Twitchers,
I cant seem to get to the bottom of this… Is Nashbar the same company as Performance bike? I seem to get their email deals at the same time and they are usually the same deals. Many of the promotions and deals seem identical.
Maybe they are just competing, but their competition seems identical.
Yes, they used to also operate as Supergo.
In fact, if you visit supergo.com it’ll direct you to either nashbar or performancebike.
Performance bought Nashbar a year or two or 3 ago. About the same time they picked up supergo as well.
Based on my experience with them, in practical terms they operate as separate companies. The performance side of the house seems to have better customer service and has an order tracking system that makes sense. nashbar (again, in my experience) can be a clusterfuck, but seems to be a little cheaper.
Wow, that’s a bummer, sorry to see Supergo go.
I know all three were owned by the same big company, but Supergo always seemed to have the best closeouts, etc.
Oh well.
To the OP, yes, same company owns them, but they are run like 2 separate shops.
Nashbar is typically lower to mid level stuff, Performance carries more higher-end toys.
Stuff like their trainers, etc that are “store brand” are pretty much identical, other than one being called Performance, the other Nashbar. (or one of their made-up “brand names” like Ascent, Aireon, Scattante, etc)
It seems like the Performance side has kept some of the Supergo brands (like Aireon & Scattante) around after taking over Supergo.
I always think of Nashbar as more oriented to touring & recreational riders, Performance marketed more to competitve cyclists and triathletes. As you pointed out, Nashbar is usually cheaper and lower end / last year’s stuff, Performance has more bling.
When Performance took over, the Supergo store in Phoenix had one heck of a closeout sale. They basically blew out all of the Supergo inventory, then re-stocked with Performance stuff and changed the sign on the store. I happened to be in Phoenix for a 2 1/2 week business trip at the time, and picked up a decent Felt and everything else I needed to go riding for under $1K.