Brooks seems to be a good example of my point about Nashbar classic offerings being sporadic. I ordered from their catalog in early August. I don't think the green B-17 was on their website. The estimated delivery date was pushed back several times, and for a while Brooks saddles disappeared from the catalogs. Now the B-17 has reappeared in the latest catalog in honey, black and green, along with the B-17 narrow (black only), the Team Pro, the Swallow (at $399) and perhaps the Swift. But the web site only lists the B-17 regular, and only in honey and black. So it is difficult to tell what they actually have available and what they don't. Looks like your saddle page is back up. You've got them beat by $9.95 on the B-17 Standard and by several dollars on the B-17 Champion Special. Don't have their catalog handy, but sounds like you probably have better prices across the board. On some models, one might approximately match your prices by using a Nashbar 10% cataolg discount code, but if the price is close, I always buy from Bicycle Classics or another CR-connected seller. I think when I ordered the green B-17s back in August, Nashbar's price was a bit lower than now and I got the 10% discount, plus the usual suspects on the CR list either didn't have green, or wanted a whole lot more than a the Nashbar price in the few instances where someone had green. Of course in retrospect, I could probably have waited for a CR seller with a competitive price to receive some green B-17s and stiil have had a shorter wait than I did with Nashbar.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Houston, TX
gpvb1@comcast.net wrote: Jerry wrote:
On another topic, I finally today received two British Racing Green B-17 Champion Specials that had been on backorder from Nashbar for over 3 1/2 months. It had been so long, I had to check the invoice to see if I got a good price, as I'd long since forgotten what I paid. Have LBS's been experiencing this sort of delay on Brooks? Has it been all models/colors or just the green ones? Maybe my receiving these is an indication that Brooks is finally catching up with demand. Always hesitate to mention Nashbar, as the LBS owners here see them as a rival. On the other hand, they have retained more interest in classic-type stuff than their parent Performance, and are a pretty fair source for classic stuff, although their classic offerings are sporadic and unpredictable.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Houston, TX
Jerry:
I kind of like Nashbar's Brooks prices, as mine are significantly lower in all cases!
(140 bucks for a Team Pro? Yikes! I sell them for $110).
Brooks is still playing catch-up on some models, but it's getting better, due to the normal lower demand in the Fall, I suspect. I have most of them in stock in most colors. No BRG Team Pros yet, though ( BRG B-17 Champs are in).
Greg "Brooks-o-rama" Parker Dexter, Michigan
P.S. My Saddles page is down at the moment, sorry..... Arishost hasn't been able to figure out exactly what's wrong, so far....