Since 2008, Reverse Gear has offered specialized bike clothing to recumbent riders. Recumbent bikes are only a niche market and we’ve seen manufacturers come and go over the years, perhaps struggling with the realities of market size and economies of scale. Those kinds of pressures apply not only to the bike brands but to all the various other product providers and event organizers as well.
Perhaps it won’t come as a surprise to hear that we’re not going to be making anything new. We have decided that we can’t justify further investment in new lines, especially since our minimums were increased last year. Sadly, we just don’t sell enough to consider it viable.
We would like to thank all of our wonderful customers over the years. We have really enjoyed trying to make Reverse Gear a sustainable business. There is certainly disappointment at this outcome but no regret, we’ve had a lot of fun.
As we’ve already shared with our newsletter subscribers, the clothing we have in stock right now is the most that we will ever have. If you’ve been meaning to get something from us for a while, we encourage you to do it now. If you need to replace a jersey or shorts for your next riding season, grab them while they are in stock. We will be dropping prices over the next few weeks and into the spring so watch our social channels for any updates and expect more lines and sizes to sell out.
This will be our last newsletter, at least for a while. The newsletter archive will remain available as well as this blog and the sightings page (we’ll always welcome and post new pictures!).
Next steps for Reverse Gear? Well, over the last year or more, we’ve been creating handmade crafts and products from upcycled bike parts (and if you follow us on Instagram, you might have seen some pictures on our feed). There are numerous handmade craft fairs throughout the year (if only there were as many recumbent events!) so we’re going to continue with that and see where it takes us.
Personally, a Quest velomobile is (still!) in the works so we’ll continue to enjoy riding reclined as we always have done and waving a recumbent flag at events as often as possible.