...he has great prices.

That phrase has been resonating in my head since last week.

I've been making a concerted effort since Fall 2009 to get back into riding form. I'm not really sure what the form will look like once I've achieved it but what I know now is that my back doesn't ache when I bend over to tie my shoes, I've pinned my internal tachometer for 30 on and 30 off WAY more times in the past 5 months than I've done in the last 3 years, I'm down to 181 lbs. and plyometrics is the way to go for an aging bike fiend like myself.

Part of this off season regime has been RPM classes at the local mega-opolis health club and no thanks to my lovely wife after 3 years of coaxing to participate in them. During said class last week while I warmed up the legs on the bike, I noticed the older (60 yr old-ish)guy next to me wearing a pair of white cycling socks embossed with the name of a local bike shop. A shop with whom I have never visited but have heard of. None the less, I started small talk with the guy like, 'Hey, you have socks from XYZ! Where are they located?'. The gentleman proceeds to describe where to find them on one of our great roads. Honestly, I have heard of the shop and sort of knew where they were but for some odd reason I find it necessary to talk to strangers and generate small talk any way possible.

After much nodding on my part as I maintained my cadence, he concludes with, '...he has great prices in there!'. That's was all I got from him; a location and confirmation on great prices. I'm not saying that shop XYZ is a bad shop nor this guy, for his attempt to sell me on shopping there for the sole reason of 'great prices' but in this case it brings me to the topics-- How do you brand your business/how does the customer identify with your shop?

Do you as a business owner, retailer, store manager, want your customers going away from an experience they've recently had with you in your store with only that crumb of a comment on their shirt? 'Great Prices?' Why did this consumer only identify shop XYZ as having great prices to offer up and nothing else worth mentioning? Is XYZ undercutting the next shop down the road in hopes of gaining market share; in this case loosing his margins that every shop needs to be holding more closely because of harsh economic times? When I last checked, undercutting/slashing prices are not how you stay relevant in the retail market or at least it's a very short sided move on any retailers part and in the end does nothing to help build the cycling community. For all I know this may be all the retailer has to offer the customer, low prices and little to no positive retail experience.

Bicycle sales and consumer participation is growing in some amount every year. Some years are larger than others but 'growth' is there since flat is the new up lately. In 2010 let's focus on that personal attention the customer needs. If you have the '3 Cs' to offer your customers, you shouldn't have to become Bob's Bike Outlet (not really a shop, I think). The 3 Cs are pretty simple.

1- Customer Service/ This is a given with any business and falls in line with the Golden Rule. And taking the extra 3 minutes with a bottle of Windex and a shop towel goes a long way when the customer picks up their repair bike and it's clean! Especially if there's a shop across town with a 4 week backlog on repairs; potentially no wiping down going on there!

2- Credibility/ "A specialty retailer can't establish individuality by carrying the same product everybody else carries."-Jeff Harbaugh. Let the brands you stock be the ones that you rock; not sell because they walk to the counter the easiest and require little to no selling. Give the brand(s) you and your staff sell your seal of approval without sounding arrogant and cocky to the consumer. Arrogance and cockiness are fueled by fear and come out when you're scared of loosing a sale to the shop across town and certainly don't bad mouth the other shop(s). Let the customer know what makes your bikes special that you are selling, not why the other bike the customer is looking at elsewhere, a lesser bike. If they ask to compare components between your bike and a competitors, be fair, compare both products online with the customer. Then pray that your swagger and ability to listen to the customer instead of boring them on how just received your Di2 certification, has won their confidence over and they pull the trigger on the bike that day.

3- Community Involvement/ Build up a cycling culture in your area if it needs to be. If a guy or gal buys a $1200 road bike, invite them to be on your group ride email contact list. Make him or her feel wanted with a friendly social ride and teach them good road riding habits. Here is an entry from the beginning of the year. Offer to do neutral support on a local disease ride that is passing through the area. Hold maintenance clinics on a Tuesday night and offer finger food for those who attend.

Pretty simple stuff, yet so simple the old dogs are forgetting to learn new tricks to keep up with the young pups. To close the door on all this for me, I'm heading over to shop XYZ next Monday and see if this guy was right.

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wrm.

Getting the SOK ready for 2010 PT2.

While in the Philly area I swung north to Abington to pick up my Bianchi SRAM SOK from Abington Wheel Wright Bike Shop or AWWBS for short.

Aside from the outside of their building being a cool shade of Bianchi Green (celeste), they have a ton to offer their mountain biking customer base. One service that stood out during my first visit with Miko, the shop's service and retail manager, is their suspension tuning services. RMT Suspensions.

I explained to Miko the issues I was having with the fork, the brakes and what I ultimately wanted to achieve with the mods I was requesting. AWWBS works on forks and I mean works on forks. I'd say 95% of the shops I visit throughout my vast territory would send the fork to either QBP or BTI for a rebuild, not these guys. In my shop days, I would have done the work myself but being a father of two and a rep, I didn't hesitate to give the business to the LBS.


Here is a mod I did on my own time. After converting the 29r to tubeless last June, by recommendation of Marshall at Youngblood Bicycles, I down sized the rear tire from a 2.3 to a 2.1 Prowler from WTB. Lighter, faster, better rubber.


With the heavier 29r wheels (verses a traditional 26in wheel) and the fact that I'm 6'5" at 180lbs, you can never have enough braking underneath you. I upgraded the front rotor from a 160mm to a 185mm by Avid. The rear rotor is still the stock size- 160mm. New sintered pads were installed on the front and rear of the bike in addition to bleeding the lines and lubing the plungers at the cylinders. (Contaminants had entered the cylinders when I had the bike on top of the Element; during a rainy-several hour drive to Williamsburg, VA last summer.)


Here is where the magic begins. It's not fair to criticize/compare the performance of this fork when I'd been on long travel, light duty freeride bikes prior to getting this steed. None the less, with the top and bottom air chambers set to where I felt they should be according to my riding style and trial conditions, the 100mm fork dove too much under braking and couldn't keep up with high speed, baby head rocks that litter the local trails. Miko listened and delivered.

The blue wipers are a wiper/seal kit from Enduro. The stock wipers are good with preventing stiction at low speeds but potentially won't seal out the contaminants as well as the ones from Enduro. Enduro's lip sealing technology is top shelf for keeping oil in and dirt out. However, these seals are TIGHT on the stanchions. To combat this, the stanchion tubes where treated with a coating of a liquid Teflon® fluoropolymer. This polymer bonds to the aluminum tubes and make Teflon even slipperier. One application lasts about 6 months on the trails under normal_non muck riding.

The stock 5wt fork oil was removed and a combination blend of 5wt and 7wt where installed. This will reduce diving during hard braking when the PopLoc is wide open. A full dose of 7wt would be a bit too thick for my body weight and could compromise low speed dampening.


I'm still running the stock PopLoc set up for now. This lever is an open compression or closed compression selector. The fork will not have an in between compression adjustment with this type of PopLoc. Once I get some months of riding on the bike, I'll probably upgrade to the PopLoc Adjust. This system will allow me to adjust the compression of the fork for either rocky terrain or flowing/no rocks-just roots, type of trails.


Now if only the snow would go away...

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wrm

Infinito Test.

Here is a solid blog post covering the test of the 2010 Bianchi Infinito.

Great perspective guys!
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wrm

Team update.

Just a heads up from the desk of the BMW-Bianchi Elite race team:

The team is gearing up to take on the first race of the year in Raleigh, NC at the Wolfpack road races this weekend.

We've been hard at work this winter not only riding ourselves into race fitness but also beefing up the team to take on the best teams in the USA.
Did you know that last year we placed 8th overall in the national rankings? This year we aim to go even better, and to that end have signed several great riders.

* Jenette Williams comes to us from the West Virginia/Ohio border.
She's a superb team player and a criterium specialist with the
ability to sprint for the win or lead out a teammate with
extraordinary speed.
* Kate Ross relocated to Asheville from Colorado and comes with
plenty of experience racing at the NRC level. She's a great
all-arounder who is looking to have a break-out year.
* Leigh Hopkins is an experienced NRC crit racer who comes to us
from the Vanderkitten team. She'll be splitting her time between
the road and the track, looking to win a national title.
* Rachel Warner is a young and motivated rouleur - a powerful rider
who was on the podium of the U23 time trial at the national
championships. She's great in the breakaway but can sprint well, too.
* Sarah Caravella is a very fast sprinter who has won NRC races and
will be our team's fast finisher. She comes with the experience of
being on a UCI pro team and will be a great road captain.
* Kathleen Billington is an experienced and versatile racer who will
be our GC hopeful in the stage races.
* Kirsten Robbins, a former Canadian National Team member is mostly
retired, but will race some for the team and impart the women with
her wealth of knowledge.
* Returning are Tonya Miller, Christy Blakely, Cora Olson, Deb
Whitmore, Laura Weislo, Lauren Shirock.
* For our regional and multi-sport team we have Melissa Wills,
Nicole Overeem, Patty Shoaf, Tina Weiler and Jen Petosa.

Best of legs in 2010 ladies!

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wrm

Gearing up for the season.

Snow is piling up in the Mid-Atlantic to the tune of 38 inches in the last four days. Inside training is taking a front seat for the journey down the road for base workouts. Not to mention a bit of plyometrics while shoveling 2 feet of snow. We'll take it anyway we can, right?

The BMW-Bianchi Elite Cycling Team is ramping up for the season. I'm excited as always for this team and my personal connection with the squad goes deeper than the fact that they ride some really swell bikes. The BMW-Bianchi squad is also a heck of a developmental program for aspiring lady racers. Mentoring, training and proper guidance by Laura, Emory and company have proven to be a competitive program. In 2009 the team was ranked 8th in the nation for the NRC.


Now is the time to be a part of something special here. The BMW-Bianchi Elite Cycling team has launched a V.I.P program for the 2010 season. Visit the URL--here! There are several ways to show your support for the team and of course some really nice goods are in order for your donation to the team. In addition to the four sponsorship levels in which choose from, you will be eligible for discounts with the team's other sponsors; Rudy Project, Fluid Recovery, Defeet and Skins. IMOP, this is a fantastic 'help/hook up' deal folks!

BMW-Bianchi Elite Cycling Team V.I.P site
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wrm

Getting the SOK ready for 2010.

Working for a company as cool as this one has it's perks; like access to Pro-Tour level road bikes, warm, buttery smooth riding steel niche' bikes and head_down_and_grind_it_out_at the sound of the bell bikes. Every now and then the bike handling skills need to be sharpened beyond what a skinny tire bicycle could provide. That's when I hop on my mountain bike.


The bike in the photo above is mostly stock with the exception of cockpit upgrades to the saddle, headset, stem and handlebar. Since then I've converted it to tubeless, upgraded the rubber both front and rear all awhile managing to shave two pound off the bike. XC 29rs are all about putting the bike on a diet the moment it's out of the box and on the bike stand.

This afternoon, I dropped the bike off at a shop in Abington, Pa for more mods to suit my desires. A fork overhaul/rebuild, bigger brake rotor on the front and service to the braking system were all scheduled. I should get the bike back mid-next week. I'll have a write up on the modifications in great details and why I chose them.
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wrm

In memory of Il Pirata'.

This month marks the anniversary death of one of my favorite climbers in the sport of cycling; Marco Pantani. I can say that I became a fan of Pantani through coverage of the Tour and the fact that many a cyclist that follow racing will relate to an athlete that best mirrors their skill preference while on the bike. I've been more of a climber than a sprinter so the relation was easy.



This video is courtesy of the Marco Pantani Foundation website. I love watching his acceleration on climbs while in the drops. Legend has it, Marco rode a 180mm crank arm length and a 54/44t ring combo. No high cadence spin here, just good ole' fashion leverage and leg mashing. 'Nuff said.
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wrm

Browser test #2.

This one from Google Chrome.

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wrm.

Browser test.

I've been flipping between Google Chrome and Firefox so this post is just a test.
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wrm.