Venturebikes

It really sucks to have these large parent companies taking over bike brands. You have a COVID scenario come along, massive demand outstripping supply, rapid production scaling built on debt, and based on future perceived value. SCALE, SCALE SCALE! Then the bubble pops, the market returns to normal levels (we're actually slightly above pre-COVID levels right now for new bikes purchases) and these poor brands that just got leveraged to the nines are left with a lot of overhead, and not enough demand to fit the 1000% scale they just made a few years ago, mostly built on (at the time) low-interest debt. Cash dries up fast when you're in that scenario. Then the multicorp firms dump you, liquidate assets, and then we lose legacy bands like Kona, or innovators like Pole and Guerilla Gravity. Pro riders get dropped, industry folks lose their jobs, and the bike world as a whole is undeniably worse off because of it. The short term pump-and-dump for 2-3 years of mega profits just to say "oh too bad, no more demand lol, have fun with liquidation!" makes me genuinely angry as hell, but it's happening across not just the bike industry. These people are fucking tearing apart good businesses and building a financial elite world you're not invited to join. Yes, even you Yeti riders ;) Good brands make cool bikes, employ dope people, and genuinely make this amazing sport all the better for everyone. What we can do is support them, buy their products, and reject this weird-ass corporatism that's trying to do its best job at killing the stoke on our sport this year.

What a call up lol. MTB's equivalent of Bearman replacing Sainz at Ferrari a month or so back. Stoked for him to give it hell.

You can't buy anything from their website as of right now, even apparel and parts. Everything just has a "find it locally" button with a link to a map with your LBS Kona dealers

Damn, even Emil is running a hardtail these days. RIP to the Ticket S

I'll never forget Snowshoe 2019 when he found time on Peirron's flawless run and gifted him The Big Sad in the overall fight with Bruni. He's not the most consistent dude but on his day he's peerless

Damn they must have been in truly ass financial situation for a liquidation of that size. This article from back in the heyday shows just how massive of a player they were: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/inside-chain-reaction-cycles-2016.html . "On Monday morning they have more than 16,000 orders from the previous weekend to work through". This was in back in 2016. I'd imagine 2020-2022 market was an absolute money printer. Did they scale too heavily and get burned when everything crashed down last year?

Also saw that. I don't even think I've seen him on any of the clips from this week

*Sighs *Opens Tizcycling