I spent about a dozen years in bicycle retail, beginning in the middle of the Bike Boom. I would have to agree that a lot of a shop's success is due to luck. I think the biggest factor is location, as I've seen quite mediocre shops be successful or even thrive, largely because they have a steady stream of new customers. Professionalism, tempered with approachability and a commitment to customer service and satisfaction, community engagement and effective marketing are all assets, as is specialization, which is especially important for smaller shops.

I have a Rodriguez tandem and it's the most comfortable and most versatile of our several long bikes, but I have to say that their secret sauce can't be applied to other shops. First off, the country doesn't need and won't support even one R&E type shop in each city. What a shop should have is relationships with specialists who perform competent frame repairs for each common material. People don't come into shops for product, they come in for solutions. They want to recognize experience and a broad knowledge of the industry, technology and trends, and they want the assurance that any problems they experience will find solutions at the shop. For most customers, it will be a big plus if the staff come across as supportive, non-elitist, and non-judgmental and, most importantly, if the experience is as much fun as they expect their cycling to be.