Kelly Cycles for sale.

[pbarry]

Never heard that about his bikes. I was "on the street" in Somerville during those years, building at FC and Merlin, with lots of Bay Area bike builder and shop owner contacts then. Never heard a bad word spoken about CK.

[GonaSovereign]

Originally Posted by v531xc

Really interesting to see that metric about SEO shared. Most interesting thing to me is that its actually known! Many small business owners don't even get that far with their own brand.

I agree, but but in this case it's completely disingenuous. The word "bike" might generate a half-billion searches, and "kelly" is fairly common. Ten seconds on Google Search Trends shows "Kelly Bikes" got a couple hundred searches.

[v531xc]

Originally Posted by GonaSovereign

I agree, but but in this case it's completely disingenuous. The word "bike" might generate a half-billion searches, and "kelly" is fairly common. Ten seconds on Google Search Trends shows "Kelly Bikes" got a couple hundred searches.

Completely agree. Its not indicative of the value of the business, but an interesting anecdote about a small operation. I've consulted for a bunch of well-funded start ups that couldn't tell you the first thing about how their brand stacks against competition in search and, related, in brand awareness. To even see the metric, regardless of how applicable it might be, as part of this small brand's knowledge is what caught me as interesting; the behavior rather than the value

[metalheart]

I've seen a number of his frames on local roads and trails, talked to a couple of people with the bikes since I was not familiar with the maker. Those folks were pretty happy with their bikes and they looked very well made, well painted.

[cadence90]

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[Cicli]

I have a Knobby X and love it. Great bike.

[GonaSovereign]

Originally Posted by v531xc

Completely agree. Its not indicative of the value of the business, but an interesting anecdote about a small operation. I've consulted for a bunch of well-funded start ups that couldn't tell you the first thing about how their brand stacks against competition in search and, related, in brand awareness. To even see the metric, regardless of how applicable it might be, as part of this small brand's knowledge is what caught me as interesting; the behavior rather than the value

I do digital marketing for a s/w company serving small businesses, so I agree with you 100%.

[John H.]

SF Bay area bikes shops in the 90's- He was building in Oakland at the time.

Originally Posted by cadence90

What does that even mean?
What street? The "mean streets" of where, exactly?
Were the frames crooked or not? Seems like it would easy enough to yes or no that kind of thing.
They were around a long time, iirc, lots of production, so some errors, I'm sure, but a "bad" builder? Not what I heard, on my streets at least....

And the striped jerseys were awesome.
.

[nalax]

I had two of his mountain bike forks. Well made and not "crooked".
Still have a striped Kelly jersey

[John H.]

I didn't say that the bikes were poorly constructed, just that there were known issues with alignment.
In fact the welds were decent, finish too.
I used to work for a shop who's owner was also an investor in Kelly bikes.
Kelly wanted to do production- focusing on steel hardtails with Kelly green parts on them.
So the owner worked it out where our stores all had several Kelly bikes in stock. They were quite hard to sell.
Consumer desire was moving away from steel hardtails at that time-
Santa Cruz was on the scene and it became impossible to sell a similarly priced steel hardtail against a Santa Cruz Heckler or Superlight.

Originally Posted by cadence90

Yes, that was my impression as well. They were pretty well regarded here in CA.

I am not at all, never have been, directly involved in "the biz", but still, just hanging around the edges I never heard anything really negative.

To me, the frames always looked good, simple but good paint, elegant, cared for. Not "spectacular" like some of the top dogs, but well done. Kind of as if Walter Croll or someone very pragmatic like that had also had a production side as well, along with the development of a few interesting component ideas.
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[SoCal Al]

Never heard of him but then I'm pretty disconnected from the guys who started years ago. I do know from general observation that it's a tough biz and the model is changing, seems like he's tired and wants to move on?

My take is, if he's in the Bay Area, someone's gotten a hold of him and sold him on his web presence which, as has been pointed out, is in no way tied to sales or revenue. Besides, if he leaves to pursue other options then it's nothing more than a badge and it seems the Slovaks have already got that covered.

It's a shame because his work looks great, maybe there's a glut of hand-built frame builders now? Like craft beer?

[pjbaz]

I have a Bonestock and it is one of the most incredible riding frames I've ever thrown a leg over. STOOPID smooth, fast and an absolute joy to ride. I have it with one of his older 1" threadless straight forks and it's still great ... would love to get a 1-1/8 to match.

I had never heard of him until this particular machine popped up on CL a few years ago. I knew I would buy it after riding 300 feet!

I also had a question about geo so I called him, left a vmail and he called back about an hour later. We spoke for at least 45 minutes about his philosophy, what I was into, the Bonestock vs Knobby X, custom frames, etc. He was super chill and he was open and honest about his past issues, etc. If we had frosty malt beverages and were sitting outside in the sun I don't think it would have been any better of a conversation ... like hanging out with an old friend.

I wish him luck!

[cadence90]

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[buddybikes]

Well to put things in perspective, my wife has a Chinook (Bruce Gordon) that was repainted by Toby (Hottubes) and he said rear end was almost 1/4" out of align.

[Peter B]

Kelly's been in Nevada County for about as long as I have (couple of decades). I've never ridden one of his bikes but have admired them at the local LBS (Tour of Nevada City). Every time I've seen Chris he's been on a moto at either the Nevada City Classic or the Amgen Tour.

Sometimes its just time for a change (that has nothing to do with goats, chickens or chicken manure).