Last whatever it was I lauded Canyon Bicycles GmbH for its ambitious financial goals, and Im pleased to report theyre getting even closer to attaining them by firing a few hundred people:They dont want to do it, but they have no choice:Canyon is a close-knit community, united by a passion for cycling. It is therefore particularly painful that we have to part ways with valued colleagues. That makes it all the more important to me to navigate this process as responsibly as possible, Arnold said.This statement evokes Homer Simpson eating his beloved pet lobster:This is unfortunate. But really, what can Canyon do? After all, sales are down 7%. SEVEN PERCENT! And you cant say its because Canyon bikes arent awesome, because they aremaybe even the awesomest bikes in all of cycledom![Gravel Product Manager Matthias Eurich, who may or may not still have a job, uses both hands to stroke the girthy awesomeness.]No, the problem is because of industry oversupply and discounting:The most recentfinancial statement from Canyons ownership group, GBL,said sales were down 7% over the first nine months of the year because of industry oversupply and discounting.So who is responsible for all this heedless oversupplying and discounting? Certainly not Canyon, whose website features 37 different bikes in the road bike category alone, many of which are being sold at a discount:Then there are the Grizls.So many GrizlsAnd how can you call yourself a bike company if you dont offer (12) separate categories of mountain bike?Lots of people read the news and have heart palpitations over whats going on with Greenland or whatever. Not me. What causes me to lose sleep is thinking about HOW MANY GODDAMN BIKES THERE ARE in the world, and how we keep on making more and more and more of them. Presumably this is how cat rescue people feel about strays, and why they run around neutering them and shaming people for buying cats from breeders instead of adopting them from shelters. Why pay lots of money for a weird inbred cat with deformed ears when you can get a normal cat thats about to be euthanized for free?Similarly, why pay thousands for a new plastic Fred sled with lots of proprietary parts from Canyon when there are bikes like this in need of rescue?And before you answer, dont bother, I already know. Its the same reason why, if you ask me how many bikes I have, Im unable to answer without counting in my head for several minutes first. As a 21st century American Im among the most rapacious consumers ever to have walked the earth, and as a cyclist Im a member of an elite strike force within that groupsort of a SEAL Team Six of acquiring things we dont need.So believe me, I get it, and by no means do I think Im somehow different or special because I have a few vintage bikes among the [intern, go count the bikes] total I store on three separate floors of my New York City apartment building. But I still fret about it. How does any bicycle anywhere have any value at all at this point? Youd think theyd be like the Papiermark during the Weimar Republic.But I suppose weve seen it all before. For example, Cannondale was able to ride the aluminum trend and the mountain bike trend and the road bike trend for several decades:Those were heady days indeed:He wore jeans and sweatpants; favored conversations over emails; and opened offices in Europe and Japan but kept his manufacturing base in Bedford, Pa., which he visited twice weekly on flights aboard a corporate jet that he piloted.Though of course they eventually flew too close to the sun with the whole motorcycle thing, Montgomery moved on to the glamorous world of medical billing, and Cannondale became just another set of decals from Pon Holdings:The company is now owned by Pon Holdings, a Dutch conglomerate. Mr. Montgomery later founded a software company to handle billing and medical records.SO MANY BIKES. Cannondales website says that the Synapse is the only mate you need:But if so then why are there like 70 different Cannondale road bikes?And then theres all the other companies that sell bicycles in all the familiar mainstream shapes (Specialized, Trek, Giant, Bianchi, Pinarello), plus all those new Chinese brands:They made the bike industrys lunch for them, and now theyre eating it:Many of the Chinese challenger brands started off as contract manufacturers for Western brands, so even if theyre still relatively unknown in the West, they have plenty of experience in the industry. They usually own their factories too, so they are vertically integrated, with their R&D, quality assurance and fabrication carried out in-house.At this point the only thing all those familiar American and European bike companies have over the Chinese ones is that theyre better at branding stuff for the Western consumer. But in the digital age nothing seems weird anymore. Sure, a middle-aged Fred might still pay a premium because hed rather his bike say Colnago on it than Elves, but someone who grew up watching TikTok videos from all over the world certainly wont: I thought maybe the name Elves was one of those weird cross-cultural coincidences, but no, according to a popular search engines AI feature the bikes really are named after elves:The name Elves for theChinese carbon bike company comes from its goal to embody the qualities of elves:light, mysterious, powerful, and beautiful, using high-end carbon fiber. The brand draws inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkiens Elvish language for product names (like Vanyar, meaning fair/light) and aims for lightweight, strong, and aesthetically pleasing bikes, reflecting an ideal blend of nature and technology in their design philosophy.Ironic that the two most Tolkienesque companies in cycling are Rivendell and Elves.