Performance Bicycle owner ASE files for bankruptcy

[Kzoo]

Advanced Sports Enterprises (ASE), the parent company of retail chain Performance Bicycle, as well as bike brands Fuji, Kestrel, and Breezer Bikes, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company confirmed Friday.

ASE was formed in August 2016 when Advanced Sports International merged with Performance Bicycle. The company also owns Bike Nashbar, SE, and Tuesday Cycles

 

https://www.velonews.com/2018/11/news/performance-bicycle-owner-ase-files-for-bankruptcy_481472?fbclid=IwAR1aYX7Eq4rVlRdTB1je8kSPS-oaA_2RlU-UKBkuyLbev3DAJRESiPrlO9k

[maddmaxx ★]

Well they ate up Supergo and probably had a bit to do with the end of Price Point so I guess that the super shops of the internet are dead and gone.  Too many changes in equipment and prices so high that the average builder was being pushed out of the market and if you're going to buy ready to ride it might as well be local.

[Ltdskilz]

I had no idea they owned Breezer, Kestrel, and Fuji.

[Kzoo]

Just now, Ltdskilz said:

I had no idea they owned Breezer, Kestrel, and Fuji.

Neither did I.

 

[Road Runner]

This surprises me.  I thought on-line Performance was doing great business.  My closest store is in Va Beach and it is never very busy.  It will probably close.   

[ChrisL]

Wow, yeah I knew they owned the brands as you can only get them at PB.  Interesting to see what happens.  I buy a crap ton of little stuff from them, even bought a bike or two over the years.

We have 4 of them within a reasonable driving distance, I'm sure some will close.   all of them have fairly busy walk in traffic.

[Longjohn ★]

Whenever I would buy something online from either Nashbar or Performance I would soon get almost identical catalogs from both. I didn’t even need one catalog, when you buy online you can see if the item is in stock. Nobody buys from a catalog anymore do they? Those catalogs must cost them something?

[JerrySTL ★]

44 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Those catalogs must cost them something?

Remember the J.C. Whitney catalogs? That was a major reason they went bankrupt. I was getting those things 10 years after I last bought something from them. I think that it was a gizmo that would give my car 24.6% better gas mileage.

[dinneR ★]

2 hours ago, Longjohn said:

Whenever I would buy something online from either Nashbar or Performance I would soon get almost identical catalogs from both. I didn’t even need one catalog, when you buy online you can see if the item is in stock. Nobody buys from a catalog anymore do they? Those catalogs must cost them something?

The catalog business can be very profitable. The vendors pay for space in the catalog. They can make money without selling a single thing. Think of it like advertising in a magazine.

People might order from the website, but the catalog does the selling.

[Longjohn ★]

33 minutes ago, dennis said:

People might order from the website, but the catalog does the selling.

The catalog doesn’t sell me anything, I throw it away.

[dinneR ★]

9 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

The catalog doesn’t sell me anything, I throw it away.

So you are probably in the minority and missing the point. Most people who receive it look through it. They might go online and buy something, they might not. Even if they don't buy something, Performance makes money just by printing and mailing the catalog. 

[donkpow]

Speaking of catalogs, I subscribe to a free service that lets me access quite a large number of digital publications. issuu I first went there in search of the QBP catalog.

[ChrisL]

49 minutes ago, dennis said:

So you are probably in the minority and missing the point. Most people who receive it look through it. They might go online and buy something, they might not. Even if they don't buy something, Performance makes money just by printing and mailing the catalog. 

I can't say I buy something just because it's in the catalogue but I do enjoy flipping through it.  But I already know what I like & need.

You guys remember when they had the magazine they sent 2X a year?

[Tizeye]

Didn't Ugly Bob work for then in the Phoenix (Peoria) store? 
I drove by the Orlando/Winter Park store yesterday (Saw Bohemian Rhapsody at theater in shopping center across the street from them - which also had an REI Store open in the shopping center literally across the street for Performance. Had dinner after the movie at the Olive Garden next to Performance. Occasionally go in there primarily for clothing but usually shop at the areas historical LBS's.

There staff was halfway decent and could carry an intelligent conversation, unlike the Bikes Direct store and their Motobecaine sales pitch that makes me cringe.

[Page Turner]

...a lot of the stuff I used to buy from Performance, I now buy from Ribble and a couple of other foreign sites.

Even with whatever it costs for shipping, stuff like quality tyres and tubes end up cheaper to my door. But I definitely need to stock up on Forte leather toe straps, which are unparalleled for price and quality.

 

I just spent 150 bucks on tyres and tubes there, and another couple hunnert bucks on the cheapest place I could find on Amazon and E-bay to buy some rims and spokes. A couple hunnert bucks buys a lot of decent, but not deluxe wheel rims.  I gotta get some guy here to custom shorten 30 or 40 more to end up with the stuff for three more sets of wheels, and that's probably it for this winter.   Unless the air stays crappy, then I might build up every spare hub I have.

[donkpow]

9 hours ago, No One said:

I gotta get some guy here to custom shorten 30 or 40 more to end up with the stuff for three more sets of wheels,

I'm a little surprised you don't have a threading tool.

[Longjohn ★]

31 minutes ago, donkpow said:

I'm a little surprised you don't have a threading tool.

I cut spokes and threaded them for a motorcycle wheel I was racing 47 years ago. Bicycle spokes should be easier to do. I haven’t messed with any spokes since then.

[donkpow]

25 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I cut spokes and threaded them for a motorcycle wheel I was racing 47 years ago. Bicycle spokes should be easier to do. I haven’t messed with any spokes since then.

They like to roll the threads on bicycle spokes now. It makes it necessary to get a special threading tool.

[Longjohn ★]

1 minute ago, donkpow said:

They like to roll the threads on bicycle spokes now. It makes it necessary to get a special threading tool.

We had a special tool on my motorcycle spokes, that part was easy.

[Page Turner]

4 hours ago, donkpow said:

I'm a little surprised you don't have a threading tool.

...the one that really woks costs like 3000 bucks.  We bought one at the co-op when I was on the management board, but the useless fuckers who remain have managed to make it so that it is either inoperable or locked away most of the time.  I took the opportunity to attend the last board meeting to point this out to them, but I expect little change based on past experience.  In the meantime, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, man.  No way I'm gonna cut and roll spokes on one of those Hozan mini threaders.  Once you've gone Phil, you'll never go back. 

[Randomguy]

I like performance for what it is.  Sometimes you want a cheap tube fast.  They always had great deals and sales and whatnot.

[sheep_herder ★]

14 minutes ago, No One said:

...the one that really woks costs like 3000 bucks.  We bought one at the co-op when I was on the management board, but the useless fuckers who remain have managed to make it so that it is either inoperable or locked away most of the time.  I took the opportunity to attend the last board meeting to point this out to them, but I expect little change based on past experience.  In the meantime, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, man.  No way I'm gonna cut and roll spokes on one of those Hozan mini threaders.  Once you've gone Phil, you'll never go back. 

Local LBS has one, nice.