Choosing a Bike for the Shop

We just got back from the madness that is Interbike. Located in Las Vegas, Interbike is the North America's largest bicycle trade show. Every year we send a group of people down to see what's new, what's cool and what's new and cool. This year we sent a large group down and had a few very specific topics to concentrate on. One of the most pressing was finding another high end bike for our Pro Shop.

Finding a high end bike at Interbike is not hard. They are everywhere, every brand with a few notable exceptions are on display and just about every brand has a beautiful high end road bike. Finding a high end road bike that works for our shop is a little harder. Most don't know it but there is a lot that goes into choosing the right bike for your shop. As much as you might like to you can't just pick the really cool one and go with it. You have to think... sure it's cool but...
Is it also good? Is it great? Does it ride well? How is the distribution, will we actually be able to get this bike when we need it? Does anyone else in town carry this brand? Is the brand going to be profitable? Does this brand fill a need or replicate something we already have? How will our current brands react to our having this brand? Will our employees dig it and therefore want to sell it?
As you can see, it's not a simple process. So with all of that in mind we looked a lot of really cool bikes. We saw Colnago, BMC, Look, Time, Pinarello, Aerocat, Argon 18, BH, Bianchi and more. They all had outstanding bikes from the look of them. Now comes the hard part. Digesting all the info, thinking about all the questions I mentioned above and figuring out what fits best. In the next few weeks or months we'll make a decision on it and start getting the new bikes in. In the mean time. What do you all think? What bike would you bring in if you could have any high end bike?

Part of the Interbike crew.

The Best Way to Get to Bumbershoot

We recently spent three days in the shadow of the Space Needle supporting One Reel and in their effort to get more people to ride to the event. Parking for Bumbershoot has always been a problem so for two years now we've supported the bike parking. We watch over the hundreds of bikes that people leave in the bike corral. While we're technically not responsible for the bikes just being there lends a bit of security to the area. We also bring our tools and make small repairs to make sure that people can make it home from the event. We fixed a few flat tires, adjusted a few derailleurs and tightened up some brakes. There was plenty of work to be done, and no way to do it all. I was amazed to see the variety of bikes that people had. Everything from titanium Lightspeeds to thirty year old Peugeots.

This is the second year that we've worked with One Reel and the second event of the year. Here's to hoping that more events and event organizers see the benefit of providing bike parking. If nothing else, people love it. When we told people that the parking was free and that we'd be there until 11pm hanging out the response was always positive. Lot's of smiles, a few fist pumps, many utterances of "sweet!", "Awesome!", "You guys rock!" and other positive comments.

Many thanks to all the staff that came out to help with the event.