Rad bikes going up

[ritestuf]

A little birdie told me Rad bikes are going up in price $200 in August. If that's true, I'm glad I got my 2019 Radrover last month for $1500. Good timing!
My guess is Trump's tariffs on China has everyone scrambling to outsource to Taiwan for manufacturing. At least the bike frame, anyway. Good luck finding a plant. It's just a small island with limited abilities.
I don't think a lot of people know that the actual parts that make up the whole bike are made in countries all over the world. Shimano gears are made in Japan and other parts are made in the UK, Mexico, and heck, probably some stuff made in the USA!
I don't even see avocados on sale anymore at my local SoCal grocery chain. They're imported from Mexico and Trump threatened to slap tariffs on them too!
If you're on the fence as to whether or not you want to pull the trigger on a new bike, I'd do it now. My best friend is thinking a Giant LAFree +1 which retails for $2400. He asked me what I thought, but I am biased towards the $50 Amazon gift card! lol. I told him to offer the dealer $1500 and let the salesperson try to negotiate back up to maybe $1900 or sweeten the deal with accessories. The markup on that stuff is ridiculous. C'mon, $250 for a plastic helmet???
Summer is at hand and now is the time to get a good deal on a bike and go ride it!

 

[mrgold35]

I've noticed ebikes is like real estate sometimes. If you are waiting for the best deal down the road, the best time to buy was yesterday.

Rad has done a pretty good job in my book offering an entry level ebike since 2015 at a reasonable price point with very good customer service. The 2 /12 years and +7000 miles was worth more to me than the $200 tariffs that might be added. I had to pay for shipping back in 2016 for two radrovers; while, shipping was free when I purchased my Radcity in 2018.

The tariff price hike along with free shipping would help even things out in the long run.

 

[ritestuf]

Totally agree about Rad Bikes value. That's why I bought one. I think you missed my point though.
It's not that the prices might go up. They are going up. This comes straight from Rad Bikes. Any increase in costs from the manufacturer to the distributor just gets passed on to the consumer.
Not just with bikes, that goes for anything.
My point was that if you wait to buy a Rad bike until August, you'll pay $200 more for the exact same bike than you'll pay in July. I'd kick myself for waiting!
That $200 could have gone to a lot of cold beers after a fun day's ride!

 

[mrgold35]

I was thinking along the lines of the price really hasn't changed that much since 2015. The 2018/2019 Radrover is a much better ebike compared to the 2015 version. You would spend +$500 to bring a 2015 rover to the 2018/2019 level. I figured the price would have to increase sometime and the tariffs are a pretty good reason. I doubt they would drop the $200 increase in August if the tariffs went away a few months later.

 

[atariguy]

Last year, about this time, they did announce an increase due to tariffs. I was on the fence about getting a Rover, and ended up buying it the last day before the price change. Then a few months later they decided to eat the tariffs, and the price went back to what it had been.

 

[Mike Radenbaugh]

Mike from RPB here... @ritestuf , I believe you likely saw messaging talking about last August's $200 price increase that were caused by the tariffs, I can confirm that there will NOT be a $200 increase coming in August.

@Deleted Member 4210, I would like to clarify something you said. While we did bring on strategic partners and experienced ecommerce business operators to our team recently, they were just that and not VCs. Our new partners came aboard because they have a true passion for what we are doing and felt they could help us spread the power of ebikes. They believe in the same things that we as an organization value, and understand we want to offer great products at a great price while building an iconic consumer brand doing good by our customers and the environment.

 

[jcanavera]

However unless something changes, we know that an additional 10% charge is going to be levied on Chinese goods in late August. For any Chinese produced product there is a decision point that businesses and American individuals will have to make. How that translates to Rad is unknown at this time.

But with the Chinese countering today by announcing they will devalue the yuan, it essentially negates a tariff increase because Chinese goods will become cheaper. This puts American produced goods at a greater disadvantage however since it will make all American produced goods more expensive to the Chinese, thus hurting businesses like farmers who export to the Chinese. American tariffs on Chinese goods only helps America if it dissuades Americans, who contrary to what the Trump administration says, to purchase Chinese made goods.

Rad at first passed the tariff through in 2018 but then found ways to eat that tariff increase and bring their prices back to pretariff days. The danger in these tariff wars is whether American's are willing to pay higher prices and buy American. And then with devaluation the Chinese people have to make the same decision as to whether to spend more to buy American.

 

[AZOldTech]

...whether Americans are willing to pay higher prices and buy American

Does anyone know if there is even an ebike (frame/battery/controller/display... I mean everything minus the Shimano stuff) that is made in the US???? All I know is that the few US manufacturing that is leaving China, is going NOT to the US but to nearby Asian countries, so that they can still be supplied (raw materials and all) by China. In fact it would take a decade or more and much much higher prices (like double or triple) if the US was to again start making stuff here, including all the raw materials. And no US company will ever do that knowing that their sales will nosedive because their costs would skyrocket and so will their retail prices. Not to mention that they won't be able to sell any of these much higher priced products anywhere else in the world as they will be competing with much lower priced products.