Just Riding Along

Just Riding Along moves to TypePad

2005-06-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

Please note that this blog has moved to http://just-riding-along.typepad.com.

Pleaser remember to update your feeds as well.

Why am I moving from Blogger to TypePad?

TypePad has more powerful features like categories, domain mapping, unlimited authors, trackback and more.
I want to have experience with all the major platforms to expand my knowledge of blogging

Crooked Cog Network

2005-06-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Check out the just launched home base of the first bike blog network, Crooked Cog.

Is this guy the future of the bike media?
Will his network be a good place to put advertising dollars?
Will his ability to zero in on popular niches prove successful?

With the success of his Blue Collar MTB blog, I wouldn't bet against him. Stay tuned for an interview with Crooked Cog's founder, Tim Grahl.

An opportunity for Trek

2005-06-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

(I have added explicit credit to Bicycle Retailer for this story)

According to Bicycle Retailer, Trek has hired a new marketing guy. I wonder if he's blog savvy? I'm sure he reads blogs, but does he really understand them?

I hope he's at marketing meetings, pounding on the table, telling everyone how they should lead the way in the bike industry with a blogging plan. He should be telling his bosses that Trek could build some serious brand equity and momentum with bike enthusiasts by embracing the blogosphere and joining in a direct conversation with their dealers, reps, partners, customers, and prospects.

The "View from Waterloo" was a good try, but it's not a blog.

Will Trek take the lead and become the first mega-brand to jump into the blogosphere? And, if they do, will they do it right? Or will they miss the mark and cement even further their reputation as a big, corporate brand that's more concerned with taking over the world than connecting with their customers.

Trek should identify 2 or 3 key employees and/or brand evangelists, get them up to speed on blogging and let them loose with a new Trek blog.

Yakima Road Warrior Tour needs a blog

2005-06-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Yakima is in the midst of a grassroots initiative to spread the word about their brand and connect with their customers. The only thing missing is a blog.

A blog would be the perfect complement to their efforts. They could use it to promote upcoming stops on the tour, post pictures of events, share feedback from customers, and give people a behind-the-scenes look at what they're doing.

A blog would also allow Yakima's marketing department and PR company to show the higher ups what they're up to and justify the budget for this program in a tangible way.

(hat tip to BicycleRetailer.com)

Richard Sachs team sponsorship up on Ebay

2005-06-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

Just saw this over at Veloworks:

Cyclocross Team Sponsorship up for Auction

An excerpt:

CYBC/Richard Sachs riders have been chosen to be on the U.S. National Team roster for the Cyclocross World Championships on at least 5 occasions.

For the first season since 1998, the team is without a major outside industry sponsor to help financially.

Therefore, team sponsor Richard Sachs has listed for auction on eBay the opportunity to be a presenting sponsor for the 2005 cyclocross season.

Click here to view the auction.

iXi bikes for Tony Award presenters

2005-06-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

Since they were on The Today Show last year, I've been watching iXi Bikes. They're making some noise with their super compactable, belt driven bikes and now I see this release on the wire.

I don't know about you, but I tend to get excited whenever famous people ride bikes.

Here's an interesting quote from Jeff Greenstein, iXi's Sales and Marketing guy for the U.S.:

"we're inventing a new category for modern transport, Compact Cycling. More people on iXis will create increased visibility for viable alternative modes of transport."

I don't know if I'd call compact cycling a new category, but I respect Delta's efforts in working the celebrity angle for some good exposure.

MTBR and RSS

2005-06-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

I've been a big fan of MTBR since using their product reviews (checked yours lately?) while doing some new product research for Chris King back in 1998. For marketing geeks like me, all those unedited reviews are an invaluable source of feedback from real users (of course, they could be fake reviews, but that's another topic).

I recently asked Gregg Kato about how RSS is figuring into their plans. His response was that they've already got feeds for most of the site. You can see all the available feeds for MTBR (and the other Consumer Review sites) on their RSS List.

Someday soon I hope to see customized RSS feeds available for individual brands. That way, I can subscribe to my client's feeds and easily keep track of any new reviews on their products. Gregg says they're working on that as we speak.

Of course, the ultimate would be to get RSS going in their forums. It would be great to be able to subscribe to feeds of certain topics and better yet, brand names and keywords. Can you imagine getting an RSS feed of every post that includes your brand or certain keywords you'd like to monitor? That would be a very powerful tool for marketers and consumers. They've already got a great forum search function, but RSS would be much easier and more efficient.

Will carbon fiber shortages hurt the industry?

2005-06-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

BraIN and BikeBiz have recently covered the worldwide shortage of carbon fiber. For the bicycle industry, this will have a number of ramifications as prices potentially skyrocket due to high demand and low availability. What will it all mean?

A number of things come to mind for me, since I am working on bringing my company's first all-carbon bike to market. We've sweated and toiled over this new bike and we're very proud of it. Fortunately we've already got standing orders with our factory, so we will hopefully be impacted minimally. However, just like everybody else in the cycling industry, we don't really know.

As it turns out, according to the article in BRaIN, the shortage primarily effects the carbon fiber that is used cosmetically on most bikes and carbon parts- that outer weave that you see when you stare lovingly at a carbon doo-dad. So if you are painting your carbon frames, you will probably see very little impact on your business (is one hypothesis). I wonder how many carbon bikes will be fully painted soon, rather than showing off the "black gold" it is made of.

Many makers are experiencing huge jumps in costs, upwards of 25%, for their carbon. This would logically mean that retail prices would climb. With as fiercely competitive a marketplace as we work in and the fact that consumers are getting so used to "cheap" carbon fiber now, I wonder if that will be true. I wonder, and I am really scratching my head on this one, will manufacturers be willing to ride this out by reducing their profit margins to remain price competitive? Will retailers live with lower margins as well? Will both work together to absorb the lower profitability of carbon? Or, and this is what truly makes the most sense to me for a healthy industry, will the industry work to educate the consumers as to the cause for the sudden increase in retail prices? I think that many consumers will understand what is happening and will live with the price increases that come, so long as they are reasonable.

Most experts seem to agree that the shortage, caused primarily by the aerospace industry, will not last forever. Can we all agree to live with what that means? Will the cutthroat pricing of the past slacken a little to reflect reality a little better?

Managing a brand that is bringing its first carbon bike to life, I am hoping that things will remain relatively stable. However, more altruistically, I am hoping that things work out for the health of the entire industry.

BicycleRetailer.com: Release the content!

2005-06-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

(*update: Realizing that many visitors to this blog may not be familiar with the bike industry, BRaIN is an acronym for Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, the only magazine dedicated to covering the U.S. bicycle industry. I've also added the word "magazine" after BRaIN.)

Wouldn't it be great if BRaIN Magazine was available online, in a complete and searchable format? I'm no publishing industry expert, so I may be wrong, but I think this would be a great move for them and it would really make our industry better.

Here are some reasons I think BRaIN Magazine should post all their content online:

Reason #1 - Ease of Delivery
Sometimes I don't get my issue until more than a week into the month. People reference stories in phone conversations and emails and I have no idea what they're talking about. With full online archives posted in a timely manner, this would no longer be an issue.

Reason #2 - It's free already!
They can't say "we need the subscription revenue" because as far as I know, the magazine is already free.

Reason #3 - Blogosphere
When blogs reference certain articles, they could link directly to them. This would increase their page views (good for advertisers), and would be an easy way for them to join the online community.

Reason #4 - Serve the industry
The goal of BRaIN is to make this industry better by giving us a resource for information to make more informed business decisions. .

Reason #5 - Search
Google and other search engines love content-rich sites with plenty of inbound and outbound links. A BRaIN website with full archives would have a much better search profile than it does now.

Reason #6 - Cash money
Simply put, this small step would make VNU more money. More content = more page views = more visitors = more advertisers = more moola.

Reason #7 - Resource for journalists and the media
Media people live online. They're always trolling the web for story ideas and background information. Not only would more content help them with their stories but I'll bet they'd actually give the cycling world more coverage in the process.

Reason #8 - Email
Wouldn't it be great to be able to easily email your partners, employees, and your clients when you read a good article?

I'm sure there are more reasons, but this should be a good start. If you have others, or if you think I'm totally off base, send me an email. Or, better yet, leave a comment for the whole world to see.

Search seals the deal

2005-06-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

If you own or work for a bike company and you're on the fence about whether or not to start a blog, consider this: If you don't, you're at the mercy of Google.

Simply put, Google loves blogs and other forms of Consumer Generated Media like forums and review sites. They get placed high in search results very quickly.

In many cases, a blog entry about a certain brand will be ranked just as high (if not higher) in Google than the brand's own, corporate site.

Blog and PR guru Steve Rubel pointed out that a Google search for "kensington locks" returned his post in the #3 position. And guess what, the post was all about their recent, Kryptonite-esque crisis.

Here's a bike industry example of the same phenomenon:

If you work at Raleigh and you're doing some search engine research and you type in "Raleigh m80" just to see what comes up....guess what the results look like? The entire first page is blogs and entries in forums and customer review sites. The third result is a review from a blog. This review happens to be pretty harmless, but it could just as well have been very negative (whether the bike warrants a positive or negative review is beside the point). The point is, this sort of thing will happen more and more as consumers start to lead the conversation and realize the power of publishing blogs give them.

The moral of the story is that the best defense is a good offense. Join the conversation, start a blog, empower your employees to join online discussions about your products and the niche they operate in, train them to become respected experts in the online community. BUT, do it carefully and do your homework, because without the proper etiquette and knowing the "rules of the game" you could get burned.

MSNBC partners with Bike Magazine

2005-06-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

I just realized that as of last April, MSNBC has added a bunch of content providers to their stable including BIKE Magazine.

According to the official press release, they're adding Bike Magazine columnists to the "Active Travel" section of their website.

Right now, they're running this great articl e by ex-WTB marketing guy Mel Bearns.

Cheers to Primedia for this great partnership and I hope it leads to even more exposure for cycling down the road. Hopefully we see the other big cycling publishers like Hi-Torque, Inside Communications and Challenge leverage their writing staff in the same way.

Miller High Life commercial gets it right

2005-06-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

(update: Unfortunately, Miller has decided to discontinue this campaign as of last April. Bummer.)

This is one of the greatest commercials ever. (streaming Quicktime)

Script (voiceover and a guy riding a cruiser down a snowy street):

That's the way patriot; let the OPECs keep their gasoline.
We'll just tap into a far more efficient energy source....man power.
If we all learn to pull our weight, nobody, nobody, will be able to siphon away...our High Life.

Now that's some mainstream exposure you've gotta love.

(hat tip to Brady Clark from the Shift email list)

Mobile blogging at the races

2005-06-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

Since one of the main themes of this blog is how the bike industry is or is not leveraging Internet technology, I thought I'd point out this great post over at Operation Gadge t about mobile blogging going on at the Wachovia Cycling Series.

I wonder how many people will be blogging from the floor of the Sands this year at Interbike? (I know what I'm asking for for Father's Day!)

The more I think about it...

2005-06-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

After viewing more of the dialog on Business Week Online and thinking of Jonathan's comments and other conversations I have had recently, I really am at a loss as to why more companies in our beloved bicycle industry do not utilize blogs more prevalently.

I understand the argument that the "higher ups" are worried about somebody saying the wrong thing or giving away a secret... but only so much. I understand that I may have something of an unique arrangement here, where I am pretty much left alone to do what I believe is best for my brand, but it is such a "no brainer" to me. Especially for shops. As has been stated so frequently, it is painfully easy to list new products, stock arrivals, ride schedules, new trail openings... virtually anything. A shop can exponentially increase its worth to its customers by sharing more if its knowledge more easily. If a customer has to come in and ask, or call when you are busy helping another customer, you are far more likely to lose that conversation.

Manufacturers, and I applaud Surly, can use the blog structure to offload tons of information. Surly has a cult-like following of fans that cling to their every word. So why not exploit that and give them something new as frequently as possible? If I were to move to something else, God forbid because I love my job (I swear boss), I would be blogging as much as possible to gain as much presence as I possibly could. I surely intend to continue my blogging efforts and will hopefully continue to refine the blog site so that it can be a bigger and better resource. I have all kinds of plans for it that I will incorporate as I find the time and capacity, but if nothing else I'll keep the postings going and continue to reach my audience as much as I can.

Tim

Crooked Cog Network

2005-06-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

The guys over at Blue Collar MTB are doing a great job with their blog. I've also noticed they've branched out and added two new blogs; Commute By Bike and Twenty Nine Inches. They've got an impressive list of "partners," (although I'm not sure how the relationships work) and I'm sure their visitor stats are growing by the week. As more and more enthusiasts visit blogs for product information, these guys will reap the benefits.

Why should the bike industry care about blogs like this?

They're run by professionals, not just an opinionated cyclist with too much free time.
People will begin to trust them more than some magazines.
They target underserved niches (affordable gear (!), commuting, and 29ers).
Unlike forums and review websites, their content can be easily syndicated with RSS.
Their posts get indexed by Google very quickly (try a Google search for "Raleigh M80" and see what you get).

New Interbike site

2005-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Blue Collar MTB, part of the fledgling "Crooked Cog Network" of blogs, has this not so friendly review of Interbike's re-designed website.

I couldn't agree more. I just wish VNU would put some time and money into making Bicycleretailer.com more of a resource for the industry.

Just a quick reply...

2005-06-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post a quick reply to a comment posted in the Poll section of this blog, concerning blogs and the bicycle industry.

Scarbon,
It is definitely addicting, but I am fortunately paid to spend time "spreading the word" and blogging falls perfectly into that category, especially as it is free. Before blogging, I had to spend an even greater amount of time chasing down magazine editors to try and sweet talk them into giving me a few inches of column space. Now, I can publish all I have the time to and can reach my "public" every day. On the days that I do not have the time or am too busy, I forgo the blog and return when time better permits. Another fortunate circumstance is that as a "professional writer", it is very easy for me to put together a posting. Typically speaking, I only spend between 30 and 45 minutes a day on the blog. Pretty good return on the investment.

Tim Jackson- Masiguy

Surly lays it down

2005-06-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

Surly has had problems keeping their stuff in stock lately and they've addressed it with a post on their blog. Without the blog, how would they have communicated this to the world? In a press release? Through their reps? In direct mail to their dealers? None of those avenues would be as effective, cheap and quick as their blog.

Here's an excerpt:

"What we can say is that we apologize for not having shit in stock. It sucks for you, it sucks for us. We're not happy about it...If you're a dealer reading this, consult our supplier for some simple low maintenance tips on how to be notified when product arrives into stock.

The purpose of this blog is part info, part entertainment. We're doing what we can to let you know when things are in stock and when things are coming. How many other companies do that? When you have a question, come to the source, we'll do what we can to inform you. (my italics) When you have a rant, doing it on some forum only alienates you from us because we don't have time to read all that stuff."

In my opinion, this is what blogs are all about. The straight dope, right from the source.

Interview: Gary Boulanger, Cycles Gaansari

2005-06-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

Gary Boulanger is a recovering bike industry insider who know owns a small shop in Dayton Ohio. He also owns Cycles Gaansari, a niche bike brand with a growing cult of fans. As a former PR guy he knows how to tell a good story and leverage technology to communicate with his customers, prospects and the media.

A while back, I noticed Gary doing something cool with his shop newsletter. He uses a blog to post the newsletter then emails everyone a link to the blog. This is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. It's a cheap and easy way to deliver an email newsletter and it brings people to your blog where they can read other posts or click over to your shop's home page.

I asked Gary a few questions about his experience with blogs:

Q: how long have you been blogging for Cycles Gaansari?

I got a leg up on blogging when Michael Gamstetter, the former editor of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, asked me to chronicle our first year in business in the print version with a column called "Retail Diary." Response from the industry was fantastic, so I continued "Retail Diary" on our website. At the same time, I was sending out a free subscription e-newsletter called The Bike Evangelist, and in less than two years, nearly 1,000 were on the distribution list. It was sent out as a text email. We're now at roughly 1,400 members, with folks from Finland, England, Italy, Canada, Puerto Rico, and most of the 50 United States. Late in 2004 I changed the format of The Bike Evangelist to a blog using Blogger, and send out a short update email to the distribution list, telling each subscriber there's a new posting. I try to mix humor, breaking news, music, book and movie culture; anything that a typical bicycle aficionado would enjoy.

Q: What are some of the effects your blog has had on your business?

It's been fantastic. Some days there's an instant response - folks call or email with questions, feedback on the posting, even orders for our products.

Q: Would you recommend blogs to other shops?

If the owner or manager has a knack for accumulating information, is computer and WWW savvy, then it could work. Otherwise, it might distract them from their day-to-day responsibilities in the shop.

Q: Do you feel you are getting a good ROI with your blog?

Absolutely. It takes me a few days to gather information, and just an hour or so to edit and tweak the blog before it gets published. Blogging is one of our strongest marketing tools, because it's such a soft sell, really. We sell cycling excitement, and let our customers buy from us.

Some good insight from Gary. Hopefully it helps other shops who are wondering how to use blogs to help their business.

Bike to work without the carrots

2005-06-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one that thinks it's strange that the bike industry holds s pecial contests and promotions to get employees to ride to work? Shouldn't every day be bike to work day if you work the bike industry?

Art from Lampert and Gamstetter

2005-05-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

Taliah Lampert, whose work has been featured in Dirt Rag for years now, has been noticed by the NYTimes (hat tip to Velorution).

Speaking of art, remember those great industry portraits that used to be in BRAIN? You know, the ones that accompanied the profiles of industry personalities? Well turns out that former editor of BRAIN, Michael Gamstetter is quite an artist. In addition to writing for Cycle Sport Magazine, Michael is actively pursuing his art. You can see more of his bicycle industry portraits in his online gallery . Subjects include Ben Serotta, Wayne Lumpkin, Maurice Tierney, Lennard Zinn (pictured) and Sky Yaeger.

It'd be great to get together a list of bicycle art sources and links. If you know of any, go ahead and leave a comment or email me.

Just riding along... for the past 23 years.

2005-05-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

No pressure he says... and yet the sweat is rolling down my back as I type this first piece.

I am honored to become a part of this forum since I have been reading and posting comments for a while now and thoroughly enjoy it. As Jonathan pointed out in the introduction, the bike industry and the sport have both consumed my existence for quite some time now- 2/3's of my life now. It is my greatest passion and reward, outside of my family of course, and I have striven to stay in it. Between the people and the products, I have been lucky to be a part of it.

For this first installment, I thought I'd share my blogging beginnings and rationale behind it.

I'd been hearing more and more about blogging and having no idea what it really was during the Presidential campaign. I was fascinated by the idea that bloggers were contributing to the national discussion with such impact. Then the whole Kryptonite thing went down and I started thinking about starting my own blog for Masi Bicycles and for my own writings as well. The last straw was a report by the Gluskin Townley Group in March about the impact of the Kryptonite issue on the bike industry and how it unfolded through blogging before being picked up by mainstream media. That was it and I was in that day. Now, please keep in mind that I am not a tech savvy individual, so this was a daunting task to me. It has proven to be incredibly simple though.

In hindsight, I really should have asked for permission from the bosses before I started the blog, but I believed I needed to act quickly. With a very small budget for advertising, I really felt I needed to exploit the opportunity to reach my customers for free. So I started the blog and have been trying to maintain it and learn from it daily. I have been learning more and adding things as I get over my initial fears and it is really proving quite productive. I mean, I can get my retailers and consumers both to give me information critical to developing my products and the overall business... and it doesn't cost me anything.

The blog has been a wonderful tool for me and has gotten the attention of the "higher ups" who are happy to see what has been happening and the resulting publicity and attention. Between the article in BRAIN, BikeBiz and the discussion that took place on Business Week Online, they have been very pleased. So pleased that I will be incorporating a newsletter (of sorts) on the Masi website to further reach "my people".

Ultimately, I see blogging as a huge part of how I can fine tune the brand I get to lead. It is my sincere hope to see more industry people blogging because it is an opportunity to share ideas and experiences and increase overall awareness with consumers as well.

Tim

Our first guest contributor

2005-05-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Tim Jackson is the Brand Manager at Masi Bicycles. He's had his own blog since March '05 (read story in BRAIN). He'll be expanding the perspectives and brain trust around here considerably. I'm sure you'll find his insights interesting, entertaining and informative (no pressure Tim ;-) )

Here's a brief rundown of Tim's experiences:

Began competitive cycling as a Junior in 1982.
First bike shop job in 1982 at Bay Cycles in Fairhope, Alabama.
Worked at Chula Vista Schwinn in high school in 1986-87.
Worked at Cycling Tunes, which became one of the multiple locations for Bike USA, later purchased by Performance.
Moved to NiteRider Technical Lighting Systems in January of 1996 and left in July of 2000.
Returned to bike industry in July of 2003 as Inside Sales Manager for Canari Cyclewear.
Left Canari in late September to become Brand Manager of Masi Bicycles. (he wears many helmets at Masi including; sales, marketing, product development, component spec, team/ sponsorship coordination, working and traveling with rep force, working with international distributors and overseas travel to work with manufacturers/ suppliers.

Stay tuned for Tim's first post.

United Bicycle Institute Chooses Solar Power

2005-05-27T01:25:00.000-07:00

from BRAIN:

"UBI supports sustainable transportation through our educational efforts in the bicycle industry. Now, we're supporting sustainable energy, too," said UBI president Ron Sutphin. "We think we're the only solar powered bicycle school in the world."

Good for UBI. But I can't read this without thinking about another bike industry company that does more for sustainability than anyone in the industry yet would never toot their own horn about it...Chris King Components. You want to know about environmental accountability? These guys wrote the book.

Indy Fab on CNN TV show (new air date)

2005-05-27T01:18:00.000-07:00

The May 15 issue of BRAIN had a story about this...but I just found out the show has been moved back a week. The new air date is set for June 4th at 11AM.

So, remember to watch Indepedent Fabrications on CNN. They'll be featured on "The TurnAround," a show that pairs a small business (IF) with a high-profile CEO. Should be a rare chance to see behind the scenes of a bike company. It will also be interesting to see how this hot-shot CEO from a big, unnamed outdoor company interacts with the wide-eyed boys from Somerville.

If you miss it, you can always buy a copy of the episode.

Also from CNN recently: a profile on Jeffrey Neal of "Brave Soldier"

[Both of these items were originally covered in BRAIN]

Monitor your brand online - Part I

2005-05-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows the Kryptonite story. It made for compelling water cooler talk for a few weeks. But beyond that I wonder how many bike companies (large and small) made real changes in their Internet strategy as a result of it. How many companies have installed proactive plans to research, intercept, and glean the potentially disastrous or quite helpful information floating around the Web? My guess is not many.

CGM, or "consumer generated media" (forums, blogs, product review sites) play a major role in influencing brand perceptions and purchase decisions. That probably isn't big news to you. But is your company doing anything to monitor this chatter?

According to a very good white paper from Intelliseek

"Companies need to know how to find and analyze what's on the Internet to have a deeper understanding of opinions, sentiment and winds of change. Type in any brand name or product into a Google or Yahoo! search engine and you're just as likely to find a consumer-owned web site or online forum about that product (positive or negative) as your are to find the corporate or branded website."

Ask yourself:

Do you have a strategy/policy in place to track what's being said online about your brand, your niche, and other things that affect your business?
Have you identified at least one employee to monitor forums, review sites and blogs?
Is that employee savvy to the latest search and tracking tools available?
Is that employee empowered, trusted and prepared to respond directly when necessary and/or report to management about what they find?
Is that person monitoring the web on a very frequent basis?

CGM is quickly growing not only in volume but in quality and impact as well. More and more people have broadband connections, digital cameras and camcorders, and knowledge of how to post streaming video. Forums have improved and many of them offer robust search capabilities which can bring you vast amounts of useful marketing and product development information

And unless you've been a cave for the past few months, you might also realize that blogs have catapulted into the mainstream. This means more of your customers are now publishing and broadcasting their opinions and feelings about your brand and products to their families, friends, co-workers and Internet communities.

If I were you I'd listen and take notes. Because there will be a test and you don't want to fail this one. Trust me.

(Stay tuned for Part II where I'll share some tools and tricks I use to monitor information online)

Wanted: Bicycle Industry Insiders

2005-05-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Looking for contributors to broaden perspectives around here and bring more opinion and insight to our growing audience. Post a lot, post a little, post anonymously. Anything's possible.

Interested? Drop me a line.

Lance Armstrong: Miracle Worker

2005-05-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Woman's cancer in remission after meeting Lance Armstrong

"Her family is calling it a miracle."

I don't think Michael Jordan ever did anything that cool.

Liggett is no dummy

2005-05-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

Phil Liggett is one of the classiest dudes in the cycling world, so it's sad to see his name on something as tacky as a Dummies book. Maybe this one will be different but my experiences with these has always been disappointing.

On the other hand, I'm glad to see the publisher take an interest in cycling and this will be just one more piece of exposure for what I expect to be a tremendous summer for U.S. cycling.

Everyone loves messengers

2005-05-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Funny how the world works.

Just yesterday I met with the local Portland bike messenger crew about their upcoming event (I'm writing a story on it for Dirt Rag). During our conversation we talked about how the bike industry is so enamored with the messenger scene.

My take is that as the major brands in the bike biz become more and more corporate and lacking in soul, the purity and hardcore edge of the messenger lifestyle become that much more attractive.

Now this morning, I see this over at AdRants, "Lincoln Goes For Bike Messenger Street Cred Without Permission." This is a very sad attempt by Lincoln to connect with a younger crowd. I hope the messengers featured in the ad can find some good legal representation.

I can't stand it when automakers use bikes to help sell cars...even though the marketing side of me understands why it's so effective. In my opinion, our society's obsession with cars and the resulting traffic, pollution, accidents, etc... that they cause, is the single largest deterrent to getting more people on bikes.

In a perfect world, the bike industry wouldn't have to be so reliant on the huge amount of money that automakers pump into our industry in the form of big, expensive, full-page ads in our magazines or as titles sponsors of our teams and events. It would be interesting to do a study to find what percentage of sponsorship and advertising dollars in the bike industry are from automakers.

Obviously cars have helped our sport grow (how else would we get to all the races?) but it just seems strange to me that from an advocacy standpoint cars are our biggest enemy...but then we all love them when they give us money.

Ads or Publicity in Mainstream Magazines?

2005-05-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to add my thoughts to a recent Bicycle Retailer Magazine cover story:

"Suppliers Find Women's Titles Beyond Reach" in the May 1 issue (wouldn't it be great to be able to link to the full story on the web?!) reported how the cost of advertising in mainstream, national magazines is out of reach for bike companies.

First, cheers to Megan Tompkins for asking PR pros for insight into other ways for bike companies to get some space in the big, national magazines. Since she must have lost my contact info (ha ha) here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

If you're not reaching out to editors and writers at mainstream magazines you're missing a huge opportunity. Even if you're not one of the big brands, don't despair; most editors at mainstream magazines don't care how big your company is or how deep your pockets are. All they care about is that you can tell them about a product that is well-designed, unique, and serves the needs of their audience. It also helps if your product is part of a larger, emerging trend.

I've gotten relatively unknown clients in places like Maxim, Time for Kids, Playboy, Teen Magazine, Parenting, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

A good example of a small bike company that has leveraged an interesting backstory and well-differentiated products to get national publicity is Cycles Gaansari. Gaansari is a fledgling brand from a bike shop in Ohio. Their well-differentiated bikes and strong tie-in with the Wright Brothers (who were former bike makers themselves) has gotten them all sorts of great publicity. Of course it doesn't hurt that they've been blogging since 2003, and "with astounding results," according to their founder and former PR guy, Gary Boulanger.

So don't be afraid to think big. If you can present your products to the right person at the right time in the right way, you might be able to score some space in a major national magazine, even if you're not a mega-brand.

Too much Lance?!

2005-05-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

Hewlett-Packard Unveils LiveStrong Laptop

I'm just as thrilled as the next guy that cycling can claim the biggest sports star of the moment. But when does too much exposure start to turn people off? I think Lance is getting close to the danger zone with this one.

JRA Blog on BusinessWeek.com

2005-05-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

Somehow Heather Green at Business Week got wind of my recent post about bike shops and blogging. She featured it on the popular "BlogSpotting" blog at BusinessWeek.com.

Here's what she wrote:

"A heartfelt and pragmatic plea from Jonathan Maus at Just Riding Along for bike shops to start blogging. Maus even includes a link to Freewheel Bike, a shop in Minneapolis that has its own blog."

Wow, she sure makes it sound dramatic huh?

And there was even a comment:

I'm an ex-bike store owner come web designer who is DYING to see specialty retailers start blogging. Bike shops are a perfect example of how blogs can build business. All of the info mentioned is valid, but I'd add buying tips, sizing info (how to find the right sized bike), info on buying used bikes and more. In my experience though, my bike business brethren are not quick to pick up technology or marketing trends. I expect to see antique dealers and other specialty retailers get on the blog train long before bike shops get on board.

Posted by: Peter Flaschner at May 18, 2005 07:54 PM

Guess that's another reason bike shops should blog...you never know when a major national magazine will mention your link!

Here's the permalink to the BlogSpotting post on BusinessWeek.com (I'm not sure why she added the random bike picture from Flickr).

Oh no, not again.

2005-05-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

There's another Kryptonite-esque lock breaking video (WMV, 7.5 MB) all over the web. This time the brand name is Kensington...and they're about to get "Kryptonited," according to Steve Rubel at the Micropersuasion blog. My favorite comment from Steve's post is that it's too bad Kensington doesn't have a blog set up to combat and communicate with the oncoming blog storm.

I wonder if they've called Kryptonite for some advice yet.

Where'd the BRAINy guy go?

2005-05-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed that the logo on BicycleRetailer.com has changed? For some reason the BRAINy icon is no longer up.

Here's what it used to look like...

And now...

Was the brain too graphic? Did someone complain? Man, where's The Piton when you need them.

Bike Shops Must Start Blogging

2005-05-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed web logs (AKA blogs) are changing the way people communicate on the web. Blogs have been around for a long time, but they haven't caught fire in the mainstream until now. As a communications professional it is my business to not only stay up-to-date on this revolution, but to participate as well. As a bike-lover who wants to see IBDs succeed I want to encourage more shops (and people in the industry for that matter) to start blogging.

Blogs are a great way for shops to connect with their customers, prospects and communities...yet in all of my surfing I have only found one bike shop blog. As someone who is totally convinced that blogs are the wave of the future, I find this hard to comprehend. Here's some reasons why more bikes shops should start a blog:

Simplicity. Any employee can post information with a few clicks.
Outreach. They're perfect for announcing shop rides and events.
Affordability. Blogs cost nothing to create (except for the time it takes to
Visibility. A blog will be indexed higher in search engines than your existing website.
Interactivity. Blogs are alive. With regular posts and comments, your customers will see your shop as a vibrant place.
Education. Shops are full of smart folks with tons of industry and technical information that is valuable to customers.
Expertise. Blogs add credibility to your shop and will make you an expert in your community. Credible, expert sources instill confidence in consumers and they will end up buying more bike parts as a result.
Publicity. Once you've established your shop as the place for bike information, the local media will come to you when they're working on bike-related stories or they need to mention a local bike shop in an article.
Syndication. With the advent of RSS, your visitors can have new posts sent to them for reading in their RSS reader. *With RSS you avoid email spam filters and subsription management issues common with email newsletters.
Networking. Your blog will help you identify and build relationships with your key customers. I have met many people in my community from receiving comments and feedback from my bike blog that covers Portland, OR.

Here are some examples of information you could post on your blog.

New product lines you've started carrying.
Arrivals of new product.
Photos of cool bikes you're building up.
Photos from shop rides.
Tip and tricks on bike set-up and maintenance.
Rants, opinions and raves about people, products, etc...
Tips on riding technique.
Local trail and road updates.
GPS downloads of local trails.

Excuses you'll probably have.

We can't afford it. There is a very good blogging platform (Blogger) that is totally free. There are other free options as well. Other platforms cost very little compared to what you're paying your web guy.
We don't have time. Your blog can have several authors. That means if you have three employees who post and each one of them posts once a week, you're off to the races. Also, posts can be as short or long as you'd like.
I don't know what a blog is. Short for "web log," think of a blog as a website that takes no HTML skill whatsoever. It is simply a different way to publish information on the WWW.
We already have a bulletin board/forum. Blogs are not forums! With blogs you create the posts and control the content. Blogs also offer you the chance to syndicate your content; which is not possible with forums. You can also edit comments and/or decide who is authorized to leave comments, or turn off comments all together.

More resources:

Here's an article from the San Francisco Chronicle about small business blogging.

Check out these bike industry blogs for examples:

Masi Guy - by the Brand Manager for Masi Bicycles
Surly Blog - self explanatory

So, why hasn't your shop started blogging? Any questions? Just ask me.

**Read some great comments on this post at BusinessWeek.com

Unite and Conquer

2005-05-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

The San Diego Union Trib. did a story Sunday on the more than two dozen bike industry companies based in the San Diego area. The list is impressive and it ranges from several small framebuilders to well-known brands like Speedplay, Electra, Ellsworth, NiteRider, and Haro.

This comes out just days after the Wisconsin Journal reports that the cycling industry's impact on Wisconsin's economy is somewhere near $835 million. (read a PDF of the full report).

This is great exposure for the industry and I think we could see even more of this if bike industry companies began to form trade associations. With common goals and pooled resources, bike companies could do great things; from commissioning studies that convince law-makers to take bikes seriously to marketing campaigns that help cycling compete for the mainstream recreational dollar.

Co-operative efforts are common in other industries that are full of small-to-medium sized companies without the money to make an impact in their local market by themselves. Maybe now it's the bike industry's turn.

Cadillac and Columbia

2005-05-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

In another sign that cycling is gaining appeal with mainstream America, I've noticed two major corporations have recently launched a line of bikes. Columbia Sportswear and Cadillac (yes, Cadillac) have decided to dip their toe into the waters. Great news right? The bike industry is being noticed by some major outside players!! woo hoo! Well contain your enthusiasm. A long-time veteran of the bike biz and president of real bike company just told me:

"I think calling the Columbia bike "a Portland bike line" is probably stretching it. More like a “made-in-China-specced-by-a-guy- in- Dayton-who-works-for-a-company-on-Long-Island-that-
gets-approval-from-a-company-in-Beaverton-bike-line”

Very well said. But I'm not entirely cynical about this because there's no denying it's a good sign for the industry as a whole. Bike companies are going to have to be that much sharper with their marketing and communications in order to compete with the exclusive distribution networks and deep pockets of these new players.

Dave Guettler: Living the life? Tell your customers.

2005-05-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Dave Guettler owns River City Bicycles in Portland, OR. He wrote the guest editorial in the current issue of Bicycle Retailer magazine. The title of the piece is How to Succeed in the Industry: In Short, Lead the Life. Here's a choice quote:

"Don't turn into the kind of person who spends more time on the golf course than on the bike seat - otherwise get into the golf business"

I couldn't agree with him more...just look at how effective it has been for Clif Bar. They've spent millions to brand their founder Gary Erickson.

So...if you do "lead the life", wouldn't it be great to let your customers and prospects know? Of course it would. But how can you do that without it feeling like a blatant marketing ploy or spending millions? The answer is to start a blog. So far I don't know of any executives (or staff for that matter) in the bike industry who are blogging and they're missing a golden opportunity to connect their brand with their customers.

Cheers to Masi's brand manager for his "Masi Guy" blog. Even though it's a bit mushy and all-Masi-all-the-time, at least he's doing it. Now, who else is game?

The Piton rests

2005-05-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

The Piton was an irreverant, anonymous blog about the underbelly of the outdoor industry. It was something I read everyday and it's a bummer to see it go.

I wonder if someone else will pick up where they left off?

Garage innovators take note

2005-05-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

Many of the coolest (and craziest) products and ideas in the bike biz started from one guy in a garage with a big idea. I've been lucky to meet and work several of them and I'm always inspired and impressed with their energy and vision.

The Wall Street Journal just did a big feature on "profiting from your brainstorm" in their Monday, May 9th issue. It's got articles on important topics like doing market research, getting a patent, avoided common mistakes, and the all -important topic of knowing when to give up.

If you've got a big idea and you're wondering what to do next you should check it out. Unfortunately their site is pay-only but you can find the WSJ at any library. Once you've read it, drop me a line. I always enjoy hearing about new product ideas.

Gluskin Townley and blogging

2005-05-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Gluskin Townley Group is a market research company. They've been in the bike industry forever. But, and with all due respect, I've always had a feeling that they're a bit old-school as far as far as the web is concerned. For instance, in their useful monthly newsletter they have a contest to name the person that said a certain quote. Anyone with a web-centric brain would just Google the quote, get the answer, and send it back. It's more of a 'who-can-Google-faster' contest and not really a 'who-knows-the-quote' contest Maybe they know people just use Google, maybe they don't.

That being said I was surprised and happy to see them give a little mention to the rise of blogs in their May newsletter. Cheers to them for helping spread the word to the rest of the bike industry. I think there are still many companies in the bike industry that should use blogging and eMarketing to empower and inform their existing customers and find new niches and communities for their products.

The power of consumer generated media is growing every day and is here to stay. Companies need to have a strategy in place to monitor, respond and take part in it....or end up like Kryptonite.

Long Tail of the bike industry

2005-05-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Long Tail concept says (and I'm way oversimplifying) that the sales potential of thousands of little niches equals more than the mainstream market; think Netflix (Long Tail) vs. Blockbuster (the old way) . Now, I've been thinking about this plays out in the bike industry.

Talk to anyone in the bike biz (including me) and they'll say how great the market is now for high-end road bikes. Of course the Lance effect is driving this and who do you think is coming into the party? Yep, mainstream folks who are inspired and excited to ride (which is great) for the first time in years. They're buying carboned-out, $5K rigs and doing all sorts of charity rides and having a great time. Cool. But on the other end are folks that just need a bike and don't have a dentist's salary to spend. They also want to find a brand that doesn't have the corporate shine of the big boys. Enter Surly.

It seems to me like Surly is the clear winner when it comes to tapping into niche riders. Their bikes are respected in many important niches; 29ers, touring, singlespeed, cyclocross, fixed gear, "all-day" road, utility/urban assault. They're now so successful in niches that more and more "mainstream" folks are getting turned onto the brand. I was at a local mom and pop bike shop the other day and they couldn't build them fast enough.

On the other end of the Long Tail is Giant. They're going for the "next big thing" that their dealer network can sell to anyone who walks into their shop...and that usually means at the expense of making bikes that are respected in the niche groups (example: a "touring" bike that doesn't accept racks easily...until Old Man Mountain (a client of mine) came to the rescue).

***This post is currently listed on The Long Tail blog (as of 5/19/05).

RSS for cycling junkies

2005-05-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard about RSS it's an efficient and easy way to receive headlines from your favorite websites and blogs all in one place (learn about RSS). This "place" is your "feed" reader and they come in all sorts of varieties (free and not; I use Feedreader). You can subscribe to as many feeds as you want. Currently, I'm watching about 50-60 feeds (and growing) on a daily basis just to (try) and keep up with things.

Inspired by a great post by Tim Yang, I've adapted a few of his tips to make them specifically appealing to the cycling junkie:

Subscribe to Flickr photostream feeds (based on tags) of cycling-related words for a daily dose of inspiration (for example, here's the "bicycles" photostream).
Subscribe to you local weather feed at Wunderground.com to decide what to wear before heading out.
Subscribe to news search term feeds. For instance, you can subscribe to a Yahoo! News feed of "Giro d' Italia" and receive the latest news instantly.
Subscribe to the "bikes" feed of your local craigslist to make sure you don't miss out on a killer deal.
Subscribe to Ebay feeds at RSSauction.com of specific sellers, specific keywords, etc...
There's even a guy named Ben Hammersley that has made it possible to use RSS to track your Fedex package...know that's something every true lover of shiny bike parts can appreciate!

RSS is rife with possibilities...now download a reader and have at it. Let me know if you come up with some other cool ideas.

The word on "word of mouth"

2005-05-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Everyone's heard of word of mouth marketing...but do you really know what it's all about? Here's a great article from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

Word of mouth is the most exciting way to spread ideas and the current explosion in consumer generated media is taking it in new directions all the time. Here are the brass tacks (from WOMMA):

All word of mouth marketing techniques are based on the concepts of customer satisfaction, two-way dialog, and transparent communications. The basic elements are:

Educating people about your products and services
Identifying people most likely to share their opinions
Providing tools that make it easier to share information
Studying how, where, and when opinions are being shared
Listening and responding to supporters, detractors, and neutrals

Sounds easy doesn't it? Don't be fooled; nuturing, amplifying and quantifying word of mouth is the holy grail of marketing...but at least the web is making it much easier now than ever before.

Small Biz blogging

2005-05-05T14:48:00.000-07:00

To me, the most exciting thing about the Web is that it levels the playing field between mega-corporations and a guy in a den in Omaha launching a new business.

Small business blogs are a great way to connect your community to your business in a way that big box stores can never do. The SF Chronicle just did a nice story on this with some good blog examples to check out.

[via Micropersuasion]

...and while you're at it, check out the same reporter's tips for effective use of blogs for businesses.

Press release relevance

2005-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

I've been wondering about the relevancy of traditional press releases for a long time now so it was interesting to see this article from Ben Silverman at PR Fuel. His poll of 50 beat reporters from small-medium sized dailies uncovered some interesting results.

Believe it or not, only 24% of them said blogs "add value to their jobs as a form of research," and a whopping 76% "do not feel they're a source of information or an opinion barometer." So I wonder what they do think is a good opinion barometer? Corporate PR people spinning "trend" stories? As a wanna-be reporter and journalist myself, I find the blogosphere quite an amazing research tool.

It's actually hard to believe that 36% percent of the journalists surveyed still receive press releases by fax...yes fax! Who the heck still uses those things anyways?

I've been using traditional press releases less and less. For me, PR is not a matter of writing a press release and broadcasting it out to a list. I try to find a select group of journos who I know might have an interest in the information I have, then I engage them with a personal email or phone call and we go from there.