Supply is indeed incredibly poor at the moment, I've been in the trade thirty years plus and it's never been this bad; some of the popular brands are now 202
3 for
new orders; no wonder a few established
local bike
stores are deciding to call it a day.
There will be bikes available but the majority will be those the store pre-ordered last year that are arriving in dribs and drabs; stores that didn't do just that are in for an extremely challenging year. Fortunately gravel bikes like the
Cannondale Topstone range that you are considering are very popular, so the stores that did place orders last year will no doubt include bikes of that style.
The way bikes are supplied at the moment has of course changed and so has the way the consumer shops. In pre pandemic times fact finding visiting stores to see what was a valid choice then taking time to ponder those choices was part of the joy of buying your shiny new two wheeled friend. At the moment the pondering part of that process is not as viable as bikes are in such short supply that the few that finally arrive don't stay on the shop for very long. I had a customer come in last week and I was able to offer three bikes, two days later when they had made their decision all three were gone and the ETA to replace them were all at least a year away; very odd times!
Hopefully your local store can offer you something suitable although at the moment you may need to compromise, the ETA may be longer and for a bike that wasn't even your ideal first or even second choice; but it should at least be an appropriate choice.
