While that may be true, how many bike/service shops drop everything to work on your bike when you come in?

Most log a ticket and tell you to come back on X day to pick it up. There are exceptions, especially with a minor job. Whether this is the best method of CS is another discussion. In general though, that is my experience from both working in and visiting a number of shops.

i'm imagining a different future. i think mail order, hyper-customization, combined with much more intense custom and tactile in-store service, is coming. what if the shop you worked in did not sell 1 brand but 6. what if those brands offered a trek project 1 experience? what if that dealer actually made a living, keeping its bills paid, with a business model that did not require, for survival, the sale of even 1 bike?

from what i understand, east germans have had a hard time adapting to the unified germany's democracy and market economy. there is a future for east germans to look to. it's an undeniable future. but i suspect many east germans deny it anyway. there is a future for retailers. it's undeniable. but many retailers will operate as if that future isn't coming. i intend to get in front of this, and play a part in that future. i'm spending half of every day on it right now.

this doesn't mean that i believe in a future that does not include robust in-store stocking complete bike experience. far from it. i suspect a lot of weaker retailers will fall, and the strong stores who're in a traditional IBD model will do even better. it's just like new cars. yes, you can order exactly what you want and wait several weeks and get it. but is this how most cars are sold? no.

however, let's say you're willing to wait a few weeks for your perfect bike, and let's say this is the model the shop adopts. why would it stock imperfect bikes? especially if its business was set up not to rely on the sale of at-once bikes? there future out there for SOME retailers AND manufacturers that i think i can see, but it's not here yet.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Small, with great bike service, and a few well-chosen accessories.
Plus coffee of course.
Sometimes beer.
Sometimes bourbon.
A place to meet for a ride, or just meet and hang out while you watch your favorite wrench work miracles on bikes.
KS

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Karen ST Concierge

My non-business person theory is "value-added". It's not enough to be convenient with the internet. I paid an extra $200 for a violin bow compared to internet prices a couple years ago. I could've just ordered off of amazon or other music specific online shops. But spending half a day trying 10-20 bows, with the salesperson(a better player than I am) offering knowledgeable opinions. Then taking home the favorite two for a week and buying the eventual winner.

Would just ordering what I ended up getting online have been a solidly defensible decision? Yes, it's a good workshop. Do I regret spending more? Not one tiny little bit. Will I continue to go back instead of ordering stuff online? Yes, absolutely. Hell, I would've been satisfied to didn't the additional $100 I saved by buying on sale.

Too many LBS's don't seem to have any value added for their markup, in my bike noob opinion. Running stores, the same-once you have good shoes picked out, why go back?

Admittedly, my shoes & gloves have to be ordered anyway. As do bikes, generally, since I'm very tall.

Just a random thought: why not put out all bikes as raw framesets and then a company like Trek/Specialized could have an agreement with a national auto-body shop like Maaco to paint the frames? Maybe even helmets?

Let's say you have a road bike, cx bike, hardtail mtb, full sus mtb, and a tri bike in your lineup and three sizes in each. A retailer would only have to keep fifteen bikes in stock at any given time and if the bikes were shipped as framesets you could cover the whole range from Sora/105 up through DA with very little stock. Trek/Specialized/etc could still get bulk pricing for 105 or whatever by offering "suggested builds" at specific price points but the end result would be much more efficient inventory utilization and that's good for the retailer, the OEM, and the customer.

Don't remember seeing anything on this. Can you elaborate?

I may be able to shed some light. We showed a 3D motion capture fit system, along with bike finder and superbike configuration calculator.
Given Dans fondness for all things fit related, I think we managed to impress at least him, if not the rest of the attendees who were focussed on slightly wider MTB hubs.

I really cant foresee brands selling unpainted bikes to shops. Its really a liability and risk. Culprit stocks raw frames and do paint to order. But we inspect every paint job with great detail and from our trusted suppliers. The problem with a shop having a local painter do it, or even approved painter is , it still needs final QC from the brand to avoid future warranty claims, issues, and also, How to prevent products from being leaked out with no branding, etc. It is really no different than just getting it from the brand with a few days shipping added. So, my two cents on why you won't see that happening anytime soon.

Good stuff, and I really enjoy what you're doing, but I think the real future in bike fit is cameraless motion capture with IMU's. We're developing a system now in conjunction with a few other companies, but it's for clinical applications; we haven't decided yet whether to bring it to the cycling market, though it's relatively cheap compared to what's out there now, including Retul, which we use. There are so many advantages to such a system as it has a small footprint, and can be used anywhere, including outside while the athlete actually rides. I do think the market is in need of another independent bike fit system, but, to be honest, clinical is just a more lucrative market for us.

I agree with Dan's vision. At ERO, we will begin to have "access" to several brands, and offer up free aero testing with the purchase of complete bikes, but we will not stock anything and stop short of calling ourselves a dealer. With fit and aero testing, athlete's will learn what setup is best for them, and can make informed purchases for clothing, helmets, hydration/nutrition, etc, all of which we will stock. We will also soon announce a partnership with a large clothing manufacturer to offer custom cut and graphics on clothing (and helmets) with no minimums on orders. We will be the first to offer this service from the company, but I expect we won't be the last.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Not mass painting something costs a lot of money. A LOT. To paint 50 bikes in house lets just say it takes 10 hours. Painting 1 bike at a shop could take 5 hours. It's not like painting a room in your house. For every color the paint guns have to be cleaned and in the process you are losing very expensive paint. It would dramatically increase the price.

Best part about Interbike this year was being able to put my hands on the Silca pumps and Abbey tools. I have a SuperPista+ on order now and I will be buying their saddle bag as soon as it's available. I have been using mostly the same bike tools for the last 20 years, but the Abbey tools to swap out cassettes has me all excited.

CrossVegas was AWESOME too. Such a great time. I hope that it's a World Cup event again next year.

I don't think I ever chimed in on this thread again. But let me now that some time has passed, what seems to be a good demonstration of the fact that interbike is less exciting (and not necessarily that people are less interested in cool bikes, frames and wheels) is how many products have come out since interbike that either weren't shown there or if they were received no press, like:
1. Heds new wide hed 3
2. Zipps new 808
3. Dimonds new fork
4. I'm missing one or three things but they were all on the forum this week.

And apparently a few other things to debut at Kona, it seems to me that interbikes lack of interesting things is not that all of a sudden customers aren't interested in things but that they are interested in hearing about things from other events. Maybe the fact that I expect to learn about new products at interbike is just a sign That I'm out of touch.