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Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business
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Hello All, My name is Ross Hennessy and I am looking for a "proof of concept" so to speak. Over the past year, I have been building up bikes for people in my spare time. The goal of all of the builds, was to help them achieve their dream bike, without them having to shell out bike shop prices, or spend their time digging though craigslist. Below, I have the basic outline to this concept, and want your feedback on:
- If you think this is a viable idea
- If you would buy a bike in this manner
- What questions, concerns or thoughts you would want to have answered BEFORE you went through with something like this.
- Any other thoughts or feedback you have
Thank you for you time, I appreciate any and all feedback!
My Dream Bike
Who wouldn’t want a flashy superbike? You just can’t beat the feeling of a race ready, super light bike as you crush your climb. Or maybe it’s that dream TT bike rocketing you though the field in comfort and style. However, with bike prices becoming more costly, not everyone wants to drop their whole years paycheck on the newest S-Works. And let's face it, sifting through craigslist for a used bike can be a pain. That is where I come in.
My goal is to help you build your dream bike, at a fraction of the cost of going to a traditional bike shop. Plus, it will be exactly how YOU want it, not just how it came.
Who am I? Someone that loves bikes. I obsess over every detail and love nothing more than searching the internet looking for the best deal, on the coolest components. I am also someone that hasn’t had the biggest budget, but doesn't let that get in my way of building up the best rigs I could get. I’ve found a passion in building badass bikes for a fraction of the cost. Being from a family of long course cyclists, I have a vast understanding of bike components and the desire to have it done just right.
What Do I do? I build super bikes, for mortal prices. I search out the best deals for the best bikes. This could mean building up a top of the line bike on lightly used parts. Or piecing together a race ready ride with new components and a used frame. Whatever you and your budget want, we can build. You tell me the dream or goal, and I do all the work to make it happen.
How does the process work?
  1. We work together to figure out exactly what you want your bike to be, the time frame you want to have it in, and the budget for the build.
  2. I get to work searching and building your bike. You get updates on progress, every step of the way.
  3. Once its built up, it will be professionally inspected, tuned, packed and shipped to you, ready to ride!

What does it cost?
  • I work within the budget you set out. Each bike is custom built, staring from the frame, so the cost will vary depending on what you are looking to accomplish. Some examples of what to expect are below.
  • Once a frame that meets your expectations is located, a 20% deposit is taken and put towards the cost of the bike.

Examples of my Custom Builds - Shipped Prices ranged from 1200-5000

Felt IA 10 Custom Tri Bike
  • Frame: Felt IA10
  • Components: Etap 11 Speed
  • TriBars: TriRig Alpha X
  • Brakes: TriRig Omega
  • Wheels : HED Jet 6 Plus Front, HED Jet Plus Disc Rear, Tubeless
  • Tires: Vittoria Corsa Speed Tubeless
  • Power Meter: Pioneer Dual Sided Ultegra build
  • Bike Computer: Pioneer

Cannondale Slice Custom
  • Frame: 2015 Cannondale Slice, Ultegra model
  • Components: Shimano Ultegra with 105 Crank, 11 speed
  • TriBars: Profile Design Aeria Ultimate w/ Hydration
  • Brakes: TriRig Omega
  • Wheels : HED H3 Plus Front, Flo Disc rear
  • Tires: Vittoria Corsa Speed Tubeless
  • Power Meter: Powertap P1 Dual Sided pedals

Fuji Transonic 2.8 Custom
  • Frame: Fuji Transonic 2.8, Pearl White
  • Components: Etap 11 speed
  • Bars: Oval 910 Carbon
  • Brakes: Fuji
  • Wheels : HED Jet Plus 5
  • Tires: Vittoria Corsa Tubeless
  • Crank: Rotor Flo Aero Crank
Kestrel Talon Custom
  • Frame: Kestrel Talon
  • Components: 105 - Long Cage 11 speed
  • Bars: Oval and Profile Design Mix
  • Brakes: 105
  • Wheels : HED Jet Plus 5
  • Tires: Vittoria Corsa Tubeless
  • Crank: Rotor Oval


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Last edited by: Hennessyr: Jul 23, 19 14:12
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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How are you making money from this? A percentage mark up, straight up fee? And what about liability. As the person who is buying and selling the used gear I would think that the liability of that would be on you.

Brian Jacobson
Fit2Ride Velo Studio
http://www.fit2ridevelo.com
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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How many hours do you spend on a build? What do you think is a reasonable hourly rate to charge for this if it was your livelihood? Multiply the two together. Add this to the parts cost. What do you get?

Do you envision many will want to pay that price for a custom build rather than a stock bike?
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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I hate to be "that guy" but I have to be here...

The devices you put on a bike that makes it slow down and stop are called "brakes", not "breaks".

If this is meant to be a write-up of a business case, I would be careful of the little things like that. If I saw a mistake like that on a resume I would likely toss it.
Last edited by: g_lev: Jul 23, 19 13:10
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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I've been doing this for athletes I coach for the last few years. I think what you're going to find is that people in the market for a "dream bike" generally want it to be BRAND NEW, and nothing as a take off piece from craigslist, ebay, facebook marketplace, etc even if the part is new and unused. As soon as they know you aren't buying it direct from the manufacturer, they don't trust it.
You are also going to be competing against all their friends, group ride buddies, and bike shops who are telling them that you don't have the experience and also telling them a load of horror stories about not buying bikes new with warranties to compete with. on top of that, they'll have all the (sometimes empty but not usually) promises of routine maintenance from the bike shop.
On top of that you'll be competing with a place like pro's closet which has a ton of great bikes and great prices that really and truely are professionally re-done. The bikes i've gotten from them have all been A++
You should also prepare to be on the hook for all their complaints after, which if it's really their dream bike, is going to be many years.

Not trying to discourage you, but I've found I can't make a cent on it.
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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As another pointed out, I like to start with the dirty math to see what kind of volume and capital it would take. For example, say you wanted to earn a $50K salary plus another $15K to cover insurance. That is $65K/year in net margin. So, let's say you think you could average $500 gross margin per dream bike. That translates to 130 bikes per year or 1 ordered, built, and delivered every 2 business days.

So, the first question is, do you think you could create a sustainable pipeline of 2.5 bikes per week at a $500 gross margin?

Next is the working capital. You are collecting 20% up front, but that means you will potentially be carrying $20K to $30K in short-term debt between deposit to sourcing all the parts and delivering the bike. So, that is a lot of interest that eats into the gross margin. Plus, you need to secure the line of credit in the first place.

Then, you will have losses you need to eat for all kinds of reasons (shipping damage, bad suppliers, customer fraud, canceled orders, etc.). Those write-downs will also eat into the gross margin. So, you may have to bump up your gross margin to $750 or more just to net the $500/bike you need to get your $65K gross personal income target.

If the dirty math works, then keep moving forward.
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [BrianJ] [ In reply to ]
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Pricing is the tricky one, and I am still landing on the exact way to get that squared away. I have been going with a 20% total fee for the build, that was inclusive of time finding parts, shipping the parts to me, the build, and any small parts I would need (break cables and what not that would be new for any build).

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Sindre] [ In reply to ]
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That really is the question. What is the value to people on building up a bike, exactly how they want for less than what they would pay at a shop.

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [g_lev] [ In reply to ]
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Thank you!! I appreciate that, and it is fixed.

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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Questions like this always make me think of this
Do you know how to make a small fortune in the bike industry?
(Insert any other hobby business here - guns, quilts, bikes etc)

Start with a big fortune.

Good luck if you take this on.
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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I don't see how it could work as a stand alone business. Maybe if you did something like velofix with this?
Last edited by: rjrankin: Jul 23, 19 14:18
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [peace242000] [ In reply to ]
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I think you are 100% correct in that there is some competition from the new market place, as well as with shops like the pros closet. The hope would be to differentiate from them by offering a more custom approach, vs a this is what you get. I appreciate that feedback, and you brought up a great point about the competition out there.

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [exxxviii] [ In reply to ]
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This is a lot where my head has been on this one, my current plan is to work at this, over the next year, while I continue my day job, with the goal that the day job can work to fund this, and be the running capital I would need to not be keeping that constant 20k of debt. Credit line is fairly well taken care of for it which is a plus. I also assume it would take about a year to create any solid traction towards consistently generating sales.

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [rjrankin] [ In reply to ]
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I also coach Triathlon, so my goal would be to combine these two things into one career.

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Rumpled] [ In reply to ]
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haha yeah, lucky for me, a "small fortune" is well more than I am looking for. I live a pretty modest life.

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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Problem is that at $2k bike price and less- 20% does not add up to much. Especially if you have to do a lot of creative sourcing to procure all of the items needed for a build.
It is even time consuming when going through legitimate distributors with accounts- much harder if you are looking for deals on everything.

Ground up builds also take a lot of time, effort, skill, and proper tools. You have to be super on point when building bikes as a business. Builds take even more if the bike is internally cabled, even more than that if the bike has hydraulic disc brakes.
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [bootsie_cat] [ In reply to ]
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I agree that the builds can be tricky, which is why I work for, and with my local bike shop :)

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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So what's in it for the bike shop?

If you work for them and get parts through them, at some point in time they are going to want a cut-
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [bootsie_cat] [ In reply to ]
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Good point, and let me rephrase, this is why I used to work for my local bike shop, and now just buy my parts through them, but have learned a great deal from the mechanical side of things.

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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Then you are a leg up.

My intention was not to say that this is a bad idea or can't work, more just stating that it is time and labor intensive and that you need to make the numbers work in a way where you are compensated for your efforts.
You should be "paying" yourself $200-300 for a build depending on how complex. And this doesn't count the time to source everything, pack, ship, etc..

And you want to build in a little fudge factor because once in a while there is a "build from hell" that eats up time and $.

I would do this- Keep detailed cost and time sheets for next few builds. See what your actual time invested is and also what your return is.
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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havent really looked through other comments so this might be redundant but this doesn't sound like something I would personally do. If I am buying used I like to be the one who is checking everything out and I think many triathletes have the same type of OCD personality that goes with this. I feel like this isnt a business that would be profitable for you as a full time job, maybe you get some business to make side money but not enough to really earn an income off of
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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I'm pretty squarely in your target market. I love the idea of piecing together a fast bike, I just don't have the mechanical knowledge to do it myself.

So how does this work in practice... let's say my budget is 4k. I want to build the absolute fastest 56 TT bike money can buy (for 4k)... I want a disk rear, rear 60, 60 front... doesn't need to be new, but I want it to be nice.

Whatchya got?

If buy a bike from you, am I selecting my components/ wheels/ headset?

Are you selling packages based on inventory you have amassed over time?

Or are my options based on what you find on ebay/ classifieds that week?

What is the turnaround time on a project?
Last edited by: MadTownTRI: Jul 23, 19 16:58
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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It doesn't make sense to buy anything from the bike shop.
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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [MadTownTRI] [ In reply to ]
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Okay great! So, in a case like this, I would start here, we would chat and figure out what those needs are (you just described a bunch of them, but I have a few more detailed questions). We go over your sizing and what bikes would fit you based on that.

We would first get the specifics of the build you want. Mechanical or Electronic? Do you want SRAM, Shimano, Campy, or no preference? If you have a specific brand of wheels, components, and frame that you want, awesome, Ill work within that. But if your open, than I search out the best deal, for the parts you want.

I do have some "in stock" inventory that you can choose from, also I do have some partnerships with component, wheel, and bar company's so new IS an option for any build, than it goes to the used marketplace.

Turn around time: That is going to be based on what you are looking for, and what your time frame is. In a case like you described, where you dont have your heart set on a specific brand, as long as its a good one, than typically we are looking around 3 weeks. With that said, it can be longer if you are hoping for something rare, or exotic though. Either way I would keep you updated though the whole process!

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Re: Constructive feedback before turning my Hobby, into a Business [Hennessyr] [ In reply to ]
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Used part on new frames? Huh?
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