
End of the road for independent bike distributors? - darrennix
http://www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-analysis/2017/12/04/opinion-its-end-road-ibd-say-hello-ibs
======
sevensor
I live in a college town with several bike shops, all of them still tied to
the traditional retail model. The one I suspect has the worst prospects is the
most upscale one. They have a big clean showroom full of expensive sporty
bikes, but their mechanics are second-rate. You can tell because their shop is
in the basement and you're not allowed to come down and watch them work on
your bike. And the one time I made the mistake of going there for service they
sniffed at my decent, well maintained commuting bike because the paint was
dinged up and it was covered with road dust, charged me twice what the repair
was worth, and didn't fix the problem. The shop I'm rooting for has a tiny
showroom and a big repair shop right behind the counter. There's grease on
everything, and I'm pretty sure they've been under-charging me for labor
because they know I commute by bike. They already order and assemble bikes for
people, and they also rent by the day. They, I suspect, will be just fine.

~~~
criddell
One model that wasn't mentioned explicitly in the article but I think might
work is let customers have their bikes purchased online be shipped to the shop
for assembly. I ordered my last bicycle from BikesDirect and it was tricky to
get it set up just right. A bike shop could probably do it in an hour. It took
me five or six hours.

Even if assembly doesn't directly make a lot of profit, it's a great time to
sell accessories and service plans.

~~~
ams6110
> A bike shop could probably do it in an hour. It took me five or six hours.

Yes but then you miss out on an almost "bonding" experience with the machine
and feeling of intimately understanding it. That's why I do most of my own car
repair, even though it takes me longer than a shop would take.

Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about the "Romantic" vs.
"Classical" approach to such things.

~~~
jandrese
Once you've done that work once it will be much easier the next time.
Affordable bikes don't have any sort of self adjustment, everything has to be
done manually, so if you don't know how to make the adjustments you will be in
the shop every few months getting it tuned back up. In my experience shifters
are the worst for getting slightly out of whack as the chain wears out, and
are the most fiddly when tuning. Brakes are the second worst as you're trying
to balance the spring tension on the two sides exactly so it doesn't rub.

~~~
rhinoceraptor
I'd say wheel truing is the worst. It's tedious and you really want a
dedicated wheel truing stand, and you may need spare nipples in case you round
one off. Second to that is setting up tubeless tires, it's messy and you might
need an air compressor to seat the bead.

Derailleurs are easy once you know how to set the limit screws and adjust the
cable tension. Disc brakes are tricky, but again if you know the trick then
it's pretty easy as well.

~~~
jessaustin
Occasionally I imagine that I understand how to set derailleur limit screws.
Inevitably, that illusion shatters within a month. b^(

~~~
Dangeranger
The easiest way to get a derailleur limit setup is to de-cable the derailleur,
and back both screws all the way out.

Then the derailleur spring will bring the chain all the way to the highest
gear (smallest cassette cog), and since you backed the limit screw out, the
chain will want to rub against the frame stays.

Use your fingers to push the derailleur up into a lower gear and then turn the
limit screw for the outside limit one full turn. Repeat this until without
using your hand to guide the derailleur the chain rests in the highest gear
without needing any force, but also doesn't rub against the frame stay.

Then use your hand to push the derailleur all the way to the lowest gear
(largest cassette cog) and try to get the chain to fall between the cassette
and the wheel spokes. If it can fall over the inside of the gear and into the
spokes then turn the limit screw for the inside limit one full turn. Repeat
until the chain can reach the lowest gear without using excessive force, but
cannot fall off the cog toward the spokes.

Add some lock tight to both limit screws so that you don't have to adjust them
again, and you are done!

Now just reattach the rear derailleur cable and adjust the tension if you need
to.

~~~
rhinoceraptor
Also, if you don't have a cable puller, an easy way to tension the RD cable is
to put the chain on the second smallest cog, then tighten the cable bolt.
Cable pullers are really worth the money, though. Especially for cantis.

------
whistlerbrk
I have spoken with many bike store owners and employees, they know they can't
compete with the prices you can get for parts and accessories from online
retailers. But very few have an alternate plan.

The ones I see who are being smart about this reality are instead focusing on
having absolutely excellent mechanics and experiences like shop rides to get
groups out on amazing day trips / overnights. There is a huge value add in
teaching people skills and thus converting them into more advanced cyclists
who'll want better gear.

~~~
china
This is spot on - the shops that will survive will be the ones that provide
knowledge, service, and experiences. Group rides, classes, free espressos
while your bike is being serviced, etc.

~~~
NicoJuicy
Well, actually, a cook and kitchen shop in a big city just closed. They did
all that and still people just ordered from the web

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rhombocombus
As a 17 year veteran of Independent bicycle dealers, this hits it right on the
head. The most successful shop I ever worked at focused their inventory on
parts and offered 24 hour turnaround provided the bike didn't require special
ordered parts. Service is the only thing that can't be replaced by the
internet.

~~~
sizzzzlerz
And service is what distinguishes bike shops from each other. In reality,
bikes are commodity items, things you can buy anywhere and are sensitive to
price. The same for computers, appliances, and most electronics. Service,
however, is unique to that store and people remember good service (and bad).
When I get good service at any type of store, I feel good about the experience
and am more than likely to spend my money with them again. And a key point, I
am willing to pay more to get it.

------
blakesterz
Spent years working in a bike shop, so this was a really interesting read for
me. He may be right, but I can't help be think that most people just don't
care enough about their bikes to have enough customers to sustain a good
Service Shop. Most people have a bike, but would never bother taking it
somewhere fancy like this to get it fixed or serviced. They paid $100 for it
at Walmart.

He said something in there that caught my eye:

"Think back to the '80s when market experts were predicting that internet
sales were going to doom UPS and FedEx ... Huh?! Crazy as that sounds, that's
what experts said, which made absolutely no sense to me."

Is that true?

~~~
garethsprice
> Most people have a bike, but would never bother taking it somewhere fancy
> like this to get it fixed or serviced. They paid $100 for it at Walmart.

As with many other markets, the middle is being hollowed out - there's a large
low-end ($100 Walmart bikes) and a niche of high-end pro-sumers who have
disposable income and time to spend on expensive hobbies (I believe a "decent"
mountain bike starts at $1,000-2,000, going up to $xx,000).

The old middle ground ($300-500 bikes bought by unknowledgeable consumers who
need the help of local stores) is what is being gutted by the decline of the
middle class' disposable incomes and the specialized knowledge high-end
hobbyists can now attain thanks to the Internet.

Service businesses can do well targeting the high end. The low end products
are disposable.

~~~
dmschulman
This is incorrect in my experience. I live in a city with a high percentage of
bike commuters and they all ride bikes that fall squarely in the middle of
your price range (anywhere from $400-$1000).

There is actually an entire segment of the cycling industry that has sprang up
around catering to this demographic, urban commuters who want something
functional and hip looking and are willing to pay the premium, but don't need
a $1000 mountain bike for their trip to and from work. I have not taken a full
survey of every bike commuter I see in my city, but I feel confident in
assessing the cost of their ride falls under or just around $800 (assuming
they bought brand new and not used, I think less people tend to buy new).

The amount of these hip cyclists grossly outnumbers the amount of "prosumer"
cyclists (spending $2,000 on a carbon fiber bike) I see on the weekends riding
trails. I would imagine these numbers are inverted in the suburbs, where you
wouldn't find as many bike commuters, but the suburbs are also lower density
than a city and therefore fewer potential bike riders to compare with.

EDIT: Also your point about middle class incomes and their effect on how much
a consumer can afford to spend on a bike doesn't square with economics. I see
your general concern regarding middle class wages not keeping pace with
economic growth, but if a bike is essential to someone's lifestyle they will
find a way to afford what they need.

And on a related note, many city dwellers are starting to give up on the
concept of owning a car, favoring their bike or public transit or ride shares
as a means to get around. Do you know how many bikes you could afford if you
sold your car and no longer had to maintain its upkeep/insurance?

~~~
walshemj
Unlikely in London where serious multimode bike commuters will be riding
Brompton's of which the entry levels are about a grand and nice light weight
on is more like £1700-1800

~~~
jdietrich
A Brompton is a superb commuter bike, but it's only one option. Most commuters
don't need multimodal capabilities, particularly if they live within Zone 6.

~~~
walshemj
Ah rich people who can actual y live that near :-) I was thinking of those
that use the train

------
fiftyacorn
I dont think this is new - a lot of bike shops are repair only now, with a few
loyal customers.

I also think that bikes are getting more technical - electric shifters, the
tolerance limits on gears means that its increasingly hard for people to
repair their own bikes. So bike repair makes sense, and they can probably
charge

At the higher end - lets say $1000+ bikes bike shops can still do a good trade
as people new to the sport probably need a bike fit to ensure they are getting
the best machine for them

~~~
Finnucane
My current bike I did buy at a local shop partly because I wanted to be able
to test-ride before I made the purchase. And I'm glad a did. I tried a few
different models, and have been pretty pleased with the choice I made. But
most of the subsequent maintenance has been done by shops that are primarily
service shops, and not dealers. They sell bits and supplies, of course, but
their bread & butter is repair work. My experience is that I get better
service from them than from dealers that just want to get your bike out of the
shop as quickly as possible.

------
CWuestefeld
This is interesting on its face, but also as an analogy. My employer is a B2B
reseller of computer hardware and software, and this sounds very much like
your industry.

Cloud services are eating into hardware sales, and manufacturers (e.g., Adobe)
are going direct, disintermediating us. There's no sense fighting back, but
there's new opportunities for those helping with cloud services, and with
managing software licensing and so forth.

------
CaptainDecisive
I live in Edinburgh, and I've personally counted half a dozen of these little,
one or two person IBS type shops open up round town in the last couple of
years. They have a small retail space at the front, an open workshop at the
back, and the mechanic stops working on a bike to have a chat with you when
you come in to the shop. Edinburgh's pretty bike friendly, so given the number
of these shops springing up, they must have a viable business model here.

~~~
walshemj
Edinburgh is hilly and all those sets (cobbles) make those fat tired MTB's
look a sensible choice

------
dockd
As bicycles prices start moving toward motorcycles and cars, I don't
understand why the shops still feel like the margins can't/won't change. They
say 20-30% profit is small, but compare that to buying a new car: 2-3% profit.

And to keep the car comparison going: during the summer, bike shops routinely
book two weeks out, which is almost unheard of with car service.

I'm both surprised and not surprised to hear that clothing is not a big seller
--I've never been a fan of getting clothing without trying it on. However,
once I know how a brand fits, that's not as much of an issue. It is surprising
to walk into a bike shop and want some shorts only to find they don't stock
anything under $80--you really have to work hard to find $80 shorts at the
mall. So maybe the problem is they need to do better at picking what their
customers want.

Unfortunately, I don't have good ideas at what they should sell in addition to
labor. Need it now items are great (tires) but it's hard to make all of your
money just on mechanics.

~~~
hondo77
> It is surprising to walk into a bike shop and want some shorts only to find
> they don't stock anything under $80--you really have to work hard to find
> $80 shorts at the mall. So maybe the problem is they need to do better at
> picking what their customers want.

Funny that you put it that way because I wouldn't buy any shorts under $100
(haven't found any at that price that will be comfy on a 100-mile ride). I
suppose that's what bike shops are up against: customers whose wants and needs
are all over the place, which is what suits big online retailers.

------
jpao79
I'm surprised the bike manufacturers have not stepped up to create their own
branded shops as a way to provide/control a more direct 'experience'. Imagine
separate 'Specialized' stores, 'Cannondale' stores or "Gary Fisher' stores all
with carefully crafted service and support.

It's similar to how the local generic electronics store (including CircuitCity
and now BestBuy) got squeezed from the bottom by Target/Walmart on the low end
and the high end by the Sony/Apple/Bose Store at your local luxury Westfield
or Simon's mall. Even woman's fashion is trending way - Target/Walmart/Costco
for the majority and direct 'experience' stores like Coach/Burberry/Tiffany
with Macy's and Kohl's getting squeezed out.

~~~
jdietrich
Specialized and Giant already have single-brand stores in many markets. Giant
have a handful of stores dedicated to Liv, their women's sub-brand.

------
cdelb
This has been an ongoing debate in the mountain bike world for a number of
years now. Direct to consumer brands have clearly been making a dent in the
traditional retail model. Intense just announced a hybrid model, where shops
stock demos and consumers receive their new bike directly from Intense. Seems
like a win-win - shops don't have to stock slow moving inventory and consumers
get lower prices year round.

This artcle explains the pros/cons in detail:
[https://www.pinkbike.com/news/intense-announces-lower-
retail...](https://www.pinkbike.com/news/intense-announces-lower-retail-
prices-and-hybrid-direct-to-customer-sales-model.html)

~~~
ghaff
Not about bikes specifically but I've been a bit surprised that formal
showrooming hasn't become a bigger thing. My guess is that, if you're going to
have storefronts, for a lot of things you might as well stock merchandise for
impulse buyers or those who want to take something home right now.

------
jandrese
There's a bike shop that opened near me but I've had the impression that most
of their income comes from the coffee shop in the front and the bikes are more
of a passion of the owners. They're nice folks, but their bikes start at $800
and go up very quickly from there.

I actually did give them a chance and tried out a couple of the bikes when I
was looking to replace my tired out commuter bike but I just couldn't feel the
$600 premium. The biggest surprise is that the shifters didn't even feel any
better, it was the one area where I expected the better bike could really make
a difference but they were no better at shifting quickly or under load than my
old shifters.

~~~
walshemj
That's about the sensible minimum for a decent long lasting bike I definitely
noticed when I went from cheap MTB to one twice the price the stopping power
was phenomenal I almost sent my self over the handlebars in a driving rain
storm as I was used to the soggy breaks in the wet of my old bike.

------
tonyedgecombe
I wonder how e-bikes are going to fit into all this, although I'm happy with
mine the buying experience was awful.

~~~
workthrowaway27
What do you mean by this?

~~~
UncleEntity
From what I've seen the E-bikes have their own 'dealer network' independent of
regular pedal bike shops. There used to be one next door but they moved a
while ago, think the rent was getting too high since they've been steadily
improving the neighborhood.

~~~
lardo
Most of the large traditional manufacturers are into ebikes now and although a
LBS might only have 0-2 in stock, they can all get you one within a week or
so.

~~~
petre
They're rather expensive to stock. 2x to 4x the price of a regular bike.

------
zbentley
Hmmm. A lot of this rings true, but a couple of things seem to indicate to me
that brick-and-mortar bike shops may continue to exist over time:

Bikes are an interesting confluence of both _very personal_ (i.e. the
style/"feel" of someone's new bike is important, or the "fit" if they're
buying with a bit more experience), _very expensive_ (relatively), and _very
physically large_ (and hard to assemble).

That means that people will want to try out bikes before they buy, since the
investment is substantial. Bikes need to be assembled to try out. If a brick-
and-mortar store went online-only, it might be a substantial outlay for them
to ship bikes to people to try out, and a hassle for folks to assemble them
before trying them (unless they were shipped assembled, which is a much larger
container). It seems like that might be cost/difficulty preventative for
moving a lot of merchandise compared with the benefits of a showroom. Sure,
bike stores might have to become more showroom-only, but I don't think they're
going away.

------
strictnein
> "Dan Sotelo was the founder of Onza"

Onza stuff was awesome. Was always insanely jealous of the bar ends and
clipless pedals one of my friends had.

------
jessaustin
This is generally correct, and certainly aligns with larger trends in
commercial real estate. On-premise retail of easily-shipped items, with no
value-added ties to online retail, is on its last legs. The strip mall of the
future has coffee shops but no clothing stores. Bike shops are fortunate that
they have this sort of transition to attempt. Lots of menswear shops have an
in-house tailor, but it's not as though they can refocus the business around
that.

Bike shops aren't the only party trying to hold back the sea, however. Some
specialty equipment distributors are so proud of the "network of bike shops"
(often with various goofy "badges" and "qualifications") they had to build 20
years ago that they won't ship outside that. As if it's to their advantage to
erect barriers to potential customers! Someone should send e.g. Surly a link
to TFA. The author has a better idea of how they ought to run their business
than they seem to have.

------
Rantenki
I am baffled why the manufacturers aren't all offering direct B2B for the bike
shops. There clearly isn't enough margin left for the average bike shop if
they aren't moving the volume of bikes due to direct sales, but at the same
time, all the supplies they need for servicing bikes are sold through some
intermediary that's skimming a cut for the service of aggregating all the
different manufacturers. [https://www.ogc.ca/](https://www.ogc.ca/) and
[https://norco.com/](https://norco.com/) haven't substantially reduced their
margins since I last worked in a bike shop 20 years ago.

And aggregation is not a service that would be required anymore if the shops
could just go direct to Shimano, SRAM, Fox, Maxxis and DT-swiss (etc). That
aggregation can be performed by the bike shop itself via a B2B solution.

------
drdeadringer
A local bike shop closed business a few months ago. They had had a location on
Downtown Main Street for years, but for some reason [I'm guessing rent] moved
several blocks away from their old location -- and several blocks closer to
where I live. I imagine that this negatively impacted their foot traffic, even
though it was directly in line with my own walk-to-the-bus commute.

I shopped at both of their locations several times, but not routinely or
regularly. When the "inventory sale!" signs started going up, I admit that a
part of me literally saw the writing on the wall but I didn't want to believe
it. I believed it when I walked by and saw the location empty and deserted, a
lonely 8x11 explaining what was up.

I'm curious as to what happened, but suspect that I was part of the problem --
not shopping there more often, for product or maintenance service, even though
I am just one person.

------
ilamont
I buy bikes from local specialty shops because they know how to put the bikes
together and service them properly. Other customers like to use them to try
accessories before purchase.

The family-owned shop I use in the Boston area
([https://farinas.com](https://farinas.com)) has a pretty solid, all-season
business model: Bikes on the second floor, lawn mowers and snow blowers on the
first floor, and the repair shop on the first floor. I see they also sell
generators and chainsaws - items that may not be easy to ship or service
online.

------
hodgesrm
Great article! I had a similar notion a while back for ski shops. Here are a
couple of additional ideas from that thought experiment.

1.) Deeper web presence. For example, why not sell coupons for services on the
stuff people buy on the web?

2.) Subscriptions. Basically an add-on support fee for your bike. This makes
sense for anyone who commutes, especially if you can make it trivially easy to
collect. That leads to...

3.) Additional services. Combine bike parking in cities with on-going
maintenance . This already exists in some cities.

------
mc32
Even the service model is not that encouraging. I knew someone whose dad owned
a bike service shop in Japan; it wasn't a vibrant model. I got the impression
they scraped by, but by and large it was a labor of love--nothing wrong with
that, but it does not have ample opportunity, except maybe for a franchiser.

------
hosh
Similar to that recent article posted here about how "experience retailers"
are inverting the relationship of the vendor. (Where an experience retailer is
actually a marketing arm of the manufacturer).

But yes: I would love to able to drop by and get my bike fixed by someone
competent.

------
dredmorbius
This brings to mind Moen's Law of Bicycles:

"Good customers make for good products"

[http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#moenslaw-
bicycles](http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#moenslaw-bicycles)

------
intrasight
I've recently become aware of Canyon Bikes as well as other direct-to-consumer
manufacturers. In one video I watched, the buyer had a mobile bike shop come
and setup their new bike. I think the mobile bike shop approach plays well
with the direct-to-consumer model.

~~~
icebraining
A whole mobile bike shop sounds expensive. More likely these companies will
make deals with "freelance labor firms" to get someone there to assemble it.

IKEA has already signaled as much by buying TaskRabbit, but my guess is that
there's a good opportunity for an independent middleman to sell services for
companies that need a broad geographical coverage but don't have enough sales
to keep dedicated teams everywhere.

~~~
Zigurd
Ikea sells a city bike with belt drive and a mount system for racks and a
trailer for $400. It is a better-documented assembly process that the you-get-
what-a-bike-shop-gets experience of ordering the cheapest online bike, but
still a bit challenging on the Ikea scale of difficulty. It has a 25 year
warranty on the frame and a 10 year warranty on the belt drive.

------
Zigurd
Tire Rack has done this to the tire retail business. You can get the tires you
want from Tire Rack, and get referred to a shop that will mount and balance
them. That's what should happen to bike sales.

------
joe_the_user
Title should say independent bike _dealer_

