Out of stock

[Nikolai]

Recently whenever I decide I want to buy something bike related it's been out of stock, or that's what it seems like at least.

Crosslight Cx wheels, XT rear mech from CRC, Conti GP4s in 25c, Yokazuna cables, Planet Xs cheap tubes in my valve length, any item of sale clothing in my size, grrrrr.

Is anyone else finding this?

[agentnomad]

The Planet X tubes are in stock and then out of stock in a day or two, probably due to loads of people like me as when they are on offer and in stock buy £20 worth, you don't need that many people to clear the stock.

You will not beat the bulk buyers so just join them, Planet X will eventually adjust there stock/order numbers to suit.

[anonymous-user]

try ordering anything from Tredz....

[agentnomad]

The Planet X tubes are in stock and then out of stock in a day or two, probably due to loads of people like me as when they are on offer and in stock buy £20 worth, you don't need that many people to clear the stock.

You will not beat the bulk buyers so just join them, Planet X will eventually adjust there stock/order numbers to suit.

[Nikolai]

pablo said:

try ordering anything from Tredz....

Been there, 3 weeks for an Endura rain jacket I could have got next day from Evans/CRC etc, because it was £1 cheaper. Lesson learnt!

[ecsrobin]

Is it because everything you want to purchase is a sale item?

[Nikolai]

No, the wheels and cables aren't sale items.

[bakerstreet]

pablo said:

try ordering anything from Tredz....

I bought a Cateye saddle/light mount from them earlier in the year. They were a few quid cheaper than CRC and Wiggle.

That was a mistake. Slow delivery and poor communication.

That was a lesson learnt. Haven't bothered since.

[tuffer]

Just try buying a Cyclocross bike, nearly impossible and even harder when you need two with one being a size 50. The guys at Leisure Wheels came through for me in the end.

[TheLemming]

Nikolai said:

Crosslight Cx wheels

When I bought some last year at about this time they were on a 3 week back order.

Those are perpetually out of stock and it's CX season so I expect a surge in demand for them about now.

There's nothing I've seen that comes close to the price and spec at full retail which is why I suspect they are always in demand.

Edited to add - saw the reviews for Zipp 202 discs today - the same quoted weight....

Edited by TheLemming on Tuesday 11th November 14:46

[Hippohiphooray]

Yep, it seems that bike / bike part manufacturers, are a bit slow at ramping up their supply to meet demand. It's not just less pricey bits and bobs either. I was looking to upgrade my road bike to something altogether better, and found issues getting hold of some fairly pricey machinery, in my size, with the Gucci spec I wanted.

[Fartomatic5000]

bakerstreet said:

pablo said:

try ordering anything from Tredz....

I bought a Cateye saddle/light mount from them earlier in the year. They were a few quid cheaper than CRC and Wiggle.

That was a mistake. Slow delivery and poor communication.

That was a lesson learnt. Haven't bothered since.

They were fine when I bought a bike from them, every time I phoned the person was able to pull up the order details very quickly and give an estimated date which turned out to be accurate.
However, ordering smaller parts has resulted in long delays as they were waiting for everything to come in stock before shipping anything out. Funny how everything still showed "in stock" on their website though!

[MadDad]

Hippohiphooray said:

Yep, it seems that bike / bike part manufacturers, are a bit slow at ramping up their supply to meet demand. It's not just less pricey bits and bobs either. I was looking to upgrade my road bike to something altogether better, and found issues getting hold of some fairly pricey machinery, in my size, with the Gucci spec I wanted.

I think in the wholesale world they call it 'throttling back to generate demand'!

I used to work for a logistics company about 20 years ago. One of our clients was a wholesale importer of Sega games consoles and used to throttle supply into the UK market to ensure that prices and demand stayed high. In the run-up to one Christmas I can remember the lack of stock being reported on the BBC news with people queuing around the block at toy shops to try to get their hands on stock, at the same time this was being reported one of our warehouses was stocked floor to ceiling with Segas! A few days before Christmas we shipped the lot out to retail distributors - guess what, they all sold and Sega were the good guys for being able to meet the demand that they generated!

I was chatting to the owner of an LBS over the weekend about 2015 stock (bikes, groupo's, wheels etc), he was saying he is already struggling to get the allocation of stock requested from the wholesaler confirmed - he is advertising the stock on his site under the flag of 'pre-order' or 'special order' with the hope of being able to get hold of the odd itme here and there if someone places and order.

Smells to me like the industry has become very good at generating demand and managing the supply of stock to make sure the prices stay high and demand stays higher!