The bicycle trade is a seasonal business. Therefore, a patient buyer always has a chance to make a good deal: you have to wait a little, and then the money saved will be enough not only for a brand-new bike, but also for a small pile of good sheds and needed accessories.
When is it best to buy bikes at a big discount? Today we will lift the veil of mystery and look into the depths of psychology of sellers and manufacturers, in order to understand when they are willing to do anything to sell a bike.
Why Bicycle Manufacturers and Retailers Discount
You don’t have to be a qualified psychologist to understand the principles and laws of the bicycle market. The very first red price tags with percent marks appear in stores in late summer or early fall. It’s understandable – the season is ending, and no one in the trade wants to stay with last year’s merchandise. But this is still not the best time to buy a bicycle – you need to wait a little more, literally 1-2 months, and then will begin a very interesting fluctuation of price tags.
Here we need to distinguish the sellers a bit: the guys in the real stores have their own tactics of trade, in the online store – a different one. If we’re talking about real bicycle outlets, they are less dodgy in this regard – they don’t have the need to sell out their goods urgently in order to make room for new ones by the beginning of spring. They simply remove the bikes from display cases in autumn and, after careful wiping with a cloth, take them back with the arrival of spring. This is especially noticeable in the general sports stores where people come in wanting to buy the most common bike. Such buyers have only one criterion for choosing – that the model they like fits into the budget allocated for it.
In such stores stale goods in the spring is dispersed like hotcakes. Therefore, if you twirl around the fall prihlazhivayuschih bike as a cat around the sour cream, do not expect that you give him the winter at cost. Bike likely just put in storage, and in the winter will sell skis, snowboards and related products.
A ray of hope: not every store has the ability to store large quantities of goods, so sales and discounts should be of interest.
Totally different tactics are followed by online stores. In fact, it’s a trade with large turnovers and minimal margins. The owners of online venues are well aware: a potential buyer can make a couple of mouse clicks and in half an hour will find exactly the same bike, but with free shipping and 20% cheaper. In such an environment, you have to constantly maneuver to offer customers the best product at the most attractive price.
If in the fall they did not sell out the line of models for the current year, by the next season will have to give away goods at a price below cost. After all, competitors do not doze off – they are already preparing top models and all sorts of bonuses to attract buyers. Accordingly, online retailers tend to “zero in” on merchandise by the fall.
Lifehack for those looking for a freebie: if you are a “non-standard” cyclist (do not hurry to be offended – now you understand everything) – the chances of a bargain bike purchase increases many times. The fact is that the fastest selling sizes M and L, and the S or XL can lie idle for a year. Therefore, cyclists of large or small stature have a slightly better chance to buy a bike at a bargain price. There are cases when bikes of odd sizes lie idle until late winter, losing up to 60% of their price.
In August and September you can begin to monitor the bicycle store websites, subscribe to the newsletter and find out information about upcoming discounts and sales. By the way, the British Chain Reaction Cycles is good in this regard – they often have “sales”. But the most attractive thing is that the goods are sold in the CIS, bypassing the European VAT. This means that the price of the bike is already reduced by 20%. When ordering from $ 150 delivery is free if it’s not bulky cargo. In general, the conditions are quite decent.
Ironically, in the spring, at the very beginning of the season, there’s a chance to buy a bicycle at a bargain. But not just any bike. We’re talking about bikes in the mid- to high-price segment. No matter how hard sellers consultants try, but in any store can find 1-2 unsold models, ringing the eyes with their appearance. The target audience of these bicycles are people who know about technology, for whom it is not so easy to sell out stale goods. That is why sellers try to present the non-market model in the best possible light at the beginning of the season. You should not be afraid of last year’s bike – manufacturers rarely improve the range, so the old bike may be better in terms of equipment.
What time of the year is more suitable for buying a bike
So, we worked out the psychology of bargain hunters. When is the best time to buy a bike? Here we have to deal with the boundaries of the bike season – in our latitudes, the first cyclists appear on the roads about mid-spring, and start packing the bike for the winter in October or November. But buy a bike, succumbing to the universal fashion and mass riding in the evenings, do not – for this there is a more appropriate time.
If you want to buy a bicycle at a discount, remember the popular wisdom that says: “Prepare the sledge in summer and the cart in winter. In fact, any time of year has its own benefits in relation to the purchase of a bicycle. Let’s take a closer look at the nuances of buying a bicycle as nature changes.
Autumn
The season is slowly coming to a screeching halt, and retailers are panicking about not getting a premium because they couldn’t meet their sales plan. Manufacturers are getting nervous, too, because the updated lineup is ready, and it won’t look as presentable as they’d like against the old unsold models.
Important information: The date 11.11 of any year has become something of an international holiday. It is a day of total sales, when almost all the stores are trying to zero in on their inventory of goods that have not sold out during the past year. “Black Friday” is another day when retailers offer big discounts.
Again, a little tip: Don’t rush to buy a bike in the first few days of the sale – wait a little longer. As a rule, the season of big discounts lasts a whole week, so in the last days there’s every chance of picking up a big score.
Do you think that’s the end of all the good things in fall shopping? Well it doesn’t! Here are a few more:
- In the fall, when customer interest in bikes is noticeably waning, you have a chance to get 100% of the attention of a sales consultant (or maybe even a few). You will be carried on their hands and told about every bolt of the bike, which you point your finger. Exaggerated, of course, but the fact remains that at the beginning of the season salesmen are torn between the customers in the store, jostling like sprats in a jar, so they cannot adequately and in detail tell you about each model. In the fall, when the season ends, every potential customer turns into a valued guest.
- In the fall, you have the opportunity to get even more information about a particular bike model. Suppose Nordway introduced a new mountain bike model in the spring. It was bought by several cyclists, rode all summer and are ready to tell in detail about all the pros and cons. Yes, in the fall there are more reviews and information from real users who will unvarnished tell you what the shoestring of this or that bike.
It would seem that everything is clear, now the question of when is the best time to buy a discount bike has a perfectly logical answer. It’s in the fall. But don’t jump to conclusions – there’s another time of year and new perks ahead.
Winter
It would seem that the cold season is not the most appropriate time to buy a bicycle. After all, you want to try new things immediately in the case, and there is snow in the street, and it’s cold somehow. Well, first of all, in winter you can ride a bike and even need to. What prevents you, after all? Put on a bike in winter tires, dressed warmer and forward – to test the new wheels on the dense firn of ponds or rolled park lanes. On sharp turns may drift, but what a workout for the vestibular apparatus!
Secondly, to buy a bicycle in winter – it means to spend the money favorably. And in confirmation of this a few facts:
- The most attractive prices. In the off-season, sellers and manufacturers try to make the best possible discounts, so that the beginning of the new season to meet with an updated range. Do not forget about the pre-New Year’s sales – often during this period, the prices of bicycles are reduced by half.
- More attention from consultants. This is in the spring they have no time to drink tea at work, but in winter, when demand for bicycles drops noticeably, they have plenty of time to talk in detail about each model.
- That leaves money to buy various accessories and useful components. Given that you bought the bike at a lower price, the money left over should be enough for a solid bike upgrade.
And that’s not all. Experts conducted a study and called February the most favorable time to buy a bike from an economic point of view. In addition, in late winter shipments and pre-orders for new items start, so there is every chance not just to invest money economically, but also to become the owner of a brand new bike.
Spring
It would seem that the beginning of the season can not be a good time to buy a bike. But even here you can find its advantages:
- First, if there was a desire, allow the financial capacity – so why not buy a dynamic mountain bike or a nice sitibike?
- Secondly, in the spring many manufacturers are trying to update the lineup, so there is every chance to buy some limited edition model.
- Third, many manufacturers, releasing experimental models, offer to buy a bike on special terms: the buyer gets an affordable price, but in exchange must tell in detail all the nuances of riding. In fact, it is a test-drive of new models with subsequent redemption.
And one more point of benefit of buying a bike early in the season. If the model is not new, that is, has remained in the window since last year, the price of it can fall markedly. This is especially true for bicycles in the medium and high price segment. The seller is just sick of it and he understands that without lowering the price, he will just ride this bike himself.
Summer
It’s a hot time in every sense. Bicycle season is in full swing, the assortment in stores is still full of models for every taste and size of a purse, but the excitement among sellers is already felt. And no wonder: in the competition they understand that now is the time to make money and sell bikes, so each store wants to offer the best deal for the buyer.
All that remains for potential cyclists to do – to monitor the latest information about discounts, promotions, sales and other nice bonuses. And then every week the offers will be more enticing.
What to pay attention to when buying a bike at any time of year
Spring, summer, fall, winter – whenever you decide to become the owner of a new bike, always judiciously evaluate the sellers’ offers. Sometimes a big discount hides an equally big hassle with the bike you bought. You should be wary:
- It seems too lucrative offer. A bike for 30,000 rubles from one seller, can not cost 10,000 in another store. There is definitely something wrong here. A discrepancy of a few thousand is normal. But when it comes to an amount twice as different as the other price tag, someone is trying to hide serious defects.
- Brand. Want to ride a bike from a well-known manufacturer(GT, for example)? Be prepared to overpay for the name. Or better yet, look for a counterpart in a more affordable price segment – so you’ll save money that can be spent on quality bodywork.
- Test drive. Very often, having stumbled upon a good sale, the buyer, flushed with a bargain, hurries to pay off and run away with his “beauty” home. And then in the process of assembling it turns out that the bike is not from Shimano shifters, and from some Chinese manufacturer, whose company even Google Maps does not want to show. So do not rush to give the money, and as thoroughly as possible to check the completeness and quality of the assembly of your future bike.
- As much information as possible. Chances are you already have an idea of the bike model you plan to buy. Try to dig up as much information about a particular model as you can before you go to the store, and pay more attention to the reviews of real users.
And that should be all. We hope that you will find this information useful and that you will be able to apply it in practice.
Conclusion
Buying a bicycle at a discount is a very realistic practice. We only need to wait a little and approach the process thoughtfully, putting aside a spontaneous desire to sit on an iron horse and rush off into the sunset. Yes, the season has begun. Yes, we want, like everyone else, to ride a bike and enjoy the warm air. But if there is an opportunity to save money, why not take advantage of it?
