World demands on indoor trainers...

[nzuraw]

Crikey, the indoor trainer manufacturers must be raking it in during these unusual times.

Ordered a Tacx® Flow Smart Trainer from Garmin on 8th July 2020, now told it may well be Jan/Feb 2021... crikey...

[mickyduck]

It is the same for many indoor equipment manufacturers. I have sold some items rapidly that I had been trying to sell for a while. A set of TACX Galactica rollers in such demand I had requests from many overseas buyers one in Saudi Arabia.

Concept 2 rowing machines are in such demand that they have a waiting list of months, good on them that they have maintained prices at pre C19 levels when the used market is commanding higher prices than a new machine. I sold a very old C2 model C for £500 (it was upgraded to latest monitor PM5)... I could easily have got more as eBay prices are stupid.

Sadly many people have bought C2 model D from their waiting list and selling straight on Gumtree or eBay... quite a few "Brand new in box" for sale at double what C2 charged for the item.

Oh well I suppose that is the the way supply and demand works

[ms6073]

I really doubt that the manufacturers are rolling in the profits, as probably supply shortages are more likely a function of the impact the pandemic has had on global supply chains. Pre-pandemic, companies could easily depend on shipping a lot of stuff pretty much overnight via air freight or even domestic and international airlines at rather economical rates, but these days, with most airlines flight schedules trimmed down due to lack of demand and/or flight restrictions, hence the costs of such shipping has gone through the roof. Manufacturers are now having to manage production schedules based on the availability of raw materials and parts, which for the most part, now have to be distributed primarily by ship, then rail or truck. Hence, needing a bunch of aluminum billet which is probably sourced primarily from the far east, used to be able to be sent by air freight, now gets put on a boat, but unlike when it would be boxed up and shipped via air, the manufacturers probably have to stockpile product until there is enough to fill one or move ocean going shipping containers because like air freight, there is less capacity available for ocean going freight as well.

[mcorn]

There are numerous stories of high growth of Peloton during Covid-19. I suspect this is true for the home exercise market in general as people are staying out of gyms:

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... ring+covid

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/peloton ... nings.html