Rad Power Bikes may close soon
- Thread starter Dewey
- Start date
Chazmo
fat-tire biker
- Region
- USA
- City
- Central Massachusetts
Well, the stock on their site is almost sold out. I was looking at the $1000 RadRover 6+ fatty, and I realized it was unavailable. I hope at least some EBR members took advantage of that price to get a nice bike super-cheap. Maintaining a Rad for the next few years shouldn’t be too difficult. Hey, I’ve jumped through a few hoops to keep my Juiced (R.I.P. 10/2024) fatty going, and there are a lot fewer of those than RadRovers.
Good luck, Rad owners.
Good luck, Rad owners.
Chargeride
Well-Known Member
Is the name not worth anything, Im pretty sure most brands have moved on through restructures and takeovers at some point.
Theres just too many players out there, I feel most people dont care who makes the bike thesedays.
I get shown bikes by people and its all about the features.
'who makes it?'
Dunno, looks at frame and reads for first time...
'hiwonchibunky'.
'Its chinese...whatever'
Theres just too many players out there, I feel most people dont care who makes the bike thesedays.
I get shown bikes by people and its all about the features.
'who makes it?'
Dunno, looks at frame and reads for first time...
'hiwonchibunky'.
'Its chinese...whatever'
And they are not alone, nor limited to the ebike side of things alone. Just this week Scottish MTB/Cycling wear company ENDURA are laying off most of its Scottish workforce and relocating to the London HQ of its parent company after huge loses last 2 years, it's basically being folded into other outwear companies of the owners (JD sports), losing it's unique Scottish identity in the process if it survives at all.
Rapha, the high end road clothing company is shutting many premises world wide. Canyon just reported they have suffered enormous loses, putting future in doubt though still surviving so far, that was a huge industry shock. Fox announced it has suffered 43% losses, likewise Merida taking an enormous $105m hit last year, UK long standing MTB brand Orange had to be rescued, Canadian Rocky Mountain MTB brand in a similar position, YT and Kona both companies bought back by original owners to save them. Van Moof bust and now restructuring, Cowboy, who helped many Van Moof owners left high and dry, now in big trouble themselves, likely bankrupt. GT bankrupt, now restructuring of some kind. So many household or longstanding names gone or changed completely. Even Shimano has downgraded for 2026.
The list goes on and on. Are people not buying bikes anymore? Or did the world buy too many during the covid boom and there are just too many bikes out there? Probably that plus with a cost of living crises, bikes are not high priority but considered leisure industry. Ironic in that after the 1929 crash people turned back to bikes to get around as cars were too expensive. Now bikes are mostly viewed as high end luxuries and cars essential to living.
Chargeride
Well-Known Member
I will have to say I only heard of RAD through this forum, Ive never seen one and none of my friends know the brand, because I brought them up on a night out and just blank stares.
I think they are mostly a US or at least North American company. I remember reading they were starting to sell in UK but with all their bikes being on American settings, throttles etc they were struggling to change to UK/EU standards. Plus it's a very competitive market here already. They aren't alone, a lot of the brands featured here seem to sell in just the US. Aventon is another one.
mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
there are still tons of them here, probably the most common single brand. but a successful business isn’t just about volume, you have to make a profit on each (or most) item over a sustained period of time.
almost 10% of their current liabilities are unpaid tariffs!
almost 10% of their current liabilities are unpaid tariffs!
Base
Bike nerd
- Region
- Europe
- City
- in the exact center of the Netherlands
What I hear from our sales guys.... Market got indeed into a standstill two years ago, last year sales did not really pick up, if dealers sold bikes it was in 90% out of their own too big stockpile. So that meant a lot to the manufacturing and stock for brands. (btw GT is PON.bike...). So we see a lot things happening at this moment, less bikes produced, much later introductions of models, manufacturing pulled to one location for the OEM (look at what PON.bike did for most of their overseas production, pulled it almost all to the Netherlands) and manufacturing facilities are closing. Also I read a lot from my former co-workers that they are leaving the bike-bizz.
So big shake-up for these companies, Corona brought a one time big bubble of sales, for all local sport activities. we see that in the retail landscape for all of those products, from hiking boots, backyard pools to bikes. Pools and boots are not that difficult products, they will overcome the overstock situation, bikes are a different story, products have low margin, have a shorter "new" lifespan and iff every company starts to discount all the companies get hurt by a negative ebitda.
we will see in a few years who have survived this hurricane season for the bike industry...
stompandgo
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Speaking of Pon.bike, Cannondale has dropped the MAP pricing rules in the USA as of the first of the year. Others will most likely follow. I'm also hearing that Cervelo is not long for this world. We shall see.
Chargeride
Well-Known Member
Buy a similar bike and put RAD stickers on it.
Jeez Cervelo? Along with Canyon in trouble that's 2 of the big beasts, pro peloton, new generation facing headwinds. Bike biz really hurting. Are Cervelo direct to consumer as well?
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
Chinese scrap metal (as I call it) that's why that brand is unheard of in the UK and the rest of Europe. Rad had tried but failed in Europe. The only brand of that kind you can hear of in the EU is Engwe.
Base
Bike nerd
- Region
- Europe
- City
- in the exact center of the Netherlands
Chazmo
fat-tire biker
- Region
- USA
- City
- Central Massachusetts
Do you mean PON or your colleagues, Base?
Base is PON in trouble generally? Or just individual brands?
Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
SoCal is crawling with Rads, too. I see more school kids than adults on them, but parents hauling young kids on Rad cargo bikes are a pretty common sight. A very popular choice for surfboard transport as well. The vast majority here have 20" wheels with 3" or wider tires.
Guessing a good half of the many, many ebikes I see out and about here are Rads. With that kind of market penetration, hard to understand what went wrong. Did product liability suits play a significant role?
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RunForTheHills
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
This is probably not a good analogy and I am not a finance expert, but back when I started in IT, Novell owned about 80% of the server market. Then they overreached and tried to compete against Microsoft in the desktop OS and application market. They bought WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, and Unix Systems Laboratories. Now Novel doesn't exist anymore and Microsoft owns the server market, desktop market, and application suite market. They were a very solid company, but then over-leveraged themselves trying to get into a different market when they should have focused on their core strength. Or at least taken it more slowly and done more internal development instead of acquisitions.
Base
Bike nerd
- Region
- Europe
- City
- in the exact center of the Netherlands
PON has very deep pockets, so they wont end up as some other pure bike brand owners. PON is indeed struggling like the other bike OEM's, so they are slimlining the brands and product ranges (like most, I see it daily around me). When CSG was still owned by Dorel there was a significant overlap in the portfolio and although they did sell out some patented stuff to their suppliers (.....) they had to reduce the product lines when they where bought by PON.bike. And if you look closely you would see that some of te PON.bike brands use the same frame molds, wheels are no longer special, hiw many Lefties are actually still used and other things get more in line with the rest of the portfolio.
You can see the same wiht other big OEM's, Trek is abandoning the Trek brand for the urban line for the (E-)bikes build at Diamant, Accell is streamlining their ranges and adopt a more car like platform idea and reducing the overall manufacturing locations, Belgian brands are also growing closer in their line up. Flyer for example is also fully suckt into the main factory of their new owners.
So for this moment less innovation, more platform based products and still stress on the ebitda of the OEM's. And indeed I hear a lot of old co-workers from past employers and current who are seeking their adventures outside of the bike-biz
