Between us here in the Cyclingnews tech team, we’ve got close to 20 years of Black Friday deals hunting experience. Every year we pool our expertise to create our Black Friday bike deals hub, along with numerous other hubs for things like clothing, and hardware from specific brands.
While the sales event has bled out from being just a long weekend of capitalist excess into a more diluted, month-long trickle of sales, it’s still easy to get waylaid by the incessant stream of marketing emails from brands and retailers trying to get you to part with your money on their sites.
With this in mind, I’ve decided to take stock of the market as a whole and pull together a little guide as to what you can expect to go on sale in the coming week or so, along with what we would be buying this year.
A good year for bike deals
Last year’s Black Friday event was a real bike drought. There was still a hangover in terms of supply post-Covid, and as such retailers seemed reluctant to offer big discounts on the stock they did hold. This stands in marked contrast to this year, where supply has caught up, and coincidentally demand has dropped off. This has meant that there are a lot of retailers holding a lot of stock on bikes they haven’t been able to sell at full price, and thanks to the lovely laws of supply and demand, this means big reductions on complete bikes already.
While some prices fluctuate over the main weekend, in general, big-ticket items like bikes are much more stable, so if you see a bike you like at a price you can afford then I don’t think there’s much point hanging around. If you really want to find the best deals, and don’t mind having an older model, then look for bikes that haven’t been updated in three years or so. This is, generally speaking, the development cycle for bike models, especially at the top end, and so if you find a model that’s only really had colour changes since 2021, then it’s going to be a prime pick for a deal. The Specialized Aethos fits this bill nicely, and to prove my point it’s reduced by 40% at the moment on Jenson USA in all sizes.
Cheaper Wahoo computers
At Rouleur Live this year Wahoo was teasing what looked to be a new bike computer. This would have been less of a tease if photos of the computer in question hadn’t already been leaked, so we can be pretty sure a new model is on the way, with what appears to be an aero sensor of some kind. A new product in the range tends to mean reductions in the older products, so this is a two-fold piece of advice - We’re either likely to find reductions in the older models over the weekend or if we don’t see such reductions then hold out a little longer and hope to see some after whatever this new computer is comes out.
Wait for Amazon, don’t wait for other retailers
In general, prices on Amazon fluctuate far more than on other online retailers. Amazon has technically already started its Black Friday sale, but as we check prices of products daily, we still see prices on the biggest online marketplace vary wildly from day to day. Naturally, we suggest just checking in with our hubs as the days progress and we will keep them updated with the best prices, but if you have your eye on a product on Amazon and it isn’t as good as you’d like, then hold out for a few days and see what happens.
On the flip side, retailers like Jenson, Competitive Cyclist, Rapha et al. that have already started their sales are less likely to change their prices, so if you see something you like on one of these sites there’s less reason to hold out, and you risk it going out of stock.
Smart watches are always a smart choice
The previous Amazon Prime Day events (or Big Deals Days as they are sometimes known) are usually a pretty good predictor of what’s going to be on sale for Black Friday. We’ve already seen some best-ever prices on Garmin smartwatches like the Epix Gen 2, and we suspect we will see more from the slightly lower-end models as the days roll on.
We have also in the past seen the Wahoo Elemnt Rival watch go on sale, and while we don’t rate it as highly as the offerings from Garmin, Coros, and Apple, you can already find it on sale for under $100. At this price, it’s hard to ignore, and if you can do without some of the features on offer from more established sports watch brands - say you basically just need it to track the occasional run - it’s a very compelling option.
Clothing is always a good bet
Clothing is seasonal, and so end of season colours always go on offer around this time. Obviously we have our Black Friday Cycling Clothing Deals hub where we collate all of our favourites, but in general, the best prices are going to be on summer gear. Retailers are less likely to knock down prices on stuff that is going to keep you warm and dry when the weather is cold and wet, though it does happen.
So far the best clothing deal I’ve seen is part of the Rapha Black Friday sale. Its Pro Team Gore-Tex Jacket is about to get banned as of next year, but while it still sticks around, it's the best on the market and has a 25% discount slapped on it. This nicely leads me onto my next tip…
Grab the last great Gore-Tex jackets while you still can
As of January 2025 the old style PTFE-membrane Gore-Tex is going to be banned in certain states, and as such its use is generally being phased out. If you can find anything that uses Gore-Tex Active, or better yet Gore-Tex Shakedry then you’re onto a winner. There are a couple of options in my Rapha Black Friday Deals hub, but you can find them popping up still from time to time on other retailers.
In general waterproof jackets are getting worse as the industry moves away from PFAS use in manufacturing. This is a good thing for the environment, but this may well be the last year you can pick up some truly incredible waterproof garments.
The jackets have already been produced, so the most environmentally friendly thing we can do right now is use them, care for them, and do our best to maximise the time until they end up in landfill. Who's to say we can't enjoy their better performance while we're at it?
If you need a groupset go for 11sp GRX Di2 or old SRAM Red
Black Friday is a great time to put together a really cheap bike build, and for that you’ll be needing a groupset. Both Shimano GRX Di2 and SRAM Red have both received updates in the latter part of this year, meaning that the older versions of both of these are likely to be reduced quite heavily as retailers look to shift stock.
While they are both now officially outdated, they are also both very, very good groupsets in their own right, and with a discount should be a really good buy.
Smart trainer discounts mess with the order of things, so pay attention
My colleague Josh has put a tonne of work into curating a really comprehensive guide to the best smart trainers. There’s valuable buying advice, tech specs, and graphs, as well as judgements of value based on the RRP of each smart trainer. The problem is that Black Friday discounts are often applied to smart trainers, which can upset the apple cart in terms of what we think is the best on the market.
At the time of writing the Wahoo Kickr V6 is reduced, and with the discount on offer we think it is now a better buy than the Elite Justo 2, just edging it out as long as you don’t really want advanced pedalling analysis.
Keep your eyes on our Black Friday turbo trainers hub in the coming days to see if this order shifts as more products go on sale, and they will as the Covid indoor cycling bubble has somewhat burst.
Avoid buying rubbish lights
There will be lights on sale; there always are, especially on Amazon, but of all the product categories I think bike lights are probably the easiest to get wrong. If you buy any old set just because they are cheap, you risk getting something that is unreliable, which isn’t ideal for what is a key part of nighttime safety.
We’ll be keeping a keen eye on whether any of our favourites are on offer so you can buy something you know is going to cut the mustard. So far the bike light that I rate as the best rear option on the market is already reduced on Amazon, and I predict we’ll see more from my guide to the best bike lights get healthy discounts.
