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It's the bike store girl from Minneapolis again! Thanks for everyone's feedback. I am trying to decide what brands would be best to carry. Of course I am looking at suppliers with the best WSD road/hybrid/mountain bikes. Any thoughts? What would your dream bike shop carry?
Thanks!
In my small town, I wish there was a shop where I could test all the hot new women's bikes, and their men's equivalents from the same manufacturer. I guess this fantasy list would include the Orbea Diva, Specialized Ruby, the Trek WSDs, Cannondale Synapse Feminine...
Waterford. Kona. Gunnar. Rivendell. Surly. Soma. Terry.
Clothing: Harlot. Terry. Ibex. Injinji.
I guess I will state my low standard for happiness: Whatever brand(s) you decide to carry, if this brand includes WSD bikes in its catalog, it would be nice if you have them in stock in a meaningful variety of sizes. I am 5'6 and have never been able to test ride a WSD and I am always steered to standard bikes (never mind I cannot reach adequately for the break levers).
Bikes: Rivendell, Waterford, Terry, Specialized WSD, Bianchi.
Clothes: Ibex, Shebeest, Louis Garneau, Terry, Smartwool, maybe Sheila Moon for fun.
Brooks saddles.
Berthoud and/or Carradice saddlebags and equipment.
My dream store. ;)
I'm a fan of the Orbea Diva as well! I'd love to have the BLUE one! ;) Though...it'd still be tough to decide which of the two I'd have to ride. LOL
Don't leave out the Giant OCR-C W from your consideration! I too am 5'6-7" and my bike fits me perfectly.
(I recently found that it takes off-roading quite well too! - right Wahine?) hee hee:D
edit:
I also love Shebeest clothing... great styles! LOVE LOVE the blue leopard jersey print!!
Bianchis have class and a wide price range.
but you need to get some really really cool bikes too, like a Vanilla or a Mercian
to greet people as they come in the door.
Intense, Turner, Titus, Yeti for mountain and Serotta, BMC for road.
Clothing: Sugoi, Shebeest, Harlot.
Yay for BMC - they are some of the most beautifully made bikes I've ever seen. Not to mention they are from Switzerland :cool:
Try Nalini clothing too. and ZeroRH+ although I doubt they even distribute in the US. And Assos. They are expensive though.
Giant (we have 7 - 3 are for time trials, 4 are for road racing)
EMC (we have 3 - all superb road race bikes)
Cervelo (we have 1 - time trial)
Scott (this has been on wish-lists
Trek and Cannondale should be in a good shop of course, although we have none of these
We also have 1 Wheeler (training on-road), 2 Scorpios (one for TTs and one for road racing) + we also have a couple of mountain bikes and a couple of BMXs)
Seven! "WSD" is irrelevant when a bike is an "Owner Specific Design"
Treks and/or Specialized are good for getting folks in the door. Everybody knows them. Everybody has them. Wide range of bikes in their lines - from the newb to the racer.
Gunnar or Surly for the cool kids.
Bianchi for the touring crowd who values beauty as well as a great ride.
And a good assortment of kids' bikes so folks don't feel like they "have" to get their munchkin's first bike from Target or WalMart.
As for clothes....I'd definitely put Terry on the list. Castelli and Descente, too. And Pearl Izumi for the same reason as the Treks.
My dream would be just a wide variety of higher end bikes to test. When I was shopping I only had the real choice of a Cannondale Synapse, Specialized Ruby and Trek/Lemond options. This was still good because any of them were available in my size (48 cm, including all three Rubies and Synapses). Most of the shops here have a wide variety of entry level bikes from all manufacturers.
I would have liked to see:
-Orbeas in stock, not just one or two.
-Fuji higher end stuff, my last bike was a Fuji and I was quite pleased. The shops here carry either their Tri bikes or the flat bar road bikes.
-Something steel, anything high quality and steel.
Dream bike shop stock:
Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Serotta, Litespeed, Terry, Aegis
There are so many terrific stock bikes out there now!
-traveller
Absolutely agree. It is so frustrating to find what you might want only to discover the shop doesn't have your size to test drive.Quote:
Whatever brand(s) you decide to carry, if this brand includes WSD bikes in its catalog, it would be nice if you have them in stock in a meaningful variety of sizes
My ideal store would carry several well-known brands with a good sample stock for perusal and test riding. For those that don't fit, they'd have contracts/connections with a solid custom manufacturer (e.g., Waterford or Seven).
Specialized, Giant, Trek - all good companies who keep women in mind when designing and providing product. Good for men too
Castelli clothing;
Sidi shoes
A good custom maker - don't know of the custom makers near you so I would pick one fairly close to where you are so that your customers if they wanted to could go to the actual maker if they wanted to get fit and look at bikes.
Giro helmets
Terry saddles (carry more than just the butterfly).
In addition to all of the others, Jamis bikes.
And a good selection of different brands of shoes.
Here is the list of suppliers I would start with:
• Trek
• Marin
• Orbea
• Raleigh
• Cannondale
I think Surly should be added. Terry bikes, does anyone have one? What's your feedback? I would definitely carry their gear, but I don't know a lot about their bikes. Has anyone ridden Marin? My partner has one of their commuters and loves it. They also have 2 new WSD road bikes, well priced. I am also hiring a designer to come up with cool designs for jerseys. I want to get away from women's gear with butterflys. Has anyone purchased from Harlot? I liked what I saw on their website.
Thanks everybody!
Georgena Terry started the whole WSD revolution.
It would be a good idea to carry Terry bikes.
IMH ...
Specialized -- I feel they make a very good product, including the Ruby, and have a quality product line in both bikes and equipment
Terry -- if you want the QUEEN of the women market
Trek -- for the WSD design and brand recognition/market share
Orbea -- for the higher end market with the fantastic DIVA RIVAL women bike
Independent Fabrication -- steel customized market ... LOVE their bikes!
Fuji -- make an excellent bike/women road bike, but have limited following
Litespeed -- Ti market
Then, if I could add LOTS of other high-end brands:
Bianchi
Felt
Serrotta -- customized fit system for customized bikes
Lynskey
Calfee
Kuota
Time frames
Merckx
Scott
Look
Pinarello
Yup... I'd add those two as well... good bikes, quality high end marketQuote:
Originally Posted by Batbike
Ummm... this is tough one HA!!
My dream bike... mass produced CAnnondale without a doubt. Otherwise, it would definitely be a Lynskey with a Campy Record group! Nothing is more confortable than a bike built for you and you only!
clothing: plus sizes
Given that it might be hard to stock everything, I think a wise shop would carry a good variety in terms of solving different kinds of it problems. For gals with long thighs and short upper bodies like me, terrys are great (they have the slackest seat tube angles of any stock bike in the smaller sizes). For gals that can tolerate steeper seat tube angles, carry a couple of different top tube lengths and styles, i.e. trek madonnes and pilots, orbea orcas, specialize rubys, etc. If you can't become a dealer for all of these, I have heard great things aobut specialized, so maybe terry and specialized.
As for clothing, carry shebeest and terry in assorted sizes, not just tiny!
If you decide to be a Trek shop, chances are they won't want you to also sell all those other cool bikes and accessories. Besides, there are plenty of Trek shops in town. Go for brands that not a lot of other stores carry.
Surly is good because it's local.
Cheers,
Kate :)
I agree...in my experience, trek can come down pretty hard on shop owners re: what other brands you can/cannot stock. the same goes for specialized re: accessories (such as cyclo computers, helmets, gloves).Quote:
Originally Posted by pyxichick
do you have a specific market you are going after?
one shop I worked at did an excellent business carrying brands that the other shops didn't carry:
kona, bianchi (they make some nice wsd bikes PLUS touring and commuters);
independent fabrication; riv bikes; surly; circle A (great steel framed bikes); jamis (hit many different price points PLUS made hybrids at a good price); raleigh;
clothes:
terry, nalini, sugoi, castelli, exte ondo, showers pass jackets, PLUS the idea of designing your own jerseys--excellent idea!
accessories:
brooks saddles
carradice bags
bailey works messenger bags (jonathan bailey is very reasonable to work with!)
topeak
I could keep going...but I better stop...:)
Good idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Regina
They are not my fave LBS, it's where I go to when I need a tube or last minute Power Bar. But Cyclepath in Hayward is relatively huuuuuuge for a LBS and they seem to have everything from commuters-flat bar road bikes-beach bombers-electra townies-recumbents ..... let's see .... they carry
Trek
Cannondale
Raleigh
Electra
Scott
Lightspeed
and an Orbea or two
But one thing I like about them is they have a good selection of kids bikes and I think they have a deal where if the bike is in good condition and said kid outgrows it....you can trade it in.
also in my dream bike shop it has a good selection of books and maps, maybe a spot to just hang out and read 'em and dream about that next epic ride.