Specialized selling bikes direct to consumer - new news?

Patrick said:
In the next move, they will start buying the Salsa and Santa Cruz sized mfgrs.
It makes sense. The owners and VC of those brands will be looking to cash-out, and the only way to get the value
out of the company is to IPO or sell it. They aren't large enough, or stable enough for an IPO.
While the owners might be more altruistic, the VC like to take advantage of the one-time deal when
the price is right.

This happened in the craft beer and specialty drink market. ie Vitamin Water purchased by Coke.
Keep the name, add their efficiency at the corp level, use their supplier purchasing power and distribution system.

There will always be room for the innovative independent. Sears was around forever, yet each town still had
an appliance store.
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Just FYI, Salsa is owned by a big company that gobbled it up. QBP owns Surly, Salsa, All City, Civia, among others. Action Bicycle (who didn't actually make any bikes, but still), was absorbed by another distributor. I think this happens quite a bit more frequently than people realize inside the industry. How many people who own[ed] an Electra cruiser from 20 years ago are aware they got bought by Trek? Likewise, Klein, Fisher, etc, etc.

In many respects, if you want a pay day, you can be indispensable (are any bike companies, actually?), or you can be good enough for someone to buy you out.
 
So Specilized has bikes, they just won't give them up to dealers.

Sold $11650 worth of bikes yesterday to a couple of long time customers. Thanks to Specialized's new program I made a whopping 16.7% margin.
In two weeks when the plan is fully implemented that will go down to 11%.
A year ago it would have been 35%.
Can't find the bend over emoji.
 
Bike N Gear said:
So Specilized has bikes, they just won't give them up to dealers.

Sold $11650 worth of bikes yesterday to a couple of long time customers. Thanks to Specialized's new program I made a whopping 16.7% margin.
In two weeks when the plan is fully implemented that will go down to 11%.
A year ago it would have been 35%.
Can't find the bend over emoji.
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Curious, were these bikes off your floor or held right now in Specialized's stock?
 
Santapez said:
Curious, were these bikes off your floor or held right now in Specialized's stock?
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One of these bikes I have on order for close to a year. Mine will ship in June if it comes as currently scheduled. He's a good customer, but not willing to wait till June for a bike that Specialized has on their consumer site ready to ship.

The second one is not a bike I had on order, but similarly If I order now it shows a June ship date. Again, customer can be riding it next week if they buy direct from Specialized.

Both customers were nice enough to have it shipped to my store, so at least I get something. If these were entry level bikes I wouldn't care. But, typically when you sell almost $12k in bikes you can actually pay a bill or two.
 
Bike N Gear said:
One of these bikes I have on order for close to a year. Mine will ship in June if it comes as currently scheduled. He's a good customer, but not willing to wait till June for a bike that Specialized has on their consumer site ready to ship.

The second one is not a bike I had on order, but similarly If I order now it shows a June ship date. Again, customer can be riding it next week if they buy direct from Specialized.

Both customers were nice enough to have it shipped to my store, so at least I get something. If these were entry level bikes I wouldn't care. But, typically when you sell almost $12k in bikes you can actually pay a bill or two.
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Do you think they're eventually going to phase out seling to non-specialized shops?
 
jimvreeland said:
At least there's the option to jump into the inner circle. Not that I'm doing that shit...
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jimvreeland said:
At least there's the option to jump into the inner circle. Not that I'm doing that shit...
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Are you talking about the inner circle of hell, or is there a new Saturday morning ride out of the Madison store starting soon?
 
stb222 said:

Shimano XT CS-M8100-12 Cassette 12-Speed 10x51T

Shimano XT CS-M8100-12 Cassette 12-Speed 10x51T for sale at The Colorado Cyclist. Premier bikes, bicycle wheels, components, cycling clothing, gear & accessories. Orders $100+ ship free!
www.coloradocyclist.com www.coloradocyclist.com
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Isn’t Colorado Cyclist the same company as competitive? They look awfully close.

Overall it is a business like any other. Yes I can go to the very clean Trek store in Summit or another for Specialized.

My friend buys nothing but Specialized at Montclair Bikes because of the warranty. Last I checked online bike shops can’t fix your bike or make it ready for seasonal repairs that in some form costs a pretty penny outside of the warranty.

Find your niche and provide exceptional service and local shops will always survive… I moved north and recently visited Halters when riding six mile. ALL of his staff were phenomenal and Jason wasn’t even there.

Kudos to what you can do and not what your can’t control from a larger manufacturing.
 
Gene said:
Isn’t Colorado Cyclist the same company as competitive? They look awfully close.

Overall it is a business like any other. Yes I can go to the very clean Trek store in Summit or another for Specialized.

My friend buys nothing but Specialized at Montclair Bikes because of the warranty. Last I checked online bike shops can’t fix your bike or make it ready for seasonal repairs that in some form costs a pretty penny outside of the warranty.

Find your niche and provide exceptional service and local shops will always survive… I moved north and recently visited Halters when riding six mile. ALL of his staff were phenomenal and Jason wasn’t even there.

Kudos to what you can do and not what your can’t control from a larger manufacturing.
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Colorado Cyclist did just get bought, merged or something. I had an order that took forever to show up because of the database changeover.
 
Gene said:
Isn’t Colorado Cyclist the same company as competitive? They look awfully close.

Overall it is a business like any other. Yes I can go to the very clean Trek store in Summit or another for Specialized.

My friend buys nothing but Specialized at Montclair Bikes because of the warranty. Last I checked online bike shops can’t fix your bike or make it ready for seasonal repairs that in some form costs a pretty penny outside of the warranty.

Find your niche and provide exceptional service and local shops will always survive… I moved north and recently visited Halters when riding six mile. ALL of his staff were phenomenal and Jason wasn’t even there.

Kudos to what you can do and not what your can’t control from a larger manufacturing.
Click to expand...

Online Shops can't fix your bike and the LBS can't make enough money to pay livable wages. The answer is somewhere in the middle, like a Service Specific Store that has minimal overhead. Attract phenomenal employees instead of taking on 50 brands of bikes only to blow everything out anyway.
 
jimvreeland said:
Online Shops can't fix your bike and the LBS can't make enough money to pay livable wages. The answer is somewhere in the middle, like a Service Specific Store that has minimal overhead. Attract phenomenal employees instead of taking on 50 brands of bikes only to blow everything out anyway.
Click to expand...

There was a concept locally around me a while ago that serviced from a van. It wasn’t what Hilltop did because it was 1-2 guys small concept that did it on the side and hustled .
 
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