Would a Vancouver dock strike affect you in the USA?

I would have assumed that your stock came in from US ports to avoid the hassles of going through the Canada/US border?

Yes.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Wrong side of the country to affect Cervelo (R2.5s)? Or are there component issues?

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

This strike affects every vendor who brings freight through Vancouver.

The big concern is how much Shimano stuff is sitting there.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

The big concern is how much Shimano stuff is sitting there.

So how does that affect me then Tom ;-)

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Just components or bikes (Felt) too?

Every bike uses Shimano components. Shimano shipments are delayed = all bikes are delayed.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Is this why I cant get an answer on when I will be getting my Soloist Centaur?

All they will say is some time in march. Is this normal for the bike industry to not give ship dates?

boy I hope that this won't delay the P3C coming my way ;}.

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What the mind can conceive and believe, the body will achieve.

And my Felt F55!

"Is this normal for the bike industry to not give ship dates?"

Yes. It is normal.

Labor strikes, accidents, problems in shipping are not unusual, they are normal. They happen every year and are nothing unusual. It is just the way it is.

There has been a labor dispute that created spring time shipping delays every year for the past four years, usually somewhere on the West Coast of North America. It has been the people who unload the freight containers, drive the trucks or perform the customs work. There have been "slow-downs" when customs workers had a greivance and made it known by adhereing verbatim to the minutiae of every written customs regulation and reject entire containers for minor typographica errors on bills of lading or customs documents. The containers sit in quarantine for weeks until a customs broker can get it cleared.

These things happen all the time.

What I thing most people don't understand is that most bike comanies don't make anything. They may produce designs and do marketing but they are hiring a third party to do their manufacturing, assembly and shipping. That means they are at the mercy of those third party manufacturers, assemblers and shippers- and they cannot make promises for them or their performance.

So, can a bike company realistically tell you when your bike will arrive? They can provide you with an estimate (which was provided to them by someone else) that is constantly subject to change.

That is why they just do not know.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Kind of shitty that we have plenty of empty factories here in the USA that could make most/all of these parts. Instead we have outsourced all this work to the cheap labor of asia, especially china.

When will companies realize all the cheap labor in the world doesn't make up for the shitty service and lead times we get.

Better yet, when will we as consumers demand better service instead of just a cheaper product.

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Striving to have sex more than 66 times per year

I only ask because in the running shoe world we get ship dates about 8 months in advance. They are shipped on time or early 90% of the time, regardless of where they are shipping from. The biggest delay that I have seen is when a ship sank in the atlantic and spewed nikes all over the sea.

The problem with complete bicycles is an enormous amount of size specific components that are coming from different locations.

If you are running a bike assembly facility and all you 58 cm frames come with 175mm cranks and you run out- but you have every other size and all the other components- what do you do?

You're out of business until you get more.

A complete bicycle has well over 100 seperate bits and pieces coming from different vendors: Spokes, bearing, tires, rim strips, stems, bars, chains, saddles, seatposts, handlebar tape, cogs, derailleurs, shifters, hub shells, etc., etc.

All of them have to be there in the correct size to build the bicycle. When any one is missing there is a delay.

When you realize this you have wonder how any bike ever gets shipped.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Thanks. That makes more sence to me now.

I need my damn bike! Maybe I'll just go for something else....but I really want that cervelo. hmmmmmmmmmm.


Any suggestions for a bike 2k or under?

My best advice is to hang in there and wait. The second the bike comes in the wait is over.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

"Better yet, when will we as consumers demand better service instead of just a cheaper product. "

>> Look at the business model for WAL MART and Southwest airlines, and it is easy to see why they do so well.

Tom, You know I'm not serious.

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What the mind can conceive and believe, the body will achieve.

[reply]What I thing most people don't understand is that most bike comanies don't [i]make anything[/i]. They may produce designs and do marketing but they are hiring a third party to do their manufacturing, assembly and shipping. [/reply]

Well, I cannot speak for other companies, but we do 100% of our assembly and shipping right here in Toronto.

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle