LONGMONT, Colo. (BRAIN) — Trek Bicycle's announcement in August that it would soon begin online sales of bikes was the biggest story in the bike industry in 2015, generating more pageviews than any other article on BicycleRetailer.com. The article generated so many comments from our readers that they apparently crashed our Facebook-based commenting system.
While online bike sales are far from a novelty today, Trek is the first major U.S. brand to allow consumers to order up a bike directly from its website. Trek is keeping its dealers central to the program, with the bikes being shipped to the consumer's chosen Trek dealer for assembly and delivery. At the time of the annoucement at Trek's dealer event in Wisconsin, the company said it planned to launch the program in September. As it turns out, the company did not begin its online bike sales until December.
Trek was also central to the second most-viewed story on BicycleRetailer.com in 2015. The company announced in April that it would recall about 900,000 bikes because the bikes' front quick release levers, if closed improperly, could make contact with the front disc brake rotor, potentially causing a crash. Other bike brands have used similar quick releases, and 13 of them worked with the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association and the U.S. CPSC to announce a recall of about 1.3 million bikes in September.
Our third biggest story of the year involved the industry's largest supplier, Shimano. Fred Clements, then the executive director of the National Bicycle Dealers Association, wrote an analysis piece that reported on dealers' concerns about Shimano's apparent inability to control the retail pricing of its products, with some overseas e-commerce sites offering Shimano parts for less than U.S. retailers can buy them at wholesale.
Here's the list of our most-viewed stories in 2015, and the number of comments each generated:
- Trek to begin online bike sales (More than 100 comments)
- Trek recalls QR-disc brake bikes (22 comments)
- Fred Clements: Dealers speak out about the S-word (53 comments)
- BTI co-founder Andrew Wright dies in motorcycle accident (47 comments)
- Dealer wins $3.1 million award in dispute with Giant (16 comments)
- Felt ends model year introductions (37 comments)
- A conversation with the Rainmaker (10 comments)
- Pope Francis to be given custom Breezer (14 comments)
- Santa Cruz sold to Pon (14 comments)
- Phony journalist scams companies (12 comments)
