Scott4957,

Dealers in SoCal dump last year's models when the new ones come in. They sell them at their cost. LBSs in other places not so much. The thinking is, "I've paid for it. Not much businesss now. In spring I can unload last year's bikes and restock with this year's bikes."

In May your bike will drop $100. In theory, you should be in a good bargaining position now, when sales are slow. Especially when the bike was paid for last year, so $800 in cash right now is beneficial to the LBS owner. $600 cash would be attractive.


The owner bought the bike as an experiment. The best outcome for his experiment would have been a quick sale at MSRP. Maybe that used to happen. Maybe the market dropped off. At any rate, he put out 6-7-800 and has a white elephant.

On the other hand if the market is soft, he's not necessarily going to use your cash to restock with a 2010 replacement. If he does want to do this, he has to figure the replacement cost

So say the price has gone up. Not only that, Cannondale is making him price the 10 at MSRP. Which may not sell, if the 09 is a measure.

Do you see how screwed up his life is? In a free market, he could set whatever prices moved the bikes. If he were smarter, he'd join a co-op and get mass-purchasing power, and pass on the savings to his retail customers.

If you don't have bike-fixing skills and don't want to develop them, lifetime free tuneups are worth a premium. They are actually simple, but some people aren't mechanically inclined.