Like Bontrager kit? I have to confess to never having used any myself as I have always had a preference for Italian kit to go with my Campag and Bianchi stuff.
However, if Bontrager is your bag, you might want to get yourself over to Cycle Surgery for their Timeout Tuesday.
For today only they are offering up to 50% Bontrager carbon kit and it looks like there are some serious bargains to be had.
XXX HCM VR road bar is now £99.99 down from £169.99 and the matching stem £79.99 from £149.99. Grab yourself a seatpost to match for £64.99 reduced from £129.99 and maybe even a carbon bottle cage for £22.49 reduced from £44.99.
You could always put them on your Christmas wish list...
Rapha have been busy riding their bikes again. This time it's the über cool urban riders that have been out testing kit, in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
According to Rapha, Norway’s capital Oslo offers a different take on urban road riding. The city’s quiet roads, green spaces and buildings painted in muted colours are juxtaposed to the vibrant chaos of London or New York. But it’s also a city of fronts: where imposing exteriors conceal boutique hotels, immaculate restaurants and bars playing techno late into the night.
I couldn't possibly comment, having never ridden my bike in Oslo, but after watching the film I am happy to concur. As always, the film is a joy to watch.
The film is by Ultan Coyle and the music by Henrik Schwarz.
This week Cycle Surgery's Timeout Tuesday offers a break from tradition. I pride myself on this being a blog with a bias for road cycling, but today I am giving you deals on mountain bike kit.
At this time of year I figure even us road cyclist's could do with some extra protection, or even some off the bike kit. And of course a lot of mountain bike kit lends itself well to the biking commute into work.
With this in mind, I am liking the Five Ten cycling shoes a lot, and this Timeout Tuesday has the Hellcat SPD shoe for £62.99 down from £104.99. They also have the less practical-coloured but no less desirable Minnaar shoe for £65.99 down from £109.99.
Other than that, there's a few pairs of baggies on offer and some body armour, but you'd have to be looking at a pretty far-out commute to be needing the latter. Although with the traffic on the roads, there could be a use for it...
So, if you want to grab any of this kit at low prices, you just need to get yourself along to the Cycle Surgery website - and remember, these deals are for today only.
I'm not sure if you've ever stumbled upon the excellent US Competitive Cyclist website, but if you haven't it's worth checking out for pointers on how a bike shop website should be set up. It's slick, fast, attractive and user-friendly. Plus they stock an array of brands that strike a chord with the serious road cyclist.
However, according to an excellent article at Bike Biz, all is not well at CompetitiveCyclist.com as a recent blog post on their website reveals some discontent aimed at their UK cousins, and in particular Wiggle and Chain Reaction.
They suggest that some of its sales are being lost to these UK competitors who, they claim, are "exploiting a market anomaly" and are being supplied with high-end products by suppliers who are not offering "pricing parity."
There would appear to be some mileage in this complaint. In its latest annual report, Chain Reaction Cycles state that: "The proportion of turnover generated outside the EU [in 2010] was 37 percent." This is a ten percent increase on 2009.
According to its blog, CompetitiveCyclist.com believes half of that turnover increase was at the expense of US bicycle retailers, including itself.
"If the same holds for Wiggle, that adds up to nearly $40 million in US exports per year….This $40 million was spent on high-end Shimano, Sidi, Continental, Vittoria, and countless other primo brands, the very sort of marquee goods purchased by American IBD's highest-value customers."
CompetitiveCyclist.com says part of the sales success of Chain Reaction Cycles and Wiggle is because the stores are based in Europe, "Chain Reaction and Wiggle have the advantage of buying their goods directly from manufacturers."
The argument loses some momentum here, given that the likes of Shimano and Pearl Izumi being based in Japan, but for many brands, such as Sidi, Castelli, Assos etc. this does hold true.
The blog goes on to claim that "They then leverage their savings by selling the goods in foreign markets such as the US where distributors and importers normally add a layer of markup. Because of this, the retail prices at Chain Reaction Cycles and Wiggle are upwards of 30 to 40 percent less than what you'll find in American retail stores - whether it's your local bike shop, or at Competitive Cyclist."
UK independent bicycle stores also complain about Wiggle and Chain Reaction (as do IBDs in many countries, including Australia). Chain Reaction Cycles, for instance, gets amazing delivery rates and delivery times from the Post Office in Northern Ireland. Chain Reaction Cycles is the Northern Ireland Post Office's biggest customer.
But most of the complaints about Chain Reaction Cycles and Wiggle from UK IBDs stem from the cheap prices.
And CompetitiveCyclist.com says it's all but impossible to fight on price: "American retail pricing on a pair of Look's fabulous Keo 2 Max pedals is $180. Chain Reaction charges $104 for a set."
Because of volume sales, suppliers are happy to supply Chain Reaction and Wiggle:
"Whenever we ask manufacturers why they don't have global pricing parity, they plead the same case: They'd love nothing more, but they have no enforcement mechanisms," says CompetitiveCyclist.com
"They claim that the EU has strict anti-trust regulations that prevents them from regulating MSRP or Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) and from punishing a retailer for violating pricing guidelines. 'Price Maintenance' laws in the EU are purportedly far less friendly to manufacturers than in the US, where a single advertisement for a product at sub-MAP pricing gives a manufacturer full legal right to cut off a retailer's supply of goods with no notice.
"Chain Reaction and Wiggle aren't winning in the high-end US marketplace because of a strategy. They're winning by exploiting a market anomaly. Exploitation is not a strategy. The only party capable of reversing this situation is the manufacturers who supply them their inventory. If manufacturers don't shut down this UK-USA sales channel, they're the ones that ultimately stand to lose the most. Why? Manufacturers who've already made global pricing parity a priority – including Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, and SRAM - will rapidly gain mindshare and marketshare as retailers recognize that stable pricing is a brand asset as powerful as high-zoot technology and top-dollar marketing.
"Decisive action from bike manufacturers to create pricing parity will require a focus and discipline they don't always show. But decisive action from bike manufacturers to create pricing parity will require a focus and discipline they don't always show. To call it a probability, let alone an inevitability, would be far too optimistic."
So CompetitiveCyclist.com aren't feeling too optimistic about the future, which is a shame as their website and stocking policies appear to be spot-on. But as LBS in the UK know, competing with the likes of Wiggle and CRC can't always be done on a level playing field...
The Rouleur photographers and writers have once again travelled to bike races far and wide to find the wonderful – along with a smattering of the weird – for the fifth Rouleur Annual…
Fredrik Clement’s take on the Copenhagen World Championships leads the way with the wonderful, Mark Cavendish delivering the goods with aplomb. Richard Williams, chief sports writer for the Guardian, takes us through a special day.
Gerard Brown sticks his lens into the rider’s cabins at the Berlin Six Day to experience the heat and sweat of perhaps the most entertaining evening of racing around. Graeme Fife witnesses another branch of cycle sport struggling to stay afloat in Germany and talks to the men who have ridden there – Mo Burton and Tony Doyle.
They have two Tour de France stories with contrasting styles. Taz Darling tackles the rugged rolling roads of Brittany with her usual brilliance, while Yazuka Wada – whose superb Vuelta story graced the Rouleur Volume 4 annual – takes to the mountains. Author and TV commentator Ned Boulting celebrates the best Tour for years.
Track and time trial star Taylor Phinney is a talented wordsmith too, as his Tour of California essay clearly shows. Daniel Sharp provides stylish imagery.
Herbie Sykes and Paolo Ciaberta witnessed the bizarre Giro di Padania, a crazy mix of rightwing politics, leftwing protests and a bemused peloton, caught slap-bang in the middle of the mayhem. It turned out to be quite a race, for all the wrong reasons…
Olaf Unverzart’s fascination with closed roads leads to spectacular results in his Dead End series of Polaroids. Recently retired professional rider Tom Southam makes sense of it all.
Writer Jack Thurston examines the effects of sleep deprivation to accompany Wig Worland’s gallery of comatose competitors at this year’s Paris-Brest-Paris.
Rouleur Editor Guy Andrews has a peculiar fascination for mundane press releases from professional cycling teams. The missives from Quick Step deserve a category of their own… Guy studies them closely.
Finally, Geoff Waugh scours the mountainsides for exhibitionists, self-promoters, fancy cross-dressers and downright freaks in his Runners collection. Bicycling magazine’s Bill Strickland takes a long, hard look at these shrinking violets.
Rouleur Annual Volume 5 is released on December 2, but you can pre-order now to be sure of securing this limited run edition in plenty of time for Christmas.
At 320 pages, the annual is priced at £37 and is available through rouleur.cc
If you have never come across Peloton magazine now is a good time to make its acquaintance.
I know it's the January 2012 issue, and to be perfectly honest anything relating to 2012 freaks me out more than a little, but this issue is an exceptional one as it's the Photo Annual issue.
Actually, to say it's exceptional implies it is better than the previous issues, when in fact all seven issues preceding this one have been equally as good.
For those of us who enjoy Rouleur and The Ride Journal, Peloton sits comfortably in this esteemed company, and moreover can be enjoyed online.
I miss the delightful smell of the paper that these top-end journals are printed on, but for the convenience of this dropping into my inbox I can live with that.
The video below gives a taster of what this issue has in store and is worth watching in itself.
In their own words, Peloton - fuel for the ride...
peloton Issue 08 Preview from MovePress, LLC on Vimeo.
Where does the time go?! Yes, it's Timeout Tuesday again and this week Cycle Surgery are offering a whole 50% off their favourite RSP front and rear light set.
This week we just need to use TT113 as the checkout code.
Now these are some serious deals as the RSPs are akin to Cateye's commuter range, so grab a bargain today whilst this deal is on.
I like the look of the Radian light set - perfect for the urban commute. Not great to see with, but very good indeed to be seen by...
Even if you run other lights a second set is always useful to have as a backup.
However, if Bontrager is your bag, you might want to get yourself over to Cycle Surgery for their Timeout Tuesday.
