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End of the road for independent bike distributors?

bicycleretailer.com

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Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#41

Post by muxator »

davidw wrote: post #36
Steltek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on. Every bike shop has a "flavor". There was the "carbon fiber" shop where I'd get funny looks if I dragged my commuter bike in. They closed up shop and moved even farther into the suburbs. It'd take me an hour to bike there now. Then there's the "commuter shop". Where they charged $0 for labor when I walked in one cold, messy winter night with a shredded tire and a crazy story. That does simple fixes on the sp…

The best ones handle a range. I don't want a mechanic who's too good to touch my commuter bike, but I don't want a dude wrenching on the expensive Campagnolo bits on my road bike whose experience primarily consists of bashing stuff together on fixies, either. I really miss my shop in Italy - that guy occasionally worked on pro's bikes. Like the guy who won a gold medal in the olympics. But he always had time for me,…

Your blog about Italy is really interesting, thanks!

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#42

Post by balabaster »

sevensor wrote: post #9

I live in a college town with several bike shops, all of them still tied to the traditional retail model. The one I suspect has the worst prospects is the most upscale one. They have a big clean showroom full of expensive sporty bikes, but their mechanics are second-rate. You can tell because their shop is in the basement and you're not allowed to come down and watch them work on your bike. And the one time I made th…

About the only work I don't do myself on my bikes is handlebar tape because I don't have the patience for that shit. But I'd rather have a bike repair shop at hand that I trust and will offer me the best advice, one that I know I can drop my bike off when I'm in a pinch, one that will tell me what I should order when I need it. I will order it from them every time. I don't want a shop with all the fanciest bikes and offer such cogent advice as:

"This one's got grippier grips than that one and it has a basket and it's pink."

"Can you tell me about this groupset? How does it handle mud? does it age well or is it going to be rusty as fuck 6 minutes after I walk out of here?"

"Did I mention it's pink?"

I wanna know that the XTR groupset functions in the opposite direction of the XT and that even though it's more intuitive for someone that doesn't ride that often, if you've ridden day in, day out for the past 10 years and you suddenly switch to gear shifters that go the opposite way, that fucks with your head - and your ride until you've reprogrammed yourself.

I wanna know that the ultra expensive plastic shielded brake cables aren't going to be any better 3 months down the road because all the shielding wears off and I paid 3 times over what I could've paid for cheaper ones at no real long term benefit. Meaningful advice. Not just technically accurate.

I want the mechanics who know their shit inside and out. I want the sales guys to be riders, not just hardcore elite riders but every day commuters who are passionate about their bikes. I don't want to talk to someone who works here because "it was the only job I could find that fit my schedule."

These guys are the reason I got into biking in the first place. Because their passion inspired my passion.

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#43

Post by intrasight »

I've recently become aware of Canyon Bikes as well as other direct-to-consumer manufacturers. In one video I watched, the buyer had a mobile bike shop come and setup their new bike. I think the mobile bike shop approach plays well with the direct-to-consumer model.

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#44

Post by dockd »

As bicycles prices start moving toward motorcycles and cars, I don't understand why the shops still feel like the margins can't/won't change. They say 20-30% profit is small, but compare that to buying a new car: 2-3% profit.

And to keep the car comparison going: during the summer, bike shops routinely book two weeks out, which is almost unheard of with car service.

I'm both surprised and not surprised to hear that clothing is not a big seller--I've never been a fan of getting clothing without trying it on. However, once I know how a brand fits, that's not as much of an issue. It is surprising to walk into a bike shop and want some shorts only to find they don't stock anything under $80--you really have to work hard to find $80 shorts at the mall. So maybe the problem is they need to do better at picking what their customers want.

Unfortunately, I don't have good ideas at what they should sell in addition to labor. Need it now items are great (tires) but it's hard to make all of your money just on mechanics.

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#45

Post by dmschulman »

garethsprice wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #2

Spent years working in a bike shop, so this was a really interesting read for me. He may be right, but I can't help be think that most people just don't care enough about their bikes to have enough customers to sustain a good Service Shop. Most people have a bike, but would never bother taking it somewhere fancy like this to get it fixed or serviced. They paid $100 for it at Walmart. He said something in there that c…

> Most people have a bike, but would never bother taking it somewhere fancy like this to get it fixed or serviced. They paid $100 for it at Walmart. As with many other markets, the middle is being hollowed out - there's a large low-end ($100 Walmart bikes) and a niche of high-end pro-sumers who have disposable income and time to spend on expensive hobbies (I believe a "decent" mountain bike starts at $1,000-2,000, go…

This is incorrect in my experience. I live in a city with a high percentage of bike commuters and they all ride bikes that fall squarely in the middle of your price range (anywhere from $400-$1000).

There is actually an entire segment of the cycling industry that has sprang up around catering to this demographic, urban commuters who want something functional and hip looking and are willing to pay the premium, but don't need a $1000 mountain bike for their trip to and from work. I have not taken a full survey of every bike commuter I see in my city, but I feel confident in assessing the cost of their ride falls under or just around $800 (assuming they bought brand new and not used, I think less people tend to buy new).

The amount of these hip cyclists grossly outnumbers the amount of "prosumer" cyclists (spending $2,000 on a carbon fiber bike) I see on the weekends riding trails. I would imagine these numbers are inverted in the suburbs, where you wouldn't find as many bike commuters, but the suburbs are also lower density than a city and therefore fewer potential bike riders to compare with.

EDIT: Also your point about middle class incomes and their effect on how much a consumer can afford to spend on a bike doesn't square with economics. I see your general concern regarding middle class wages not keeping pace with economic growth, but if a bike is essential to someone's lifestyle they will find a way to afford what they need.

And on a related note, many city dwellers are starting to give up on the concept of owning a car, favoring their bike or public transit or ride shares as a means to get around. Do you know how many bikes you could afford if you sold your car and no longer had to maintain its upkeep/insurance?

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#46

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

garethsprice wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #2

Spent years working in a bike shop, so this was a really interesting read for me. He may be right, but I can't help be think that most people just don't care enough about their bikes to have enough customers to sustain a good Service Shop. Most people have a bike, but would never bother taking it somewhere fancy like this to get it fixed or serviced. They paid $100 for it at Walmart. He said something in there that c…

> Most people have a bike, but would never bother taking it somewhere fancy like this to get it fixed or serviced. They paid $100 for it at Walmart. As with many other markets, the middle is being hollowed out - there's a large low-end ($100 Walmart bikes) and a niche of high-end pro-sumers who have disposable income and time to spend on expensive hobbies (I believe a "decent" mountain bike starts at $1,000-2,000, go…

Good sales people at a bike shop can often convince a person that the cost of ownership over time for their new bike is less than that cheap wal-mart bike, and that it will be more enjoyable to use during that time. And often that's entirely accurate.

The hard part is getting the customer to go to the bike shop first, rather than the big box store.

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#47

Post by Rantenki »

I am baffled why the manufacturers aren't all offering direct B2B for the bike shops. There clearly isn't enough margin left for the average bike shop if they aren't moving the volume of bikes due to direct sales, but at the same time, all the supplies they need for servicing bikes are sold through some intermediary that's skimming a cut for the service of aggregating all the different manufacturers. https://www.ogc.ca/ and https://norco.com/ haven't substantially reduced their margins since I last worked in a bike shop 20 years ago.

And aggregation is not a service that would be required anymore if the shops could just go direct to Shimano, SRAM, Fox, Maxxis and DT-swiss (etc). That aggregation can be performed by the bike shop itself via a B2B solution.

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#48

Post by hodgesrm »

rhombocombus wrote: post #25

As a 17 year veteran of Independent bicycle dealers, this hits it right on the head. The most successful shop I ever worked at focused their inventory on parts and offered 24 hour turnaround provided the bike didn't require special ordered parts. Service is the only thing that can't be replaced by the internet.

Also, on things the average citizen can't/won't easily order online. Spokes are a trivial example but there are also lots of add-on components.

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#49

Post by rhinoceraptor »

jandrese wrote: post #35
ams6110 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A bike shop could probably do it in an hour. It took me five or six hours. Yes but then you miss out on an almost "bonding" experience with the machine and feeling of intimately understanding it. That's why I do most of my own car repair, even though it takes me longer than a shop would take. Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about the "Romantic" vs. "Classical" approach to such things.

Once you've done that work once it will be much easier the next time. Affordable bikes don't have any sort of self adjustment, everything has to be done manually, so if you don't know how to make the adjustments you will be in the shop every few months getting it tuned back up. In my experience shifters are the worst for getting slightly out of whack as the chain wears out, and are the most fiddly when tuning. Brakes…

I'd say wheel truing is the worst. It's tedious and you really want a dedicated wheel truing stand, and you may need spare nipples in case you round one off. Second to that is setting up tubeless tires, it's messy and you might need an air compressor to seat the bead.

Derailleurs are easy once you know how to set the limit screws and adjust the cable tension. Disc brakes are tricky, but again if you know the trick then it's pretty easy as well.

Re: End of the road for independent bike distributors?

#50

Post by hodgesrm »

Great article! I had a similar notion a while back for ski shops. Here are a couple of additional ideas from that thought experiment.

1.) Deeper web presence. For example, why not sell coupons for services on the stuff people buy on the web?

2.) Subscriptions. Basically an add-on support fee for your bike. This makes sense for anyone who commutes, especially if you can make it trivially easy to collect. That leads to...

3.) Additional services. Combine bike parking in cities with on-going maintenance . This already exists in some cities.

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