Revel Bikes may have suffered “final blow,” major discounts are live

Colorado-based Revel Bikes appears to be winding down operations just a week after new mountain bike models are announced.

Late last week, rumors began circulating that Colorado-based Revel Bikes was shutting down. Social media posts from individuals working at the company suggest the brand is coming to a close, and an email to dealers reported by BRAIN says, in part, “Revel Bikes as it currently stands is closing its doors.” Ova Verploegh, Director of Finance at Revel, said in a Facebook post that “the Revel name may be taking its final blow,” though the brand’s spirit of innovation will live on.

However, the company has yet to acknowledge the news directly to consumers, either through the Revel website or on social media.

The BRAIN article went on to note that the dealer message indicated bikes would be discounted 40-50% beginning Friday, which apparently caused a surge of visits to the brand’s website. On Friday, the site was only available intermittently, though no discounted prices were shown. By Saturday, a message at the top of the site read, “Due to unprecedented traffic and demand we cannot accurately reflect our inventory and pricing. We are working diligently to get it updated.  Please check back at a later date.” An Instagram post yesterday added, “WOW! We can’t even believe the support for Revel over the last 24 hours! We’re feeling the love.”

Today it appears the site is operating normally, and we’re starting to see discounted pricing for in-stock bikes. The largest, 50% discounts apply to the Revel Rail all-mountain bike. Two new Revel Rascal SL builds are priced 40% off, though framesets and V2 bikes are still showing full retail pricing. A few retailers, including Jenson USA and Worldwide Cyclery, have select Revel bikes on sale for 40% off or more.

Monday update: Today the Revel website says, “all sales are FINAL!,” which suggests the company may not be planning to offer full support in the future. We’ll update this article as we’re able to confirm more details.

Just last week Revel announced a slew of new and updated models, including the brand’s first electric mountain bike, the Rerun. The brand added another new model to the line-up, the Ritual enduro bike. That model, along with the updated Ranger, is showing May and June availability, respectively, with no discounts available at this time.

Singletracks tested the Revel Rascal V2 last year and proclaimed, the “Rascal nails sophomore release.” Making use of the Canfield Balance Formula (CBF) suspension design, reviewers and riders alike have praised the performance and quality of Revel bikes.

Barely one year later, this statement from our review is all the more bittersweet: “If and when Revel decides to go to V3, they’ll have a hard time matching this one.”