ryancycles aka Dick Ryan wrote:
>> In the early days of re***bency there were several small manufacturers
who
>> built relatively cheap re***bents. They too never sold well which
convinced
>> me there was no market for such bikes. Your Ryan re***bents were for a
niche
>> market from the beginning and never had a chance in hell of ever
gaining a
>> large market. There is nothing wrong with that but, please, do not
blame any
>> of your woes on the lowly bike shop owners and employees.
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> Comments about re***bents that I've heard in bike shops.
> You'll never see one on the floor of this shop!
> They don't go up hills.
> They are too heavy.
> They are too low to the ground.
> They're slow.
> Sorry, can't help you, don't know anything about them.
> Real men ride REAL bicycles!
> They suck.
> A friend of mine works at Wheel and Sprocket, probably the most
> successful shop in the country. They sell about 5000 bikes a year and
> about 7-800 re***bents. Trek is located not far from them, they have
> an annual dealer meeting. According to my friend every year a dozen or
> so dealers from around the country will stop by to shoot the breeze.
> Most are astounded by the fact W&S has 50 or 60 re***bents on the
> floor and often ask WHY. The very fact that they ask "why" should be a
> good indication of the lack of intelligence on their part. For a few
> years we had about a dozen dealers around the country. We had a couple
> of high end very successful shops selling the bikes. Unfortunately
> they all shared the same problem, they had one employee who was the
> "re***bent guy" the rest of the employees refused to even discuss the
> bikes with potential customers. I know this is true because I visited
> a couple of these shops and didn't identify myself and when I asked
> about re***bents was told I'd have to wait until the "re***bent guy"
> was available. When I discussed this problem with the shop owners they
> all gave me the same answer. Well, I'm sorry, but I can't afford to
> offend the employees because they are so hard to find. I had quite a
> few calls from potential customers who had driven many miles to look
> at our bike and had made the mistake of not checking on the
> availability of the "re***bent" guy. Of course this reaction from the
> shop people didn't go over very well with the potential customer and
> they would call us and complain.[...]
I have had almost exactly the experience Dick describes at several LBS's.
The only shops that have really been successful in selling re***bents
are all specialist dealers [1], where the owner or a key employee takes
an active role in dealing with the customers, and the employees are not
your usual suspects of wannabe racers.
[1] Note that W&S concentrates their re***bents in their Hales Corners
store.
--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful
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