Is it just me or are Rapha products eternally on sale?
I don’t want to make a Col d’Izoard out of a Box Hill, but I feel like these non-stop sales (it’s not only Rapha that pops up on my feed these days) are indicating a possible market saturation with some cycling products in our little universe.
Another sign is that, as far as I can tell, the always-sold-out Marmotte Alps cyclosportive still has places available. This is an event that usually books out within hours and has now been on sale since November. Granted, this year the Marmotte is unfortunately taking place on the same weekend as the Etape du Tour, but still, for the Mother of All One-day Sportives, it’s strange to see.
As for 44|5, we are lucky that our year is basically ‘made’ already, but we are seeing new cycling tour companies popping up on our radar weekly. Even with all the investment bankers in The City on bikes lately, there’s only a limited amount of dough to spread around. I think the answer is that we need more investment bankers.
Now, back to my kit shopping…
The Vicious Cycle 
Original price is double so when they have a sale you think you’re getting a deal and they still make a great profit. Same thing the furniture industry does in the US.
I’m sure the markup is huge, but that doesn’t really explain the increased frequency of their sales…or maybe it does. Something like Persian rug stores always going out of business, maybe?!
Exactly.
Yeah, I’m with Jim on this. Don’t forget RRP will be minimum of 5 times manufacturing price though, with luxury goods, it can be 20 times. That said, I’ve bought a bit of Rapha over the years, usually from its sales, and they still look good. About the only thing I’ve worn out is some 3/4 bib-shorts but I got plenty of kilometres out of them.
Quality stuff, I freely admit. I’m still trying to kill my 3-season wool jersey thing, but it refuses to die.
The very idea that we need more investment bankers is so weird that I have had to lie down in a darkened room.
I’m sorry to have caused you distress. In my selfish view, the more cycling bankers, the better!