the state of the bicycle business
 

No real surprises here, but a nice summary of the state of the bicycle business from the point of view of those running all those LBS's.

http://nbda.com/articles/industry-ov...-2010-pg34.htm

Businessman that I'm not, I still found this quite interesting.

As we all know, an all Campy Schwinn Paramount was nearly identical to a Varsity. The collapse of gas prices (in real dollars) and the increased age of the boomers clearly had nothing to do with end of the bike boom.

That statement reminded me of an information plaque on the Blue Ridge Parkway that explained how the wolves had wiped out the buffalo in the Shenandoah valley. Coincidentally, the wolves suddenly did this just as the white folk appeared even though the buffalo had somehow survived with wolves for thousands of years.

When it comes to economics the Baby Boom generation followed by a much smaller cohort will have major impact on every industry. That impact is all but ignored in public pronouncements by our "experts" and "leaders".

One question derived from this change is: What to do with all the houses left when the baby boomers move on and the following generations are neither numerous enough, nor wealthy enough to use them?

Yup, another example of the sanitized history lessons foisted upon us by the educational system. But, as they say, I digress.

So in 1975 the 23 pound 531 Campy equiped silver soldered Paramount was almost identical to the electro-forged flash welded steel schwinn tubes of the Varsity? Where did the extra 15 or more pounds come from? :eek: Must have had a lot of silver solder to make the Paramount cost about 5 times more than the Varsity.:D

The extra weight could have been in the saddle. Have you ever sat on one of the stock Varsity Saddles? They seem to have been made from rocks.

Sure, who could afford a Paramount back then? I had a Varsity and it had to weigh every bit of 35 pounds. But I did replace the saddle with something a lot better. Maybe that brought it down to 35 pounds.:lol:

I looked at a Paramount in the 90s and it had beefed up to 26 pounds or so but I ascribe that to the Brooks.:innocent:

Still the plumbers pipe the varsity was made with was as heavy without a saddle, seat post or wheels.

Well, that was about the time the Hunt brothers tried to corner the market on silver. Let's see, 15 pounds times $27/oz...

No, that was more like 1982-1983.

Woops, I got that wrong. 1979

I was moderately surprised by how well the bike shops had done considering. Quite a few local businesses around here have gone under and others are just trying to "hang on". The bike shops seem to be doing "ok" which by comparison to other things: booming.

THe part that I find interesting is that the LBS remains in general a healthy enterprise. Unlike many many other retail businesses, where large chains took over long ago, small independent LBS's remain strong. The report notes that there is some trend towards consolidation -fewer total stores, and larger stores - but the LBS remains a viable business model. Long may it remain so.