Recently we've been experiencing unbelievable delays.
The whole world's been stirred up by that situation,
and while it's probably not unrelated,
I have a feeling it's not just that either.
Last year I wrote about how the FC-9000 outer 50T chainring
took 8 months to arrive,
and the same kind of thing is still happening now.
On January 10th of this year
I ordered an FC-6800 outer 50T chainring.
It was out of stock with a scheduled arrival of February 17th,
but about 10 days to 2 weeks before the scheduled date, they start pushing the deadline back—
the usual ridiculous nonsense—
and it's been arbitrarily extended from February 17th to March 5th to March 25th,
and when I checked today it had become April 15th.
If I'd known on January 10th that it would be April or later,
there would've been other options I could've tried, you idiots.
The other day I built a cyclocross bike with GRX electronic groupset,
but even then the ST-RX815 brake lever left and right set wasn't available,
so I sourced the left lever and right lever individually as single units.
On the surface, buying them separately costs slightly less
than buying the left-right set,
but that's too good to be true.
With individual lever units, the brake hose,
various hose fittings, brake fluid and other items aren't included,
so in the end it actually works out more expensive.
By the way, as of today the ST-RX815
left and right lever set is out of stock with an expected date of May 26th,
the left lever alone is in stock,
but the right lever alone is out of stock and is expected on August 12th somehow.
↑This is a disc rotor from a while back—the SM-RT70 160mm that shares grades with the 105 and SLX—
and the customer wanted the included lockring
set up for internal mounting,
but it was out of stock (expected April 19th),
so I sourced the external mounting version,
and then bought the internal mounting lockring separately as a single unit.
With road disc rotors,
I've been forced to shop this way many times since last year.
By the way, as of today the SM-RT70 160mm in
external mounting version is also out of stock, with an expected arrival of July 3rd.
For commonly-used rotors,
the Dura-Ace SM-RT900 160mm
is out of stock with an expected arrival of June 3rd.
The Dura-Ace electronic shifter/disc brake lever
ST-R9170 has a left-right set expected August 21st,
right lever alone expected June 18th, left lever alone expected August 4th.
The Ultegra electronic shifter/disc brake lever
ST-R8070 is out of stock for both the set and individual units,
with the delivery date listed as "delivery date unclear."
The disc brake hose SM-BH90 in 30m rolls
is also out of stock and delivery date unclear—this is really causing problems.
Looking at all these out-of-stock parts,
some of them have scheduled dates like December 8th or
November 25th,
but the fact that they can even put out dates that far in the future is impressive in its own way.
Do they actually get around to it on November 15th thinking "better get started on that November 25th stuff soon"?
What's even more scary is that parts currently listed as "delivery date unclear"
probably won't see production come through this year.
They'll give a date through about December,
so if it doesn't have one by then, it's not coming.
With the cyclocross bike I built the other day, the brake hose
that was originally supposed to make it in time
had its scheduled date arbitrarily pushed back,
so I sourced it through another route and
the hose arrived after the customer took the bike home (image above).
It absolutely had to be ready for the Sakai-Hama Cyclocross (February 21st),
but the internal battery I'm still lending is mine.
This internal battery BT-DN110A's delivery date
also keeps getting arbitrarily pushed back,
and as of now it's been set to March 25th.
The whole world's been stirred up by that situation,
and while it's probably not unrelated,
I have a feeling it's not just that either.
Last year I wrote about how the FC-9000 outer 50T chainring
took 8 months to arrive,
and the same kind of thing is still happening now.
On January 10th of this year
I ordered an FC-6800 outer 50T chainring.
It was out of stock with a scheduled arrival of February 17th,
but about 10 days to 2 weeks before the scheduled date, they start pushing the deadline back—
the usual ridiculous nonsense—
and it's been arbitrarily extended from February 17th to March 5th to March 25th,
and when I checked today it had become April 15th.
there would've been other options I could've tried, you idiots.
The other day I built a cyclocross bike with GRX electronic groupset,
but even then the ST-RX815 brake lever left and right set wasn't available,
so I sourced the left lever and right lever individually as single units.
On the surface, buying them separately costs slightly less
than buying the left-right set,
but that's too good to be true.
With individual lever units, the brake hose,
various hose fittings, brake fluid and other items aren't included,
so in the end it actually works out more expensive.
By the way, as of today the ST-RX815
left and right lever set is out of stock with an expected date of May 26th,
the left lever alone is in stock,
but the right lever alone is out of stock and is expected on August 12th somehow.
↑This is a disc rotor from a while back—the SM-RT70 160mm that shares grades with the 105 and SLX—
and the customer wanted the included lockring
set up for internal mounting,
but it was out of stock (expected April 19th),
so I sourced the external mounting version,
and then bought the internal mounting lockring separately as a single unit.
With road disc rotors,
I've been forced to shop this way many times since last year.
By the way, as of today the SM-RT70 160mm in
external mounting version is also out of stock, with an expected arrival of July 3rd.
For commonly-used rotors,
the Dura-Ace SM-RT900 160mm
is out of stock with an expected arrival of June 3rd.
The Dura-Ace electronic shifter/disc brake lever
ST-R9170 has a left-right set expected August 21st,
right lever alone expected June 18th, left lever alone expected August 4th.
The Ultegra electronic shifter/disc brake lever
ST-R8070 is out of stock for both the set and individual units,
with the delivery date listed as "delivery date unclear."
The disc brake hose SM-BH90 in 30m rolls
is also out of stock and delivery date unclear—this is really causing problems.
Looking at all these out-of-stock parts,
some of them have scheduled dates like December 8th or
November 25th,
but the fact that they can even put out dates that far in the future is impressive in its own way.
Do they actually get around to it on November 15th thinking "better get started on that November 25th stuff soon"?
What's even more scary is that parts currently listed as "delivery date unclear"
probably won't see production come through this year.
They'll give a date through about December,
so if it doesn't have one by then, it's not coming.
With the cyclocross bike I built the other day, the brake hose
that was originally supposed to make it in time
had its scheduled date arbitrarily pushed back,
so I sourced it through another route and
the hose arrived after the customer took the bike home (image above).
It absolutely had to be ready for the Sakai-Hama Cyclocross (February 21st),
but the internal battery I'm still lending is mine.
This internal battery BT-DN110A's delivery date
also keeps getting arbitrarily pushed back,
and as of now it's been set to March 25th.