Ok, let’s see a show of hands if you’re consistently flush with disposable income and you also think bikes and gear are more affordable than they’ve ever been.
Uh huh, right, thought so.
If you feel like your finances have been getting the squeeze over the last few years, you’re certainly not alone. Generally speaking, salaries haven’t been doing a great job of keeping up with inflation, and yet bike stuff also feels more expensive than it’s ever been. Who the heck can actually afford to stay in cycling anymore these days, let alone get started in it with such a high barrier to entry?
With more folks struggling to make ends meet, you might think that bike brands would want to dedicate more resources to products aimed at this sadly growing contingent instead of tossing most of their eggs into the high-end basket as usual. But while that game of numbers might sound like the right thing to do from an outsider’s perspective, it’s not always the best strategy for everyone.
And in fact, it might even make more sense to move in the other direction instead.
I spoke with two brands – BMC and Argonaut – that certainly fall into that contrarian category, with Argonaut being a hyper-premium boutique brand whose bike prices compete with used cars, and BMC recently deciding to move away from aluminum construction almost entirely in order to focus more on its carbon fiber offerings.
I think it’s safe to say that not everyone will like what they had to say, but when you hear their take on why they’ve decided to focus almost exclusively on the higher-end side of things instead of going after volume, it’s also hard to argue that it wasn’t the right decision for them to make.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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