Availability for Bikes, Parts & Accessories

As we’re sure you‘ve noticed, the world has gone a little bit crazy recently. Something about a global pandemic has really opened the general public’s hearts to mountain biking (and puppies.)

As production around the world ground to a halt, with lockdowns and social distancing severely restricting anyone's ability to make anything, demand for anything mountain-bike-flavoured went through the roof. Like most shops, our shelves have been raided like it’s been Black Friday everyday for the last 18 months and are getting replenished at a rate akin to the day after our staff Christmas party - but rather than our collective hangover being the reason, it’s just down to a sheer lack of availability. Did we even mention Brexit yet?

Production is picking up in factories around the world, but there’s lists upon lists of backorders big enough to fill enough containers to block the Suez Canal all over again (oh yeah, that didn’t help much either.) 

Back in the good ol’ 2019 days, if we didn’t have something in stock there was a pretty good chance the UK Distributor had a shelf full and it’d be with us in a day-or-two. At the moment we’re getting what we’re given from most suppliers who are sharing out what little they have trickling in their doors to bike shops across the country. Gone are the days when a set of tyres and a new 12-speed chain were a quick phone call away. Lead times are measured in years right now.

What all of this means for you is that, despite our best efforts, if we don’t have something in stock, there’s a good chance you’re in for a long wait. Just how long varies so wildly between manufacturers that we’re no longer quoting lead times on our website. If your heart is set on something that is showing as out of stock on our site please get in touch via live chat, email or give us a call and we’ll do our best to give you a timeframe. Please bear with us, we will get back to you as soon as we can. We’re inundated with enquiries and working through them in the order we get them, so it may take a day or two for us to reply to your email.

We’ve got orders in with all of our suppliers in an effort to fill our warehouse shelves again and things are steadily improving, but any components produced overseas by the likes of SRAM, Shimano, Fox Shox, Maxxis, OneUp et al are likely to take a while to get to us. It’s a good time to get your bike serviced and make sure everything is running well!

If you’re looking for a new bike, get in touch. Our orders are in for 2022. With very little ‘free stock’ available, we’ll be able to advise you what we have coming and when (we hope) it’s due. 

When will it get better? If you're reading this, it hasn't happened yet! We're crossing our fingers for things to get back to normal, or as close as possible, by Summer 2022.

From all of us here at Stif, 

Thanks for your continued patience and support.