Specialized selling bikes direct to consumer - new news?

jimvreeland said:
The Mobile setup is a huge waste of time. Nothing like driving a 100k van around for 12 hours a day to do $600 in Tune-ups 🤣🤣🤣
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This. So much this.

As with everything in life where you are doing something that can travel...it's almost always more worth it to bring the customer to you. There are people out there willing to pay $120/hour for music lessons for travel expenses...but there are definitely not enough to make it worth it financially.

I guess the only real exception to that is farm veterinarian or farrier...but they charge a whole hell of a lot more than mobile bike repair.
 
jimvreeland said:
The Mobile setup is a huge waste of time. Nothing like driving a 100k van around for 12 hours a day to do $600 in Tune-ups 🤣🤣🤣
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Disagree. It's getting bigger in Florida. The guy I know picks up my bike, puts it on the bike rack on his car, takes it home and works on it. Bike is back in 24 hrs. Why drop off a bike at a bike shop and wait weeks for them to get to it?
 
rick81721 said:
Disagree. It's getting bigger in Florida. The guy I know picks up my bike, puts it on the bike rack on his car, takes it home and works on it. Bike is back in 24 hrs. Why drop off a bike at a bike shop and wait weeks for them to get to it?
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I mean, it's great for the customer but that guy definitely ain't making a livable salary. He's doing those tune ups in his mom's basement or in a house he bought working a real job.
 
jimvreeland said:
I mean, it's great for the customer but that guy definitely ain't making a livable salary. He's doing those tune ups in his mom's basement or in a house he bought working a real job.
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True it's not his full-time job. But there are other guys with vans that come to houses and do work right there.
 
jimvreeland said:
I mean, it's great for the customer but that guy definitely ain't making a livable salary. He's doing those tune ups in his mom's basement or in a house he bought working a real job.
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PS I don't know what this guy's real job is. He also buys, fixes and resells bikes. I got a gravel bike from him last year. He's a young guy with kids, has two houses (rents out one), has a nice BMW M3 and travels several months every year. Maybe he cooks meth in the second house?
 
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JimN said:
I'm not saying I don't like the idea of someone coming to my house to get my bike to fix it and return it the next day, but anyone that has to wait weeks for their LBS to fix their bike is probably bad at tipping.
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So you have a bike shop that turns around your bike in a day? I've never seen one. Weeks was an exaggeration but 1 week is the usual.
 
I am surprised Florida has a market for this. Don’t retired people look forward to a trip to the bike shop? I mean if it’s a POS hybrid, okay, I just don’t want a causal bike guy touching my bike on anything beyond what I can do myself. It seems like bringing a high End car to a jiffy lube.
 
1TrackMind said:
I am surprised Florida has a market for this. Don’t retired people look forward to a trip to the bike shop? I mean if it’s a POS hybrid, okay, I just don’t want a causal bike guy touching my bike on anything beyond what I can do myself. It seems like bringing a high End car to a jiffy lube.
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My guy is not casual and does as good a job as any lbs I've been to.
 
rick81721 said:
So what? I'd enough guys can make it as a part time job, the result is the same. Especially when all bikes go to direct to consumer sales, why go to a bike store?
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It'll happen at some point, but we'll work for the Manufacturer. That's almost the model we're in now.
 
1TrackMind said:
I am surprised Florida has a market for this. Don’t retired people look forward to a trip to the bike shop? I mean if it’s a POS hybrid, okay, I just don’t want a causal bike guy touching my bike on anything beyond what I can do myself. It seems like bringing a high End car to a jiffy lube.
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There are plenty of very incompetent mechanics in brick and mortar stores too. Once got a Sram chain back from a shop with the quick link upside down. Don't paint a broad brush.
 
rick81721 said:
So you have a bike shop that turns around your bike in a day? I've never seen one. Weeks was an exaggeration but 1 week is the usual.
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My guys at Pop’s in Somerville rarely keep one of my bikes a hole week. They might quote a week at drop off but wind up calling me a couple or more days later.
 
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