Many gravity riders consider Iron Horse’s DW Link Sunday to be one of the best downhill bikes available.įor its 2010 bikes, Iron Horse has a license for a new suspension system, although Weidberg declined to elaborate on the specifics or whether the company would change its existing line-up. Weagle said he decided in July 2007 not to renew the license with Iron Horse, which runs through March 31, 2009, because he wanted to take the DW Link in a different direction.Īlong with Pivot, Independent Fabrication and Ibis also hold licenses for the DW Link, and Weagle will announce a fourth licensee before Interbike that will develop a downhill bike using his suspension system.
“I just had a feeling that something was going wrong.” “Luckily I went with my gut feeling and we decided not to take the bikes (in 2008),” McInnis said. He picked up Pivot, which uses the DW Link, and filled the void left by Iron Horse’s bread-and-butter, $300 to $400 bikes with GT’s pricepoint line. McInnis dropped the brand last year after hearing that Iron Horse’s license with Dave Weagle for his DW Link suspension system would not be renewed. International distribution channels will not change, Weidberg said.įormer Iron Horse dealer Brian McInnis, owner of JRA Cycles in Medford, Massachusetts, wasn’t surprised to hear the brand was pulling out of the IBD, and even says he saw it coming. I think the Internet represents a faster and more efficient way for the consumer to buy products,” he said. “I think that probably is the way it’s been characterized for many years and I think it’s an old-fashioned view. Weidberg views the Internet as playing a larger role in the future of bicycle sales and doesn’t believe that ramping up online sales will hurt the brand’s reputation. Iron Horse will be the top brand in Randall Scott’s retail store. You really don’t have a lot of possibility to be important if that’s where your position is,” Weidberg said.
“It became clear to us that we had to do something to protect our brand because we didn’t want to be the third, fourth, fifth, sixth brand in a store. Over the past five years, the sporting goods channel had overtaken the specialty channel in terms of sales of Iron Horse bikes, Weidberg said. 2 brands sold in their stores, pushing out niche brands like Iron Horse. Weidberg maintains the reason for the change in business strategy stemmed from competition from companies like Trek and Specialized who ask dealers to make their bikes the No. Weidberg refused to comment on his relationship with Scott, but said that he has no financial stake in Randall Scott Cycle Company and that it’s a “separate, independent company.” That company’s president, Randall Scott, is Weidberg’s son, according to several former Iron Horse employees who asked not to be named. Its high-end bikes will be sold exclusively through Randall Scott Cycle Company, an online outlet with a showroom in Boulder, Colorado.
1, Iron Horse would sell its middle and lower priced bicycles only in the sporting goods channel in the United States. He has pulled his remaining Iron Horse stock from the sales floor and will liquidate the product.Ĭliff Weidberg, chief executive officer of Iron Horse Bicycle Company and World Wide Cycle Supply announced last month that, as of Sept. Walling had carried Iron Horse bikes since 2004 and said the brand made up about 20 percent of the shop’s complete bike sales. We have a lot invested in the brand and we have for a number of years supported the brand in terms of how we represented it in the shop and how our sales staff sold the brand,” said Tani Walling, owner of The Path Bike Shop in Tustin, California. HOLBROOK, NY-News that Iron Horse Bicycle Company would discontinue sales of its bikes in the independent bicycle dealer channel drew mixed reactions from the brand’s retailers-some were let down, while others said they saw the move coming.
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