[cycomanic]

I see that you're from the US, I know that in many places in Europe and Australia, the workshop has become the most profitable part of the shops. In fact in Australia I know of several workshop only bike "shops", essentially with the raise of online sales lots of people just need their bikes fixed.

I find it interesting though that you say the bike business is commoditized. In particular there are several bike manufacturers who have transitioned into live-style brands (the big one being specialized). Their prices have gone through the roof, while their manufacturing is all outsourced to cheapest bidders in China. It's now common for top of the line race bikes to cost >$10,000 while the frames for the bikes cost them ~$300 shipped to the US (and the total bike might be on the order of $1000-$2000 max). Mind you nothing of that ends up with the dealers.

[MrBuddyCasino]

> Mind you nothing of that ends up with the dealers.

Not true, the very expensive bikes definitely have better margins.

[cycomanic]

Ok interesting, this might be different in different countries again.

What I heard from friends of mine is that the margins are not really any better on high-end bikes. Because you sell significantly less of those it used to be that it was much easier to make decent money on low end bikes (i.e. everyday bikes used for riding around town). I think things changed a bit with the popularity of e-bikes now (they are generally more expensive but also much more in demand, don't know about the margins exactly).