I might have been extremely unlucky, because everything I bought from them, no matter high or low price turned out to be quite "bad", at least here in Spain. Yes they were cheaper, but the quality of the product was noticeable, and ive tried shoes, clothes and their branded fitness gear. In the end im purchasing other, slightly more expensive brands, just because they last for much longer

For me Decathlon is good if you are not going to make "a lot of use" of their products, because they just wear out much faster, from running shoes that were almost torn apart after 100km, to gloves that after 2 weeks they were falling apart, to running shirts/pants with holes everywhere... I bought a cycling helmet that broke just from falling from my desk. I wouldnt really trust much that protect my head from an accident...

So yeah, I wonder how those bikes will hold on with usage. At least its only the frame, components are the same as everyone else.

And in terms of reselling, if for any reason you have to, its going to be much harder until the trend changes

That's where Canyon were 10 year ago. Good value, distinctly cheaper than traditional bike brands. Good bang for the buck but definitely not outstanding or even remotely close to 'cutting edge' on development. In the same heap as Boardman's lower end bikes etc. A bit like buying a car from Kia. Most certainly not viewed as a 'proper' bike manufacturer or something that in any way was actually 'desirable' .

But how that's changed in the past decade. Let's see if people are fawning over Decathlon bikes in the same way, and being ridden by STs favourite over biker Lionel, by 2030. Its quite possible!

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Only Giant and Merida do their own fab anyway. Decathlon will use the same contract mfgs as everyone else.

Why are you guys already evaluating the price without knowing spec?

Sure Canyon has a $3000 bike with 105 and entry level wheels. But if Van Rysel's $7000 spec is for Dura Ace with SwissSide 1100 80mm/Disc wheels, then it can be an absolute steal.

They’ve sold bikes for years, and they’re decent, honour their warranties and are good sane builds. There’s been no proprietary shit up to this point, maybe with a TT bike that could be an issue.

I have a current /2020 Van Rysel EDR with mechanical Ultegra and it’s been perfect, even the stock Fulcrum wheels are pretty good and still in use for training.

The contact points aren’t the best, as on almost any bike, but swapping out all of them has given me a bike that’s more than a kilo lighter than anything available for a similar price from a major brand. Value is so much better.

I’d agree on the quality of their general sporting goods, there’s a big variation between van rysel and other clothing, a few lapses in quality, and I’ve never tried the shoes. But for baselayers they’re great.

As far as I know, only Giant and LOOK produce their own frames (maybe there are others), all other bike manufacturers use 3rd party contract manufacturers. One exception was Airstream, as small Austrian bike manufacturer, who went out of business last year. Bianchi is building a new plant near Turin to manufacture carbon frames

I'm a big fan of decathlon and own quite a bit of their stuff, including a gravel bike. I would be pretty confident that these new bikes will be very good. The questions will be are they quite as good as the likes of canyon, and are they significantly cheaper enough that people will buy them?

They launched a super shoe not so long ago. The general consensus is that it's good, but not quite on the same level as the big traditional brands equivalent. The price is £130 here, whereas the vaporflys are on sale right now at £150. While it's probably a fair price, it's just not significantly cheaper enough that people aren't going to go with the Nike's which are a more proven commodity.

It's quite clearly a 'build to the limit of the new UCI rules' exercise. So they're stealing a march on other brands that are still mid life cycle on their products thus won't be touching those limits for 2-5 years.
My concern, as always, is the bars - the pics are not encouraging but we don't have details yet so can't draw any conclusions.
On the value front, they're going to have to work very hard to compete with other options coming in 2024

You sir, should really take that talent of making links and make some big biz out of it! Thanks a bunch!

Mmmm, what's coming in 2024? New models from established brands, new brand or anticipation prices will start to tank?

In general, 105 Di2 will allow for some nice bikes at less crazy prices
But specifically, facelifts and trickle downs will offer some very attractive options

And did you notice 2 new smart trainers?

Doubt it for 'less crazy prices' from 105 di2.

105 Di2 is going to be priced as high if not higher than current-gen Ultegra Di2. They only say it's 'cheaper' because they've upped the prices of new ultegra and Di2 to even higher heights.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/...ensive-than-we-hoped


$1890 for 12 speed new 105 Di2.

It was below $1500 for my 11 speed ultegra Di2 two years ago.

I wouldn't put too much stock on the MSRP list prices for components. Shimano will have set the public faces prices at a real premium over and above what they expected bike brands to pay OEM. Given the current state the bike market and lots of rumours about Specialized and Giant cooling the jets on supplier purchases due to overstock Shimano is likely to find itself with more supply than demand. They are going to have to start dumping the parts on the OEM market once again. This is no different to pre-pandemic when the likes of Wiggle, Merlin Cycles etc were buying and reselling groupsets for 50+% off MSRP.

Shimano may be quicker to react to the risk of oversupply than they have been in the past but their position in the supply chain exposes them to this sort of risk. The last few years have been exceptional in terms of the real world prices of groupsets being even close to MSRP.

It's not helped that there are due to be some new releases in 2023 (such as 12sp GRX, and the new semi-wireless road groupsets) that is or will see huge discounts on older stock if you shop wisely.

Some recalibration of expectation may be required. There will be electronically equipped bikes with good bars at less outlandish prices than 8k for the cheapest Speed Concept (which is electronic with bad bars).
That the components say 105 is irrelevant to performance. For anyone hung up on DA or Ultegra, yes the prices remain high.
I wouldn't expect a massive oversupply of tri bikes based on the order cancellations I've seen