Stages Cycling Lays Off Entire Workforce

[calicyclist]

https://escapecollective.com/stages-cyc ... workforce/

[MODERATOR EDIT] Deleting article, please respect Escape Collective and go to their website to read the full article. Perhaps consider subscribing to them, they do AMAZING work, esp Ronan.

[RDY]

Who's going to buy them? PMs are practically a commodity now and there was nothing special about their stuff - although I felt it was better than their main rival 4iiii

I think the asking price would have to be really low for the IP to be of any interest to anyone. Maybe the brand though?

[StiffWeenies]

Who's going to buy them? PMs are practically a commodity now and there was nothing special about their stuff - although I felt it was better than their main rival 4iiii

I think the asking price would have to be really low for the IP to be of any interest to anyone. Maybe the brand though?

There isn't any sense to buying an arm-based PM in a market dominated by much more flexible spider-based and pedal-based options

I do wonder how their indoor bike business was doing though, just how competitive is the spin studio equipment market?

[matcav]

Who's going to buy them? PMs are practically a commodity now and there was nothing special about their stuff - although I felt it was better than their main rival 4iiii

In these cases, you usually buy capabilities, such as engineering, industrialization, supply/distribution networks, sales, marketing, etc.
however, cycling is such a low-entry / high-exit barrier industry...it's hard to make the right decision

[Mocs123]

Stages and 4iiii are really good options for Shimano cranks. I would say perhaps Shimano should buy them so they could get a working power meter, but they already bought Pioneer and that didn't seem to help them. SRAM has pretty much cornered their market with Quarq.

[Noctiluxx]

Surprised Stages had a staff.

[Nereth]

Quick aside - probably best if we don't snip entire articles, if we want quality cycling media to survive. Maybe take a few key notes for context, and just provide the link so people have to actually go there and use their service if they want the full story.

Sorry, I have nothing to add to the actual discussion here. Bowing out.

[MagicShite]

Surprised Stages had a staff.

Speaking from past experience, their customer service was one of the best in the industry, having dealt with a warranty issue the last time.

A shame they had to kill themselves due to economy.

[208]

Who's going to buy them? PMs are practically a commodity now and there was nothing special about their stuff - although I felt it was better than their main rival 4iiii

I think the asking price would have to be really low for the IP to be of any interest to anyone. Maybe the brand though?

There isn't any sense to buying an arm-based PM in a market dominated by much more flexible spider-based and pedal-based options

I do wonder how their indoor bike business was doing though, just how competitive is the spin studio equipment market?

Well... Shimano could buy them and make a not shit pm for once.

[nickf]

I'm a fan. Currently using 2 Gen 3 left carbon arms. Swap my gxp arm between my gravel bike. For my level they work just fine and give me consistent numbers. Plus my 30mm stages arm with appropriate spindle allows me to use my red exogram spider for a 530g complete crank setup. Hopefully someone offers to buy them.

[BigBoyND]

Well... Shimano could buy them and make a not shit pm for once.

They already bought a PM company. Why would they buy a second one?

[TobinHatesYou]

Well... Shimano could buy them and make a not shit pm for once.

They already bought a PM company. Why would they buy a second one?

SRAM bought PowerTap in 2019 after they bought Quarq in 2011…

[K4m1k4z3]

Stages and 4iiii are really good options for Shimano cranks. I would say perhaps Shimano should buy them so they could get a working power meter, but they already bought Pioneer and that didn't seem to help them. SRAM has pretty much cornered their market with Quarq.

Shimano doesn't really have to buy them. What Shimano needs to do now is to take their perfectly fine working left crank PMs and start selling them separately as, say, upgrade-kits, undercutting the competition. And then sort out the issues with their right crank arms.

[jurez]

hope I dont jinx is now but I have their left side PM for 4 years now and very happy with it. I change it over 2 bikes, depending on the season.
Battery life is really good also.

Shame for this to happen, seems like I will go for faveros after this one is done for. Hope it does not happen for another few years tho

[RDY]

Shimano won't buy them. Market was very different for PMs when they bought Pioneer (to block FSA or others from acquiring them). If they buy them now then it shows that upper management and executives are completely detached from reality and thinking 3 or 4 years behind - also wouldn't be a surprise.

I suppose Giant is really the only potential bidder - for a token sum. Given their collab re: head units. But maybe they just take the L.