If you've been lusting after some new gear for your bike but can't quite
pull the trigger... best to take the plunge sooner than later. I'm getting
new price increase sheets every single day (literally... they're coming in
like mad) from all major vendors. Shimano posted big wholesale price
increases on Friday. Pearl Izumi a couple days ago. Continental this
morning. Various pump vendors last week. Tubes? You wouldn't believe the
increases we're seeing in tube prices.

Doesn't matter whether you're talking about mail order or retail stores,
prices are going UP as you read this. Are the price increases justifiable?
In most cases, I don't think so. But the industry has seen flat to declining
prices over the last 5 years or so, and I think they're trying to make up
for it all at once. Hopefully all at once; I'd hate to see many more price
increases like these.

I'm having to go through the entire store, section by section, to discover
where increases have already hit that I wasn't paying attention to. At the
end of the year shops operate on the very thinnest of margins, so don't be
too surprised if you see a few more shops going out of business because they
didn't pay close enough attention to their bottom line.

Who's to blame for the increases? The obvious monster in the closet is the
exchange rate, especially after mainland China got wise and floated their
currency (which had previously been pegged to the dollar, which made Chinese
stuff artificially cheap for us, but oil more expensive for them). Toss in
energy-driven price increases, plus a certain momentum (as in hey, we can
finally push through some price increases because everybody else is!) and
you get the picture.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA