The Bicycle Industry - three questions

[dd74]

How'd you get in it? Are you still in it? Any regrets about going into it?

I'm just doing some fact finding.

Bonus questions: do you run a shop, work in one, or do sales?

Thanks.

[bart998]

I started when I was 15. I would hang-out in the bike shop after school and became friends with the owner who hired/taught me to do repairs. Then I got interested in racing, which I started when I was 16. The owner opened a second store and put me in to run it when I was 21. At 24 I moved to another town and went to work for a large bicycle store and became service manager after a month. I quit at 25 to pursue a more profitable line of work because I had realized that working in a bike shop doesn't pay very well and isn't likely to ever pay well... I used to go back and help out the owner for special occassions and when his store would provide support for charity rides. It's still the best job (most fun) I ever had. Maybe I'll do it again when I retire in a couple of years and can afford to.

[arn671]

I started working for a bike shop in high school and through college. Left the industry for a few years and now have an arrangement with a shop to work 1 day a week. Works out very well, awesome to see/think back at how much bikes have changed.

[xlbs]

I worked as a wrench for many happy summers, and then opened my own shop which provided me with lots of great opportunities to enjoy great bicycles, great people, great riding. Profits? Not so much. I finally sold my business because I couldn't support my growing family on my LBS income.

Nevertheless, they were some of the very best years of my life. I met and had the pleasure of employing fine young workers (Grant was one of my best hires, and has shown himself to be a true asset to the community), had the joy of watching many people learn to ride and enjoy 'cycling, and have concluded that if any one wishes to pursue a bicycling career they should go for it, even if the remuneration isn't much.

Now I'm a 55 year old chubby financial advisor, and still enjoy my bicycles, this forum, and many other good things all to do with bicycles.

Ian

[bargainguy]

There's an old saying in the bicycle retail biz: If you want to make a million, start with two million.

Margins are slim on new bikes. Most of your profit is in service & accessories.

It really helps to know your local market, get good relationships going with your distributors, and be astute in your anticipation of new trends and brand lines. From there, you're home free.

[carpediemracing]

I started when I was 15. I would hang-out in the bike shop after school and became friends with the owner who hired/taught me to do repairs. Then I got interested in racing, which I started when I was 16. The owner opened a second store and put me in to run it when I was 21.

<snip>

I quit at 30 to pursue a more profitable line of work because I had realized that working in a bike shop doesn't pay very well and isn't likely to ever pay well...

<snip>

It's still the best job (most fun) I ever had. Maybe I'll do it again when I retire in a couple of years and can afford to.

wow what a parallel. Reverse the 15 and 16 (I started working at 16 in the shop, at 15 I was working elsewhere). Manage a new second shop at 21. Bought it at 28. Closed it at 30. My pay - and I had to declare every penny because I was paying a mortgage, including the income from 2 or 3 roommates - was $4900 the last year of the store. The rent and mortgage interest basically wiped each other out. I earned half of that $4900 working for an IT firm in NYC in the last 6 weeks of the year.

I had my best racing years during that time (managing, not owning). I ran the team after a few years, I was handed the Bethel Spring Series after its first year (the two founders moved or quit the sport). I met a lot of people, tons of people. I had crazy incidents/adventures while working with the shop (mechanic, manager, owner).

But it's not a money making thing.

You spend 80% of your energy dealing with 20% of your customers.

You must be able to empathize more than I understood. You must be able to relate to people who take home $10k a week, $10k a day, and $10k a year (or less). To some people a $300 bike breaks their budget. To others buying twin $15k bikes is totally normal (one for him, one for his wife, although back then the top line bikes were closer to $10k for a Serotta - we did $6k custom Merlins with DA or Record).

I have kept in touch with some of my employees - one is still riding the wheels he built in 1995 and he still loves cycling. Another, the best man one, has been in the bike biz pretty much since I closed the store. Another one still races - he was one of the original helpers of the Bethel Spring Series. Etc etc.

Would I do it again? No. I've been asked to run/manage a shop (bankrolled by someone else), been asked to be a partner (no money invested on my part but I'd be part owner and I'd run the shop), been asked to be an investing partner. Been asked about the bike biz by folks wanting to enter it. I know it's possible but the odds are heavily stacked against a bike shop. When I had a shop there were 8000 shops, many of them poorly run. I think now there are under 4000 shops, a significant number of them extremely robust. They've been in business forever, they have a steady mature business and totally manageable costs.

I've volunteered at local shops very infrequently - built a few bikes, built a wheel, changed a slew of flats, whatever I could do in whatever time I had without screwing up their system.

For me a bike shop is too much general public, not enough of what I enjoy about cycling. I'm not sure what I'd like but it would be more focused. I like watching kids grow up into cyclists or helping a new rider discover that riding fast isn't as impossible as they thought.

[dd74]

It's funny because I see a lot of bike shops popping up here in L.A. They look less like pro/racing-type shops, though some of the fixies inside are big $$$.

The couple pro shops I've seen open in the last five years are still in business. One's very close to Warner Bros. Studios, so I'm sure some rich TV/Movie-related people are plunking down serious bucks for their bikes. The guy who owns the place has some very high-priced rigs.