Pre-Order, Aivee is back, and AForce discs

We'll save you the way tired LL Cool J reference, because lord is that overused. But for the first time since forever we are having a pre-order. One of the toughest things about a seasonal business, and in particular a seasonal business with all of the cash flow and throughput restraints that we have, is that when you always have the least cash on hand is the time when you want to be stroking big checks for inventory in order to catch the spring demand. If we used a huge line of credit, or were trustafarians who could just do that out of pocket, that would be great. Alas, neither of those, so we're playing the first card we played, which is one we haven't played in a while - pre-order. 

Now through the end of the year, order any set of RCG, GOAT, Cafe Racer, or GX24 wheels and get $100 off. The kick? You won't get them for a while - at least late January and potentially a few days beyond that. But if you're like a lot of people, that doesn't matter much right now as it's more like ski season and less like ride your bike (outside, at least) season at the moment. If you are among the fortunate for whom it is still ride your bike outside season, we can do an order at regular price with regular delivery now, we'll just do it as a custom order. 

Yes it is painful to wait so long for wheels, especially when they are so darn nice. But the APR we give you is one that Louie with the brass knuckles would happily accept, and no one's knee caps are at risk (except for the overuse injury which new wheels might inspire, but that's a separate issue). You'll have them before you need them, and we will then be chock full of inventory to deliver wheels to people who don't have as much foresight as you when ski season turns to ride your bike outside season. And just between us girls, there's a price increase coming after the first of the year, so you're really getting more than $100 off. 

As ever with pre-orders, this will create a huge bottleneck when everything comes in and we can only build as fast as we can build, so first in first out. 

Aivee is also back. Not that they ever went anywhere, but their Centerlock MP2 hubs were AWOL for quite a while. They sorted out their supply issue (I guess a whole bunch of wheel builders showing up at your virtual doorstep carrying virtual torches and clubs is inspiring) and now have oodles of hubs for us. We will also be selling their hubs as components for all of you would-be wheel builders out there. They are also finally going to do their Edition One hubs (the orange ones in the photo are Edition Ones) in centerlock, and those are slated to be available in February. We really prefer centerlock. 

The last big bit of news is that AForce Al33 disc rims are finally in stock. This had slipped completely off of our radar, and then it just happened. We have them available with Aivee, White Industries, and Industry Nine hubs at limited time introductory pricing. Aivee builds will take a minute to get out since we are just arranging our restock of MP2 hubs, but the WI and I9 builds will be available with our normal quicker turnaround. You can kind of consider this a pre-order with quicker delivery because the pricing on these is introductory.

Heavy hinting here at price increases for 2019. There aren't any massive increases planned, and barring any insane tariff and trade war developments there won't be. But we have been absorbing some supplier price increases that we're not going to absorb any more, and the cost of doing business has not gone down, so there will be some increases to go along with your New Year's hangover. 

*ski photo stolen from Stowe, but I bought a pass from them this year so I consider us all square