davidsoutside

@spaced: I think that's an incorrect set of examples that leads to a correct conclusion. Those brands stayed in business while others failed precisely because goods are increasingly more skewed towards either insanely cheap or luxury, with nothing in between...almost like society...how bizarre. Luxury brands have outlasted all others exactly because wealth has never been transferred or redistributed, it's simply grown right where it was. Looking at bikes, we have Willier, Colnago, etc. that have always been insanely over-priced. The only difference is that mountain biking does not tend to attract wealthy individuals on the whole. Frankly you just fall too much and it's too risk, and too hard. Mountain biking companies have failed to realize that- they've applied a road bike/ luxury model to a demographic that it does not apply to.