Bye Giant.

So the Giant rental gig is done. Curious what might be planned for next year so did a little searching and found that Vail Resorts Retail Inc. has a website for their other resorts called rentbikes.org. Must not be money to be made renting bikes, thus the non-profit domain name?

Anyway, Scott and Trek's next year?

I'm guessing Huffy or Schwinn.

I saw a comment on PB that Northstar (also Vail owned) has switched to Specialized so that's my guess.

Curious how many less Glory's will be produced as a result. WB must have been buying 500 a season? Can't imagine Giant sells more than 5,000 a year globally?

I saw a comment on PB that Northstar (also Vail owned) has switched to Specialized so that's my guess.

Curious how many less Glory's will be produced as a result. WB must have been buying 500 a season? Can't imagine Giant sells more than 5,000 a year globally?

WB buys 500 Glorys a year? That number sounds high to me. How many people are in the bike park on a given day? Of that number, how many are on rental bikes? I would guess more in the 100-150 range. I'm just guessing… I'd be curious to know what the real number is.

I'm also curious to know how many DH bikes are sold on an annual basis. There really aren't that many regions in the world that cater to DH riding. DH bikes are really only suitable for lift/shuttle access. I've always wondered how it works from a business perspective for bike companies. They must sell 10X as many all mountain bikes vs. DH bikes, and they probably sell 10X more XC bikes vs. all mountain bikes. We live in probably the most suitable part of the world for DH riding and even I am trying to get rid of my DH bike.

Rocky Mountain Maidens ?

WB buys 500 Glorys a year? That number sounds high to me. How many people are in the bike park on a given day? Of that number, how many are on rental bikes? I would guess more in the 100-150 range. I'm just guessing… I'd be curious to know what the real number is.

I'm also curious to know how many DH bikes are sold on an annual basis. There really aren't that many regions in the world that cater to DH riding. DH bikes are really only suitable for lift/shuttle access. I've always wondered how it works from a business perspective for bike companies. They must sell 10X as many all mountain bikes vs. DH bikes, and they probably sell 10X more XC bikes vs. all mountain bikes. We live in probably the most suitable part of the world for DH riding and even I am trying to get rid of my DH bike.

I'm originally from a fairly flat part of England, yet it sounds like DH bikes are still fairly popular. Push up a hill for five minutes or so, turn around and then pin it down a trail. Session session session…. Ironically my riding skillz were way better when I lived in the UK from sessioning stuff on a big bike Vs riding the much longer trails around here. There's something to be said for knowing every pebble on a trail and absolutely pinning it. Worked well for Peaty, hart, Bryceland, the Athertons etc.

I'm originally from a fairly flat part of England, yet it sounds like DH bikes are still fairly popular. Push up a hill for five minutes or so, turn around and then pin it down a trail. Session session session…. Ironically my riding skillz were way better when I lived in the UK from sessioning stuff on a big bike Vs riding the much longer trails around here. There's something to be said for knowing every pebble on a trail and absolutely pinning it. Worked well for Peaty, hart, Bryceland, the Athertons etc.

I moved here 5 years ago - when I first got here everyone was still wearing their fullface DH helmet on Fromme and you would still see 25% of the riders pushing their DH bikes up mountain highway. It seems like over the past 5 years all mountain/enduro bikes have really taken over since they can do 80% of what a DH bike does while still being totally climbable. I don't work in the bike industry or have any sort of inside knowledge, but I've got to imagine that DH bike sales have been decreasing recently.

I heard it's a 50 to 1 for Enduro/Trail to DH bikes being sold…

I heard it's a 50 to 1 for Enduro/Trail to DH bikes being sold…

Yeah I think that makes a lot more sense than the 10-1 I mentioned above. You wonder how much motivation there is to put any R[HTML_REMOVED]D into their DH models with those types of numbers.

it's really not about sales as much as the image… a world cup DH race gets a lot of coverage and people watching the race is huge! Can you even watch an EWS race? Would you even want to?

WB buys 500 Glorys a year? That number sounds high to me. How many people are in the bike park on a given day? Of that number, how many are on rental bikes? I would guess more in the 100-150 range. I'm just guessing… I'd be curious to know what the real number is.

I'm also curious to know how many DH bikes are sold on an annual basis. There really aren't that many regions in the world that cater to DH riding. DH bikes are really only suitable for lift/shuttle access. I've always wondered how it works from a business perspective for bike companies. They must sell 10X as many all mountain bikes vs. DH bikes, and they probably sell 10X more XC bikes vs. all mountain bikes. We live in probably the most suitable part of the world for DH riding and even I am trying to get rid of my DH bike.

Someone who works in the WB rental system commented on PB that they order around 300ish Glory's for the rental fleet a year and 50-60 staff/instructor/patrol bikes plus some for the demo store so more like 350-400. I'm really curious how many Glory's are produced in a year, as others have said we must live in the most ideal place to own a DH bike and shops barely carry them. Smaller volume brands must be producing DH bikes only in the 100's of units a year.

Also agree that the image and marketability of DH probably helps sell a lot of enduro/trail bikes. Hope that doesn't change anytime soon because they sure are fun to ride.

Buy Giant?!

I moved here 5 years ago - when I first got here everyone was still wearing their fullface DH helmet on Fromme and you would still see 25% of the riders pushing their DH bikes up mountain highway. It seems like over the past 5 years all mountain/enduro bikes have really taken over since they can do 80% of what a DH bike does while still being totally climbable. I don't work in the bike industry or have any sort of inside knowledge, but I've got to imagine that DH bike sales have been decreasing recently.

I agree, and my 'go to' bike is a hardtail for nearly all my riding around here. There's people out there who still want a purpose built thoroughbred rather than (or in addition too) an all-rounder.

For shits and giggles….here's some footage of a trail that I started to build in 2007 (hence getting name after 'me' when finished…) in Cannock Chase, UK which probably has around a 200ft vertical drop at most but people still ride DH bikes on it. No uplift (LOL etc…), just push to the top and repeat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n00fyv3sKBc

Anyway, I also agree with Jerry-Rig. How many Endurbro riders to Santa Cruz sponsor? I honestly don't have a clue because the Syndicate DH team get all the publicity. They probably don't sell many V10's, but they sell a bucket load of Bronsons, Nomads etc off the back of their image. And yeah, who wants to watch Enduro coverage? It's definitely a sport that you do rather than watch.

Riding a bike downhill fast is the funnest thing in the world.

If you don't agree, I'm certain humanity will reach a point where we can fix every person who thinks otherwise.