BlindMan77

@Dougal-SC: True.

@b-boyben: Yes, I understand everything you are stating, you’re referring to the petrol dollar. And yes, I absolutely understand BRICS and the momentum behind it. I also understand that socialism never works, as you always run out other peoples money, and that capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system. The China analogy is why Knolly bikes had to move manufacturing bike frames to China in the first place, which took jobs from Canadians and moved them off-shore. But beyond that, which the world is absolutely not prepared for, is the Ai Economy, in which capitalism as we know it most-likely won’t survive. Buckle-Up your seatbelts!

@lkubica: Yes, I’m willing to pay premium. I also don’t shop on Amazon, I pay a premium everyday by supporting local businesses! As I know my dollars are supporting the local economy, business owners, and their employee’s.

@justanotherusername: All smart businesses owners pass on increased cost to their customers.

@lkubica: None, they’re all mostly made in China, which proves my point. Knolly was making amazing bike frames in Canada. If we had created meaningful tariffs decades ago, my guess is the Knolly Bikes would still be manufactured in Canada.

@bishopsmike: I’ll start off by saying I love Knolly bikes!!! My first one was a Chilcotin, I’m thinking I purchased it 2012. Anyways, I have always loved the product, and I am sorry to hear about their troubles. However, this is my 2 cents that I don’t think many think about. Most tariff discussions stop at price increases, but that's only half the picture, and honestly, it's the least important half. Imagine a hypothetical world with just two countries. Both produce goods, both sell to their own citizens, both trade with each other. Now imagine one country, let's call it China, decides its government will heavily subsidize its companies, enabling them to massively overproduce goods without any need to turn a profit. Those artificially cheap products flood the other country's market. Domestic businesses can't compete on price, not because they're inefficient, but because they're not being bankrolled by a government with no profit motive. One by one, those businesses close. Fast forward: the second country produces nothing. It relies entirely on the first country for every essential good. At that point it has no economy to speak of, and without an economy, it has no sovereignty. It is, in every practical sense, dependent. This isn't paranoia. It's the logical endpoint of a deliberate strategy. China has openly stated its goal of becoming the number one economy in the world. The problem isn't the ambition, it's the methods. China has demonstrated a consistent willingness to break every rule to get there: state subsidies that artificially distort pricing, systematic theft of intellectual property to shortcut the R&D costs that competitors pay honestly, and currency manipulation that tilts the playing field further still. This is not a trade partner operating in good faith. This is a competitor who has decided the rules simply don't apply to them. The standard free trade argument assumes roughly good-faith actors playing by agreed rules, comparative advantage, open markets, mutual benefit. That framework only works when both sides are actually playing the same game. When one side is running a long-term strategy to dominate and the other side is clinging to the idealism of fair trade, that isn't free trade. That's unilateral disarmament. The United States has the largest economy on the planet. Access to the American consumer market is one of the most valuable privileges in global commerce. The question worth asking isn't why are we imposing tariffs, it's why would we give that access away for free to a country that steals intellectual property, subsidizes industries specifically to undercut competitors, and has made no secret of its ambition to become the dominant world power? Yes, tariffs can raise prices in the short term. That's a real cost and worth acknowledging. But doing nothing has a cost too, it's just slower and less visible. Lost industries don't make headlines the way a price increase does. Tariffs in this context aren't simply a tax. They're leverage, one of the few tools a sovereign nation has to protect the economic foundation that makes sovereignty possible. Because unilateral free trade with a bad-faith actor isn't free trade. It's surrender on an installment plan

I’m not opposed to tariffs, people need to ask themselves, live free, or be owned by China? If a country off-shores all of it’s essentially manufacturing, and is reliant on another country, it has zero leverage.

No, they’re gay AF, stupid, I’ll will never ride 32” wheels!!!!! Wait…….. I said that about 29” wheels, now I would never ride a bike without one on the front. LOL

It’s ugly. lol

@bushbush111: I have a 2024 for Santa Cruz Bullit with the EP801, and has the Shimano race tune, I love it. It’s not that noisy at all.