What do we expect really? This kind of stuff can only be a side hassle for all these folks as they're doing contracts for larger companies, which are in turn doing contracts for bike manufacturers. Right now, every bike company is harassing the shit out of these companies to get stuff out faster and faster, and to increase production in ways that aren't necessarily possible given the timeframe. A lot of folks don't really have the inside perspective so here goes: After everything was sold out and the demand was huge for this season, pretty much every brand of bike related product is going in to booking season right now (and many have already been due - by around up to a month ago). Many, many dealers have decided to massively increase their booking orders for everything from bikes, to helmets, to armour, tubes, soft goods, etc. We've heard that booking orders that have come through already eclipse the total annual sales for many of these brands, which doesn't even include any potential re-orders or any dealers that are trying to go the traditional route of a booking/reorder mix. This in turn translates to Trek/Giant/Norco/POC/SMITH/Whoever turning to their manufacturers and asking for more shit to be made.
Way more shit.
And the reality is, how much can these places actually increase production year over year? 5%? 10%? Adding capacity at this type of manufacturing is extremely difficult, especially given the timeframe (bike product has about a 180 day window, manufacturing to sales for most brands) So I'm guessing Eddy and the other folks over at Haideli are waaaaaaayyy too busy trying to keep up with their large client demand to work on their side projects. So it could be a while before we hear more from this. I'm going to be patient, and if it takes so long that this is no longer a 'buy', then that's too bad but it's the way it is at the moment.
Anyway I probably should have posted that in the other thread. Oh well.
