RiPHRaPH

i always wondered why this practice never took hold in the high end bike market.
Lightspeed has 6 months no interest on their bikes through the end of the year.

$400 down with 6 x $400 = $2800, which is a lot easier for people to rationalize than a lump sum total down on a bike. almost made me think twice.....

ChipRGW

Hmmm, making me think twice right now....

roadbuzz

I suppose it just makes sense. They aren't doing anything new. It's just new to Bicycles. Seems like they're doing everything to stay profitable and keep from being swallowed up by the Trek behemoth. Last year it was adding Taiwanese Al bikes. Now it's the "easy credit plan."

The thing about this that gives me indigestion is that the next logical step is that buying a bike becomes like buying a car. Salesmen on commission (white, patent leather cleats?) who don't care what you get, or whether it's right or not, as long as they sell it to you. And, they won't want you to pay up front, they're counting on the extra money from finance charges. Ugh.

What's next? Maybe availability from mass marketers. Probably not Wal-Mart, but maybe higher-end department and sporting good stores, like maybe Eddie Bauer & L.L. Bean?

ChipRGW

I asked at my LBS/ Lightspeed retailer this afternoon and they didn't know anything about it.

Where did you hear about this?

SamDaBikinMan

HMMMM......... What are the virtues of TI that makes folks spend that kind of dough**********

RiPHRaPH

go to the lightspeed website. it is plastered across the homepage under zero excuses, zero down.....

VegasCyclist

I don't think it will turn out this way for a few reasons, 1 people don't 'need' to have a bike, 2 high end bikes usually attract two types of people, cyclists and freds who want to be 'elite' cyclists. 3 the people who sell bikes probably enjoy doing so, otherwise they would be selling used cars

zlj75

As an ex-carsalesman I take offense at the ugly "used carsalesman" stereotype that is so easily thrown around...the industry as a whole is not that bad and is certainly getting better, often times people just cannot get past the stereotype which is continually reinforced in discussions like this!

Anyway, rant aside, financing is such a part of the American life that it is the natural step for a bike company to offer financing directly. I'm sure that the majority of new bikes purchased are purchased through credit cards anyway, so Litespeed has just elimanated the middle man.

ImprezaDrvr

Tell you what, you get rid of all of the jerks in car sales and then we'll talk. That stereotype is there not due to discussions or comments like that, but rather due to the people that are employed by so many car dealers. There are good sales people out there, I'm sure, I've just never met one until now.

Rant aside, a lot of shops have done financing directly through the shop for a while now. Guess Litespeed figures that they'll outdo the interest.

MtnBikerChk

my lbs has signs hanging up (litespeed made signs) showing zero interest for 6 months! it's about time!

roadbuzz

Nothing personal. It only takes a couple of bad apples to make the whole bunch seem bad. If you find a good car salesman you like, stay with him.

But it's not just car salesmen. In fact there are worse, just with lower stakes. In my experience, comission salepeople selling electronics or car stereo (e.g. Circuit City) are among the worst. And here's a shocker. Wife and I went looking at new mattresses a couple of months ago. Same sort of sales model. And all the dealers had slimy sales guys who would tell you d@mn near anything, at 40,000 words per minute, and change their mind when it became convenient or your questions backed them into a corner. The one we bought (name brand, Serta), the guy told us that the warrantee would be void if the stain or damage was bigger than "this" (pointing to his finger tip), unless we got the stores house-brand mattress pad for ~$50, and had us sign that we had been told this and understood. I wonder if Serta knows about that policy? If we need warrantee service, they'll certainly hear about it.

ImprezaDrvr

roadbuzz, you're exactly right. That's why I hate to hear that a bike shop puts its sales staff on commission. The whole mattress buying experience was pretty funny, actually, to me and my wife. They wheel and deal on those things like crazy.

Back on topic, though, I wonder how long it will take for more bike manufacturers to offer this kind of financing? Seems like Trek should be able to, as big as they are, and a few others could pull it off.

RonH

This is how I bought my Litespeed in April 2001. The bike shop offered 0% for 90 days.

I wonder if I can talk my wife into letting me get the Vortex. She knows I really need it.