Devinci Global Racing Steps Away from Enduro World Cups

 Near the east shore of lake Geneva, as the early autumn light touches the tips of the Alps, a light switch flicks on...

 @HankHank: The bulb flickers once or twice, then burns out.

 That’s a heads up! Lack of racing in America makes no sense for American brands with few presence in Europe. There’s simply no business case on sponsoring a team that has very limited promotion opportunities from racing!

 They should invent a form of Enduro where there’s only 1 stage and you only do one run, you don’t have to pedal up. That way you could run a dual crown fork and more suspension. Am I right

 There is a light that never goes out.

 Is everyone ready to see this announced replicated for a third time in three days tomorrow? Rocky is next.

 @shredddr: Yeah, its far more expensive because the douches running the show want it expensive exclusive. f*cking idiots.

 Enduro was going well until covid, infact it's still going well as a sport that the public can participate in at any level. While downhill is harder to participate in because bikes cost to much. The thing is downhill actually generates more Enduro sales than Enduro does and than it does for DH bikes.

 @PauRexs: f*ck yea that sounds rad as hell.

 Lets face it the creation of Enduro racing was for bike industry to sell a whole new brand of 'Enduro'bikes to stop market lagging. Now with E bikes , downcountry etc etc they can burn it. Everyone who wants an 'Enduro' bike has one already

 @marthinpercamp: perhaps some American promoters should organise some then

 @shredddr: Remi Gauvin has confirmed he's riding for them next year, so it would be surprising.

 @commental: yeah just saw that. Oddly phrased post but he confirmed in the comments he is on for another year, just 1 day ago.

 This is a very valid concern. As our market matures there will be more consolidation and less differentiation between brands. As is, we have 30 different brands selling almost identical products with most made in the same factories with the same geometry and the same kinematics. Branding is the only differentiator and that's not sustainable for everyone.

 The market will decide how many brands it can support (as it is right now). There may be too many for current conditions. I think the bigger issues are 1. Overall bike improvement has plateaued much like skis and snowboards or iPhones. Not a ton to sell other than new colors and tweaks on form factors, no matter how hard they try to tell us they have the next must-have improvement. 2. YouTubers and social media influencers sell more bikes then race teams.

 Yep there are too many bike brands that all do the essentially the same thing. So price, support and features start to become more of a differentiating factor. Being a big company helps massively with that. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few companies go under. It sucks, but I think it will leave the industry in a healthier place.

 I think ultimately the Comments section is not representative of the market and most consumers like shiny new shit that nominally differentiates them from all the other Asian plastic bike riders at the local spot. New year, new color, new brand, a half degree of head angle etc..

 @danstonQ: Je pose juste une question. Je suis désolé d'avoir attaqué votre précieux capitalisme. On verra comment le marché libre répond à votre commentaire inutile.

 @Jvhowube: Envoie une lettre à chaque constructeur de vélos pour leur expliquer ton point de vue et attends leurs réponses. Trop de choix tue le choix, c'est vrai, mais c'est mieux qu'un choix limité ou pas de choix du tout.

 @ajaxwalker: Yep. Like Guerilla Gravity...

 @beavisnroses: the Guerilla Gravity story is a bit confounding. I think we know once and for all how much Americans value domestically produced product, which is to say the only thing we’ll pay is lip service.

 @danstonQ: Je suis d'accord avec ça, mais c'était pas une question sur la validité de choix. C'était une critique de l'état actuel de l'industrie du vélo (et plus direct, des entreprises du VTT). Je pense pas que les constructeurs aient besoin d'une lettre de ma part de voir ce qui se passe à ce moment - il suffit de lire ces articles (et c'est pas le dernier).

 @shredddr: I don't think GG "pushed" the envelope or adapted after that first splash into carbon, though. It just looked like they never had a 5-yr plan for the bike side of the business. The frames were ugly, nothing changed but seat stays that no one could get, and the modular setup (in my opinion) left too many compromises for each model. I don't think it is so much a comment on domestic production as it is a comment on their lack of foresight. Then again, I wouldn't be shocked if literally ALL their R&D money was tied up in Revved, and GG was just a passion-project at that point.

 @shredddr: GG was on my short list of brands for my next bike, mainly because of the fact that they are Made in USA and I liked their rock and roll image. Sadly to get what I’m looking for now , a 170/180 free ride/park bike, I’ve had to expand to North American and European made. There are other bikes that I’d love to ride, but i really value small business who keep the work local. It’s not lip service, I’ll pay the premium but I still need the correct product.

 @GTscoob: I think about snowmobiles when this idea comes up.

In one 70s there were dozens of brands selling wildly different machines, by the 80s there were still dozen but selling more or less the same type of lineups.

In 2023 Yamaha has exited the market, leaving only 3 players now.

 yes there are, most of which would have/should have gone out of business just as COVID hit
when everyone in the world wants a bike they can't get so they'll buy anything those manufacturers looked really smart

 @whateverbr0: All valid points. I know a few people who have owned them and not a single person said. “This is the best bike i have ever ridden or owned.” They probably would still be a viable business if they would have stuck to aluminum. The modular system seemed kinda like an expensive gimmick. After you bought all the necessary ingredients might as well get a second bike.

 @Dangerhill: I had an aluminum Smash that I loved until I rode a Knolly. Still holds a special place in my heart, but I sold it when I never wanted to ride it. Some of my own bias may be coming out too; I'm a serious aluminum fanboy.

 @whateverbr0: in defense of GG (their bikes, I can't speak to how the company was run):

1) as far as the most popular market segments they had a ~65⁰ all mountain bike and a ~64⁰ enduro with reasonably tall stacks years before most popular brands.

2) they anticipated long dropper posts before they were a thing. Size 4 can swallow a 240mm OneUp all the way down to the collar whereas most of the latest XL's somehow can't.

3) their kinematics were totally reasonable and versatile. Linear progression ~20%.

I can't help you with ugly but in my opinion from a pragmatic perspective they had less pushing/adapting to do than most. If I could design my ideal enduro bike from scratch the specs would look a lot like a Gnarvana. I think it just gets back to my original point above that people like shiny new shit. Even if the bike has the same geo as a new Santa Cruz people feel like it needs an update.

 @jdejace: You're right that they pushed for modern geo before most/all of the other brands. That's what drove me to the alu Smash in the first place (and that I could get a premium bike for well under $5k). But they can't get complacent either, and the GG of the past few years always seemed complacent to me, or probably more likely they became an afterthought to Revved.

Edit: I got off topic speaking about the company, not the bikes again... but I do wholeheartedly agree with your points 1 and 2. I disagree on 3, but that is such a subjective topic that I still appreciate it.

 @Chief2slo: I'd suggest Nicolai. They did my custom geo over a video call and they speak better English than most Americans. Burly simple no bullshit bikes (same thing I like about my GG). If something happened to my Gnarvana that couldn't be repaired now that GG is gone I'd likely replace it with another Nicolai.

 @jdejace: Guerilla Gravity is gone? Their website is still up

 @wburnes: yeah they're gone at least in the near term. I can tell you for certain they cancelled recent orders and sent out emails that they "suspended production operations as of September 1st." With slightly less than 100% certainty I can tell you there are long threads on the GG Facebook group and MTBR including people who claim to be employees or claim to know employees who say everyone was let go. They haven't made an official announcement but it looks grim. Maybe someone will buy them out and keep going, who knows.

 No mention of closure on FB, Instagram, or the website, but a suspicious lack of posts for month and the bikes are sold out

 No news articles about it

 @jdejace: damn RIP GG

Crazy that they went out of business immediately after the biggest bike boom in history

 @wburnes: They sent out an email to their customers and dealers saying they were ceasing operations.

 @Chief2slo: if you don't mind high end, you can't go wrong with we are one arrival 170. Frame wheels and bar made in Canada and lots of parts made in north America. Definitely my next bike if I can get one.

 @schwaaa31: what a shame. I always loved their frames, prices, and way of doing things, but not enough to buy one (alloy preference)

 @jdejace: Totally agree with everything you said. I would add that they figured out that you could pedal a slack HA bike just fine if the STA was steep. When I got my first one back in 2015 they were miles ahead in terms of geometry.

I wonder whether they could have continued as a smaller niche brand and they ran into trouble when trying to make the leap from small/niche to medium sized. I've loved my Gnarvana and was fine with their incremental improvements. This may not be enough to sustain growth when everyone wants a "totally redesigned" bike every 2 years. Not to mention whatever the impact of Revved, their investor priorities, etc.

 @BiNARYBiKE:
I'd say good reviews sell more bikes than races teams and / or YouTubers do. This year I picked up a Merida One-Sixty based on all the great reviews. I'm not aware of any EDR riders actually riding a Merida One-Sixty and I don't think it matters, because it's a great bike!

 @sambobcat: IIRC Merida actually manufactures a lot if other brands of bike.

Did you get the alloy version? It has an alloy flex stay, which is pretty rare and interesting

 @Jvhowube: It's a valid point. And to add to it, there's probably too much of everything.
That said, for whatever reason, I've just always got along really well with Rocky Mountain bikes. Did Melamed winning the overall last year factor into my decision? Yes. Did I buy the same bike he rides? No. Does that make any sense? Not a lick of it.
The thing is, we got two spheres of input when it comes to decision making: logic and emotion.
Logic will determine the parameters, while emotion will make the final call.
Does racing offer a platform for bike brands to associate themselves with an image (emotional resonator)?
Not in the current format.
Peace

 @sambobcat: I’ve been on Transitions for over a decade and it sure has nothing to do with their racing pedigree. (Which doesn’t really exist except for Tahnee).

 @shredddr: GG did a good job producing high performance bikes for reasonable prices in America, something few, if any, brands have done on that scale. However, my personal opinion is that the bikes were ugly and their branding was goofy, which is why I never bought one. Perhaps I’m not the only one that feels this way.

I’m sure there are many bike companies hanging on to a thin red thread right now and the only thing keeping them from going under is the investors that may or may not hold out another season. Even if the product is good, like GG, the investors can choose kill it due to one too many bad quarters.

 @Jvhowube: That's why I have 2 bikes: a steel hardtail (reliable, funny, capable, and sustainable...) and a FS I made out of a second hand frame, a 2018 Transition Smuggler not to name it (same: reliable, funny, capable and hopefully sustainable). Less is more more is less is my motto. No fancy components (that I can't afford anyway, and even if I could, why?)
Therefore, I completely agree with you (sorry about my north korean joke BTW), but we won't change the industry: they need to "innovate" to survive and it's true that they propose too much options to us, lost and corruptible consumers. I think it's up to everyone to make the right choices depending on our proper needs, and it's not simple. I don't need a high pivot nor a XTR or an AXS or a carbon fancy stuff to enjoy my rides. MTB is a very technical sport, and it's almost a full-time job to be aware and conscious about the things we're bying and NEED.
I think that marketing is one thing, true progress is another. Horstlink bikes are perfect for me, and Marin for instance is an excellent balance in term of price/efficiency/etc...
Anyway
Cheers Man!

 @idontknowwhatiexpected: which is a shame. I love my GG and would love to support a small bike company but shit, what’s the point. Might as well get a big brand because at least they’ll be in business for the foreseeable future.

 @ybsurf: They are absolutely beautifully made bikes.

 @shredddr: That's not really fair, the product wasn't as dialed as other options. Using the same front triangle saved them money on molds but made it so the fit was all over the board. Only one model fit me how I wanted but the travel was 40mm off... I truly think they should have stayed with aluminum and figured out a way to make the weight in line with the heavy carbon.

 Yes man, you got it!

 I think that the one thing the bike industry has going for them is that we (or at least I) break a lot of parts when I ride. it almost makes sense to get a new bike every threeish seasons.. unless i want to go through and replace everything but the frame.

 @Chief2slo: If your going North American made We Are One seems to have a pretty deadly bike, good people, and they do repairs!

 @Benjamin97: I believe Devinci is made in canada like we are one, and Ibis Exie and Allied bikes also are American made IIRC

 @wburnes: devinci only make aluminum bikes in Canada. The exie is the only ibis made in usa.

 Apart from selling the rights in the first place this is all down to the ESO. Discovery see no ROI in supporting Enduro but it came with all the other disciplines and so have systematically cut costs to limit the loses.

 @watchmen: but the coverage is exactly the same as years past, what am I missing other than a bunch of people just saying screw the uci?

 @jimmythehat: yes that's It. Coverage in pasta years was the same. Now honestly it's clear to most of us that both dh and xc get many more views, and even if I doubt someone will get a bike according to racing results bike brands will try to sell you bike in these ways. But even if i don't like UCI they aren't the cause of this. Low dell'ing volume and low views, that's it.

 @Alexh1983: man I miss the pasta days.

 @jimmythehat: The coming depression, and many institutional investors jumping in during COVID at top of the market and now realising huge inventory and closing wallets.

We need to wash out the debt.

 @BiNARYBiKE: He's Italian, it's in his blood

 @freeriderayward: lol i was trying to write with italian language on my phone keyboard

 @BiNARYBiKE: also the good old rice days

 @jimmythehat: Heard that elite team registration fees went from 3500 dollars on the EWS to now around 11,000 for the EDR.

 Thanks gramps

 Can you do this for every comment section?

 THIS.
I've been downvoted several times when I brought that up,but sadly I was right.
Enduro was racing and adventure on a trail bike,now it's stage DH racing on a bike Park/trail center with a park/mini DH bike.

 @nozes: this came when they changed the rules to allow shuttling in practice

 @mattg95: not exactly. This came when Chris Ball wanted to make enduro "big" and spectacular like DH. Before the EWS most enduro stages had to be reached pedalling. Now I think even in Finale they have shuttles during the race.

 Completely disagree on the “boring” part. Also, not a fan of calling other people clowns. The rest though is accurate AF.

 The ironic thing is we want it for free or cheap, but we want it. Cry when we have pay, then cry when it goes away.

 Tried to upvote you twice.

 Someone tell this clown about the NBA, NFL, champions league …..

 @Velosexualist: I kinda agree about the clowns part also. This is a non issue overall. Enduro will be back sooner or later.

 You know, both these things can be true... that we're adults riding bikes AND the UCI is mismanaging the professional level of the sport. You can keep your perspective and also want things to be better.

 "And to be honest let’s be happy that the wannabes are leaving and the trails will be quieter again" Already happening, also seeing way fewer eBikes lately. Been riding mtb's consistently for 35 years and became a bit disillusioned over the last few, pretty hopeful lately.

 I am Chat Gpt

All sports are obscure, pretty boring and weird and mostly undertaken by adults.

20 Lambert & Butler

Some of us are

I like the 'you shoild be grateful you got anything at all so you are not allowed to lament it's passing' argument but I prefer the ' you cannot complain because someone somewhere is worse off' one.
Nice bit a gatekeeping there.

Followed by some ' implied worthiness'

People won't stop riding if the EWS goes away

Just because you see no value in having the best riders competing at the best venues and being able to watch it.......does'nt make it worthless.

 @mariomtblt: An incredibly stupid analogy.

 @blatant: is it? Grown men playing a “childish” sport like riding bikes/kicking a ball and getting paid for it? Is it so crazy?

 Spot on @bouldertom

 @Henchman21: Yes to this!

 The TV rights alone to broadcast Monday night football is close to 3 billion a year. There is no comparison between racing bikes and those organizations.

 Comment of the year. Should be called the turkey section not comment section.

 Finally an adult calling it like it is with none of that virtue signalling bull crap…best comment of the year.

 @Velosexualist: I think “clowns” is like “legend” in British talk..they have weird slang words

 @whateverbr0: ironically, I’d probably pay for dh coverage if they got back to less rules, less runs. It’s weird.

 @mariomtblt: that’s about eating, drinking gambling and high fives

 Whilst we all fretted and argued about the state of Downhill they quietly led Enduro out the backdoor and shot it in the head.

 they really made it a bastard child of mtb

 killed "enduro racing" which is/was a terrible name for plain mountain biking which people do every weekend all over the world

 @sanchofula: Given the XC WC seems to be doing decently for viewership compared to enduro, I don't think the climbs were the issue.

 @sherbet: modern XC courses are squeezing the life out of enduro too, they're challenging and it's TV friendly. Downhill will never die unless the UCI ban racing in the wet.

Enduro is in a tricky spot which is ironic as it's the most fun for your average rider.

 @sanchofula: like to climb and don't wear lycra....isn't that the 'trail bike' demographic?

 @sanchofula: I consistently ride over 3k of vert to get to all my favorite DH trails. Nothing better than being cooked and riding double blacks to end the day.

 @sherbet: so you like watching the climbing sections during an enduro race?

You must go to races cuz they certainly don’t show that on TV

I think you guys are missing the point of my comment: I’m not fussing e-bikes or lift served, I’m just saying that there are things people do now that they couldn’t do years ago.

Times change, uphill-downhill just ain’t that popular except for a few masochists. I climbed 2k this morning over a five mile course, I saw one biker coming down the trail… he’d shuttled from the top.

 @birdsandtrees: like you, we are a rare breed and getting rarer by the day, I love climbing as much as descending, earring turns is what I’m into, but e-bikes and lift served make it do folks don’t have to work so hard … not a lot of folks out there like working, hence the growth in those facets of mountain biking.

One of my young riding buddies started a family, two little kids and both parents working, he’s no slouch on a downhill, but he struggled to find time to stay in shape for the uphills .., yup, he bought an ebike.

Times are changing.

 They really didn’t, as far as I can tell, enduro coverage literally hasn’t changed from back when it was EWS?

Or am I missing something?

 The comments on the Rampage rider announcement article don't suggest that Red Bull are suitable as a sanctioning body for a mountain bike series, and that's because they are not. The mountain bike events that Red Bull do organise are largely engineered to generate viral videos. Which is fine, but is a very different proposition from a global series which supports a large number of riders and teams from across the world, and sits at the top of a national and regional ecosystem. I don't believe they are incentivised to run such racing series, or that they would do a good job. There may well be alternatives to the UCI, but Red Bull are not a credible one based on the available evidence

 @elbandido77: The UCI is a bureaucracy and it's supposed to be one. Imagine tracking every rider that has raced in every sanctioned race in every country for years. Don't forget drug testing and validating labs. Blah Blah Blah. UCI isn't about entertainment, it's not even really about bikes. It's about spreadsheets and insurance and status quo. Just like all the sports governing bodies.

 Never going to happen for 3 reasons. Number one being bike brands working across multiple disciplines are not going to walk away from the UCI

Number 2 National funding only goes to uci accredited disciplines and that isn’t going to change

Number 3 RB are not interested in the sport. They are interested in using it as a marketing tool to sell drinks. Look at the events the do get involved with. All invitational designed to create marketing images not racing

 Also,there's little to no money to be made organizing races on a relatively small sport like MTB. I've got no experience in other sports,but from what I read,snowboard racing had a rough time when it parted ways with FIS,someone here with that knowledge can explain what and how it went.

 I love that Greg is goin racin out of his own van or someone else's. Doin it for the love! Sometimes ya gotta make things happen one way or another and racing is an addiction that is really hard to walk away from. Macroeconomics are getting the better of the bike industry right now and unfortunately racing is usually one of the first budgets that gets cut. Enduro as a format will survive, because its awesome, especially in the multi day back country style events. Yea its not TV useful, but it is such a cool event its not gonna disappear.

 @Speeder01: clearly has made enough money to be able to

 @Speeder01: Greg is fine. Greg rides for cube anyway

 @Speeder01: Its also a really popular amateur sport. And that is not looking to change.

 @jokermtb: apparently this was the one thread this year where puns were not welcome

 @Mugen: better luck next year

 We've see big companies cut influencer budgets too. I highly doubt there is much 'win on Sunday, sell on Monday' in the MTB world. Most people just want to ride bikes, and will buy local or cheapest, no matter who wins a championship. I even question the technology trickle down that people often bring up. Shimano and SRAM are building the stuff either way. Suspension kinematics and electronic adjustment might be the only thing that has come out of racing to the general ridership.

 @Andykmn: The technology trickle down was certainly there in 2016-2020. The introduction of Enduro as a race format directly led to the gigantic improvement in trail-bike tech which defined what a modern mountain bike is capable of.
If not for Enduro, we would still be riding tall, steep long-travel XC machines or barely pedalable park-bikes that someone stapled a large cassette to.

 Because the coverage is so poor and viewership so low that it's not worth it to the brands to pay for a team to go racing. Why would they spend hundreds of thousands to participate in an event that nobody is seeing?

 I am guessing the exposure they are getting for the investment is less than it was, combined with other financial pressures on bike companies. I don’t watch the EWS coverage anymore out of spite, f*** UCI

 Cost of entry has gone up, it's expensive to attend with hotels, food, airfare etc. Can't pay for said expenses when you're not selling any bikes.

 @Jake-Whitehouse: exactly, racing is advertising.There's nothing to watch for enduro and coverage has only gotten worse. I watch and really enjoy racing but I couldn't tell you what's going on this season or really much about what the courses are even like outside of the first 2 rounds this year.

 the bad coverage we've had this year it's one of the reasons but not the one.

Racing can be used for different things such as product development but
the main one is visibility.
In enduro you have to be a top3 guy to be seen in videos and UCI's
media platforms. Truth is that although I am an enduro rider/racer blablabla I won't even
remember who was 3rd 2 rounds ago... Think that in DH, sure many can even name podiums
of the entire season.

ON TOP OF THAT the bicycle market is kind of frozen, not many bikes are beeing sold at the moment
so I can understand why brands with "average" teams step away, they don't really get exposure plus
it is a big expense.
Now a days you can be a guy at your backyard and get 10 times more views doing a manual than
an enduro top10 rider with normal socials....

times are changing

 Return on investment.... it's not there.

 @marianodh21: the covid 19 boom is over! prepare for the descent back into obscurity

 I think UCI media policy is to limit video. In the present media landscape that is a recipe for low profile irrelevancy

 @marianodh21: You mention "bad coverage" as one reason for enduro's decline - but IMO, with the events as currently constructed, good coverage is impossible.
30-40 mins of action over 2 days is going to provide a strong stimulus for most viewers to reach for the remote control - even for those with enduro blood in their veins. I'm sure you're an excellent athlete and these events are intense for contestants, but this formula just won't cut it in today's sports entertainment universe.

 @marianodh21: Current season in DH has exactly the same symptoms as you mention for enduro. SH#t coverage, behind a paywall, strange format. I honestly stopped caring about it. I am just checking the finals results and view couple of photo epic reports. That's it.

 @Jake-Whitehouse: coverage hasn’t changed, it’s up to the media to dedicate content to it, racing is still great

 @marianodh21: how is the coverage bad this year? Honestly I can’t see difference form previous years

 The UCI has nerfed the exposure of the sport. I used to be able to go to the EWS website and get the current rider standings, stage times etc. easily. Now it takes me a solid 5 mins to even figure out how to access the most recent race results. Combined with 0 media coverage conventional or social media and you have a recipe for wasted advertising dollars. Bike manufacturers make bikes to make money. They don't do it to sponsor events and riders as charity.

 It‘s an international series, which is always expensive to participate in with all the travel cost, the enduro trend has run it‘s course, and brands start to feel the end of the boom.

 @HVrider: I've stopped watching xco, dh and ews since all got under Discovery/UCI umbrella... I only watch crankworx now ‍♂️

 @eugenux: good for you

 It's never just one thing, but in no particular order.
1) The cost of taking part (entry fees, travel ETC) has gone up massively.
2) Interest (viewers, forum posts, spectators) has gone down massively.
3) High end bike sales are down, there's less budget to go around.
4) Related to 2 and 3, but 'Enduro' and the 'Enduro Bike' have changed over the last 10 years. Bikes and courses have become more downhill-like, the events are shorter, the bikes are heavier and more specialist. Early years of EWS were won by riders on machines very close to what Mr Average was buying for his average riding, now less so.
5) Mass participation no longer seems to be a thing. A lot of the early EWS rounds were the Elite field of an existing event. Mr Average (or Mr Below Average here) could enter and ride the same course on the same day, which was a lot of fun. Now it's an Elite Event for Elite Riders with UCI points only, which is bad for the sport.
6) The coverage is getting paywalled. That only works if the sport has a large quasi-religious level of following (see Football, Hockey etc). MTB in general isn't that, most MTB-ers are addicted to riding bikes, not watching others ride.

 @Fix-the-Spade: I like point 6. very true

 I don't think it really has anything to do with the UCI (also on board with them being terrible).

Economies around the world are slowing down, consumers are buying less, business (in every industry) is getting harder. Brands are looking at their marketing dollars with a microscope & making tough choices. Nothing more dramatic than that.

 @cueTIP: Bang on the dot !

 @Fix-the-Spade: Enduro coverage is free to watch still. Its on the UCI MTB World Series channel, and also GMBN Racing too.

Enduro playlist here with previews, raw, rider features and highlights shows:

youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5W-TcQwJltJMDXEQDdHeeqyQiAycA_7x&si=2beNKdqbkSL4Y6G8

Not sure why the MTB websites/magazines seem to have covered it less this year, only thing I can think is the increase of travel costs etc post COVID, and reduced ad incomes?

 @eugenux: Too bad, you are missing great seasons in XC and DH.

 @andyrm: Oops, I missed that. UCI could have done a better job of publicising that, I thought all the World Cup coverage was paywalled now.

 @Jake-Whitehouse: maybe to give the best riders in the world motivation to become the best and have a once in a lifetime experience, racing and traveling the world ?

 It's expensive, and brands don't have as much money as they used to. That's about it.

Just as another example in the MTB world, Guerilla Gravity are going out of business. There are other brands that have had to drastically cut back support for riders/ambassadors.

Looking further afield there are BMX brands that will most likely fold because they're sitting on so much stock.

This is a broader economic issue, not because of the UCI "killing enduro".

 So many? It’s 2 out of many so far. I didn’t even realise davinci had a team they were so quiet about it

 @FuzzyL: as long as there are sponsors involved, I don't want(read refuse) to pay; after round 1 and 2, I gave up trying to watch re-runs on Eurosport.. which were at odd hours or getting canceled at all.. while live events where always behind paywalls. So, thank you but no thank you. Crankworx on RB works great for me as it id when xco and DH where on RB as well. They are not so, I don't watch it anymore.

 @jokermtb: EWS was popular and well sponsored long before Covid. That certainly isn't a factor.

And all this talk about an economic downturn or recession? Have you seen the data? Thats a soft landing if there ever was one!

Plus, high-end bikes (=everything Pinkbike covers) are pure luxury goods, which are usually not as affected by economic downturns as other goods.

 @Ttimer: High end bikes across the board haven't really been affected quite as much as low to mid tier bikes - sales of those have gone off a cliff, and are a big part of the reason a lot of brands are really struggling now.

 Yeah I think you nailed it. There’s way better roi from sponsoring Vandehoek or Barelli than a race team.

 GT already are.

 I think they can afford it. What they have decided is it’s cheaper to use influencers than a race team that isn’t at the pointy end of the results so not getting coverage

 Who is going to make the investment and get promoters round the world to do that

 @chrismac70: Lifetime? Outside? Plenty of options out there.

 Why? Because parts were backordered? Or because bike prices shot up and everything was retail? For the 15 years before COVID I had got back into riding mtb's, I got clearance frames and parts EVERY time I built a new bike at the end of a season. Frames 50% off, brakes 50% off, components 30% off, forks 50% off, shoes, shorts, jerseys, helmets...

Every brand. Every single winter, without fail. Somehow they all still managed to stick around up until now with that going on. 2021 was the first time I had to buy a new frame retail and wait 4 months to get it since 2006. Every single company I've used in that time is still around. Americans really do have the shortest memories for things, this gloom n' doom for the industry is ridiculous. Instead of looking at COVID as a bonus gift, here we are...

 I actually don't.. as the prices got crazy and supply very limited. What I want to see back is components at discount and unsold last season or two seasons ago bike and frames at 50%.

 @Sweatypants: same here every winter I would build a new bike and start buying a part a week then after winter and a part week I would have a new bike every year for 10 years know..I just gave up biking

 @Sweatypants: I think the difference is that there was a large demand, manufacturers sold out and stepped up production as best they could but a lack of parts and materials led to delays in getting product to market. Covid ends and parts and materials become available and product is shipped out late to shops that over ordered then this years product was being sent out too leading to a glut for a decreased demand. Hence all the sales around this year. I heard a rumour the other day that a major manufacturer may be in trouble. Probably a bit of bs but we’ll see. I’m thinking teams are getting dumped as a cost saving measure especially if enduro is getting shit visibility.

 @Someoldfart: Hey thanks. I manage $12B of money for projects doing things just like you described. They're idiots. Either you have dynamic production capability or excess capacity to get a windfall, or you don't. You don't do large scale projection shifts to an anomaly. You don't assume its going to persist. You don't chase demand on a lagging schedule trying not to FOMO what others caught a piece of. You don't make massive production expansion or hiring based on anomaly volume demand either. OR... you DO that stuff if you can act quickly enough knowing that the increased revenue should be used to pad a pending correction and hopefully longer termed slow, sustained growth. That's why there's 1-year, 5/6-year, 10-year financial planning/forecasting.

End user (shop) shouldn't have over-ordered. Production shouldn't be over-producing on a lag. We caught more than a little of this at my work. We're receiving $50m of a $100m order 6 months late because of key component/material delays. We didn't go out and order 3x as much because of it. We lived with potential increased maintenance risk on existing inventory and shifted the lifecycle replacement schedule, not crash the schedule by throwing money at it to pretend to play catch up then being shocked when demand falls off.

A lot of people went back to work, kids are back in school and their normal activities, there was not a fundamental shift in the population which would indicate any long term permanent increase to mtb usage past a bunch of bikes that might sit in a garage next to a dozen other different sports equipment for 10-15 years. Probably not converting a large % of COVID purchasers to the "buy a new $5k bike every 2-3 years, ride every day" dudes. That takes deep rooted societal change, not an unforeseen temporary disruption. When the work week becomes 20 hours a week without loss of income due to AI (never gonna happen) and overall leisure time is increased, or gas becomes $15 a gallon (maybe) necessitating a fundamental change in transportation... not "stay home for 4 months." Then maybe. I'm sure you're right, that's part of the reason Enduro teams are getting dumped. I also still don't miss COVID times, nor do I feel the need to pity companies. Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive. The frame I bought in 2021 was $500 more than the leftover 2020s that were on sale right before COVID hit that I was being lazy to pull the trigger on, and the 2023s are 50% more than what I paid 2 years ago. I'd rather pay less money to enjoy my bike than see the company's name on 20 different race teams, sorry. Let them retract, let the sales begin.

 @Sweatypants: boards decided it is a shift in market behaviour and it will go up, up and away towards a big bonus and rich future. We, the employees, signaled that we are purchasing goods based on sales fcsts that the company will never reach but, yeah, what the eff do we know, right?(as product and category managers?
the result of all of that was that we lost a ton of money with warehousing costs for unsold inventory, a thing which resultes in negative trading profit which, of course, affected the whole business and business development. The good thing was, with a little of sacrifice and effin hard work and decisions, things got back on the right track one year later. It did helped that my employer is a retailer and not specific to an industry which boomed during the first year of Covid(or both years), then dropped out significantly.
Getting back to bikea, roll on 50% discounts and almost high end bikes at 5-6k(like I used to build for myself before the pandemic).

 He created it, and then he killed it. It’s an amazing story really. I’d love to know what he really thinks about where this has all ended up.

 Tbh I think he was bought out, money talks. I hope he regrets selling out, because imho enduro is the pinnacle of mountainbike racing, I get its hard to broadcast (unlike soccer, rugby,cricket which are the biggest sports in a stadium) but if they REALLY wanted it work they would find a way. As for the teams pulling out I dont think its a financial issue, it's more about their brands that are not getting the exposure, otherwise we would see brands closing altogether. Teams are being kept in the dark with shitty schedules etc. It just sucks in general for us Mtb fans!

 @frckles87: It’s definitely not the pinnacle for spectators, is it?

 Moir must be patting himself on the back hard, for signing a long 3-year contract with YT

 @jokermtb: It's YT though. Unless we've read the fine print I am sure they have a way to dump their team at the end of the season with no notice.

 .....On Enduro courses.

 Cycle Messenger World Championships have a Cargo bike division - I know a winner and he has the rainbow stripes tattoo the prove it.

 The problem is that Greg hasn’t been worrying those at the pointy end of the results like he was a few years ago

 I think Enduro Race bikes are the best all around MTBs ever made. I'd never ride anything else.

 Media? I think bike brands ruined themselves with stupid pricing and even more stupid forecasting. This is the beginning of the cleansing.

 @cashew: you’re the only one that sees the fire through the smoke. The bike industry got caught out during covid and was unable to scale up (and back down again) efficiently.

 What's ews? Did wcdh season start yet?

 Very few people watch a race, then go buy the bike of the winner. That's last generation stuff.

 Old age setting in eh? Take ur beet chews daily!