While it may appear the opposite on this forum to many people, I have always had a lot of respect for people who finsih what they are doing before they make a lot of noise about it. I know I've discussed future web updates and so forth to a great extent on this forum, but those are smaller matters.

At this time, as of this date, I feel it is appropriate to not comment about on-going operations.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom,

Sorry. I was just seeing some related posts and was curious. Fair is fair. Thanks!

Bikesport West

San Luis Obispo, CA

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

No worries. There have been a few leaks, as will always be the case.

Exciting times in the industry for everyone. Lots of growth as we are seeing in Chicago, With Paul's great new place in new York, and all over. Very exciting times for all of us in the industry. It's exciting to be a part of all this growth.

More soon. Thank you for asking.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom, the cat is out of the bag on this one my friend...

I would imagine the economy around Dearborn and greater Detroit is pretty shitty these days. Probably pretty tough to even sell a home there right?

Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. And that circumstance has presented a whole world of opportunities.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

http://www.visitslo.com/

Central Coast cycing mecca. Lots of disposable income. Minimal competetion.

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

South Florida is a a great market and is wide open. I wish we had a Tri store like yours here in Miami.

That looks awesome but one requirement was it had to be within walking distance of our house.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Speaking of "worlds" of opportunities and the need to access a better economy, I have often wondered how Bikesport Michigan would fair if they made a venture as a supplier in the level playing field, world-is-flat economy of the internet.

I've wondered that too.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

But how do you do a fit over the internet?

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

does it cost a lot to live there? based on the picture it probably does.

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Striving to have sex more than 66 times per year

That is a valid question, and one we have wondered about ourselves.

That, and several other challenges with e-commerce, have kept our hat out of the arena up until this point.

That said, there are many opportunities for selling items other than bicycles in an e-commerce setting. Also, the technology for accurately sizing bicycles for sale on the internet exists, but is not being currently employed. Even with that technology there are some pretty serious problems.

There are some guys who do an excellent job of it. We are not one of them. Competitive Cyclist, Wrench Science and others have good looking and working systems that can get a customer 80% of the way there or more.

The key element to me with e-com is fullfillment. Customer's expectations are sky high. We spend more time sending out tracking numbers and answer questions about existing orders every day than we do building bikes and we don't even do e-commerce. You may recall a thread on this forum form a few months ago asking about people's expectations for fullfillment of e-com orders. The voice was loud and clear: anything over 24 hours is considered "late". That is a very challenging environment. Overwhelmingly, customers care more about speed of delivery than they do about the product.

These are things we look at. We've tried shipping bikes and the results don't meet my expectations. Our customers aren't really getting the experience I want them to have. Some are OK with it, others are pissed.

Bottom line: At least as far as selling bikes and shipping them, we are not a player yet. Key word: "yet".

Like I said, lots of room for growth. Very exciting times.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

define walking distance. you are an endurance athlete.

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

define " a lot." I am a Californian.

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

[reply]The voice was loud and clear: anything over 24 hours is considered "late". That is a very challenging environment. Overwhelmingly, customers care more about speed of delivery than they do about the product.

[/reply]

As a full-time etailer, yes, that is what makes or breaks a business in my world. We stay ahead of our competitors by shipping orders same day that are placed by 3:30pm. Otherwise, a customer will just drive down the road and get the item instead of waiting. You MUST ship fast to stay alive in this industry!

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My business-eBodyboarding.com

Tim, I second that emotion BUT as far as minimal competition goes there's always Art's Cyclery to deal with. They're like Tri-Sport in Fresno...part of the community for over 20 years and one of the co-owners (Scott Smith) has been on a few AG WC teams and he knows the tri-market.

For a nice little "local" race check out the SLO Tri at the end of July. It's a bit short of an oly but it's quite a hilly and often windy course so it is a challenge...unless you ride Ti. Oh wait, you do :)

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Michael in Fresno
"Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man" V. Corleone

I haven't been to Art's yet but Foothill Cyclery is not very impressive.

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

That looks awesome but one requirement was it had to be within walking distance of our house.

Tom, lets get serious. You are a bike shop owner. At the very least you could handle a short ride to work.

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- Nick
Now that I know some of you guys look through the special needs bags for kicks, I'm gonna put some really weird stuff in mine. I can see it now. "What the heck was he going to do with a family pack of KFC chicken, a football helmet full of peanut butter, a 12 inch rubber dildo, and naked pictures of Bea Arthur?"

I moved to the detroit area in Michigan from the Sunny shores of Carlsbad near San Diego (boy do I miss riding to work...) and in my experience after buying real estate out here a similarly sized house in a nice area is around 1/3 or less the cost it would be in SD.

As for Triathlon business in and around South East Michigan my feeling is its growing prety fast. The season may be short out here but they pack in a ton of races, many of them being sprint distences which is great for introducing new people to the sport.

I'm organising a number of events in the area this year in order to premote Triathlon and fitness in general. While I'd advise any begginer against going out and buying a new bike, once they are hooked you know its going to happen eventually ;)

Its a bit of gamble but I would say investing in right areas in South East Michgan could pay off nicely in the next few years. At least I'm hoping it will ;)

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http://www.nunnsontherun.com

I'll second that. Miami does need a tri/bike store in the worst way. Tom, people there have ridiculous amounts of money!!! I know a guy who used to come from S America several times a year and buy all kinds of expensive stuff just because it was "cheap" to him. Plus, it would give you a tremendous place to stay all winter. There are really no good, established bike fitters in Miami, either. Location is really important - as is parking. These 2 things alone pretty much dictated which retailers I used and which I didn't.

There's got to be a reason why there isn't yet a tri store in Miami, but what could it be? I'm sure someone has thought about this before...

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"Yeah you point a finger back far enough and some germ gets blamed for splitting in two."

Colonel Saul Tigh from Battlestar Galactica

The most popular bike shop among triathletes closed about 1-1.5 mo ago. There are a handful of small bike shops. And a lot of non-trustworthy business people.

This is like the ST version of the telephone game.

A deer was born in Michigan, Tom is building a new store, and he's getting his dimples laminated.

That's what I heard........

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Dan DeMaio
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Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance you must keep moving.
- Albert Einstein

Hmmm, a new Bikesport store...possibly moving into newer digs w/ greater visibility across the street? The section of Michigan Ave across the street from Bikesport is growing like crazy!

Bikesport dominates!

You guys are pretty good at figuring things out.

Now, bare in mind, this "hypothetical" move everybody is theorizing about- it is worth saying a few things if such a thing were to transpire in the next 30 days:

• We need more room, about three times as much to be exact. It would also be nice to rearrange our floor plan so the "flow" of the merchandising, displays, lighting and service areas were better. right now our fitting area is at the front of the store, it needs to be a little more out of the traffic flow toward the rear (or at least, the entrance in the rear, the fitting toward the front on the main thouroughfare- Michigan Ave.)
• It would be nice to be at a major intersection within a block of our current location. That would imporve our visibility.
• It would be nice to be on a corner, at a very busy traffic light. Literally thousands of people would be stuck in front of our showroom every day as they waited for the light to change.
• It would be nice to have our own, private, parking lot with about 14 spaces.
• It would be nice to have two stories, with a small service area on the main floor, and then a much larger service area on the upper floor.
• A nice office, custom made, with windows looking out onto the sales floor.
• A unique and unified "industrial" motif to the inside of the building, including an industrial grade, non-skid impregnated epoxy shop floor like you see in Formula 1 team garages.
• Much more room for apparel merchandising and display with a nice changing room.
• A much larger and more comfortable fitting area.
• Super cheap rent.
• Nice neighbors in a similar (complimentary) business.
• Fun video in the store.
• Luxurious surrounding for our shop guys in their new shop area.

A few things we'll never have at a (hypothetical) new location are:

• We won't be a superstore, "studio" or some other pretentious (for us at least) thing. We're a road and triathlon bike store.
• We won't have an endless, pool, full physio lab, 20 Computrainers or any of that stuff. We're small now, and always will be small.
• We'll never have more than one location.
• We'll always be within 10 blocks of our house.

That's about it. More latter.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom - it sounds like you need good legal representation for a lease/purchase. I do work for bikes . . . and I always need a new one ; )

Tom,

"Hypothetically" your new "Hypothetical" store sounds great and very fitting with the personality and philosophy of your current store. I can't wait to "Hypothetically" visit you at the "Hypothetical" new location.

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This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. - Fight Club
Industry Brat.

As the former owner of a running shoe store I was with you until you said, "Super cheap rent" then I began to laugh hysterically. I don't know Michigan but I know a lil' about retailing and it seems that cheap rent is diametrically opposed to the other items on your wish list.

But you're living the dream so you got that goin' for you. As always, good luck Tomas.

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Michael in Fresno
"Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man" V. Corleone

Hypothetically, it's f*&^%ing sweet.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom,

Didn't realize my initial post of this topic would create such a stir... Oh well, it's better then people not wanting to talk about Bikesport.

Exactly. It was only a matter of time before this cat got out of the bag.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com