fuzzalow
02-18-2014, 07:48 AM
There has been a new bike store addition to the town of Carle Place, Long Island. Carle Place is one of those towns that prospers in being a town on the periphery of the Roosevelt Field shopping mall, a mall that Wiki lists as the 9th largest in the nation. Nassau County NY suburban 30-miles-from-Empire-State-Building land values, whoa that ain't small beans.
The bike store is the Cannondale Sports Store, one of currently two corporate storefronts opened by Cannondale. The other is in Cambridge, MA. The store carries Cannondale and all its subsidiary brands, such as Schwinn. Sales, service, bike fitting - a self contained depot to bicycling consumerism amidst similar havens found to the vicinity in office supplies, golf equipment and bridal emporiums. Door handles that look as made from head tubes, replete with the head badge, open doors to an ambiance that felt considered and thought out. Almost as if making entrance to an Epcot pavilion.
The ambiance does not brow beat the racing marketing angle into a customer entering their store. However, it is plainly evident with the small dais placed at the store entrance showcasing a trinity of Cannondale's high zoot racing machines that applied materials science is not to be forsaken either. I am not familiar with any of the bikes other than one was a Team Replica paint theme as from Peter Sagan, right down to the Sagan name decal on the TT. Very un-Sagan with way too many headset spacers, which was the case with all the road bikes on display. I am familiar with Sagan less so as a fan but because I ride very close to his fit numbers and bike geometry requirements - long 'n' low. I asked if the store either did custom frame orders or could sell me a Cannondale from the same mold as was made Sagan's bike. A quizzical wry smile was my reply.
Adjacent to the dais stood a prominent peg board display with "644 grams!!" turgidly proclaimed while proffering a bare carbon frame. All to ensnare a touchy-feely in hoisting a frame so light it even made a weight-weenie denialist like me grin.
Near as I could tell, there was not a price tag to be seen hanging from any bike or component in the store. Our Cannondale store escort expressed relief at not being pressed for prices on any of these toys when I volunteered inured indifference at the price tag of Probike-caliber bikes and cycling gear. In keeping the continuity and theme of corporate uniformity, all the component and accessories offerings were no doubt straight lined out of the Cannondale SKU database. Campagnolo not spoken there.
The bike fitting studio was very nifty, the size fitting cycle an asset acquired from Cannondale's Guru acquisition - computerized, reconfigurable on-the-fly with power servo worm gear adjustment. Power wattage meter with 360 degree pedal stroke mapping and analytics. What a neat toy. It serves a very real function that I saw not as primarily helping a rider get dialed into a fit & position. Instead, rather as a sales tool that would minimize the time needed to get a serviceable setup as far as spacers, stem, saddle and seatpost fora client. And that's not a bad thing because most novice riders do not know how to sit on a bike so with a sizing cycle they get to try the setup before they buy. Even if there exists a chasm between trying a setup and dialing in a setup, any pedal stroke forwards is a good one to make. It is good strategy to soften the blow that maybe riding a bike is not so simple as riding a bike.
This Cannondale Sports Store was my first perusal of a bike shop conceived and presented in the genre of corporate image making and specialty retailing. And I found it to be a welcoming, well staged and professional atmosphere as a gateway or portal entry to both the activity and the sport of cycling. UCI-limit carbon Probikes peacefully coexisting on the sales floor alongside a beach cruiser tandem. Concord symbolism for a nonjudgemental and non-elitist bicycle utopia.
My view is unabashedly jaded when it comes to bike shops. The Cannondale Sports Store is a well conceived invitation to the bicycling world. It cleverly uses the seductive comforts of consumerism suffused in a setting of retail professional service and courtesy. All good qualities, no doubt, but always with the feel and vibe that the company handbook is not very far away. And in the bike shop business with its cast of indie shop owners, some by which are clearly idiosyncratic and quirky, have shops that reflect the same qualities as their owners. Which makes the contrast between any LBS and the Cannondale Sports Store all the more severe. Not better or worse, just different.
Bike shops are always about more than buying gear - there is the pricing power of the internet for simply that. Perhaps the most important to me is the the passion and soul that comes in dealing with the indie bike shop owner. They made something work with something they must clearly love doing. Real skin in the game. People that made a bike shop starting from nothing and, in turn, made something for themselves and for the cyclists they serve. These places are not stores, they are people: Conrad's in NYC will always be Conrad, Sarah & John. Wheelfine in Lambertville NJ will always be Mike. That's just the way it is.
The bike store is the Cannondale Sports Store, one of currently two corporate storefronts opened by Cannondale. The other is in Cambridge, MA. The store carries Cannondale and all its subsidiary brands, such as Schwinn. Sales, service, bike fitting - a self contained depot to bicycling consumerism amidst similar havens found to the vicinity in office supplies, golf equipment and bridal emporiums. Door handles that look as made from head tubes, replete with the head badge, open doors to an ambiance that felt considered and thought out. Almost as if making entrance to an Epcot pavilion.
The ambiance does not brow beat the racing marketing angle into a customer entering their store. However, it is plainly evident with the small dais placed at the store entrance showcasing a trinity of Cannondale's high zoot racing machines that applied materials science is not to be forsaken either. I am not familiar with any of the bikes other than one was a Team Replica paint theme as from Peter Sagan, right down to the Sagan name decal on the TT. Very un-Sagan with way too many headset spacers, which was the case with all the road bikes on display. I am familiar with Sagan less so as a fan but because I ride very close to his fit numbers and bike geometry requirements - long 'n' low. I asked if the store either did custom frame orders or could sell me a Cannondale from the same mold as was made Sagan's bike. A quizzical wry smile was my reply.
Adjacent to the dais stood a prominent peg board display with "644 grams!!" turgidly proclaimed while proffering a bare carbon frame. All to ensnare a touchy-feely in hoisting a frame so light it even made a weight-weenie denialist like me grin.
Near as I could tell, there was not a price tag to be seen hanging from any bike or component in the store. Our Cannondale store escort expressed relief at not being pressed for prices on any of these toys when I volunteered inured indifference at the price tag of Probike-caliber bikes and cycling gear. In keeping the continuity and theme of corporate uniformity, all the component and accessories offerings were no doubt straight lined out of the Cannondale SKU database. Campagnolo not spoken there.
The bike fitting studio was very nifty, the size fitting cycle an asset acquired from Cannondale's Guru acquisition - computerized, reconfigurable on-the-fly with power servo worm gear adjustment. Power wattage meter with 360 degree pedal stroke mapping and analytics. What a neat toy. It serves a very real function that I saw not as primarily helping a rider get dialed into a fit & position. Instead, rather as a sales tool that would minimize the time needed to get a serviceable setup as far as spacers, stem, saddle and seatpost fora client. And that's not a bad thing because most novice riders do not know how to sit on a bike so with a sizing cycle they get to try the setup before they buy. Even if there exists a chasm between trying a setup and dialing in a setup, any pedal stroke forwards is a good one to make. It is good strategy to soften the blow that maybe riding a bike is not so simple as riding a bike.
This Cannondale Sports Store was my first perusal of a bike shop conceived and presented in the genre of corporate image making and specialty retailing. And I found it to be a welcoming, well staged and professional atmosphere as a gateway or portal entry to both the activity and the sport of cycling. UCI-limit carbon Probikes peacefully coexisting on the sales floor alongside a beach cruiser tandem. Concord symbolism for a nonjudgemental and non-elitist bicycle utopia.
My view is unabashedly jaded when it comes to bike shops. The Cannondale Sports Store is a well conceived invitation to the bicycling world. It cleverly uses the seductive comforts of consumerism suffused in a setting of retail professional service and courtesy. All good qualities, no doubt, but always with the feel and vibe that the company handbook is not very far away. And in the bike shop business with its cast of indie shop owners, some by which are clearly idiosyncratic and quirky, have shops that reflect the same qualities as their owners. Which makes the contrast between any LBS and the Cannondale Sports Store all the more severe. Not better or worse, just different.
Bike shops are always about more than buying gear - there is the pricing power of the internet for simply that. Perhaps the most important to me is the the passion and soul that comes in dealing with the indie bike shop owner. They made something work with something they must clearly love doing. Real skin in the game. People that made a bike shop starting from nothing and, in turn, made something for themselves and for the cyclists they serve. These places are not stores, they are people: Conrad's in NYC will always be Conrad, Sarah & John. Wheelfine in Lambertville NJ will always be Mike. That's just the way it is.