I think I am with Patrick, (BTW a big fan and subscriber) on how with the increase of prices for most major direct to consumer Chinese brands, big Western brands seem to make more sense for more people. However I think there is this middle ground with companies like Winspace who have really started to build a brand, who yes have raised their prices but always have a discount code or pretty aggressive sales or package deals where a frame really will not be $1700-$2000 dollars. I recently got a 1st gen T1550 Disc w/ Zero SL bars with UPS shipping for $1602. I commonly hear how people got their T1550 frames during Black Friday for $1300. I bought my original T1500 frame and bars for $1500, so to pay $102 more this time around for a slightly better product in the T1550 isn't terrible one bit. I sold my T1500 with bars in 2022 after a season of use to someone for basically $600, thus 60% is steep, granted I recently sold my Aethos fact 10R frameset that I bought new for $3000 and got back $1250 thus basically hitting that same 60% deprecation after one year mark. Where I think Winspace has a better chance is that they do have some US warehousing, there customer service is pretty good, and the more key this is that they have US dealers. In my state of NY thye have 6 dealers and I know one is ACME Bikes in Katonah which is known to be a high end shop that sells everything from Moots, Time, ENVE, Parlee, Colnago, Look and I guess now Winspace. I think the pivotal thing Winspace did was sell a crap load of wheels during the pandemic, not to mention their wheels at the time were not only a terrific value but performed insanely well. I can't go to any semi big group ride and not see at least a couple riders with Winspace wheels here in NY. In 2022 no one new about the T1500, but now in 2024 after I picked up my newly built T1550 I had 6 people come up to me and ask me about the bike and telling me how much they liked it and how they saw the same exact bike on Grant's GCPerformances chanel or so on. I simply don't hear or see people talking about Seka or other high-end Chinese D2C bikes that cost $2k+ for a frame. I am not saying they don't have a place and can't take off here in America I just think again on any big group ride or shall I say big "money" group ride sponsored by either a company or a LBS, her in NY you mostly see waves of SWORK Tarmac SL 8. So I doubt you would see a Seka at one of those but at a recent PAS Normal Studio ride I did see one Devel and two Elves bikes. I was very tempted to bring my T1550 but decided to go with my MY22 Scott Foil RC because I am still playing with my fit. I think while Colnago is an amazing brand it's a heritage brand and what Tadej did for that brand riding that V4RS even though it's not the "best" bike is insane. My buddy has a V3RS and countless people came up to him saying how much they liked his bikes and these are riders on SWORKS, Pinarellos, Factors and ect. Point being, I think if any of these Chinese D2C brands want to really hit the US market they need to get elite athletes on them or really hit the local sponsored group ride scene where influencers are riding them
