Dream Bikes

[turner307]

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!

[Starfish]

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...

[KnottedYet]

Waterford. Kona. Gunnar. Rivendell. Surly. Soma. Terry.

Clothing: Harlot. Terry. Ibex. Injinji.

[pll]

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).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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.

[BabyBlueNTulsa]

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

edit:
I also love Shebeest clothing... great styles! LOVE LOVE the blue leopard jersey print!!

[Aggie_Ama]

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.

[traveller_62]

Dream bike shop stock:
Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Serotta, Litespeed, Terry, Aegis

There are so many terrific stock bikes out there now!

-traveller

[Thorn]

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

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.

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).

[spokewench]

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).

[roadie gal]

In addition to all of the others, Jamis bikes.

And a good selection of different brands of shoes.

[ridebikeme]

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!

[turner307]

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!

[KnottedYet]

Georgena Terry started the whole WSD revolution.

It would be a good idea to carry Terry bikes.

[pyxichick]

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