Stages Cycling Lays Off Entire Workforce

[dvdrl]

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

Stages Cycling lays off entire workforce

The well-known power meter and indoor bike company has seemingly ceased operations. Stages Cycling provides power data during training rides and races.

by Ronan Mc Laughlin 23.04.2024

[…]

@calicyclist maybe you are indeed Ronan Mc Laughlin. Otherwise the decent thing would be to delete the full quote of the article.

Copy/pasting copyrighted content isn’t ok. And in my opionion even more so as Escape Collective are trying to create an ad-free quality cycling outlet.

[Lina]

I'm wondering how many of their new power pedals Look will sell at 1000 a pop. Seems too pricey to me, but then I have always found PM to be too pricey (and buggy) which is why I don't use one.

If going for pedal based PM there's not much choice. My view is (1) Speedplay has issues with lateral play (and pod, see (3)), (2) having bad experience with Garmin head unit I would not want to take chances with their PM, (3) Assioma seems fine but taking into account looks I guess I would prefer having pedals without pod so (4) I'm left with Look as only option?

I didn't understand people complaining about the pods on the Assiomas when they came out, after all it's again one of those parts you can hardly even see while riding a bike, or even when taking pictures to Instagram. But at this point it's just funny when people complain how there's no good PMs, then say the Assiomas that are used as a reference by everyone for a PM that just works and is accurate isn't an option because they have PODS. And then they go for some other option and complain how there's some issues.

[Aeo]

Assiomas are too cheap. The people's powermeter. Not cool enough

On a serious note, I have to concur, Stages EU customer service was exceptional when I contacted them a few years ago

Sad that Stages couldn't convert their brand awareness. 8 or 10 years ago it was a rite of passage for new road cyclists to get their first power meter and more often that not, it was a Stages.

[matcav]

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.

Tough to see why Giant wouldnt partner up with one of the many solvent and local Chinese PM OEMs instead. Giant branded XCadey/Sigeyi/Magene etc. spiders sounds like much better synergy. Theyd be partnering up rather than swooping in as a savior.

Still sucks, hope everyone at Stages lands on their feet.

Giant acquired Stages
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industr ... -shut-down

[Jaisen]

@original poster: it's not great form to repost an Archie article from a subscription only publication in full length. These folks have to work hard to get subscribers to make their business model work and we should respect the pay wall. (This assumes it was behind the pay wall, I'm a subscriber, so not sure).

Just for reference, I am not a subscriber and I opened the full article on Safari.

I think the point remains even when it's not paid content, ad revenue is likely important to a lot of these publications.

No...I hear you and agree.

I was just saying that it was weird that the article opened for me.

They allow one free article. Of course if you open a tab in a new private window that doesn't have any cookies, you get another free article...

[toxin]

I dont think decathlon actually make any of their trainers, they're just rebrands

[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.

Tough to see why Giant wouldnt partner up with one of the many solvent and local Chinese PM OEMs instead. Giant branded XCadey/Sigeyi/Magene etc. spiders sounds like much better synergy. Theyd be partnering up rather than swooping in as a savior.

Still sucks, hope everyone at Stages lands on their feet.

Giant acquired Stages
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industr ... -shut-down

They acquired 4 members of staff ... and looking at the lawsuit filed I guess they intend to petition the court to liquidate the company and transfer its assets en lieu of payment, rather than acquisition per se, since I'm sure they have no cash or anything worth anything left.

[maxim809]

Thank you to everyone who flagged this topic regarding the copy/pasted Escape article. It has been taken care of. Sorry we could not get to it sooner.

Agreed, Escape is one of the last bastions of cycling news that is not driven by ads, which allows it to remain impartial. They do provide limited free articles and podcasts. As cycling fans, it is important to show them our support in the ways we can. So going forward, let's link to articles, but if things are behind a subscription let's please respect their business model.

This hobby cannot lose Escape, like we did CyclingTips.

[TobinHatesYou]

i dont think decathlon actually make any of their trainers, they're just rebrands

The Van Rysel trainers are rebranded Magene units.

[vadimivich]

I'm wondering how many of their new power pedals Look will sell at 1000 a pop. Seems too pricey to me, but then I have always found PM to be too pricey (and buggy) which is why I don't use one.

If going for pedal based PM there's not much choice. My view is (1) Speedplay has issues with lateral play (and pod, see (3)), (2) having bad experience with Garmin head unit I would not want to take chances with their PM, (3) Assioma seems fine but taking into account looks I guess I would prefer having pedals without pod so (4) I'm left with Look as only option?

I don't see why you would avoid Garmin, one of the industry leaders, due to a bad experience with a completely different product? Garmin power meter pedals at this point are pretty much flawless, any kinks with the old Vectors are worked out and they are plug and play and forget.

Avoiding them over price though, that I totally understand

[CarlosFerreiro]

From the Escape Collective "Who will SRAM acquire next?" article

According to Escape Collective tech editor Ronan McLaughlin, “Stages has patents they’ve never been able to afford to protect. One source estimated as much as 90% of the power meter market may infringe upon some IP belonging to the company.”

[208]

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?

Because their current one is shit and stages is not shit

DC Rainmaker when he last reviewed a Pioneer (on a Dura Ace crank) before it was acquired by Shimano: "Accuracy seems to be spot on with the other power meters I have."

So they already acquired a good PM company. How would aquiring Stages be different?

Their current power meter is shit and stages is not shit. They could buy stages and use it. Pretty straightforward.

[208]

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.

Tough to see why Giant wouldnt partner up with one of the many solvent and local Chinese PM OEMs instead. Giant branded XCadey/Sigeyi/Magene etc. spiders sounds like much better synergy. Theyd be partnering up rather than swooping in as a savior.

Still sucks, hope everyone at Stages lands on their feet.

Giant acquired Stages
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industr ... -shut-down

Sweet

[TobinHatesYou]

Their current power meter is shit and stages is not shit. They could buy stages and use it. Pretty straightforward.

Crank-based solutions are poor because the forces seen by the strain gauges are not in a single plane. With a spider-based power meter the strain gauges are positioned roughly in the same plane as the chainline. With pedals, designs like the Garmin Rally are better than pod-based designs because the strain gauges are directly under-foot. With spindle-based power meters, the spindle is isolated from non-rotational forces because it is braced by the bottom-bracket.

Shimano definitely shouldn’t just take the existing Stages product and use it as is with a little rebranding. They should do spiders and pedals like everyone else.

[BigBoyND]

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

Because their current one is shit and stages is not shit

DC Rainmaker when he last reviewed a Pioneer (on a Dura Ace crank) before it was acquired by Shimano: "Accuracy seems to be spot on with the other power meters I have."

So they already acquired a good PM company. How would aquiring Stages be different?

Their current power meter is shit and stages is not shit. They could buy stages and use it. Pretty straightforward.

My point is the same exact logic applies to Pioneer which they already have. They could do exactly what you say already... using Stages the way you're thinking adds nothing.