Folding Bikes - Stevegor's perfect bike shop

It doesn't really exist, it's only in my head, but....

Imagine a bike shop you could own, what type of bikes would you stock? What else would you stock?

These are my thoughts:

1: A good range of folding bike brands : Bike Friday, Moulton, Birdy, Dahon and Pacific, at least one example of each model for each brand.

2: Bikes with Rohloff, Shimano Nexus, Sram iMotion and Dual Drive 3x9 and Sturmey Archer 8 hubs for the IGH fans to test and a fully trained IGH bike mechanic to fix them, also seperate hubs for sale.

3: Large choice of quality rims, tyres, tubes and spokes for 16,17,18, 20 & 24" sizes.

4: A small museum of classic folders like the R20 in standard form and modded, maybe even workshops showing customers how to build up and restore bikes, even brazing and welding lessons.

5: Pannier racks for all sizes and Ortlieb, Arkel etc panniers

6: Tandem bikes, full size and 20" for touring, racing and recreational use.

7: Touring bikes.

8: Camping gear, specific to bicycle touring.

9: BoB trailers.

10: Most important: Staff who have a passion for these bikes, mechanics who want to fix your bike properly and back up service that's legendary.

Did I leave anything out?

Did I leave anything out?
Only my invitation to come into the employ of such a shop.
When can I start? :)

How about customers that would be willing to support such an enterprise - instead of buying stuff on EBay to save 5% and then calling you up to ask questions when they have technical issues!

Its easy to make a million dollar with a store like that
( start with 2 Millions)

but it would be cool
:-)

keep inmind that you would have to sell at least 20 bikes a day with such an inventory to make up for the interest you are going to pay for all the bikes you have on the floor ....
doing that needs at least 2 full time employees who are assemble etc etc ...
you better be in a BIG metropolitan area as you need special customers.... after all you are selling niche products and not run of the mill bikes ...

but again it would be fun
thor

I would run the coffee shoppe, with a range of delectable comestibles, the finest Java this side of, er, Java, but insist on the removal of all Lycra before entering.

Snafu would pilfer all the stock :P

I agree with Thor's comments. You need to be in the right place for a shop like that to work. Preferably a very large metro area that combines a heavy urban core and a good amount of pootling land nearby. This would be so that you would have folks that might be interested in all your offerings (from commuting to touring).

I don't know which places in Oz would work for that, but in the US I would guess at major cities in the Northeast, Chicago, and perhaps some second tier cities like Portland that happen to have a large bike culture already in place. There are no cities in the southern half of the US where such a store would work to my knowledge unless it relied heavily on internet sales.

I've lived in Florida for most of my life and a store like that would die within a year. Just not enough people looking to buy folders as there really aren't any dense urban cores despite having multiple cities with 1 million plus people. Also... until recently land was cheap so most apartments and homes are on the large side so no need to fold unless you're traveling.

--sam

Abbotsford Cycles are close on a lot of the stuff, but I don't know if they have folders. St Kilda Cycles have a wide range of folders and related stuff.

Melbourne is probably Oz's best city for bikes; even so, folders are as rare here as in the US, or rarer, since our market is miniscule and few LBSs can be bothered about such a tiny market sector.

I had already considered the fact that you would need to be somewhere like NYC, London or Tokyo for this shop to be a reality, however as this is a bit imaginary......maybe imaginary customers?


L.P. : You can be a sales rep.

snafu21 : Do you make homemade wholesome cakes, bread, veggie quiche and herbal teas?

Jur: As chief mechanic/engineer.

Jur, I just checked out St Kilda Cycles webpage....very impressive.



I would also like to include in this shop a section for a rock climbing wall with climbing supplies for sale, in fact, through this shop, monthly adventure/commando style activities could be organised :- ride MTBs on rugged tracks or folders on challenging courses to a mountain, climb huge boulders, canoe across a secluded lake, run or bushwalk through the Aussie bush, then stealth camp...and you must carry all your own supplies, hence the BoB trailers. I live in an ideal area where all this is at my backdoor, so it is possible.

I had already considered the fact that you would need to be somewhere like NYC, London or Tokyo for this shop to be a reality, however as this is a bit imaginary......maybe imaginary customers?

L.P. : You can be a sales rep.

snafu21 : Do you make homemade wholesome cakes, bread, veggie quiche and herbal teas?

Jur: As chief mechanic/engineer.



I'll volunteer to be your top Imaginary Customer! I've had lots of practice!

I'll volunteer to be your top Imaginary Customer! I've had lots of practice!

:roflmao2: ....good one SC......I imagine.