kv501

Anyone else get the email that Bonktown is "becoming" Chainlove on March 27th?

So now we get have as much road stuff thrown in with MTB gear? I guess I don't buy a whole lot from there (gloves mostly), but now it looks like you'll have to wait longer to go through the rotation.

The deals aren't outstanding, I just liked having the alerts pop up so I could see those few items I like when they come up to bat.

Adrianinkc

Yep got the same. Oh well.

unterhausen

they probably looked at the sales numbers and realized that splitting bonktown from chainlove wasn't their best idea. It takes some frequency of good deals before I even pay attention. Can't remember the last thing on there I wanted

danec99

They have so many of these sites I just don't see that it matters. Aren't they all administered from the same place?

kv501

Yeah I'm sure that's it. I'm just going to buy 3 pairs at a time of those gloves I like the next couple times I see 'em and be done with it. Oh well, at least we won't have to listen to those people who really think they just got a "killer deal" or "85% off."

datlas 

If true, it will be a sad day for the 41.

p.s. I was never a fan of this sales model, but I did snag some pretty good deals over the past couple years.

kv501

Yes, they're all part of backcountry.com. Same thing; just aimed at different groups.

pgjackson

Will cancel my e-mail alerts. About once a month they have something interesting for road bikes...now we'll have to filter through MTB crap as well. No thanks.

Carloswithac

It makes sense from a business stand point. Glad I have an MTB as well.

alpha_bravo

It seems like they have more tri stuff than road stuff. Recently seems like every time I look it's another wetsuit for sale. However, I have gotten some really good deals from them (Rival shifters, rear derailleur), so it can't hurt to check.

IthaDan 

Bonktown had some sweet stuff from around December til late January, lot of end of year bikes and components. Now that we're "in season" it always seems to be some apparel item.

Meh. [for now] let's check in again in the late fall.

Grasschopper

WTF?!?!?! Why didn't I get an email from them? I have bought WAY too much stuff from them to be ignored...seriously I think I dropped $3k with them last year. Red levers, Reynolds wheels, Swobo Sanchez fixed gear, clothing (both bike and snow), snowboard, goggles.

Maybe they are sending my something handwritten.

kv501

99.9% of the time you can get the exact same items for the same prices by doing a Google search (except maybe bikes). It's an emotional thing where they put a time limit on it and convince the suckers that they're buying 75% off MSRP. That might be true but so does everybody else. If I sold a jersey for $50 and said it was regularly $1,000 I could do that also. Just my opinion.

walnutz

Partly true, but if you were smart about it, there were deals to be had.

Grasschopper

Sorry but your wrong. For instance I got my wife a pair of Luna shorts back in Dec for $24 shipped. She just wore them for the first time and LOVES them...wanted more. Searched Google and the best we could do is $40 a pair plus shipping. I never saw SRAM Red levers for $300 any place else and you still can't get them for that even though there is a new model out. The Reynolds DV3K I got you could have possibly matched the $850 I paid with a 20% off coupon from Nashbar. Snowboard I got was $50 less than anywhere else...goggles were much cheaper as well. Maybe I only buy the deals that are actually deals.

abstractform20

i believe performance had those reynolds at $800 before....pretty sure

himespau 

Since they're all owned by backcountry, I just wish I could combine my shipping from them and CC as I tend to go in spurts of ordering.

datlas 

Lucky for me, I have all the schwag I need.

Grasschopper

Hmm...I'm not sure with CC but I know you can with Whiskey Malitia, Steep and Cheep and the other 30 min deal sites in the family. I did that a couple of times this winter....man I spent too much money with these guys. LOL

The other thing is show me another place I can get Oakley glasses for 40%-60% off. I can't even get my shop discount at my LBS on them because of Oakley restrictions. I've bought 3 pair of Oakley sunglasses for a grand total of $170 which is the MSRP on just one of those three.

kv501

Hmm.......right here? Filter by price and discount on the left side.

If you check when they come up on Bonk you'll see that they are most of the time in the closeouts for the same price in the Oakley Vault.

My purpose wasn't really to bash Bonktown, I just don't think they live up to the hype. Anybody can slap a ridiculously high "regular" price on something and offer it at 60-70% off. I still say that with careful shopping you can match those prices. If something is selling well on the rest of the web at $100, no business is going to sell it for $50. It just doesn't work like that. The stuff that is deeply discounted is either discontinued, a weird size, or a goofy color. They play on the sucker factor by telling people that they have a limited time (when it will be back on in a couple days at most), and they are getting a huge discount.

If I weren't so lazy it'd be interesting to start a long term review of the Bonk to see how well someone could do against their prices. Too good to be true always is.

I'm out.

GiantDefyGuy

Meh.
It's perfect timing, really. I had just basically lost interest in that site. I cancelled my email updates a few weeks ago because it was basically the exact same email every day.

I did, however, just get that big Cutter floor pump from there, and it's pretty sweet.

And I will also try and grab a few more pairs of those Capo gloves (I love them) before totally washing my hands of the entire thing.

They'll never convince me to buy a wetsuit though.

dalava

Checked the spam folder?

johnny99

Sometimes Bonktown has great deals on closeout items that you never see from them again. Most of the time, you see the same stuff over and over at prices that aren't very interesting.

dalava

I must be lucky to be in the 0.01% percent all the time... because I always find deals on BT are way better than the ones found through Google search

kv501

Those are the ones I was talking about in the OP. If they'd let me buy 15 pairs at once I'd do it; I'd never have to buy another pair of summer gloves in my life. I better quit talking about them now or they'll jack the price.