Weight Weenies

Karvalo wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:15 pm

Not near Richmond park he isn't Especially right now after cycling went stratospheric during lockdown and some of the high end shops have workshop lead times stretching into months.

TBH, it is unusual times. Restricted workshop capacity due to COVID and increasing demand on bike servicing (errrr, due to COVID). And people not even wanting to go into shops/city centres (Because of COVID, again.)

I've even had friends of friends contacting me asking if i can have a look at something making a funny noise, because the local shops are either quoting 4-6 weeks lead or are useless.

There is certainly value in bringing your bike to a one man operation if you know that the guy knows what he's doing and won't take shortcuts. There are plenty of shops where mechanics are not that good and/or they make mistakes while trying to finish jobs too quickly. Or sometimes there will be one good mechanic in the shop, but you end up having to explain what's wrong to some other guy who is completely clueless.

So I think there is room in the market for what you are trying to do, but that doesn't mean it's easy to make it profitable. The most important part is convincing enough high end customers that you will treat their bikes better than any shop.

Also, there are some very specific tasks that only a minority of customers need and lots of shops are completely clueless about, like gluing tubulars, working on Campagnolo components, doing custom wheel builds... If you do stuff like that and do it well, you can get some loyal customers. Surely that's irrelevant for larger businesses, but it can be what sets you appart.

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Karvalo wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:15 pm

Sammutd88 wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 27, 2020 10:12 am

Don't mean to be offensive, just an opinion, but I wouldn't be taking my $10,000 S-Works or BMC (if I had one) to a new start-up. I'd be taking it to the dealer or a boutique shop with known experience in the high end. It's kinda like someone with a AMG Mercedes or a Porsche taking it for a service to a bloke down the road in his home garage instead of an accredited service centre. I believe you're starting at the wrong end of the market tbh.

Not near Richmond park he isn't Especially right now after cycling went stratospheric during lockdown and some of the high end shops have workshop lead times stretching into months.

Regardless of location, point is high-end bikes usually go back to the dealer for service. Insured and familiar with the quirks of the brand. As said - issue will be convincing owners that you know the quirks of the bike and can fix any issue. Ability to program and setup all brand of electronic groupsets and service all BB's, dealing with integrated cabling, etc.

You've got to start somewhere right? And what time is better than when there's a huge demand for cycling and service? Shops in my area are sold out and full with service for the next couple of weeks. I've heard so many complaints about local bike shops to which I'm sure these (simple) mistakes wouldn't have happened if I looked at it.

On the other hand you shouldn't underestimate making the switch from it being your hobby to a time-constraint business with many (demanding) customers. They want the best for the least amount of money and will always give you shit on it being cheaper online or you overcharging for a simple task they can't even do themselves.

Again, all the (successful) shops I know haven't started from working their way up. They exists and grew because the owner was prepared to take a risk and thought he could do better than the existing competitors in the local market. If you try to compete doing exactly the same as your local bike shop, you'll fail because you lack the experience. If you can offer something more (like a webshop, better service, focus on a certain product group or latest trends, professional bikefits etc.) you might have a good chance if your local market is big enough.

We all want to work on €10k top end bikes and skip the city bikes, but if I look around at my local club, there's a few €5k+ bikes and they all come from 2 shops in a 10-15km radius that will be very tough to compete with (one is very big, the other has a top local amateur racing team and very long history).

Sammutd88 wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 28, 2020 12:47 am

Karvalo wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:15 pm

Sammutd88 wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 27, 2020 10:12 am

Don't mean to be offensive, just an opinion, but I wouldn't be taking my $10,000 S-Works or BMC (if I had one) to a new start-up. I'd be taking it to the dealer or a boutique shop with known experience in the high end. It's kinda like someone with a AMG Mercedes or a Porsche taking it for a service to a bloke down the road in his home garage instead of an accredited service centre. I believe you're starting at the wrong end of the market tbh.

Not near Richmond park he isn't Especially right now after cycling went stratospheric during lockdown and some of the high end shops have workshop lead times stretching into months.

Regardless of location, point is high-end bikes usually go back to the dealer for service.

In that location any semi competent wrench with local connections and a bit of social media know-how will be inundated with as much high end work as they can handle right now if they just dive in.

Go for it man. If i knew anyone from my club who can do bike service, I’d definitively send my bike his way. I’m also OK if he refuse to take my bike if he’s unfamiliar on what’s to be done. That being said, i ride a 10year old bike (Parlee Z4) with everything external. My list of wants are normally just a regular tuning, bearing checks, replace handlebar tape, replace cables - which i think any decent mechanic should be able to do.

I’m saying this because my experience with LBS is very poor. Not all LBSes but most of them. So there’s definitely a room for your suggested operation.


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I'm not a mechanic, but I can give you general business advice if you need it.
In the pandemic, I opened my second business, a ride sharing business, and my first business, an accounting agency, is still bringing me profit after 5 years of activity.
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very interesting topic. my 2 cents worth observation is despite possible lacking in knowledge or experience, if the market is huge and demand even bigger, your business has a real shot at succeeding. WW crowd is nowhere near representative of roadies, even high end roadies. out there in the real world hardly anyone has the patience and capacity to learn about their bikes, and what he/she hears in her lbs or from riding buddies sets the bar.

'my' lbs, now dealing in mostly fancy-shmancy stuff, i find totally lacking in even the most basic stuff like for instatnce bike fit. they would be so better off learning a thing or fifty from WW, but thing is - they don't need to. they set the standard and as long as it works (why wouldn't it) no one complains. so what they notoriously sell too small bikes, offer questionable advice on wheels, and most times there's something not right with a bike their answer is to replace not repair.

I bet most of your club buddies know jack $hit comparing to your 20 years of experience (even if you don't know every standard etc) and if they can trust you and your judgment, it's you who will set the standard for them.

Yeah, it is amazing how few people that ride bikes know anything about the mechanics or the maintenance of it... I'd guess maybe 1 in 20 can do basis maintenance on their bike...
The rest is happy enough to give 100's of dollars/euro's to their LBS to do it for them.

^
Or you end up with people want you to fix their bikes. I might say, nah i don't like to damage your stuff. Better go to a mechanic because if something happens, you have a warranty. As long as people are happy, it's ok, but if something already is damaged and you start to work on it, it might get worse.
Then i rather not be hanged as guilty!

Has anyone mentioned the Velofix thing? apparently they do a franchise model.

If I could retire right now I'd do exactly this.