[Closed] MTB sales over the last couple of years?

Dunno about anyone else but in our shop mtb sales are down 60% from 3 years ago (and if you take just bikes over 1k it higher than that!!).

I'm not surprised sales are down,so many people alienated over the wheel size's.I was looking for a 26" short travel FS to replace my ageing GIANT NRS,fancied a Giant Anthem,started looking round & all the hype is 29" or 650B meaning all my wheels & tyres are scrap. Decided to stick with the NRS & if I get another bike it'll be either a mint used 26"Anthem & upgrade it with my good stuff or get a CX.

I'm not surprised sales are down,so many people alienated over the wheel size's.I was looking for a 26" short travel FS to replace my ageing GIANT NRS,fancied a Giant Anthem,started looking round & all the hype is 29" or 650B meaning all my wheels & tyres are scrap. Decided to stick with the NRS & if I get another bike it'll be either a mint used 26"Anthem & upgrade it with my good stuff or get a CX.

Have you tried Paul's Cycles? Last time I looked they had some Anthem 26ers left in stock.

I bet sales of road bikes have more than made up for decline in mtb numbers?

I'm in the market for a new FS, have been for a couple of years, but wheel size / 'standards' changes (1x10, 1x11 / 15mm thru, 20mm) meant i've held off. Also to buy a 'better' bike than my current one would cost me about £4k

so many people alienated over the wheel size's

I don't believe that - most buyers of mtbs will know next to nothing about wheel sizes and will just go with whatever the shop/mags tells them. They also won't care about the change because they're buying a complete bike and it's likely to be their only bike. STW is not representative of the majority of bike buyers.

My understanding is that the success of Wiggo and Froome has lead to road bike sales going up a lot and mtbs paying the price for that and hence dropping (or at best staying very flat).

Downward trend in market share over last 6 years (trend has been that way since the LA-TDF days) but flat in actual numbers over last 3, maybe longer. ie, cycling has grown outside of MTB while MTB is stagnated.
Nemesis is right, I'd say only a fairly small percentage of buyers have been holding off or put off buying by wheel-size debates. Most go with the 'norm' - ie 26", then 29" for most, now 650B.

I have some UK bike trade numbers here if you have specific qs that they include but it's more info on import than sales. Reliable UK-wide sales stats of higher-end bikes have always been near-impossible to get.

What I've found over the last few years is a lot of the 'rank and file,ride every sunday at a centre' crowd have defected to road bikes.Usually through buying a cheaper one through ride to work (n+1) and finding it easier/more convenient/more social/strava.Then finding themselves riding mtb less often and eventually buying a higher spec road bike.
There's a core of mtb'ers who have no interest in ever riding road but they are disinterested in any of the mainstream brands and are very knowledgeable/picky in what they want (santa cruz/carbon/enduro!!) or very value/price conscious (YT/canyon/rose).In which case they are'nt going to buy from us!!
Road bike sales in the US have plateaued in a big way and brands seem intent on chasing smaller and more specialized niches (fat,gravel,fat gravel etc) rather than focusing on the huge interest in just bikes for riding.

Nemesis' comments reflect what my LBS has seen over the last 24 months or so. The real high end stuff still moves pretty well though.

At the other end of the scale, the local 'warehouse' LBS seems to be doing a roaring trade in Mongoose and Ammaco bikes mind.

Here's my theory.
The wheel size thing also means that a lot of "entry level" hardtails are ruinously heavy. If you check spec lists of a lot of sub £1k hardtails, especially 29ers, you'll see that a lot of them weigh between 13 and 15kg. That's heavier than most STWers Enduro Sled (regardless of bathroom scale accuracy) In the sub £600 bracket a lot of MTBs were previously sold to commuters and so on. An entry level 26er four or five years ago would have had a Tora fork and SLX kit, weighing around the 12kg mark. Not very heavy for your average Joe, especially as the first thing a lot of buyers do is pick the bike up to see how heavy it is. Now that bikes in that category seem to be spec'ing Alivio and Acera drivetrain and suntour/low-end RS forks, commuters will be put off by the sheer heft of the thing.

Also, because of the weight and quality of the components, folk serious abut MTBing think they have to have SLX/XT and air forks on the spec sheet. Bikes in that category are now well over the £1k mark, and you won't sell those to commuters.

SO, today's big wheel MTBs are heavy and poorly equipped at the same price point as the 26er hardtails of 2010-12. 29 has effectively ruined low-end choice by forcing Acera chainsets onto folk that deserve better.

Scapegoat +1

Currently looking for a new bike for 12 yr old son at yr end and with a planned budget of circa £700 its largely 27.5, Acera and Suntour and 13 kg 🙁

average Joe, especially as the first thing a lot of buyers do is pick the bike up to see how heavy it is

Also to buy a 'better' bike than my current one would cost me about £4k

Every time I look at a new bike I just see a load of things that won't work or I don't like.

Repeat sales of middle & high-end MTBs must be minimal

Repeat sales of middle & high-end MTBs must be minimal

I find it hard to believe that wheel size has had a huge impact on bike sales. Tightwads are always looking for an excuse to delay spending. It will just be something else once wheel size stops being the excuse for some people.

angeldust - Member

I find it hard to believe that wheel size has had a huge impact on bike sales.

Pretty much everyone I know has put off buying a new bike, or bought a second hand frame and parts as a consequence.

The same thing is now starting to happen with road bikes as people wait and see which new standards will be piggybacked onto the change to discs.

Just anecdotal evidence, obviously.

My bike cost about £1500 9 years ago. There is absolutely no way that I could afford to replace it at today's prices.

The day it dies will probably be the day that I find something else to do on a Monday night :-/

Also. As my shed is exactly the same length as the bike I'm betting that a 29er wouldn't fit in it.

They then ask you 'is it light'? (because they have no frame of reference) to which you reply 'yes Sir/Madam'.And they reply 'oh yes it is is'nt it'.

Whereas your honest reply should be "No, it weighs more than Hora's Orange, and that was only a medium FFS"

It's an interesting question actually OP, and the actual answer is probably quite closely guarded by retailers/manufacturers as it's information that will drive their marketing strategies and forwards investment or the next couple of years...

A Brief Googling has yielded the following:

[url] http://imba.org.uk/research-reports/uk-mountainbike-usage/ [/url]

[url] http://www.ctc.org.uk/resources/ctc-cycling-statistics [/url]

[url] https://corporate.sky.com/documents/pdf/press_releases/2011/the_british_cycling_economy [/url]

none of which really answer your question, but do at least examine cycling uptake and participation, which you'd expect to indicate sales trends maybe?

There might be segmented data available from Mintel or similar organisations for bicycle retail, but you'd have to pay for that.

TBH the closest you are likely to get is something like usage data rather than sales figures, those should bare some relationship to sales. whether or not organisations like BC or CTC go into fine levels of detail regarding how many people do which specific type of cycling year on year I don't know.

Usage data for MTB rides Vs Road rides could also come from Strava Metro perhaps? you could look at participation in organised events and races by type perhaps? and then general cycling trends could be extrapolated into sales trends possibly...

angeldust - Member
I find it hard to believe that wheel size has had a huge impact on bike sales.

The opposite for me, most of the people I know have rushed out to embrace the new wheel sizes, the trails are awash with Mach6's, Troys, Bronsons and Nomads around my way and you never see a 26" HT around, they are all 29ers.
However, feedback I get from the bikes shops around Hong Kong is that MTB sales are flat or down over the last couple of years as its mostly the same people buying MTB's (a lot tend to upgrade yearly here).

I'm a member of BC and have not been asked about the types of biking I do or the proportion of each so I suspect that they might not have those figures.

Strava does have the ability for you to set up different bikes that you can assign to a category and log rides against each but I've no idea whether they aggregate that data. While not everyone uses Strava (I suspect it's much more road orientated) it's a large enough sample to be able to extrapolate.

Rorschach - Member

What I've found over the last few years is a lot of the 'rank and file,ride every sunday at a centre' crowd have defected to road bikes...

Yes, and another sector of mtb-ers have realised they don't ride anything that can't be done on a CX bike and have moved to that...

MTB has suffered due to the massive, massive rise in road bike riding since the olympics and Wiggins tour win. it is by far the most popular form of cycling now.

MTB sales decline has nothing to do with Wheel size issues, its just Road riding is in peoples faces a huge amount more, so people want to have a go at road riding, hence buying more of them and not MTB's

Yes, and another sector of mtb-ers have realised they don't ride anything that can't be done on a CX bike and have moved to that...

I do agree road biking has grown quite a bit over the last few years which has led to many people moving away from the mtb. I did it for about a year myself as I'd started to get a bit fed up with the 2+ hour drive to get a decent trail for the mtb but I'm now back on the mtb having bought the frame and built one up from some old and new bits.

The wheel size argument is pretty irrelevant as it's been around since 29ers came on the scene a few years ago, people will buy what the can afford, like the look of and the ride of (if they've demoed before buying). Price is probably the most deciding factor for many buyers these days given the big price increases seen in bikes at the very high end but also the lower end and the corresponding lower quality kit being fitted to get "entry" level bikes in to a certain price bracket. Going in to one of my two lbs' they have either £3k+ big brand bikes or sub-£1k cycle to work type bikes, nothing in between.

If I'm a betting man my money would be on more of the manufacturers going to the direct sales model like Canyon, Rose and YT have to try and drive sales. You just need to look at Commencal as an example of this as I believe they've made the switch for 2014/15 bikes.

I certainly think direct Sales must be hitting shops sales

It also makes sense that as people buy road and CX bikes they have less money for an MTB

But I think that perhaps bikes are peaking. I have a fairly elderly Trek Fuel ex. The forks but a bit rubbish but basically it does the job. Never on a ride have I thought. "If only had one of the newer rear suspension designs". For me it just works so even I had some money why would i but a new bike?

Well I must be the odd one out, because I'm about to buy a new high-end trail bike shortly 🙂

No idea on sales trends, but having been out of the game for a good few years I've noticed that top end offerings from the mainstream brands are a hell of a lot better quality than they were 10 years ago. Suspensions now seem to work efficiently with decent pivot bearings and frames are actually stiff enough to cope. Prices are obviously up too, but I'd rather pay more for a better bike.

Fox forks rrp, crackers and sums it al up.

I don't believe that - most buyers of mtbs will know next to nothing about wheel sizes and will just go with whatever the shop/mags tells them

Also all the 26 er stuff you had that you could sell is now worth a lot less than it was before so you need more cash to upgrade as well.

9 speed 26 er [ and a SS of course] till they die

A lot of my disposable income used to go on my MTB - replacing worn parts/upgrades etc. I was riding every weekend.

Then I got into road riding and I spend an awful lot less overall - a chain on my MTB might last me a year or so, on my summer road bike, more like 4 years.

I've no need to replace my MTB but as it's 26 I'm inclined to keep it till it totally wears out now it has virtually no resale value. If 26 hadn't been killed off, I suspect I'd have bought some new forks by now.

For MTB makers I'm a disaster - they used to get a few hundred quid + off me every year and now they get virtually nothing. Road kit doesn't wear out so fast so my overall cycling expenditure has fallen thru he floor and at the same time I'm riding an awful lot more.

I suspect the fact consumers are struggling with debt and day to day living costs has had a big impact here too.

It'd be interesting to look at a breakdown of manufacturers' target audiences and associated revenue/profit and compare enthusiasts with non-enthusiasts.

For e.g. Cotic's market must be entirely the high end, frequent spending types, but Trek I suspect gets a greater % of profit from the mass market. Same for LBS's. So diff companies will have been impacted in different ways by the shift towards road riding

I bought a rigid SS 29er because I was spending a fortune on forks, broken frames (a ham yeti), drive trains etc etc.

Spent nothing since I got my new bike.

Mountain biking all the way though!

Bit of all of the above for me. Wheel shenanigans have turned me off from mags and marketing, I've bought more stuff 2nd hand, i've started riding more road and I'm also more willing to make do. Overall I'm riding a lot more though 🙂

Audi have had a similar sales slump. Interesting.

When I purchase my mid-life crisis/40th birthday present (2 years away), it will be a [insert custom builder here, subject to change] steel frame, with [probably] 26" wheels [and maybe even rear canti mounts], because that reflects the kind of riding I still do. And will probably always do - as long as I'm capable of riding a bike on singletrack, in the woods.

So chalk up + 1 for mtb sales, a couple o' years down the line.

ive bought a 29er and a 650b enduro beast this year 😳

well from my view (mountain biker for 25 years / bike shop owner for 12)

i think that mountain bikers are getting older and are now moving in to more diverse cycling - road/cross mainly.
i think that the boom of mountain biking was never followed by such a boom in the next generation. (could be wrong)
see more downhill in the young riders but not the masses of xc racers like there used to be.
you can see it in the types of events. every week and weekend there is a road or cross race on, but no mountain bike events.
Road cycling is mainly club based and is more social, mountain biking is still small groups of mates.

from a shop point of view we started out mainly mountain bikes, but now we mainly service bikes and sell road/cross bikes. we have just in the last year dropped three big mountain bike brands as they only sell when discounted.
dont think the wheel issue had changed sales.

But to put it in to perspective since focusing on servicing and road our sales have quadrupled in the past two years.
next step is coffe/cake bike fit.

dont know what the future holds but i think a number of brands will go direct sales, and lots of shops that stock bikes will go to the wall.

Audi have had a similar sales slump. Interesting.

Golfing bat sales are on the up. Double interesting.

I'd say road bikes have caused a decline to MTB market because:

-£1000 road bike has better spec than £1000 MTB. £1000 MTB feels cheap. You need to spend decent money to get a quality MTB.
-road biking much more accessible, roll out of your front door, time is short = good ride!
-less wear and tear I.e. ongoing costs
-ageing population, wants lower risk during riding
-social growth, more people riding road = more riding buddies
-road is less technical, requires less skill, more fitness. Fitness easier to develop than skill.
-fashion/Zeitgeist, road is all over TV. Everyone knows Wiggins, Cavendish, Kittel, Froome. MTB? Not so...who is British MTB champion?

I used to think road bikes were expensive and then discovered MTB!!!

The wheel size nonsense definitely caused me to delay purchase.

If MTB is on the decline, that's not great news for those areas of Wales and Scotland who were given the funding for trail centres to support the (deprived) local economies...

However if you see lots of roadies coming through your rural village every weekend, time to open a bike cafe?

For me road biking is a very piss poor relation to mountain biking. I can understand why people would take up riding road bikes or why they might do both on/off road riding, but I really don't get why people would move from mountain biking to road biking? For me you lose 99% of the attraction of mountain biking by converting to a roadie. This coming from a road biking background, before I discovered how much more fun mountain biking was. I'm actually surprised mountain biking isn't becoming more popular with all the great trail centres, natural trails v increasingly busy roads and lunatic drivers.

It's a really interesting debate here.

It would appear that road bike sales are increasing at the expense of mountain bike sales. So overall bike sales are booming (just scan through the Halfords annual report which is the best barometer of the mass market, or the Wiggle soundbites on bikebiz which is arguably a bit more specialist, but still shows healthy sales and profit increases).

I am just finishing building my last MTB for a while I think. Fully rigid singlespeed titanium 29er. That takes me out of the market for a good while. I have been into mountain biking since the late 80s when it all began, and have invested a lot over the years as technology has improved, but to me things really peaked and reached a plateau about 5 years ago. Unless you are prepared to spend a hell of a lot, it is hard to beat the bikes that most of us rode back then with something from the 2014 catalogue. Indeed, in most cases, inflation has outstripped the consumer goods index by some margin and the same money today in relative terms would really disappoint.

I am in the process of moving house and packing right now. With our first baby on the way, I am trying to trim down some of the accumulated 'stuff' that I have gathered over my years of riding, including lots of back issues of bike magazine going back to the early 90's. Looking at the price of high end kit in the back of those older copies over the weekend, I was shocked at how much decent kit has increased in price.

The entry price of a decent first bike has more than doubled. The price of a Fox Float has just become stupid (and they used to spec'd on bikes at about the GBP800 mark!). Cycling has always had a relatively high cost of entry to newcomers, but now it is really off putting. Coupled with the fact that people are more time stretched now, and the hassle of cleaning, maintaining and getting to decent trails, I can see why the migration to road cycling has taken a hold. The typical Cyclescheme road bike seems much better spec'd than its equivalent mountain bike cousin.

I ride on and off road, and to me nothing beats a good ride off road. You tend to escape life's pressures much more off road. But such rides take more planning, more prep, more post ride fettling and they are therefore rarer.

For sure the mountain bike boom years are over, but we are probably entering a period of stability after a few years of decline. Back in the day, road bikes benefited from technology developed off road. Now the counter effect is happening, so the road bike boom isn't all bad for mountain bikes.

If MTB is on the decline

I don't think is. Perhaps buying new MTBs is in decline and we are patching up what we have as prices are astronomical.

The entry price of a decent first bike has more than doubled. The price of a Fox Float has just become stupid (and they used to spec'd on bikes at about the GBP800 mark!).

Really?

when they launched in 2002 (IIRC) a Fox Float R was £409, RL was £489 and RLC was £539. They then did a lighter RLT for £569. Can't see any of those being OE on £800 bikes. Vanillas were a bit cheaper.

XTR has got cheaper in real terms, ignoring inflation. You can get carbon MTBs for £1200 or so.

Yes top end stuff has got more expensive, but You still get more for your money at plenty of other price points.

If you read blogs / magazines you would think you need to spend 1k+ for a "heavy hardtail 2k+ for "entry" level trail bike, 3k for dh. Whereas you can get decent road bikes for under 500

Nejee20 in 2009 I got a fox float 32 on a non discounted £740 hardtail

Fair enough. What? Out of interest.

Focus black forest

Looks like that had a Manitou R7, except the Pro, which was nearer £1000?

except he said discounted

FWIW in the time i have been in to MTB - only about 6 years as I was a roadie
Everything has got much more expensive - exchange rates probably???? not sure

SH prices have also become foolish - look at the price folk want for a SH dropper post - often less than 25% off the new price

except he said discounted

Nejee20 in 2009 I got a fox float 32 on a [b]non discounted[/b] £740 hardtail

FWIW in the time i have been in to MTB - only about 6 years as I was a roadie
Everything has got much more expensive - exchange rates probably???? not sure

I think that's the crux of it, there was a definite peak in value, and it probably was about 2007ish, I had a Trek Fuel Ex 9.8 - carbon frame, Fox Float TALAS fork, full XT groupset with X.0 shifters/mech, Juicy Carbon brakes, tubeless wheels etc for £2500. Bikes like that stood out as exceptional value, a 2000 S-Works FSR was £2600, alu frame, XT/XTR group, v-brakes, crap Manitou fork etc, in 7 years bikes got cheaper in absolute terms, and vastly cheaper in real terms, this then corrected itself pretty swiftly, but if you joined in those halcyon days it all seems very expensive now.

It would appear that road bike sales are increasing at the expense of mountain bike sales. So overall bike sales are booming (just scan through the Halfords annual report which is the best barometer of the mass market, or the Wiggle soundbites on bikebiz which is arguably a bit more specialist, but still shows healthy sales and profit increases).

Here is a different perspective. Its only one point of view but it sugests that lots of people are buying high end stuff but sales of main stream bikes is down

[url= http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/19/britain-cycling-craze-myth-dawes-claud-butler-tandem-group ]Guardian Tandem group sales down[/url]

Also to buy a 'better' bike than my current one would cost me about £4k

+1
Every time I look at a new bike I just see a load of things that won't work or I don't like.

Repeat sales of middle & high-end MTBs must be minimal

This. And yes that IS why 650b is marketed so heavily - they need to woo the likes of us into buying something.

I went to my local Specialized dealer with money in my pocket for either a new helmet or shoes.
It was all road stuff or really cheap MTB . Money stayed in my pocket.

It was the 2009 one:

I bought my first MTB - a mid range Marin with 6 months paper round money and it "looked" very much like what everyone was riding in the magazines.

Fascinating comments above

It's daft what the bike companies are charging now, as is the cost of tyres, brake pads and other consumables

It's ok for people with a disposable income but it must be a nightmare for youngsters trying to get into the sport - those without well of parents - those not willing to fork out £40 for a new cassette every 3 months or a £80 on a set of mud tyres

The market is shrinking hence the push on 650b and electric bikes - invent something which isn't necessary and convince people that they need it

Pick up a copy of MRB or MBUK and the writers/editor - no sorry - the advertisers paying their wage - will tell you what you need

those not willing to fork out £40 for a new cassette every 3 months or a £80 on a set of mud tyres

Why would either of those things be necessary?

You can get a good bike for a not crazy sum of money, the top end has gone crazy, agreed, but it's not essential to spend £7k+.

The exchange rate story mentioned is an interesting part of the issue albeit it started back in 2008.

IIRC, after a decade of containment by the Japanese Gov't (which followed their financial meltdown at the end of the last century) they undertook to revalue the Yen on the international market in mid 2008. Despite the global economic implosion, this was relatively successful and the Yen almost doubled in value against the USD/GBP. Big hikes were seen in prices for Japanese products across the world & this, IMHO, was the catalyst for the (relatively) sudden rise in bike prices seen at the time. It was around then there were many discussions about it becoming elitist/expensive etc.

A quick search* shows this to be reflected in the money markets and, whilst things have subsequently settled down, I'm not sure the consumer has seen the benefit.

It is, of course, entirely possible that there has been a reduction in component cost to manufacturers which has been offset by increased manufacturing costs for frames etc but this doesn't seem to be reflected in retail prices of components.

*[url= http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=JPY&to=GBP&view=10Y ]10 year Yen/GBP trace[/url]

If you look around there are still a few bargains to be found. But I've noticed that manufacturers seem to be getting more savvy at limiting supply to match demand. Less new stock on the shop floor and less discounted old stock at end of season. The days are gone when shops would have racks of bikes standing in the showroom.

Same thing has happened in the ski world too. Less stock and therefore less discounting.

when I worked for Freeborn, we could sell a Rockhopper with Rockshox fork (with oil damper) and Avid hydraulic disc brakes for £600 this was probably a 2008 model?

If you look at what you now get for £600 its barely more than an entry level canal path capable "MTB"

things have gotten expensive...

Doubt the wheel size thing is that much of a factor. Some people on here might hesitate to buy a new bike because of it but I would think that's a pretty small percentage of the people who walk through bike shop doors. I reckon a combination of:
-Road cannibalizing sales
-People are generally more skint
-A lot of people who bought bikes a few years ago now getting a fright when they look at upgrade/replacement cost
-Just one of those things.
Lots of sports/outdoor pursuits go through highs and (relative) lows of popularity. E.g. a few years ago climbing was supposedly the fastest growing sport in the UK, then a bit later it was triathlon. Comes and goes.

Rockhopper with Rockshox fork (with oil damper) and Avid hydraulic disc brakes for £600 this was probably a 2008 model?

The 2006/7/8 Rockhopper discs were all £700 IIRC. The 2008 definitely was (ms njee20 has one!), and it came with a basic and very heavy Tora fork, Deore/SLX 9 speed group etc. 6 years on you can buy a Canyon Yellowstone Al 4.9 for £649, with RS forks, 10 speed SLX/XT groupset etc etc. An Inbred with Rebas, 10 speed X5 etc is £900.

Yes, an equivalent Rockhopper is more expensive, but the market's just changed a bit. I do think there's some use of some rather thick rose tinted spectacles in use when folk remember bikes!

I'm not surprised that MTB sales in the UK are declining, the marketing is all wrong. Go into your local supermarket, pick up a mountain bike magazine and ask yourself whether what is in there is likely to appeal to the sort of middle aged, middle class person with disposable income. No, it's all about the gnarr. If you are not throwing yourself down rocky chutes, launching off drops and getting a loyalty card at your local A&E then you have no place in our sport grandad. Go buy a road bike.

A few months back I went for a ride on the Glenfiddich estate. To get there I drove along the Cabrach road. I must have passed at least 20 roadies sweating their way up the climb. I then spent five hours riding totally deserted landrover tracks and was left wondering why those roadies would prefer to ride up a ribbon of tarmac being buzzed by cars when the climb up from the lodge to Corryhabble hill is every bit as tough a challenge and a lot more fun. For some reason they just don't think mountain biking is for them and I can't really blame them.

when the climb up from the lodge to Corryhabble hill is every bit as tough a challenge and a lot more fun.

Because that's personal? I'd rather ride on the road than ride fire roads/land rover tracks.

Yes bikes have got more expensive but then most components do last a lot longer than they previously used too which is also probably a contributing factor as to why mtb sales are declining.

My first mtb was some emelle thing which cost about £300 but the parts on it were rubbish, I'd managed to shear the axle on my cranks within 3 months of owning it back in the mid 90s whereas if you look at my current cranks I've had them over 5 years now and they are still going strong and never had an issue. Even my brakes, 8 year old Hope M4s have nothing wrong with them so why change them.

On average I'd say I have a bike/frame for at least 4/5 years before I consider changing it because it's not worth anywhere what I originally paid for it and if I were to change it any sooner I wouldn't feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of the stuff. Yes I've just spend a bit of cash this year buying a new frame, forks and wheels but for me I'll get plenty of use out of the bike and it justifies the small fortune I've just spent.

As for my next bike I'll almost certainly look at the direct sales stuff because it's such better value for money now. But I'm now essentially out of the mtb market for the next 4/5 years barring anything I break that needs replaced and even then I'd be looking at reduced or 2nd hand parts.

A few months back I went for a ride on the Glenfiddich estate. To get there I drove along the Cabrach road ... and was left wondering why those roadies would prefer to ride up a ribbon of tarmac being buzzed by cars

Because that's personal? I'd rather ride on the road than ride fire roads/land rover tracks

Fair enough, there was a time when I would have felt the same. Each to their own, but I wonder whether all of those 20 odd people that I saw (and the dozens that I didn't) would really prefer the road climb over the traffic free option and what is stopping them from trying the alternative?

Perhaps they prefer riding bikes to driving cars?

I'm not sure how important this really is. There are very few sports that you can do from your front door. I agree that it is one of the plus points of road cycling, but you don't hear golfers complain because there isn't a golf course at the bottom of their garden. Even roadies are often happy to travel to get to those fun climbs.

The fact is that middle aged folk with disposable income feel that road cycling is a sport for them and don't feel the same way about mountain biking. How many "celebrities" you you know that ride mountain bikes? My point is that a lot of these people could be attracted to XC mountain biking, if it were marketed properly.

What year was it that the cost of raw materials shot up? I seem to remember about 5 or 6 years ago the bike press was awash with stories about next years bikes being way more expensive.

I'm not surprised that MTB sales in the UK are declining, the marketing is all wrong. Go into your local supermarket, pick up a mountain bike magazine and ask yourself whether what is in there is likely to appeal to the sort of middle aged, middle class person with disposable income. No, it's all about the gnarr. If you are not throwing yourself down rocky chutes, launching off drops and getting a loyalty card at your local A&E then you have no place in our sport grandad.

This!!!

No appealing to sense of adventure or wilderness, no 'lifestyle' or 'get away from it all' or 'at one with nature' - all 'radical dude' bollocks (see also yesterdays post about MTB film/video having gone the same way)

Britain has AMAZING trails all over the place, the daily trail riding/mountain biking that most of us do is no more supermaxextreme than it is head down arse up XC racing - for a while there in the early to mid 2000's we were doing really well on bringing people into the sport on the 'outdoor lifestyle' explore the countryside angle, especially with the trail centres, but we threw it all away by putting berms on everything...

roverpig - Member
I'm not surprised that MTB sales in the UK are declining, the marketing is all wrong. Go into your local supermarket, pick up a mountain bike magazine and ask yourself whether what is in there is likely to appeal to the sort of middle aged, middle class person with disposable income. No, it's all about the gnarr. If you are not throwing yourself down rocky chutes, launching off drops and getting a loyalty card at your local A&E then you have no place in our sport grandad.

However, I'm fairly immune to the marketing, because a.) I'm a cynic and b.) like most of my contemporaries, I've invested in a decent bike, which I maintain well. With variously limited funds, I don't many people can afford to change too often, but they're equally aware that a cheaper bike (designed for what 80% of users will ask of it) won't really last. The result is, IMHO, much longer periods of ownership and also a lot of people who will only buy very good secondhand.

i think MTBing is declining because every niche has been filled by a specific kind of bike and whereas in the past we just used to go riding off-road, now we need a special bike for every hill. It's become far more of a lifestyle statement than it used to be and people are careful about making statements

Road riding is purer in this sense - more reliance on the rider and less on the equipment - and I think this appeals to a lot of folk

Some interesting comments about the cost of mountain bikes and kit. There is no doubt that some stuff is silly prices but the manufacturers only price stuff at what people are willing to pay - If nobody bought a 4k bike, they wouldn’t make one.

The average MTB rider in the UK (and I include myself in that) doesn’t NEED a 4k bike, a 1k fork, they don’t NEED £100 shorts/helmet/5 10’s/MTB specific jerseys etc. There seems to be this obsession in the MTB’ing community that you need all this stuff and it has to be the right colour/weight etc. There is also this “need” to constantly upgrade stuff, I will bet that 90% of riders couldn’t tell the difference between a lot of components in a blind test. In fact I suspect most of us would struggle to tell a 4k bike from a 1k bike by feel alone.

I maintain that the best upgrade most of us could make is to lose 5kg’s and ride our bikes twice as often to improve our skills.

There are very few sports that you can do from your front door. I agree that it is one of the plus points of road cycling, but you don't hear golfers complain because there isn't a golf course at the bottom of their garden. Even roadies are often happy to travel to get to those fun climbs.

The golf comparison doesn't hold up, because there's no other option for 99.9999% of golfists.

However that option is there with cycling. You either:

Ride a mountain bike, drive to the trails, potter around for a couple of hours, drive home, clean bike etc. So you may ride for (say) 2 hours of 6 that are committed to the activity. Or...

Ride a road bike straight out the door, maximise riding time, no cleaning and so on.

Many of the (not hugely serious) roadies I know are family people who want to get a ride in early so they're back with their kids for the weekend. You can do a decent road ride in 3 hours. Most people cannot do a decent MTB ride in 3 hours door to door.

I hate sticking my road bike in the car, seems wrong, but most mountain bikers fully accept it as a part of the 'ride', which is ironic!

whilst I agree that there are various bargains about I do think that new decent mtb prices have gone up faster than inflation and currency etc dictates. My own example would be buying a new 07 Merlin Rock Lobster 853 with full xt, on the C2W scheme for £1000. 6 years later I built a new Soul, through LBS, with deceent discounts on bits, again with full xt and it was pretty much double the price of the 'equivalent' bike 6 yrs earlier, with like for like components.

I am also frustrated while currently trying to source a decent new light hardtail for my 11 yr old son that £700 - £800 buys something pretty basic and heavy these days. That Canyon Yellowstone would be spot on if they did a 650b or 26 version..

Hooli, agree with most of your post as most people purchase things on WANT or NEED rather than it being essential but the that's consumer choice.

In terms of prices it only takes one company to charge the higher price before the rest follow suit and then we as consumers have no choice but to pay it. Take helmets for example they're now going for stupid money, I think I read something when Interbike was on that there's a open face helmet coming out from one of the manufacturers at over £200, how long do you think it'll be before everyone is charging that for a helmet.

Must admit, I've lost interest in trying to keep up with MTB technology. I think they are making a mistake changing things constantly in the hope that people will be fooled for long into believing that they must have the latest new kit. It's certainly pushed me the other way.
Just look at all the different standards for headsets and axles for a start. Makes it almost impossible to swap your components over to a new frame without a massive spend.
I used to do most of my own spannering too, but now if you buy a specialist tool for a BB or suchlike, by the time you need to use it to replace a component, they've stopped making that type and you need new tools. Cheaper and easier to take it to a shop these days.
The price of bikes has gone insane too. I never used to consider anything less than XT equipped, but now you're looking at a Deore level spec. on what was an XT price bike not long ago. Forks seem to have doubled in price too.
Probably sound like a miserable old git, but I've sunk enough money into the bike industry over the years and I feel like we're being shafted. I don't mind spending a chunk of money on a quality bike, but there should be a decent lifespan before all your parts are obsolete.
It's time we had some long-lasting standards again.

A few comments above I totally agree with, all symptoms of a mature market and a highly developed, segmented and categorised 'sport'. There's nothing really, truly new to be done and there hasn't been for a good few years. Hence the interest in fat bikes - simple, low-maintenance rigid bikes with no focus on Rad or Fast but with a genuinely new aspect to them that has refreshed some riders' enthusiasm or let them get back to basics again.

It's all just riding bikes in the dirt, if riding average natural terrain for the sake of it loses appeal and it becomes about looking for more tech, more bike to cope and imo it's on the way to the extreme example of MX - so few places to ride and the opposite of the freedom a good ATB should offer.

It's time we had some long-lasting standards again.

Ride a mountain bike, drive to the trails, potter around for a couple of hours, drive home, clean bike etc. So you may ride for (say) 2 hours of 6 that are committed to the activity.

Isn't there something on the homepage where some firm have just built a 13 speed cassette