I have been running into delays with a lot of bicycle parts. I tried to buy a 120 mm fat bike crankset back in December. The LBS had some Race Face parts on hand, but not a full crankset, and they were not able to get the missing pieces from any of their suppliers. I couldn't find them anywhere either. So the LBS was out, unless I wanted a $500 carbon crank. I am good to go with carbon road cranks (I have 4), but my off road style is probably not compatible with carbon cranks.

Chain Reaction Cycles to the rescue! They had a Hope alloy crankset for about half of what a carbon crankset was going to cost. Paid the bill and had it in a week.

As winter transitioned into spring, and the ice got wetter and slicker, I broke one of the Formula brake master cylinders on the Fat Bike. Replacement parts were unavailable. Found a Hope brake set on eBay, so I bought it. Then, the seller messaged me that it would be 10 weeks before they shipped because Hope is running limited production. Canceled the order.

I found another web store in Germany that listed them. Bought a set and they stated that they would ship in 3 days. Six days later and no shipping notice. When I contacted them they said that they will ship in 8 weeks because Hope is running limited production. Canceled the order.

Checked Chain Reaction. Very limited stock, but they had Hope V4 brakes instead of E4. And they are bright red. So what. Maybe more brakes than I wanted, but the bike will be available for spring riding. They should be here in 3-4 days.

So a few thoughts on this:

• The marketing forecasters for the bicycle industry never saw this coming. Bike instead of gym and bike instead of subway. Instead they saw decreased demand.
• With the forecast for decreased demand the component manufacturers cut back on production.
• With decreased demand, raw material suppliers cut back on their production schedules. So Hope can't get as much aluminum.
• For bottom feeders like myself, a lot of the bike parts we can buy are the leftovers from bicycle manufacturing. Suddenly, with the increased demand there are no leftovers. So that part of the bottom feeder's supply chain is gone.
• Weird things do happen. The loss of shipping containers has been high this year (https://www.freightwaves.com/news/oc...%20and%202019.) and that ship going sideways in the Suez and Egypt holding it until they get paid, and probably a lot of other crap that I don't know about. But when you rely on a supply chain that is rooted in Asia, both North America and Europe are vulnerable to interruptions.

So, shop around. Maybe see if you can buy an "ethically sourced" used part. Some of the vendors who don't do a lot of OEM supply may have inventory. Your LBS may have something that will work on the shelf, looking for a good home. Beware of vendors who sell a promise to deliver in the future. They have no clue when or if they will actually be able to deliver on their promises.