“C’mon, walk it off, y’sissy. …”
… just to watch him die?
Hint: It wasn’t Johnny Cash. Not this time.
Tags: Interbike
Who shot a man in Reno …
Mad Blog Media
Arf for arf's sake
“C’mon, walk it off, y’sissy. …”
… just to watch him die?
Hint: It wasn’t Johnny Cash. Not this time.
Tags: Interbike
Mad Blog Media 
December 6, 2018 at 7:06 pm |
Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand is alive and well…..and strikes again, eh?
December 6, 2018 at 7:13 pm |
More like an invisible fist. Ouch.
I came up with this a while back during discussions with one of the usual suspects.
December 6, 2018 at 7:12 pm |
Is that the first domino to fall?
December 6, 2018 at 8:29 pm |
I dunno, Pat. There’s bound to be some collateral damage. I bet CABDA, Sea Otter and NAHBS pick up some business, though.
December 6, 2018 at 8:06 pm |
When was the last time anyone wrote an order at Interbike?
December 6, 2018 at 8:32 pm |
Good question. Post-show I’d always hear the same old story: “Sure, this year the numbers were down, but there were fewer shop rats and more serious people.”
I think the idea of Interbike remained strong. A “gathering of the tribes.” But the actuality? Not so much.
December 7, 2018 at 3:24 am |
One of my industry amici predicted this when the Reno move was announced in ‘Vegas a few years back. If a retail shop sells stuff from the Big S, T or G their shops are crammed full of bikes and accessories from these brands and some of those bigs even bully the shops into NOT having much else to compete with their products.
So what is Interbike for? The bigs skip it and put on their own shows to lock up all the retailer’s money (and credit) before the little guys at Interbike have a chance. And then the retail shops wonder why their customers shop online?
And it ain’t just in the US of A, I had a heck of time finding anything other than big brand stuff even in Rome a few years back! Yep, in Italy where so much of the cool cycling stuff is made (or at least designed and marketed) shops were crammed full of bikes and accessories with the big brand names on them. I’d say, “Mamma mia, we’re in f–king Italy, don’t you have anything ITALIAN in here?” and they’d just shake their heads.
December 7, 2018 at 5:40 am |
Wow, Larry, I didn’t expect to hear that. Interesting. The big three might be in trouble when Jeff introduces the Bezos Big Bear full suspension cross country mountain bike. How about the Tesla Transcontinental touring bike? The Elon Etna time trial bike? The Jeffrey Ventoux road racer.
December 7, 2018 at 7:05 am |
All of it? Or something specific? I doubt guys like Bezos or Musk give a rats-a__ about cycling unless maybe it’s a mass-transit kind of thing that could mine the pockets of just about anyone.
December 7, 2018 at 9:25 am |
My tongue was stuck in my cheek. You’re right, those two don’t care about bikes. Not enough mark up.
December 7, 2018 at 9:58 am |
Very popular Lee’s Cyclery closed up this summer. Quietly. They had at least three stores in town, which was probably one too many. A store on or near campus made sense, then another for folks who like to shop apart from smelly college kids … that was probably the natural order.
The weird thing is, they didn’t actually close. They rebranded at Trek Factory Stores. Which seems like a strange move. Why would Trek want to pick up day to day ops? Let someone else deal with manning the cash register and cleaning the windows, not to mention dealing with inventory.
You wanna compete with Bezos, seems like the way to go is one store per metro for assembly and pick up while you move towards e-commerce for sales
Anyone else see anything like this?
December 7, 2018 at 7:09 am |
December 7, 2018 at 7:25 am |
I’d say it looks to be a great time to bring back a Catus Cup type event to the Desert SW. Baring that turn the 24 in Old Pueblo into a week long series of events.
December 7, 2018 at 9:55 am |
I always enjoyed the Cactus Cup. It was always a great excuse to visit the desert during snowtime in Bibleburg. And it still seems to be around.
The Cactus Cup gave rise to one of Charles Pelkey’s greatest jokes. The VeloNews crowd was all over the race one year, and Charles came walking up as John Wilcockson and I were chatting about something. It was midday, hot as hell, and he sez to us he sez:
“Mad Dog … Englishman … noonday sun.”
December 7, 2018 at 7:34 am |
I’ve seen this coming long before the Reno move. I have zero doubt that Trek and Specialized killed off Interbike. Yet…both brands work very hard to get their ducks in a row many, many months ahead of others in order to assure delivery. The lead times from overseas factories began stretching out well before Adolph trump starting dicking around with global commerce. Smaller, regional shows like CABDA make a LOT of sense for staff to attend and play a part in the industry leaving the buyers out of the equation. All too often they don’t know squat anyway. That’s not to infer that Mud Stud should have the ear of every product manager in the cycling world but still…the people who do the heavy lifting selling and servicing bikes need a way to directly connect with industry Cloud Heads who often steer the ship onto the rocks.
December 7, 2018 at 9:45 am |
Herb, Marc Sani has some thoughts along those lines too.
It seems astounding to me that there are still so many actual bike shops out there. How many mom-and-pop shops do we see selling cameras, audio gear, or computers these days? Apple Stores don’t count; they’re part of the plantation.
An old pal who chimes in here from time to time operates a brace of running shops in Bibleburg. Keeping the doors open there must be a challenge, too, with all the online competition, but nonetheless he manages. I wonder if there’s anything to be learned from the survivors in other industries.
December 7, 2018 at 9:55 am |
I think one thing keeping bike shops alive (for now) is the bigs have yet to boil their products down to disposable, one-size-fits-nobody-really, point-and-shoot SKU’s.
Not that they aren’t trying, but it seems the consuming public is getting less and less mechanically savvy every second while bikes still require a bit of technical help to the consumer to shop, buy, adjust and service. Once the bigs take that all over as they have for the other retail categories you listed, your LBS will end up a vintage bike shop….or cease to exist. Think of vintage vinyl, old time cameras with F-stops, etc. Some folks are still interested in those and a few retailers who supply and service them can survive… if they’re good.
December 7, 2018 at 1:32 pm |
Yup..spot on Larry. As long as rims rub on brakes or roters squeal and chains slip off chainrings-bike shops will have some biz to bank. Meanwhile my high end cameras, audio equipment need virtually no attention, so buy once and enjoy. The smart bike shops will be schooling up and mastering ebike service cause those things will need some love if people really start using them. But I am afraid the future is fewer bike shops with consumers buying on the net and having local assembly ops build and tune ala Tire Rack. It’s already happening.
December 7, 2018 at 9:57 am |
We’re definitely getting there. Most modern bikes look the same to me, the way all new cars look like a Honda CR-V. Pick the color you like, pay the man, and roll off.
December 7, 2018 at 10:07 am |
the only thing I will miss are the bike ladies