancelled orders. Those that had foresight invested in that surplus stock early on before the boom and got their orders in early for the rest of the year. At XXXX we did exactly that and we have had bikes and continue to have bikes throughout the pandemic. We do benefit from not depending on one brand, we work with many and those shops who depend heavily on one or 2 brands may want to re-think that approach. Another trick we found is to not be too fussy about the stock you receive from your brands. Maybe you want a different colour, size or groupset, but we take everything we can get and it has worked a treat!

PDKL45

It just keeps rolling on, huh?

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/inte...s#.YNUtNuj7SUl

"Shimano has manufactured lower-priced hubs, derailleurs, wheels, pedals, freewheels and brakes at its Malaysia facilities, which it first established in 1990."

I wouldn't call XT lower priced? Every XT crankset I've ever owned has had "Made in Malaysia" written on the crank arm.

BikingViking793 

Shops in my area are starting to fill out again.

SkinGriz

As the old saying goes,

There is no shortage of 14$ soybeans, only a shortage of 8$ soybeans.

wolfchild

I don't need to buy any new bikes...I have enough bikes and I am not worried about bike shortages.

PDKL45

The only thing that has me slightly concerned is replacement parts. Complete bikes are readily available near me, but Shimano parts can't be had for love or money.

Erzulis Boat 

Haha! I have 8 awesome bikes in my work office alone.

Charliekeet

Yes- near me, we have one respected independent shop which has recently shuttered due to insufficient supply of bikes to sell, and a corporate chain which has a wide variety of types of bikes in the showroom, but also reports that things like rear derailleurs and garden-variety cranksets are scarce right now.

PDKL45

At this point in time, it's almost worth buying an entire new bike to harvest the drivetrain. Due to the way Shimano and SRAM offer heavy discounts to large clients who bulk buy components for complete bikes, and charge an absolute premium for aftermarket groupsets, you can basically buy an entire bicycle for a few hundred dollars more than the groupset would cost if bought from your LBS as a stand alone item. You then have a wheelset, frame and finishing components that you can sell, or put away in your parts bin. With judicious selling, you can have a new groupset at a substantial discount, or if you really hit it hard, you could break even, or near enough to it. The guy that owns that US bike discount online retailer that sells bikes badged with Motobecane and Windsor gets on the MTBR forums, wringing his hands about the tyranny and inequity of those who would dare to buy his quality goods just to harvest the good bits from them. He's well aware that people are doing it.

I don't have access to that site, but there are a few Giant and Merida models that I would consider stripping for parts in the future. The good thing is that you can just take any leftover bike for it as well, without worrying about frame size, as you aren't in it for the frame or the wheels and can truthfully sell that stuff as brand new take off parts for close to its new market value (it lacks packaging etc.). There are a few bikes out there, like the Decathlon RC 520 with Shimano 105 on it, that just jump out as candidates. Their cranksets alone, if bought new, would cost close to a fifth or a quarter of the price of the entire bike in some cases. It's worth considering.

tdipail

Lumber
Chlorine
Mowers
Computer chips (for cars)
Houses
lots of shortages everywhere right now

tcs

Supply chain analysis:

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/opin...e#.YN4HdC2cZTY

SkinGriz

Skimmed it.
Supply demand.
At 10k to move a 40, curious to know if more cans are being made. If their is steel in the right places of the world to make them.

Maybe 5 years ago you could buy a can for scrap price or less. Supply demand.