That’s It For Specialized Bikes? Or Other Bicycle Brands? The State of the Industry

As The Wheel Turns, So Do The Days of Our Rides. This series is my reflection on current events in the industry and consumer perspective. With my 30 years in the business, I try to give a better understanding and some added context to today’s topics. Let’s have a look. https://youtube.com/live/aTsl5Hs_fJU

🗞️ Sign Up for my Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hRAwTP

Please help support my bike advocacy!
☕️ Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thebikeguy
or
👕 “The Guy’s” T-Shirts: https://i-know-a-guy-bicycles.myspreadshop.com/
or
💰 I will get credit if I buy something through the Affiliate links, even if they are other products through that portal.

See What I Use To Refurbish Bikes (Affiliate):
Tools I Use Daily:
🛠️ Workstands and Tools: https://iknowaguybicycles.com/guys-picks/workstands-tools/
🚿 Polishing/Cleaners/Lubes: https://iknowaguybicycles.com/guys-picks/polishes-lubes-and-cleaners/
🛞 Tubes & Tires: https://iknowaguybicycles.com/guys-picks/tubes-tires/
🚲 On-the-Road Accessories: https://iknowaguybicycles.com/guys-picks/tubes-tires/

My passion for bikes started when my parents opened a shop in the 1980s called Parker Bikes (we were located in Parker, Colorado). My love for cycling has continued since then, in my work and with my hobbies of road cycling and mountain biking. After my parents’ shop closed, I worked for other bike shops (including Lee’s Cyclery in Fort Collins), where I built and sold bikes, fixed and tuned up bikes, and managed inventory.
I love working on bikes and want to share my passion for cycling with others. So, next time you’re talking cycling with someone and wondering how to get started or where to go from here, you can think, “I know a guy!”

Recommended playlists:

✅This Old Bike | Hanging Out With The Guy

✅Buying & Selling Tips

✅What I Use in the SHOP

✅Top 20 issues to watch out for when buying Used Bikes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdfUXv0-z1u44u8bKyttGxyOE7y58dZga
✅Top 5 Checklist: https://youtu.be/JG-OeRTm1ps

Where to find me:
🩷 Website: https://iknowaguybicycles.com
❤️ “The Guy’s” T-Shirts: https://i-know-a-guy-bicycles.myspreadshop.com/
🧡 Bikes: https://iknowaguybicycles.com/product-category/bikes/
💛 Parts: https://iknowaguybicycles.com/product-category/accessories/
💚 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IKnowAGuyBicycles
🩵 Twitter: https://twitter.com/IKAGBicycles
💙 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iknowaguy_bicycles/

📬 Attention Companies: If you are interested in working with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me here at justin@iknowaguybicycles.com

Music By:
Music by Eklecticism – Zion – https://thmatc.co/?l=CA3F5791
Music by Eklecticism – Wicked – https://thmatc.co/?l=476B55A5
Music by Alundra – Smile – https://thmatc.co/?l=634C81C5
Music by Axl & Arth – Rather Not – https://thmatc.co/?l=038EEE31

#bike #bicycle #sports

Is specialized doomed other bike brands doomed as well or componentry and so forth ah man we are looking at some pretty tough times that we’ve currently been in and still going through and is this going to shake out let’s review after this welcome to an know guy

Bicycles hang out with a guy this is as the wheel turns so do Days of our rides series I will be covering topics of the industry as well as consumer views with my 30 years experience if you like these videos please like And subscribe welcome back to anoah guy bicycles hanging out

With a guy hey I’m Justin the guy as as the wheel turns so the days of our rides anyway yes uh there are some indicators and I’m going to go through a few of those of actually bike brands and what does it look like today you know or will

It look like today because you’re looking at particular bigger brands and they have done all these different the landscape’s completely changed right it just it just nothing compared to the 90s and the 90s is where I’ve seen a lot of shakeup or the industry saw a lot of shake up and

Being the mix of it being young and bright and bushy tailed a lot younger than I am now um was really just observing and not really questioning or understanding what I was seeing until after the fact or years later even so when you’re look at the situation that

We’re in right now fast forward 30 years later um that makes me feel old anyway um yikes anyway uh yeah let’s let’s let’s go back and see what what happened back then all right well we were A TRU dealer and our main competition in town was a specialized dealer um so looking

Back then we carried Schwin and mongus and GT and Fuji and jamus over the years and the biggest one that I remember and actually have seen and probably is still up to big debate now is watching Schwin crumble uh Schwin was very strong when my parents picked up the line and back

In 1987 when they opened up the shop I started working for them in ‘ 89 and being being a fresh Bri ey Bush still mechanic that was my first bikes that I worked on uh built and so forth so going through the process of seeing how the companies started behaving in addition

To doing their changes they did open up a corporate store too in Denver Colorado uh saying like oh we’re not going to step on the feed of you know on the toes of independent bike dealer yada yada yada well you know fast forward today we got Trek and specialized in pond doing

The same thing but in a larger scale so you can say they had the idea but didn’t execute it and didn’t execute it correctly or well or at all um because that store only lasted just a minuscule hot minute before Schwin crashed uh so well what’s the indicator of Schwin

Crashing well they had some internal issues big time that came to light later uh the third generation owner Eddie Schwin kind of drove it into the ground uh so unfortunately it’s kind of historical uh and when you look at these big boys come on think about it like

Remember Circuit City uh you remember Ultimate Electronics uh do you remember Bed Bath Beyond and the biggest one that we all experienced and my daughter doesn’t even know what it is is Blockbuster Blockbuster was the biggest video rental thing they had their own football college bowl so needless to say

Doesn’t matter how big or small you are you are doomed to crash at some point unfortunately Parker bikes did the same thing you know painful so I’ve you know seen them in small scale seen them in the big scale seen companies that we were had we had Schwin when it went down

And then it got bought by another company and then they spruced up the line we were still a Schwin dealer we carried through that transition and and so forth fast forward to today I know I’m getting a little long-winded on history but also another indicator back

In the day was you got random calls from companies like Klein um and also what was it there was a couple other brands out there they would just call cold call they were cold calling the whole independent bike dealer list that try to get dealers because they were hurting

And going under and like a month or two later they were bought or went bankruptcy or whatever so there there’s indications and so forth well that’s forward to today what is today’s indications good question right what’s you know did anybody see the precursor a Bed Bath Beyond or Toys R Us going I

Mean maybe slowing sales open Stock whatever some indications there also you know like the GameStop and they had that big influx crazy thing uh from Reddit but when when you look at it in today I mean okay there’s adjustments there’s always adjustments the companies and sometimes they take the slowing of the

Economy or whatever excuse they can they cut the fat from the company that they know and that gives them justifiable reason without you know avoiding any kind of huge HR issues which when you’re a big company you are worried about those HR issues those will actually kill

You so you want to make sure you tread lightly when you lay off a whole bunch of people and you have a good reason behind it right anywh who um why am I picking on Specialized well there’s a reason option there is more more you say

Push the more button push it push it I dare you to push it once you push that that button you get more details about the video you’re watching in addition to all the tools that I use in the shop as well as suggestion for improving your

Ride in addition to to help me provide advocacy in the cycling Community also links to other social media accounts as well as my website to find the products I actually sell and other insights in the industry other videos linked below extend your cycling experience here on YouTube and now back to your original

Programming after this uh okay so for for being in the industry for 30 years and seeing companies coming to fall with out of my industry and in my industry like Sports Authority get this I was working at big fat sporty Goods when they went down they were a competitor at

Ours you can kind of see how it happened well I know exactly what happened I mean I know you’re not very familiar with the Colorado Market but we have this you know football team called the Broncos um not why I placed out there but uh they have a stadium and is

Called uh empowered field or something maybe that was afterwards uh but Sports Authority Big Chain of Sporting Goods Across the Nation bought the name to be thrown onto that Stadium they didn’t last more than six months after that deal and the person that did that deal the CEO

Retired or stepped down before all went down he knew they did it too you know they spent too much money and crashed themselves okay big decisions like that big steps burn you right okay so that was not too long ago that’s within the last decade right or is if I remember

Correctly but anywh who um or maybe a little bit longer but when you’re looking at Sports Authority and seeing crashes like that in sporting Industries then that kind of translate and resonates with the with the bike companies today okay what what let’s just take those year snapshot and it’s

Been a crusty year I mean it just has been for the industry in the sense of not necessarily for the consumer it’s been some bright lights for consumers but for the actual industry itself we came out of Co super hot bought too much stuff had too much inventory the wrong

Inventory and y y yeah Snowball Effect right yeah so who pulled the oh crap lever first I would say specialized did reason being is they’ve pulled all their sponsor plugging that’s the first thing and a light item when you’re accountant like that crap’s got to go you know why

Are we paying x amount of dollars for these Racers and social media whatevers we’re going to reset this actually that was a good move because if you really think about it and I did a poll on my Community page of like what influence you to buy stuff especially if it’s new

Right you know like I want a new bike or mount bike or Tire whatever right that’s in the cycling industry specifically spe well one of the line items that I put on there is influenced by social media people like me that you know like hey I’ve been paid to tell you about this

One product and here you go I think it’s great um zero all you people are smart let’s put it that way um you want to listen to somebody that’s actually using the products daily and go I like this because it works and I use it and nobody’s paying me to say that

You know like that’s going to have a lot more weight and gold and also customer reviews product reviews that kind of thing also um independent like a bicycle magazine comes out with a review of a new bike or something of that nature um you know it’s one of those things that

Really does kind of you know resonate with the consumer especially after we’ve been through the last couple years some of us have had some economical straints and tight purses have to work with and still want to do the things we want to do so we got to be a little more Savvy

About it influencers are now no bueno uh second in line Racers I’m I’m I’m sorry Racers but yeah you may have an influenced channel of people following you and so forth um and you still probably have some people buying some things but you’re second to

The bottom of zero uh close into to that of a few perc actually went and go oh okay yeah they race on this it’s pretty cool I’m gonna buy it um basically that’s their job right I mean besides winning races and train and all that they also their job to get paid

Is really sponsorship you got to you know do their product lines and so forth yeah you know you got Jason S Simona doing specialized things and that kind of thing that probably had more impact than the racers to be honest um so and he doesn’t ride well maybe does ride now

I don’t know but it’s one of those things I see him more on Harley than anything else but other than that though thinking about it that was the first full plug oh crap happened from specialized right so that was about a year ago now and now it’s kind of a big

Shake up like they’re pulling their Mar you all that and you got all these RAC all bit out of shape and whatever did it heard their bottom line absolutely not so save a money absolutely uh next thing was in line guess who started the oh let’s put everything on sale sale sale

On the sale sale they were one of the first I think in November that did the old second lever I mean a company has several levers to pull to keep going right and that’s when the pros closet also another indicator of our first round of layoffs we’re in late fall then

Another one around Christmas I believe and another one around spring I think they had like four in the last year so they’re scaling down especially Iz did a scale down too so putting our bikes on sale scaling down Trek apparently did some layoffs too a little more quieter

About it but I think that was more of a adjustment because they have more stores now than they do as an in independent bike dealers out there in the sense that that’s changed so you don’t need those independent reps or not independent reps but they bike reps anymore they need territorial

Managers they need store managers so they need to cut here and add there basically what was going on the specialized I think they just needed to cut um that’s a good way to just kind of get rid of a few of those departments or things are just not producing as well as

They would like that kind of thing so keep that in mind that’s here where we where we’re going why am I still picking on Specialized because they were kind of a leader on this whole let’s we I see the tea leaves let’s readjust just and

We don’t care if we’re the first ones to go um to do these things and it continues you know it’s like one of those situations they were going to hold back on opening more stores now they’re opening more stores under the in in cycle brand that kind of thing uh

Needless to say you know are they hurting I think they’re well we’re all hurting let’s just put it that way throw that out there we’re all hurting anyway um fast forward to going towards this summer we had a late kickoff things didn’t get move right with they had a

Readjustment and so forth so another big thing for specialized I do pick on them again as they released this sl8 well they re released it after the big cycling season window you saw Trek introducer fancy paint jobs to turn to France turn to France is the Super Bowl of cycling

It is it’s bigger it’s bigger than Mountain it’s more seen it’s more televised all those things even though mountain bikes may have more sales but T to France road bikes have more publicity and when you’re looking at the European market on top of that that is a big big

Big chunk so looking at all those perspectives yes we’re in a situation where they miss the boat of hitting the window for tour to France I don’t know because they didn’t have them in stock yet or production or didn’t want to release it or they didn’t have in the

Tour maybe they did have on the tour I don’t remember a call hearing about that frame in the tour so that’s S8 frame the fancier lighter weight whatever frame that kind of flopped a little bit because people were like you know uh but that was another indicator is when the

Industry slows down they have all this new tech in line and they need start releasing it to energize the market right to get the market back you know trying to get people excited about buying stuff again yeah um and then TR came out with their slash little multi-link crazy chain thing which I

Still don’t have my head around but hey that’s not me you know whatever but they’re doing it so you’re going to see a lot more Tech roll out there then you get smashed by this shano big recall from duras and algra 11 speeds and that that’s a big tobacco going on here

Now within the componentry group so what’s going to shake out who’s going to be the first to fall um I hope none of them fall I mean don’t get me wrong it’s it’s not one of those things that I’m like gunning for them but I’m going to just tell you from an independent

Bike dealer not about as independent as you get because I do sell Brands but I buy the brands and I have no contract with those Brands meaning meaning I buy used everything pretty much used and what I do buy new it’s what I want to

Buy that’s new not some rep or company I I’m basically independent as you can be because back in the day in the 90s we were independent bike dealer and this was a conversation I’ve had with a thread with a another YouTuber who was watching it’s like well independent bike

Dealers are not really independent anymore because they got contracts with the with the dealers and they actually pigeon hole you to carry so much percentage of the brands on the floor and you can’t carry other brands and so forth and kind of like uh preseason qualities and all those things and

They’ve always had preseason qualifiers but they were a lot lower back in the 90s and hell we had like five or six different lines on our floor versus nowadays if you’re a treer or specialized dealer they were only giving you like 10 or 15% of a different brand

On your floor on their Flor well they’re almost thinking it was their floor at that point so and they’re also pushing all these particular minimums of clothing and bikes and accessories and all these things down your throat specialized would been notoriously known as that kind of company that strongholds

You to carry all this product sorry specialize but it is the honest God truth that you put the pressure in pressurized and coming into the fast forward today oh yeah I did forget they went to direct a consumer that was that was actually the first indicator before

The cut the line of the sponsorships and the actual rers okay direct consumers and they kind of pooped on their dealers kind of they really did let’s just say I mean ah no holds bar I’m not I’m not saying this to be mean but this is what

I see and being an independent bike dealer in the day and also now if I was a specialized dealer which I know a few mythed really miffed off about a lot of this and I would say the truck dealers are probably about the same maybe they’re a

Little sugarcoat a little bit more they may not be squeaking as much but they’re getting the short in the stick too uh I’m just it just happens to be that way canels are the same with a pond moving around and doing I think they’re going

To do direct consumer to um K is a smaller line they had to do direct to Consumer just to keep up with the big boys well who in instigated all this Canyon uh Canyon was smart got it working in Europe German company came here scare the pants off of specializing

Tre and everybody else direct a consumer and actually works then well the Tre hasn’t done that but they’re they doing stores and specializ is doing stores and a little bit so here that phrase the Jack of all trades and the master of none kind of thing that’s what

Specializes kind of in the boat right now um because they’re not being really great on releasing really really cool stuff which they’ve super have Mark marketing and influence and branding it’s still huge you can’t combat that it’s like the pepsy the cocacola battle their a household name crastination in

Other countries and all that so you can’t take that away from them but they’re muddling their brand um they’re messing with their dealers they’ve been supporting them all these years I would hate to be a a specialized dealer and being a specialized dealer for 30 years and all a sudden gone

Whatever you know and they’re not playing by the same ball field because they’re not giving them the margins on those direct consumers are short shorting them I mean come on so when you look at a corporate or corporate owned store Tre or Instinct specialized Pond Mike Bikes

Alike they’re not dealing with the 30% margin on the bikes that the independent bike dealers are dealing with they’re dealing with something kind of more like Keystone which is like 50% if not more because they are actually the wholesaler right so they got the cost on wholesaling and then they have this huge

Margin buffer to work with well when you’re a brick and mortar and you got expensive rent and you got employees and all that stuff that margin gets really really small back to specialize muddling the water okay the miss the boat on the brand new release well I had a

Conversation with a customer of mine which which owns several specialized bikes and bought some new and some used and I have a few specialized in my stable I am not talking about anything against the actual Tech and the you know the bike itself I’m talking about the

Company and how it’s running and what direction it’s going well they’re getting their pants beaten on them um from Trek in the sense of the service with their particular brick and mortar stores and what I’m saying about that bike shops is basically two businesses in one roof and actually a lot of times

It’s three but let’s just talk about the big two bike sales and service and it’s more than like your car dealership they sell cars and then they have a service department but most people don’t take their cars to the service department of the dealers most of the time they’ll

Find their other mechanic bike industry is the different you got your bike you know bike shop portion where they sell the bikes and they have the service which a lot of people for convenience is like getting your milk at your local store that’s where you get your bike

Worked on right and you develop a rapport with the service department as much as well as the salespeople but it’s almost like two different businesses and actually for me it’s two separate insurances so when you look at that it’s like insurance company they looking at two different businesses so that’s what

It really is and the third one outlier is the fitting Services some shops do it some don’t that kind of thing which they charge 300 plus to do the dynamic fitting and so forth where am I going with this well service department okay in sync Incycle for specialized stores

They have the shop they sell the bikes they have a service department is right and they probably have some really mechanics carried over from the Acquisitions the buying those stores or hiring and so forth there’s some good mechanics out there I’m not doing them at all not dogging employees at all I’m

Just the management and what their perspective what they’re trying to do well Trek has taken this ball and ran with it for the brick and morar stores and they’ve been doing this for oh over five years now six years and I was part of the mix of it back in the day don’t

Want to bore you but I was part of um software company called retail toolkit we had a lot of clients we did the backin inventory management that’s where my position was that’s where my software experien has been current current from um so I saw when these stores are being

Sold to Trek they’d cut us immediately because they didn’t use us at all and then you i’ know the numbers of the stores and they were like we need to buy these stores because they don’t want them to fail and they don’t want them just to shut down so these are like

Owners are just moving on don’t want to do this anymore whatever so the first one was Revolution cyclery in DC what I remember and then Le is like third or fourth on the list um and four colins Colorado turn into the TR so 6 years they have the jump on specialize on this

Okay yeah they have a little more experience at the retail aspect of it is a whole different game it took Trek a few years to get their get their head straight because at first they’re really dumb about it um now they got it really dialed and now they’re actually pushing

It Forward how they’re pushing it Forward 24-hour service you know like wow that’s a bold move to have 24-hour service being a service manager myself I got it to 48 and and now was pushing hard with really good mechanics so they’re doing 24-hour service so they they got to have the

Ducks in a row and I was just dealing with one shop they were dealing like over 400 plus now or something like that some insane number that they’re pushing so yeah there’s a lot of different service departments that they’re dealing with in addition to that’s one thing that’s kicking specialized like they’re

Still a week to 10 days out or whatever so that’s not going to be resonate between anybody looking for a bike to get tuned up regardless of brand and number two is they have suspension service in addition to that they can take your shock send it to one of the

Trick certified service departments there six of them or something like that Across the Nation that they built up get them tuned and be back sent back to the shop which is very smart on truck because training 400 stores with a mechanics to how to do Ser uh suspension

Service on suspension front and rear in different years of models that is too much of a lift they got smart they’re like they took the um I’m going to plug them because I like them and they’re local and Longmont um damn it what’s the name of the company um dirt Labs dirt

Labs the suspension that’s all they do they used to be a bike shop and and now they do only suspension front and rear I think they have a pretty flat rate they go pretty far back look them up you need any suspension done same concept you

Could ship it to them they fix it do the tuneup or whatever and send it back to you um good caps down there and that’s what basically Trek is modeled that right so they taken that and made six of these or seven of these locations nationwide and they have the shocks

Being sent in from all their stores and they get sent back and they also the kicker is like oh if your bike’s being worked on it might take about a week but we will definitely give you a A lender bike to use while doing the service that’s double fold for them first

They’re getting the service sale and then they get the demo cut your teeth on the new product stash or whatever SN whatever you know bike on the trails brilliant brilliant specialized what you got nothing you got to know going anywhere with that nope you have answer to

That okay so what are you doing in the brick and morar stores you’re throwing out some bikes and you hope your branding gets people in the door and maybe do a little service that’s half doing it um and on top of that three mik drop on this one okay

They’ve did trade inss right on the sales side of it back to the sales side of the business they did trade inss Trek did and they used uh Bic Blue Book as their they you know do a trade in undercut anybody that would trade in a

Bike so I wouldn’t recommend it um i’ sell it yourself look at videos that I have and sell your own stuff you know that kind of thing or look for a person like me to have your stuff sold and or to buy it and to sell it um

Because that way you’re going to get a little bit more money of the higher end of The Bicycle Blue Book price range versus dealer trade in which is going to it’s like half which is painfully stupid to just give your bike away you know that kind of thing so going back to the

Tradein they’ve upped their game they said okay we’re going to still do all trade-ins we’re going to really advertise trade-ins and we’re going to also trade in your tracks and we’re going to keep the tracks and we’re going to take our tracks and we’re going to

Take them to the Red Barn in Wisconsin and that’s where the trk started back in 1976 or something like that in the Red Bar in Wisconsin and uh they’re going to take all these trucks refurbish them and sell them I think online okay here is the bit that’s a disconnect on Trek I

Mean they’re doing this it’s great specialized do you do trade inss nope so they’re doing trade inss they’re bringing in the brands and they’re selling them online I’m not sure exactly where yet I not found that out but there the disconnect is those bikes should go back onto the floor

Why if you’re a Tre upper exec or specialized exec going all pissed off because you’re listen me bad mouthing your company is take it for a grain of salt I’m independent I don’t care I have opinions yes but they’re going to be truth and straightforward truck you need to get

Those bikes on the floor right next to that road bike that’s used needs to be right next to that brand new road bike reason being you got to give that customer an opportunity to buy a bike that’s under $1,000 to get into you’re you’re disconnecting the entry level Riders on

All levels if you bring in your used in those four spaces you give those salespeople an option like I got this used one here sty that gives you two things first it gives you a bike sale with all the accessories that go to a newbie and second it gives you brand

Confidence why if somebody buys a $44,000 road bike they know it’s still going to have some value as a used bike not not stupid pretty smart stuff think about it specialize if you’re writing notes yeah angrily with a big crayon hey think about it specialize same thing take your used bikes do a

Used tradein sell your nonb specialized tradein to whoever else else Pros closet whoever will take them or do it yourself like Tre is and then you have a specialized ree like I have listed maybe I’ll have a picture here of robe under a thousand that might be a few years older

Right next to your new R but you’re given that customer an option to get into Road riding without walking in the door brand new road Rider wants to Road get a road bike hasn’t ridden in like 10 years since they were a kid look at your $3,000 bikes walks right

Out and doesn’t even talk to a salesperson won’t talk to a salesperson will not no way in hell they’re going to talk to a salesperson why they’re like this is not the place for me your prices are just showing that you have used options for people to lead people

In there you have an opportunity so yeah was specialized you need you got some catching up to do if you’re you’re going to do the brick and mortar you got to keep up and you got to keep up and you need to get ahead checks got you beat pants down big

Time when you’re looking at Brick and Mortar okay when you’re looking at the big company let’s I’m getting a little long went into here and this video is going a little long let’s let’s just wrap this up this danger is not specific to just Specialized or track it’s to any of

Those companies or just is straggling hanging on for dear life and we’re in a situation where we had a late season a short season and we’re over inventory and there’s nobody buying so what you going to do about it there’s got a lot of different things that levers that specializes in polling

At some point you going to run out of levers to pull truck apparently has a bigger cash flow because it didn’t pull any punches until selling the they’re putting their bikes on sale until like late spring I mean they seem to be fine doing okay well okay still not great

You’re probably doing some really good in some markets and really crappy in others they’re cutting back their hours well all bike shops are this time of year because it’s fall but they’re closing their doors on Mondays retail on Mondays at a corporate stores my big F experience somebody’s having a heart

Attack like you’re shutting your what actually you should be extending your hours splitting those shifts whatever you need to do they’re not going to buy stuff if you walk up and the door’s like can’t open it yeah I worked in Sporting Goods retail for almost nine years like big five spored Goods Big

Chain over four 500 stores and growing been around for over 50 years plus they know their crap so with all those perspectives and being trained by them and learning their their perspectives the cycling industry needs to start grabbing some of those embracement right I’m not telling like the independent

Bike dealer that you got to be open till 9:00 at night telling the corporate stores to do that come on you keep one or two people on staff later at night you might catch those after dinner sales just saying and I’m just telling you what my traffic

Flow at Big F sporty Goods in for Collins Colorado we had a low of course every day Monday through Friday around 6:00 or 7 it’ll be like a downtime that’s when everybody was like did their dinner whatever got home and what have you but after that a lot of times they were

Dragged back out of the house or like oh I wanted to go buy this oh I need to go pick up my bike I need to go do this or whatever we had always almost always a big flux of traffic between 7:30 to 8:30 and sometimes that was the biggest

Hour of the day in sales if you’re open to the consumer consumer is going to come if you build it they will come right if you’re open they will come in the door oh so what if you’re like dead for an hour afterwards there’s a whole bunch

Of cleaning that needs to be done that’s what we did at big five and organizing and straightening and doing inventory and so forth if you have service work there’s plenty to work on Plenty of the bikes to build which is the caveat out to the bike shops there’s always

Something to do and you know I walked into the you know the trick store and I was asking them about their you know they were telling me they were closing but they have their guys coming in early to work on bikes like at 8 I’m like there’s your missed opportunity right

There you don’t open till 10:00 don’t have anybody coming in until like 9:30 or 10:00 then you have like those mechanics work later to the night and you you catch some of that extra evening sales especially in the areas where it’s off season I was like you got to be

Doing you can’t be doing this in the South because this is their busy season right now starting it’s their spring for riding this is too damn hot in summer to ride so down down like that’s where my sales are going to come from I’m preparing to ship a lot more bikes

Because Florida the Bible Belt area Texas a izona South Cal they’re all going to get busy because they’re going to be riding and want to be riding and get newer bikes and so forth and that’s what as currently my with three years of four years of doing this have seen that

Flip and yeah I do still sell some other bikes to people that are getting anticipation of the Season or what have you but most of those sales are going to be South and that’s where was eyeopener for me back in the ’90s where it’s like oh the bike shops down in Florida

They’re busy in the winter time well yeah because that’s their peak season granted that’s not majority of the sales when you look at as a big corporate but still is a definitely in influx of increase of sales um for for whatever numbers that may be so when you’re

Looking at the retail stores there so back to my original quote is this it for Specialized or others maybe maybe not but hey leave some comments below I mean you probably hate me or whatever that’s fine um just trying to you know my perspective of straight truth and you

Know one of those things that’s brought to me that a a bike shop should have a voice of aing their anger issues but unfortunately if you were a Specialized or a treack dealer independent dealer you’re afraid to say anything I’m more than happy to say it for you because

Neither of them have a thumb hold on me whatsoever ever even though I do sell the used product but I’m talking about the companies not the brand the bikes themselves the product itself so you know TR done some good things they I do have to give them that they’ve given

Employees benefits and all that good stuff and is a good place to work and they’re really working to be a good environment for their employees which kudos to them specialize hopefully you’re doing the same suit it is providing more stores that are a little more stable and in some areas that’s

True so there’s some positives to this but when you’re looking at the companies and the health and how they pressu pressured the independent bike dealers out of it kind of pulls up my heartstrings a lot angrily and just one of those situations that yeah I would

Hope that there’s a little more of a a give to those independent bike dealers because that’s what got you here in the first place and second provide those you know stores opportunities to thrive correctly with and also provide a better service to the customer at the end of

The day and not be so elitist I did say that sorry kind of are when your four your lowest bikes are four or five grand when the floor you’re not giving anybody any good good warm and fuzzies when they walk in and they’re trying to get into Road

Riding or buy a kids bike or any of that case just saying anywh who thanks for spending some time with me this is the my insights of as the wheel turns so are the days of our rides until next time from the garage and yeah leave a comment below whatever

Let’s keep the conversation going maybe I’ll spark up another one until next time