2021 Stumpjumper Rant

[T_Boss]

Question: Where did you get the info that Spez will only be bringing in the entry level Stumpy and the S-Works frameset?  I see everybody is writing their own marketing thesis on why Spez took this decision but nobody gave actual facts or statements made by Spez that they will not bring it in. (I know, I know, I am not allowed to use the "Fact" word on here.)  

 

So, here follows my Marketing thesis:  Spez SA does not have a cashflow issue and sitting with 5 - 10 bikes at the end of a season that did not sell at the RRP is no issue for them.  They drop the price to almost cost price and those bikes are sold within a week or 2.  They have no intention to lose out on trail bike sales in a market like SA where more and more people are getting into trail riding. 

 

I am pretty sure that what we see on the Spez website is only the available stock in SA.  Spez might not have the 2021 Stumpy Comp Carbon on their website with a price because they do not have any in stock yet.  The SA market is not the biggest in the world remember. 

 

I am pretty sure SA does not get the pick of the litter when the new season bikes are being released.  The whole world are out of stock in the bicycle department and SA will probably not even be top 20 in the list of countries to get the new bikes.  (This is definitely not a fact, just a thumb suck)

 

Maybe wait a month or 2 and they might get stock or even better, go and ask your local Spez shop.  You might get the actual answer there.

 

They stated so in the press release regarding the Launch of the new Stumpjumper, that was published on the Hub. 

 

"

South African Availability and Pricing

In South African, the 2021 Stumpjumper will only be available in carbon as a S-Works frameset price at R70,000 or as a complete bike with the alloy frame for R40,000.

 

 

The frames and bike will be available from Specialized dealers from November 2020.

 

link to the press release is here: https://community.bikehub.co.za/features/_/gear/gear-news/specialized-launch-new-stumpjumper-with-pivotless-flexstays-r8191

[Milkman]

 People also forget the bike you ride is very dependent on where you live. Your Stumpy might be a very lekke bike to ride if you stay in Stellies or maybe Karkloof , but you are gonna hate it if you live in for example the North West Province. 
 

As much as I would love to ride trails every day , reality is that that’s the exception and not the norm for most South Africans. Most of us have to do with 100’s of kay’s of gravel grinding for every once in a while of going on holiday or long weekend of trail riding .

 

So , would you rather be slightly under biked for the maybe 10% of the riding you do , or over biked for the real 90% you do ?

[Stevief]

 People also forget the bike you ride is very dependent on where you live. Your Stumpy might be a very lekke bike to ride if you stay in Stellies or maybe Karkloof , but you are gonna hate it if you live in for example the North West Province. 

 

As much as I would love to ride trails every day , reality is that that’s the exception and not the norm for most South Africans. Most of us have to do with 100’s of kay’s of gravel grinding for every once in a while of going on holiday or long weekend of trail riding .

 

So , would you rather be slightly under biked for the maybe 10% of the riding you do , or over biked for the real 90% you do ?

good point

[PhilipV]

People also forget the bike you ride is very dependent on where you live. Your Stumpy might be a very lekke bike to ride if you stay in Stellies or maybe Karkloof , but you are gonna hate it if you live in for example the North West Province.

 

As much as I would love to ride trails every day , reality is that that’s the exception and not the norm for most South Africans. Most of us have to do with 100’s of kay’s of gravel grinding for every once in a while of going on holiday or long weekend of trail riding .

 

So , would you rather be slightly under biked for the maybe 10% of the riding you do , or over biked for the real 90% you do ?

Very true.

 

I met a guy around a fire once, he was from Midrand. It was at the end of a week long work stint in stellies, and he bought his MTB with. I asked him about the rides that he did while here and his answer was: ek verstaan hoekom julle trail bikes ry. "

[PhilipV]

Question: Where did you get the info that Spez will only be bringing in the entry level Stumpy and the S-Works frameset? I see everybody is writing their own marketing thesis on why Spez took this decision but nobody gave actual facts or statements made by Spez that they will not bring it in. (I know, I know, I am not allowed to use the "Fact" word on here.)

 

So, here follows my Marketing thesis: Spez SA does not have a cashflow issue and sitting with 5 - 10 bikes at the end of a season that did not sell at the RRP is no issue for them. They drop the price to almost cost price and those bikes are sold within a week or 2. They have no intention to lose out on trail bike sales in a market like SA where more and more people are getting into trail riding.

 

I am pretty sure that what we see on the Spez website is only the available stock in SA. Spez might not have the 2021 Stumpy Comp Carbon on their website with a price because they do not have any in stock yet. The SA market is not the biggest in the world remember.

 

I am pretty sure SA does not get the pick of the litter when the new season bikes are being released. The whole world are out of stock in the bicycle department and SA will probably not even be top 20 in the list of countries to get the new bikes. (This is definitely not a fact, just a thumb suck)

 

Maybe wait a month or 2 and they might get stock or even better, go and ask your local Spez shop. You might get the actual answer there.

Trust the accountant to bring some sense into the battle.

 

Het jy nie sparkling water bottels om te gaan tel nie?

[sirmoun10goat]

 

Its the mindset of the customer base that need to change.

 

 

Why must people's mindsets change?

If a person is happy riding a +R100k XC bike on a district road, that's fine. To each his own.

 

I know people  who love to go out on long rides, on district roads. For them a light weight XC bike makes sense, even though the XCs are not intended for that purpose. Why ride a heavier ST bike.

 

Some people just want to be outside, doing some form of activity, and want to have a nice bike to enjoy. Not everyone wants to rip down trails and bomb it down hills while jumping every bump in sight.

[DR ◣◢]

The argument for trail bikes is also very strong when you look at the comfort factor. An XC geometry can get quite fatiguing after a while compared to the more upright seating position of a trail bike.

 

In Gauteng you can definitely ride everything (we don’t count Harties and the DH tracks for obvious reasons) on an XC bike and even a fully rigid SS if you want. It is that flat and uninspiring here.

 

I chose a trail bike for comfort more than anything else.

[T_Boss]

The argument for trail bikes is also very strong when you look at the comfort factor. An XC geometry can get quite fatiguing after a while compared to the more upright seating position of a trail bike.

 

In Gauteng you can definitely ride everything (we don’t count Harties and the DH tracks for obvious reasons) on an XC bike and even a fully rigid SS if you want. It is that flat and uninspiring here.

 

I chose a trail bike for comfort more than anything else.

 

I agree with you 100%. When I was 10 years younger and still thoght I might make it as a competitive racer, the lack of comfort was worth it. 

 

But I know now I only ride for fun, whether its long slow rides on flat trails or dirt road, or ripping it on single track, I choose the comfort of the trail bike all day every day

 

and this is the mindset change I think people need to make. WIth the entire industry in SA so XC bike oreintated, a lot of MAMILS havent even tried a trail bike, even though they would probably be faster in every 3 day stage race they do, just because they would be more comfortable and less fatigued....

[CJ Van]

They stated so in the press release regarding the Launch of the new Stumpjumper, that was published on the Hub. 

 

"

South African Availability and Pricing

In South African, the 2021 Stumpjumper will only be available in carbon as a S-Works frameset price at R70,000 or as a complete bike with the alloy frame for R40,000.

 

 

The frames and bike will be available from Specialized dealers from November 2020.

 

link to the press release is here: https://community.bikehub.co.za/features/_/gear/gear-news/specialized-launch-new-stumpjumper-with-pivotless-flexstays-r8191

Ok, my bad.  I did not read the whole press release.  Actually, I only looked at the pictures because watching a video of the new stumpy is more entertaining that reading about it.  

 

Anyway, this bugged me enough (because it makes zero sense not to bring in some of the other models) to go and visit my local Spez shop during lunch today.  They said that at this moment it is only the cheep cheep Stumpy and the S-works frameset that is available in SA but that they will get the other models in eventually.  The problem is they do not know when the "eventually" will be.

 

When I ride in Eden forest again I will ask the big Spez concept store in Stellies if they have more info on this.  

[blackwing]

in our group of mates riding in Cape Town nearly everyone has a Stumpjumper. It's hurting the business of our local dealer no end.

 

Imagine Toyota saying for the next generation Hilux they will only bring in the most expensive model and the entry level single cab. It's that bad.

 

I bet that Trek, Giant, Scott and Cannondale are going to climb into this hole left by Spez. The marketing department essentially aimed at both feet simultaneously and pulled the trigger. 

[hansolo]

I do hope/think they might bring in other models, I've seen quite a few new Enduros around and it doesn't look like they are bringing them in "officially".

 

I do wonder what is the ratio between "digital" (Levo) and "analogue" (Stumpjumper) sales locally, I suspect Levos might outsell Stumpjumpers by quite a margin.

 

This could be a good topic for a petition...

Edited October 22, 2020 by hansolo

[thebob]

in our group of mates riding in Cape Town nearly everyone has a Stumpjumper. It's hurting the business of our local dealer no end.

 

Imagine Toyota saying for the next generation Hilux they will only bring in the most expensive model and the entry level single cab. It's that bad.

 

I bet that Trek, Giant, Scott and Cannondale are going to climb into this hole left by Spez. The marketing department essentially aimed at both feet simultaneously and pulled the trigger. 

 

Trek - hardly any Fuel EX models. Scott - a few Spark models and one Genius model. Giant - a few Trance 29, one model each of the Trance X. Cannondale - one habit model. No one wants to sell trail bikes cause no one seems to buy them.

[Jewbacca]

Also, the same 50 people country wide who DO want them chat here, but then also won't buy a Spaz because it's a Spaz, then complain out the box bikes suck so of the 50, 10 will actually buy one but not every year, so that is maybe 5 per year at a stretch. Add the mates and you have maybe 20 per year max country wide.

 

The rest all buy obscure GG bikes or import frames from CRC etc because it's cheaper....

 

The actual trail bike market, out of the thousands of bikes sold per year, is tiny. I know. I see the same guys at Tokai, the same guys at jonkers etc.... It's a small group in amongst a massive pot.

[DieselnDust]

Trek - hardly any Fuel EX models. Scott - a few Spark models and one Genius model. Giant - a few Trance 29, one model each of the Trance X. Cannondale - one habit model. No one wants to sell trail bikes cause no one seems to buy them.

 

 

to be fair a lot of those light trail bikes aren't being ridden by people who are focussed on riding the more challenging trails.

 Line up at Wines2whales and you'll see lots of Cambers, Fuel EX, Scott Spark (120mm) 

Granted there are way more 100mm XC bikes being ridden slowly and crashing a lot .

I still regret hanahanaring over a 2017 Fuel Ex that Bridge Cycles was flogging at a super low sale price in 17inch and 19inch. By the time I made up my mind both were sold. 

I think there is demand or them and they do sell but people just don't use them as intended.

Then since 2019 there's been a marked slow down in bike sales and XC bikes still sell well because again, many peeps use them on road and aren't that serious about trail riding.

 

I'd seriously consider a RevelBikes Ranger in the XC build as my next bike. That new SID SL platform in Fork and Shock just rides so damn well that it makes a 120mm bike feel like a 100mm bike under power but a proper trail bike on the downs.

Transition Spur, is another one but these bikes are really the market for serious mountain bikers who will go looking for they want and will turn over every stone to find something lights their fire.

The rest just hop down to an LBS/concept store and buy whats recommended and that i often going to be steered toward an XC oriented bike  by virtue of the fact it will spend 80% of its life on tar

[Kuys]

to be fair a lot of those light trail bikes aren't being ridden by people who are focussed on riding the more challenging trails.

 Line up at Wines2whales and you'll see lots of Cambers, Fuel EX, Scott Spark (120mm) 

Granted there are way more 100mm XC bikes being ridden slowly and crashing a lot .

I still regret hanahanaring over a 2017 Fuel Ex that Bridge Cycles was flogging at a super low sale price in 17inch and 19inch. By the time I made up my mind both were sold. 

I think there is demand or them and they do sell but people just don't use them as intended.

Then since 2019 there's been a marked slow down in bike sales and XC bikes still sell well because again, many peeps use them on road and aren't that serious about trail riding.

 

I'd seriously consider a RevelBikes Ranger in the XC build as my next bike. That new SID SL platform in Fork and Shock just rides so damn well that it makes a 120mm bike feel like a 100mm bike under power but a proper trail bike on the downs.

Transition Spur, is another one but these bikes are really the market for serious mountain bikers who will go looking for they want and will turn over every stone to find something lights their fire.

The rest just hop down to an LBS/concept store and buy whats recommended and that i often going to be steered toward an XC oriented bike  by virtue of the fact it will spend 80% of its life on tar

 

https://www.transitionbikes.co.za/collections/spur

 

I would pick this any day over the new Stumpy

[Showtime]

For many of us a proper trail bike would just be a N+1.

 

I almost bought a Norco Fluid because I loved the single mindedness of the thing. Pike fork and 2.6 wide minion tyres just have fun written all over it if you can find the right place to use it.

 

But then a bit like that My Life vs GoPro video I know that for the riding I actually do 120mm down country is where it's at. 

 

The Epic Evo is the mainstream option for most people and I'm more surprised by the lack of Alu models there.