Price Increases and ETAs

Inflation has been all over the news, and it’s caused much confusion. Customers have asked us: Do we really need to worry if used car prices are high? We are cyclists, after all… From our vantage point, we don’t need to worry, but prices will increase. It’s a world-wide thing, and it’s caused by many factors. Most are related to the pandemic. Raw material shortages have increased prices. Shipping is much more expensive, too.

Other factors were just a matter of time. Many of our suppliers have kept their prices constant for a long time. Raw materials and other costs have gone up, and now our suppliers have reached the point where they can no longer absorb these increased costs. This means our costs will go up – in some cases significantly, because we’re seeing a decade’s worth of incremental price increases all at once.

Offsetting these price increases, the U.S. dollar has strengthened in recent months. We’ve kept our prices unchanged as we sold through our existing inventory, but now we’re getting new shipments at higher costs, so our prices will go up as well. We’re hoping this will be a one-time price increase. While the disruptions of the pandemic have gone deeper than all of us anticipated, the world is adapting to the new situation. It’s unlikely that shipping prices will continue to go up as backlogs clear and capacities become available again. Raw materials are harder to predict, but the cost of our components and tires is mostly in the labor of the people who make them, not in rubber, aluminum, titanium and steel.

For now you can still order at the old prices… We’ll phase in the new prices as shipments arrive. On the plus side, we have a lot of shipments coming with products that are currently out of stock. Here are some updates for popular products that our customers have been waiting for:

• Cranks: 171 mm arms have just arrived. Other lengths are on the way. Out-of-stock chainrings are scheduled for production, but that will take at least a month, maybe longer.
• SKF bottom brackets are on the way. We expect them next week.
• Titanium hardware for brakes just arrived. That means all brakes – cantilever and centerpull – are in stock again.
• Racks have landed in the U.S. They are due to arrive any day now.
• Pacenti rims are also on the way. We should have them in February.
• Some generator hub and headlight models are out of stock. We expect most of them in a week or two.
• A few tires models are out of stock, too. They will be back within the next month.

We don’t know what the future will bring, but we’ll continue to make the best possible components, and we’ll continue to offer them at fair prices. And we appreciate our customers who support us. Thank you!