Calling your customers "freds?"
 

So I was reading the San Diego Reader article about the increased interest in cycling in SD and I saw a section that caught my attention. The author interviewed the guys from Pista Palace in south park and they talked about their high end bikes. They come off as being typical cycling elitist which I'm not sure is something you want to convey to your customers. I understand it that it's your own business and you can do what you want and serve who you want, but do you really want to alienate all these people. They call a lot of their customers "freddies." Ok, I get it, there are a lot of dentists with a lot of cash to unload on a campy equipped colnago. To me, calling someone a fred means that they are a poseur. If I am a customer, I'm thinking why would I buy from these guys, sure I want a nice bike but I don't want to be condescended to and how do I know they are going to give me top notch service if they don't even respect me? Just seems strange. And it seems ironic that they want to sell super high end bikes tricked out with "hand made" campy parts when really, they can get the same bike (since they are mostly made in taiwan and china anyway) for way cheaper with equal if not better parts from sram or shimano. Who is the fred now since they are building up unnecessarily expensive bikes?

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2...cle-san-diego/

In Soviet Russia, Fred becomes you.

http://velominati.com/content/Photos...%20Russian.jpg

Mr. Beanz is a Fred.

You're telling me. Check out the matching orange socks with smiley face, Cannondale CAD3, long sleeve cotton tshirt and mtb shoes.:D...I wouldn't go to that shop anyways, can't afford it. But that's what the dude in the article seems to want. I don't think he'd care if we Freds didn't go.;)

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...xtreme/ba6.jpg

I need a good dentist...

Sounds like a shop I'd frequent.

The guy making $2,000 with a $10,000 bike??

I'd really like to know how a Campagnolo Record equipped custom built Eriksen would be "the same bike" as an asian built titanium cookie-cutter with sham or shizmano componentry. Please explain this and feel free to offer up all of your experience riding custom frames that have been fabricated specifically for you.

Would i be a "fred" if i ride my Colnago in cut off Levis, Chuck Taylors, a camo t-****s and and my trucker baseball cap under my helmet?

Well, if we are talking about a "fast" bike, what makes a bike fast? weight and stiffness? You can take a giant/specialized/cannondale/trek "cookie cutter" frame and put shimano or sram parts on it and make it lighter and just as stiff. If we are talking about fit, correct me if I'm wrong, but that can be adjusted by seat tube, saddle, cleat, stem position. They sell Time and Colnago, it's not like you can order a custom sized frame from either of these companies. Can you? I'm asking because I don't know about those two companies. I've never ridden campy, only shimano and sram. Seems to me if the performance of that gruppo and comfort were that much better, every pro would be using it regardless of their sponsor. I'm not trying to trash campy, but riding it because it is "european" and shimano/sram are junk because they are american seems misguided.

If we are talking about just building a blinged out bike then sure, throw campy and what have you on your european frame or custom frame. If that's what you want to ride, go for it. But back to the original sentiment of calling your customer freds, what makes a fred? Seems strange that if you want to buy a nice bike from these guys, they may be calling you a fred behind your back.

sdgrannygear sounds like a self loathing fred.

ha, quite possibly.

i mean, either you get it, or you dont. thats the way ive always seen it. you can tell if someone is trying too hard from a mile a way.

After 25 years in sales, the first & foremost lesson is this:

Respect your customers. All of them. Even the ones who don't buy anything major from you. If you don't practice common courtesy at all times, your attitude will grow and fester. Finally, you'll sit in an empty shop wondering where everybody went. I once solved a $15.00 problem for a guy. It turned into a $75,000 sale a few months later. I walked out of a local bike shop in 1979 due to rudeness on the part of the owner. I've never been back. Bought a few bikes & a lot of parts over the years. He never even had a chance at my business.

Wow, all of that fantastic speculation and keyboard void, yet you still didn't manage to offer up your experience with riding a custom fabricated frame to help validify your opinion and experience on the matter. A simple admission of zero experience would have been sufficient, as it appears to be.

Ok, I've never ridden a custom fab frame. Now educate me what is the difference between this and a cookie cutter frame, feel free to use all the snark you want if it makes you feel better. Do you work at pista or ride with them by any chance?

people cant really be this clueless can they? i swear, half the garbage i read on bf just comes off as troll bait.
compact geo can go to hell.

I may not even be from SoCal, but I have ridden an Eriksen and I ride only with Campagnolo, but I have tried many other brands of bikes and components as well.

As far as components go, it's all subjective. If you're looking for the lightest group, go Red. If you're looking for the highest tech group, go DA. If you're looking for awesome looks, complete rebuild-ability, smooth shifting, and an array of affordable and racier options along with awesome customer service, go Campy. That's my opinion. Notice that? We all have those. Saying whether or not a shop is decent has nothing to do with the components they put on their floor bikes. Too each their own in that regard.

But as far as dissing Kent Eriksen goes, you're way off base. Sure, custom fabricated, made-in-the-USA titanium frames are way more expensive than a mass-manufactured, cookie cutter Taiwanese frame. Knowing Kent personally, and having spent a few days in his shop myself, I must say that his frames are like no other. The things that the man can do with titanium are practically unheard of, and the amount of effort he personally puts into a single frame is unmatched. I've seen him spend literally hours talking to a single customer, giving up his own ride time, and often working late into the night in order to nail down geometry as well as perfectly shape, cut, miter, jig, and align frames to give one of his 175 annual customers a truly unforgettable ride. There's something that happens to a person when they step over a perfectly designed and fabricated titanium frame - the feeling isn't the same as anything else you've ever ridden because the bike itself is dialed in just for you and the ride feel is different from anything else you've ever experienced. Personally, when I rode one of Kent's personal frames (albeit a SS, fully rigid 29er), it felt as if there was nothing beneath me, as if I was one with the bike. Plus, the painstaking attention to detail is unsurpassed.

Now, as far as you calling the shop "freds" for make "unnecessarily" (I believe I just proved the contrary) expensive bikes, I don't really think you know what a fred is. Being called a fred is a compliment, in all actuality. A fred is a person with no care or knowledge for his or her equipment, but rides faster than anybody in the A/B group mashfests. So, really, Mr. Beanz is a bit of a fred. His apparel contradicts that of most road cyclists, but look at that picture - who's the one about to get passed by a dude in orange smiley face socks? The one with full gear and, I assume, a Taiwanese manufactured frame that he got to "fit in." Plus, even as an avid climber myself, I'm pretty sure Mr. Beanz could kick my butt any day.

So really, your whole argument is just a huge contradiction because you're attempting to diss a shop for carrying high-end, high-quality goods, but instead you compliment them and dig yourself deeper.

Who cares if the shop calls their customers freds (albeit with an alternate meaning than the actual)? The people still shop there because the store obviously offers good service and good product. I mean, have you ever even been to this shop? Doubt it. Maybe you're the elitist.

It's the never ending mystery, and gift that keeps on giving. Learning to embrace it is the key.

Actually, what is and is not Fred is rather complex, as countless Fred threads in the road forum have proven over time. Why there's overt Fred, and stealth Fred. Dangerous and benign Fred. Idiot savant of all things cycling Fred (Sheldon Brown, RIP), and staggeringly inept Fred. Blazing fast Fred, and slowpoke magoke Fred. And every day someone out there redefines one of the Fred classifications by their actions and behavior on the bike and creates his or her own Fred sub-classification. It's a fascinating study.

DRietz, did you bother reading the article? Here is the section I'm talking about.

To me, his opinion of freds is not that high. My intent was not to diss the custom titanium bikes, eriksen, moots, whatever... The point was he sells "cookie cutter" frames if you want to get technical about it (the difference is they are european cookie cutters), He is painting his customer in an unfavorable light, that was my original point. this just seems odd to me.

I think they were fooling around with a reporter.

Of course I had to use the best boutique titanium bicycle fabricator in the World as an example because I knew it would draw out at least one truly learned response from a third party. Eriksen is a character and not even arguably the best, he just is...but doesn't act like it. Riding a piece of functional art that has unmatched performance characteristics it its class is almost indescribable.

My work is done here, thank you DRietz.

My response isn't about the article, it's about your response to said article and responses to others' posts. My response is a response to your responses.

No problem, CritEastwood. If I could afford an Eriksen right now, I'd have one. :D

Is this another of those confuse "Fred" with "Poseur" threads ?