| More and more politicians and celebrities are being photographed on their bikes and Barack Obama just granted a private meeting with bike industry leaders last night. These are new riders from the proverbial 161 million non-riders we’ve all been trying to reach, right?
In addition, alternative retailers and retail channels have sprung up to serve this new, market. These include surf and skate shops, apparel boutiques and - brace yourself - internet direct sales. That last one is a taste of a topic for a whole other post: how retailers are still not fully embracing the internet to grow their businesses and how certain manufacturers are “holding back” retailers from taking advantage of the internet. Talk about a hot button issue…
So what are these bikes that these “neo-bikers” are looking for?
The bike that the neo-biker is not finding is an economical “just-a-bike” bike. Many bike shops have been profiting from $8,000 custom road and mountain bike sales over the last 10 years or so and can’t serve the needs of the neo-biker. I can remember my dad balking at paying the $800 for a mountain bike that the shop salesperson proposed years ago when I convinced him to try cycling. He told me that $300 was about what he wanted to pay for a bike to ride around town. We enthusiasts and industry members would consider $800 about right for an entry-level bike. How many people are turned away by the higher than expected prices for bikes.
so many aspects contribute to the challenge that bike shops apparently are facing in addressing this surge of new riders. From manufacturers increasingly encouraging dealers to make larger commitments to their brands that in turn causes the dealers to lose the ability to change quickly with the market place to non-cycling brands like RVCA and Paul Frank making inroads into the bike market through their networks of non-traditional bike retailers, there are some great points to think about.
What I have seen in my limited exposure to this market is that on the train every day that I commute, I see alot of inappropriate bikes being used. Obviously, they’re all bikes and it’s great that they are being ridden, but I think we can do better for these neo-bikers. |
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