"What they would do is use the money you paid for your bike to order the person's bike that was in the shop a month before you"

thats would be a ponzie scheme

It would be a Ponzie scheme if the product was never ordered but eventually it would be ordered and delivered.

yes but the clientele is changing so now in central london there may be 4-5 custom bike fitters who, as I was discussing with them, will be full days / weeks in advance and you would need to get a slot a month out at Xmas because of all the Expats that come back from overseas to drop huge cash on a bike

Of course they say you get a fitting you get a credit towards a custom bike but its still not even close to paying cash for a fitting at full price and ordering a canyon

What may be interesting with this move is that there may be far more colors/options opening up it would seem.

If you're buying the bike factory-direct there are very few reasons it can't come in different colors and component options.

An example is that my LBS has a bunch of 105 equipped white/blue P2s (but no black ones)-for a long time that was the only option. Now, if I wanted to buy a black P2, I'd need to talk them into ordering one (but they already have a half dozen white ones!), or find one elsewhere. With the online option, the LBS won't be collecting new, old stock as is the case now.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

I agree. The bike shop looks at the sale of a bike as a customer acquisition for future accessories and service purchases. They can factor in the future value of these sales into discounting the bike itself but in the case of Trek selling direct to the consumer their only future revenue hope is a repeat customer. I expect the price will be rather inflexible but I can also see that it is possible (whether likely is another matter) for the prices to go lower without the overhead of the shop sale and inventory infrastructure.

I think the 2 pieces of information we do not have right now are

(1) "what is the starting point for the LBS in terms of cashflow from new bike sales?" (2) What does Trek think it can take away from competitors from the people who currently buy on line .. and cannot buy trek?

If the margins are slim to none (considering inventory carrying costs, sales staff time/expense, facility costs to house the showroom, and etc). it might not be such a big change to LBS.

Trek maintains / increases market share to those guys who want to buy that way (who are buying Pinerello or brand X now anyway). the LBS still caters to people like me who like the service and 1-2 year free refits and calibration. And, the LBS has more Treks to service.

May not be as dire as it appears, on the surface.

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Such a Bad Runner

Is Giant next?

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/...ales-through-dealers

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
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They couldn't sell less bikes than they already do so why not. ;-)

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Since Giant is a huge OE manufacturer, they probably already sell more bikes anyway than many many of the big brands, so they might be good with that.

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
DarkSpeedWorks.com.....Reviews.....Insta.....Facebook
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Point taken on the OE market. More speaking of their slice of the pie when it comes to the LBS and higher end market. Which is where this program is marketed. They're woefully behind the usual suspects when it comes to more expensive road bikes and they're almost non-existent in the tri bike market here in North America.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Agree with all of this except the part about buying local.

If there were independents near me where I could pick up quality gear then I'd go for it sometimes.
As things stand, my "L"BSs that stock higher end stuff are stores from national chains and the independents will basically index your gears and sell you a cassette or inner tube, so by that logic I may as well go to Wiggle etc for bigger purchases and save myself the extra cash.

I count on the experience and expertise of my LBS when purchasing a bike. First is fit, second is price/personal choice. Plus at the shop I can easily try different seats, crack lengths, etc. to make sure it works on the bike I want. Plus I am giving a local shop business

It is really important to match your seat to your crack length...

So when is the website supposed to go live?

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That "new-old stock" is a boon to people like me who don't care about having the very latest, greatest but are at one end or the other of a size run. I got my Slice at a huge discount because it was about to become two seasons old, and a size XS, and my LBS needed to shift it. It's a big reason to frequent my LBS frequently, and that will go away if all the manufacturers move to a platform like this. I can order pedals and bottles and shoes and bar tape online, so what gets me into the store where I can make those profitable impulse buys anymore?

If you got it at a huge discount then it probably wasn't very profitable for them.

No, but I bet the computer and bottle cages and pedals and bar tape and tube and seat bag were, that I bought because I was already in the shop.

That's a good point.

No need to talk about Bike Sport Michigan like that...

So you support illegal activity?

It was a joke for the people who have been here awhile. Surprisingly no one has made a comment about swimfan posting again either.

I was thinking about this quite a bit recently after purchasing a new cross bike at my LBS. I was very close to ordering a nice niner online from competitive cyclist, even with the team discount and buying a closeout, the specialized Crux was still the same price as a brand new high end niner on sale at CC. I think the online bike sales are hurting the higher end market. Clearly shops are not reliant on the roadies as most of their sales come from MTB's, accessories, and repairs, but they are slowly bleeding to online purchases. I am seeing more and more roadies locally purchasing brands which can be bought online: BMC, Pina, Niner, Van Dessel, Boardman, Argon etc. Brands like specialized, Trek, Felt, Cannondale are going to have to address this at some point, or they are going to loose a chunk of the market.

The LBS is also failing to address the high end market. Most often they do not leverage services such as high end fitting, customization, and other services which would be appealing to more serious cyclists. The other issue is many LBS no longer offer reduced shop fees for bikes purchased at their shop, essentially neutralizing the point of loyalty.

I think a brand like Cannondale, Cervelo, or Felt could really take a strangle hold of the high end market if they sold direct to consumer.

That would be a 180 for cervelo since they just removed online ordering from shops a couple years ago. Based on their current pricing, they seem to only want to sell full bikes from the dealer. If you look at frame set prices they are absurd compared to the full bike(recent change). It's so dramatic that it was cheaper for me buy a Shimano DA p5, sell the DA stuff as take offs and then put RED on, compared to buying the frameset and building it up. 3 years ago that wouldn't have been the case.

I was thinking about this the other day and, honestly, I can't make any sense of why a shop wouldn't do this. I could see flat pricing you're trying to go after the entire local repair market by offering the lowest prices in town but that's not what I see in practice.