The Shelves Are Bare

[Alaskan]

Everyone is out of stock on everything, especially bicyckes (not just ebikes) and their components.

Global manufacturer's and material suppliers of just about every thing have adopted near universal minimizing and trimming of inventory to what can be produced and shipped just in time to just keep up with end user demand.

The sudden, dramatic surge in demand for bikes and their components due to covid, the disruption in production and shipping schedules that has resulted from covid, the lag in material supplies to manufacturers due to covid have all stalled and delayed everyone's production and delivery schedules.

And thus here we are, waiting for our bikes and the parts needed to fix them.

The shelves are bare. Howling and whining about it won't help. It is what it is. We just have to learn patience and practice restraint. Sorry

 

[Nova Haibike]

The entire pipeline is out of whack. It is slowly catching up; I have been able to order some tires, tubes, and other consumables. But there is a lot I still cannot get. I ran out of helmets, and one of my suppliers which has a dozen warehouses across the country has zero in stock. When I say zero, I do not mean one particular model or size, I mean the literally have zero helmets available. Crazy.

There is no shortage of used bikes though, at least not around here. On Saturday, my shop must have taken in around a dozen donations. On that same day, we sold all the refurbished ones we had.

 

[fooferdoggie]

I bought tubes and brake pads and tires right after the pandemic started plus brake bleed kits. and a couple of chains.

 

[BigNerd]

Multiple threads about this but I do think there is some location dependency here.

There are a few shops in my area that are well stocked in both bikes and parts.

Much easier/cheaper to find things on Amazon now too... so I think the supply chain is starting to catch up.

 

[johnriggins410]

youll find jimmy hoffa before youll find a bike saddle anywhere here in nj!

 

[harryS]

I've had a balky barrel shifter on one bike all summer. Finally got so hard to turn I injured my right thumb. Now I cannot twist anything w/o pain. Turned out the shifter had broken. Decided to get a trigger shifter from China and save 20 bucks. Will be waiting a month.

On the other hand, the foam grips that I bought on amazon in 2019 are even cheaper in 2020. I bought some.

 

[JuicePower]

So in Walmart I get Slime in automotive and it is 2 aisles from bike racks. No adult bikes.

The mask police do not go on bike paths where bikes and joggers go to escape lockdown.

Our health clubs were closed. How many bikes are people who lived on treadmills?

Some plants in China were closed for many weeks. My favorite line is "bikes are the new toilet paper"

Largest local bike store has warehouse holding over 600, he wiped out much of his stock.

 

[BigNerd]

I've also noticed more bike related accessories in stock in Target and Walmart.

No bikes... but lots of helmets, locks, seats and other stuff that was much harder to find a few months ago.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I do think there is some location dependency here.

I've had little issues getting stuff in the EU.

True. It seems Europe is surprisingly well stocked. It is hard to buy American-made stuff here (Amazon does not ship to Europe now), and the availability of parts and accessories is somewhat limited. For instance, you cannot buy any tyre or any chain you like but shelves here are not empty. If I cannot get an item in the largest Polish online store, I just visit websites of major German stores, which gladly ship the goods to Poland, and these stores ship fast. It seems Germany is especially well stocked country, well, that's an eighty million cycling nation anyway. (Anyone riding a Riese & Muller here?)

I was wondering how hard that would be to buy an e-bike here and now. Not every new model is available. Still, fancy I wanted a new 2021 Vado SL 5.0 EQ. It's there.

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[Cowlitz]

I made a trip to the local Walmarche. I hadn't been there for a couple of weeks. I noticed that they seemed to be getting a few bikes in. There were a few adult sized bikes where there had been none, and quite a few munchkin bikes. I do live in a very truck centric area. Diesel trucks are the favored mode of transportation, not bicycles and once again there are no bike lanes or trails here.

The shelves with bike accessories were fully stocked.

 

[Deacon Blues]

A nearby bike store that only sells ebikes is chalk-full of newly arrived ebikes from Europe (R&M and Moustache). The owner has had no problem ordering all the bikes he needed.
On the other hand, in late Spring I replaced my chain and rear cassette on my road bike. I had to go to four bike shops until I found one that had a Shimano 105 11 speed cassette in stock.

 

[JRA]

Might be the case for 10-12 spd drivetrains but doesn't seem to be affecting the 9spd components. Just ordered two chains in order to make one because they don't make 9spd chains longer than 116 links and I need at least 124 for my new Box 11/50 cassette I was given the other day.....Oh well, next time I'll only have to order one. No issues with brake pads or wheel components either.

No doubt there are supply issues due to demand and all such connected to the pandemic but hopefully the interest in bicycles in general will remain strong enough to keep the manufacturers eyes on getting out product.

 

[percymon]

Just bought my first ebike (UK) and was fortunate to find a few models in my local town bike shop. Not the right size frames but at least I could try them for size and compare models physically. They seemed to have unsold orders coming through but anything from 4-24 weeks dependent upon model/make etc.
I got lucky, my nearest Giant retail store had the right bike in my frame size in stock (display), happy to take that. Whilst some of their accessory shelves were quite full components were in short supply.

 

[Dallant]

Everyone is out of stock on everything, especially bicyckes (not just ebikes) and their components.

Global manufacturer's and material suppliers of just about every thing have adopted near universal minimizing and trimming of inventory to what can be produced and shipped just in time to just keep up with end user demand.

The sudden, dramatic surge in demand for bikes and their components due to covid, the disruption in production and shipping schedules that has resulted from covid, the lag in material supplies to manufacturers due to covid have all stalled and delayed everyone's production and delivery schedules.

And thus here we are, waiting for our bikes and the parts needed to fix them.

The shelves are bare. Howling and whining about it won't help. It is what it is. We just have to learn patience and practice restraint. Sorry

This really involves lots of industries/companies. I’m told an exercise bike I’m interested in couldn't ship till 2nd week of Nov. at earliest. Better Christmas shop now!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have reconsidered my opinion. A friend of mine needs a nice-looking, good, and possibly not the most expensive urban e-bike for ladies. I started shopping for her; If I say "Go for it" she'll buy the bike instantly.

Those who know me are aware I know something about e-bikes. Yet my shopping has totally failed. Nothing I would find for her. Unavailable, wrong size or ugly or obsolete or ill-specified if available at all! Some e-bikes could be bought but for breath-taking price. (Talking about the market situation in Poland with possible import from Germany if a local bike store in Warsaw could service such a bike in Warsaw).

"Shelves are bare"? It's a disaster!

P.S. I thought that would be Cube Kathmandu ONE Easy Step 625. Not available and even not in the future plans of Cube!

 

[PaD]

Shimano offers 25 different groupset (road and mtb). Sram probably the same amount.
Schwalbe has over 80 different tires and several of them are then available ( well , maybe) in different varieties. Add to that all different sizes.
How many different e-bike brands are sold in US or over the internet?
There is so much s*it ( good s*it and bad s*it) produced today so every reseller( lbs or online) has to choose among an overwhelming supply.
It’s impossible even for the producers to keep a stock of everything they list as their products. And as @Alaskan wrote in the first post the present surge in demand and disruption in production really affect the supply.

 

[Latitude]

I have been pretty lucky here in rural southwestern Ontario and at my Trek store 1 1/2 hours away (or on Amazon), getting any components I have needed, including some tools. E-bike inventories have been low, but I was incredibly fortunate to find the bike I wanted, in a rarely inventoried small frame size, on the floor when I first went shopping. At this time of year though, I imagine retailers won’t be in a hurry to restock a lot of bike inventory just before winter.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The devil is in the detail. You still can buy a helmet or a bike pump. Try to buy the service parts for your Shimano drive-train. Not sure how it affected North America but the spare parts have virtually disappeared from Europe. I had a very simple need: to buy the 10-12t sprocket set for the CS-M7100-12 cassette of my Trance E+. Nope. There has been a single online store in Poland that had the part number Y1X498020 in stock. I bought it just to find it was the last item they had. Lucky me. I was shopping in German stores to find the predicted availability of the part was 8 weeks of waiting!

We're living in interesting times...

 

[Dallant]

So far the spare Bosch battery & Trek ebike I ordered last month are still a no show. Most other generic items seem to be plentiful. Big Midwest stores like Scheels that carry ebikes have a few but certainly no real choice.

 

[Akrotiri]

So far the spare Bosch battery & Trek ebike I ordered last month are still a no show. Most other generic items seem to be plentiful. Big Midwest stores like Scheels that carry ebikes have a few but certainly no real choice.

It’s still in stock from the German retailer I purchased mine from. Not sure if they ship to the US though. Even if they don’t ship there you can show it to your LBS to put pressure on them incase they start giving you the run-around.

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