Location, Location, Location

The parts and accessories sales do not really concern me, those items will be bought and shipped to any store. The location a customer picks up their new shoes will be a convenience factor. I want to illustrate my point solely on bicycles – something that the local bike shop is currently dedicating a majority of retail space and staff towards, and how the bike shop has to evolve to match that.

When Trek revealed their plans for a certification process, I felt the communal groan throughout the industry. We have been assembling their bikes for 15 years, why do I need to pay them to tell me my mechanics are good? The catch is, you don’t. A shop does not have to spend money in order to be told their seasoned mechanics are qualified, competent, and valued employees. You have to pay Trek to advertise that you have mechanics Trek knows are good.

Ninjas

What a shop must do is make the investment in order to have Trek display on their website that your shop has 12 Ninja Level Service Wizards* and that the competitor shop has fewer.  As a shop I need Trek to be my biggest proponent in this rapidly evolving bike shop landscape. The situation where this is the most beneficial is for the 20 year old first time bike buyer.

The age of this buyer is important: they are just young enough that they have always purchased through the internet. When this buyer, who has never been into any bike shop, goes to Trek’s website and is deciding to ship their bike to Joe’s Bikes or Jim’s Bikes they will be influenced by how many Ninja Level Service Wizards the shop has on staff. If the shop has made the investment to send the employees to be Trek certified, they will get the new customer. When this customer, who purchased directly from Trek, comes to pick their bike up from the shop, they will then become your customer. If the bike is dialed and perfect, the staff is friendly, and the shop is clean, then you will be able to convert that first time internet buyer into a lifelong brick and mortar customer.

Matt’s Final Thought

I believe that bike companies are making this shift towards consumer facing sales today because they accept that, at both the Trek and the shop level, there is a need for adjustment and growth with this type of program. My prediction is the success of this program will really take off by 2020 – when the online shopper is old enough and mature enough to drop $3000 on a bike through their smartphone.

*I have no idea what Trek is going to call these certified mechanics, but that name would make on helluva hat pin.

Thanks again for reading. If you’re interested in my first post about , please check it out HERE.

– Matt

Payday?

What is your bike mechanic worth when payday comes? Well, according to Salary.com, about $22,000 a year.  That is roughly the same as a line cook. Do you think the person whipping up gravies from a pre-planned recipe at the local diner is worth the same as the person who is problem solving and fixing your cutting edge bicycle?

Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Car

Let me give a little more backstory on bicycles so we are all on the same page: If you were to drive to the local Chevrolet dealership with a dump truck full of $100 bills and an AmEx Black Card and asked to buy a replica of Dale Jr’s Sprint Car the salesperson would look at you and laugh. They would want to sell you a commemorative edition Camaro.

Dale Jr doesn’t win races in a Camaro you can buy.  If you go to the local bike shop you can buy a replica of what the professionals are racing. There is a rule in the governing body of professional road racing that all equipment must be offered to the general public.

If you wanted to get an exact replica of Taylor Phinney’s BMC race bike, you simple go to your local BMC dealer with roughly $12,000 and it is a done deal. You would likely tweak a few things depending on your preferences and riding style, but you can ride what the professionals ride. To put this into perspective, a NASCAR car is around $125,000 and MotoGP motorcycles are around $2 million. I get it, bikes aren’t the same, but in our industry you can buy the best.

So as a bike mechanic, I am expected to know the ins and outs of the cutting edge of bicycle technology, while simultaneously being an expert about everything made in the last 40 years.  I need to be be knowledgeable about how hydraulic braking systems function, the firmware updates needed for electronic drivetrains and power measuring devices, and suspension setup and service intervals while still knowing that Schwinn used their own version of a 26 x 1 ⅜’’ tire.

I Know What I Know

I know what I know and know what I don’t. I play my strong hand and do my homework when I have to. In the bike industry, we question what came first: the dirtbag bike shop guy or despicable pay in the bike industry. I no longer care which came first. My focus is on the present and what I can do to positively impact the shop I work for.

I can have a positive impact in many ways, but my main goal is to contribute to becoming a better team with my colleagues by organizing and teaching. If I can share some knowledge with my colleagues and they reciprocate, we all become experts at something and can learn when we don’t know something. The result is that we collectively become more valuable.

Become more valuable to customers will force the industry to shift towards a more sustainable reciprocation for its employees. I am not asking for income that lets me have E-tap and Di2 on all of my bikes, but I do want to be able to buy a nice used car and ride newish Ultegra. If we continue down the current path of low wages, customers and the industry may end up at a time when no one can tell you the difference between Schwinn and non-Schwinn 26 x 1 ⅜’’ tires and can’t work on your new electronic shifting 12 speed superbike.

If I am expected to be an expert and a professional and follow through on those expectations, I want to be reimbursed for those expectations and follow through. Don’t you feel that in your own work? While I understand that a bike mechanic isn’t the equivalent of a NASCAR head mechanic or a mechanic of race development for MotoGP, someone working on your special ride should be worth a little more than what a line cooks earns making gravy.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Memory Lane

Everything can be a journey and I feel like my bike story has and I wanted to lay out my experience with fatbikes. I want to take a quick trip back down memory lane, back to my first experiences with fatbikes. I started regularly mountain biking in 2006. Before that I owned a $200 mountain bike from either Dick’s or REI, I can’t really remember. My first memory of trying that junker mountain bike was in either the summer of 2004 or 2005, during my quick stint living in Minneapolis. I searched around for trails and landed on Afton Ski Hill which is near the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota, south of Interstate 94. It seemed like a good option and I think that I was on my way from Minneapolis to somewhere in Wisconsin, so I stopped off to see what mountain biking was all about.

That was an eye-opening experience. I had the fitness because I was in great running shape and was already doing some triathlons, but damn. The technical nature of riding on trails and all the power necessary to do all the riding was something I had not really experienced. I was in. I could definitely do much better. So I tried and tried and tried… and now MBR exists…ha.

I moved to Madison in the fall of 2005 and one of my first purchases in the Spring of 2006 was a Gary Fisher Tassahara that I picked up for maybe $300 or $400. The summer of 2006 is when I did some regular mountain biking in my training up to the only Ironman I’ve done. In 2007, I started racing, used the Tassahara for that entire season, before getting what I consider my first “superbike,” (over $1000! ha) a Gary Fisher Ferrous 29er. Looking back, it’s pretty funny to see what my limited mountain biking knowledge and experience was. Oh well, everyone needs to start somewhere I guess. It’s also crazy to see what has taken place in my life over a short ten years.

Why am I sharing all of my back story?

Let’s fast forward a couple years to 2009. We recently moved outside of Denver and I had definitely ratcheted up the amount of riding I was doing. With my new-ish found love of mountain biking, proximity to trails played into the location of the house we purchased upon moving there. And, hell, we ended up buying a house a mile from the northern terminus of the Colorado Trail, how could I not?

I had been reading information about the new Surly Pugsleys that were being offered. I actually remember coming across some information about some of the first framesets that were available back in 2005/2006 and it stuck in the back of my head. So when I started seeing those purples ones in articles, I was intrigued.

Further, my first in-person introduction to fatbikes was at the Leadville Winter Mountain Bike Series during the winter of 2009/2010. At that point, most of us showed up with the widest tires we had and hoped that the snow was hard enough to hold us up. As a sidenote, I think that this may be one of the oldest winter bike racing series out there.

I did a lot of winter/snow riding starting in 2007 while we were in Wisconsin before moving to Colorado and continued to ride a lot in the winter after moving. At this point, I was more than intrigued. I wanted a Surly Pugsley.

[I dug up this video from December 2010 while I was riding with my brother…pre fat]

News Reminder

I also want to remind you that I have a show going that I’ve called “The Link.” It’s a newsy-ish type show that I want to use to bring news to your attention that isn’t really the kind that you’ll find around all the other media/sites. Yes, some of that type will be mixed in, but as it goes, I really want to focus on the news and information that isn’t necessarily about driving clicks as much as it is bringing you some useful updates.

The episodes aren’t going into detail – I’ll basically make note of it, maybe say a blurb, and then I’ll link it in the show notes. All you need to do is listen and then if you hear something, check the show notes and click on the links for more information.

What does “The Link” mean for you?

It means that all you need to do is go to the show MAIN PAGE, head to the bottom of the page, and fill out the form to submit your news. Then listen and share with your circles.

Do you enjoy and appreciate the MBR content?

If you like the content that we’re putting in front of you and in your ears, the best thing for you to do is go HERE and do what works best for you. We really appreciate your involvement and support.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WHAT FATBIKES HAVE DONE TO US? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

If you have any questions about this post or Mountain Bike Radio, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

– Ben

My point with this post is to share some thoughts I’ve had and tied together and hopefully give you some insight into why I’m approaching things the way I am going into the future with Mountain Bike Radio. I am also using it to explain why it’s not in the best interest of MBR to spend time pitching random things for $50 a pop that a) Aren’t good b) Don’t make sense for the you and just clog things up and c) Aren’t useful. Hopefully it will makes sense by the end. There is a lot here, so hang tight.

MBR Facebook Post

I made a post on the Mountain Bike Radio Facebook Page yesterday reminding people that the best way to support and help Mountain Bike Radio continue is to become a member. It’s easy and people can do it for as low as $1 per month for a no frills support level.

It’s easy and people can do it for as low as $1 per month for a no frills support level.

Still, it’s not always an easy thing to do. Ask for $1 a month for something that you can listen to for free and some people turn their heads. Keeping in mind that there are benefits, especially for the upper levels beyond the $1, some feel like doing this is begging or just not running a business the traditional way. I get it – I sell in various manners, including services, goods, and I’ve had experience in basic retail too. It all got me to thinking and compiling the whole story in my head.

The traditional process of buying something is comfortable and normal – we give someone money and they give us a product, whether it’s a widget from Store X or someone helping us with our tax return. You’ve heard and read the same story about the internet and how it’s tough to monetize, so I’m not going to pound that nail any further in.

If you’re interested, there are a ton of podcasts out there selling consulting to help people try to monetize their sites and podcasts.  My point here with this intro is to just lay it out there that I completely understand and to let you know that I stand in your shoes in many situations – I consume free content on the internet too.

The Road Less Traveled

My focus with Mountain Bike Radio has always been you, the listener. In my life, my previous career, and just about everything I do now, the focus is always on the customer or the client. My previous life was completely dependent on keeping high net worth individuals and large companies happy and provide them what they needed to be successful. If my focus or our firm’s focus went away from the customer (the end user of our service), they would stop paying us and leave. That’s no different than any other product or service.

What if you went into your local shop, purchased a bike you thought you really loved, had an issue, and the manufacturer told you to piss off because they’re only focused on making the bike shop happy? Not cool. Jeesh, look what happens when politicians are focused on those special interests lining their pockets and keeping them in office rather than the people they are supposed to be serving. What if I take focus away from teaching my kids? It becomes a total shitshow, right?

Jeesh, look what happens when politicians are focused on those special interests lining their pockets and keeping them in office rather than the people they are supposed to be serving.

That illustrates why, early on, I decided to tackle this whole “monetization” (that’s a hot word these days in the podcast world) conundrum a little differently and focus on the route of charging you something to be a member without making it a full pay wall. We take your money in exchange for doing it all for you. In exchange you get some stuff too – tshirt, goods, deals, etc.

I suppose I could do the paywall thing, but that’s quite limiting in terms of getting the word out – a catch 22 indeed.

Has it been the easy way? No. Not at all. But, it’s similar to the reason that I held off putting Mountain Bike Radio on iTunes (I didn’t do that until fairly late in the game) – I wanted to get people into the app because I knew it was valuable to them.

Is it perfect? No. But it’s a process of improving everything a little every day. At some point in the very near future, I need to hire some help and that’s going to take things to another level as well. I want to get members a huge list of goods, benefits, and deals. It’ll all get there.

I see the membership platform as a great way going forward to build the base of money to 1) keep Mountain Bike Radio functioning; 2) grow Mountain Bike Radio in terms of shows, content, employees, and taking on other projects to all build back to Mountain Bike Radio; and 3) stay as independent as possible along the way.

A little from a lot of people over a consistent basis is a great way to continue and build a consistent and reliable product in a sustainable manner over a period of time. Will it piss some people and/or companies off? Yeah, likely. But that’s part of it as well – if we try to make everyone happy all the time, we’ll end up making nobody happy.

The Future

If I knew the future and had a special crystal ball obviously I wouldn’t be here guessing what the future will hold. If I knew the exact best answer for Mountain Bike Radio two years down the road and knew what the industry would look like going forward, I probably wouldn’t be spending all the time doing what I’m doing and just go off with my millions of dollars that I won on sports betting and predicting everything else.

I know what I want to see and the direction I want it all to head, but at the same time I understand that only time will tell and I have to be flexible and adapt to many factors because if I don’t, it’s dead. All that said, I do know that I see the following four trends.

1.  Current State Not Sustainable.

I know that the current state of marketing/advertising/content is not sustainable. It’s a race to the bottom of a large vat of sour, warm Hammer Perpetuem, ending in a click bait, fake opinions, and questionable tactics. Even if we take the largest and most frequented sites and tally all the banner ad or equivalent revenue, I would venture to say it doesn’t come out to much per person for the people creating the content.

It all gets very messy – as you try to grow and increase the revenue, you increasingly have conflicts of interest, causing you to make the choice – build it for the companies paying or build it for the consumer (ie you). Hell, the fact that I dragged Hammer into the first sentence of this paragraph will probably set off alarms and blacklist me from their stuff. (Note: You should be using CarboRocket or Tailwind and Gu Energy products anyway!)

Do you want a real life example of what happens with talking about things the way they are, with honestly, and constructive criticism?

I’ll direct you over to THIS POST over on Riding Gravel (in case you’re wondering, Guitar Ted and I are 50/50 owners of that site, so you need to go over there for everything gravel cycling…) from back in December. In this 3rd part of a 3-part review, Guitar Ted gives his overall thoughts on the bike. It boils down to this – he liked the bike except a couple things didn’t really jive with the overall build.

One of those items was the wheelset. He noted that he’d expect to see that wheelset on a lower priced build. He did not bash them or even say they were bad – just not consistent with the level of the frame and other components. I won’t go into details that aren’t public, but it’s painfully obvious from the abnormally large number of comments focused on the wheels that the company who made the wheels came knocking with their claws out. They weren’t even paying us, nor have they ever advertised on Riding Gravel.

We were put on the defense for giving an honest perspective for readers. Can you imagine if they were paying us enough money to make it worth our time to advertise, review, etc? We could say nothing but the best words without serious repercussions. In a lot of cases, it’s not a big deal, because there are a lot of great people and companies out there and they are easy to back and sell. But, at the same time, it does nothing to help offer up a sense of reality with you, the listener/reader/follower.

Banner/click ads/and the pay for review sort of thing just seemed to be doomed at some point down the road. The commodity nature of the banner, limited space without placing some huge commercials as headers or adding google adsense in place of the actual website title, and the constant pressure to get more clicks and clickthroughs leads to more and more clickbait, attention grabbing titles, and sponsored posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

We become desensitized to the headlines, posts, and discussion. The level of shock and attention grabbing needs to be raised constantly. I don’t see that as sustainable. Are they still currently relevant and usable? Sure. Maybe? But, the market and usefulness seems to decrease daily and straight up banner ads are tough if they aren’t combined with some larger plan, as in the case of some campaign that includes writing, social media, audio, email, and other touch points to get people involved. How much do you really get out of a best of 2016 bikes list if some of the bikes are paying to be there?

2.  First to News.

I also know that the race to get spy photos and get the very first lead on any story is of decreasing importance. Social media has made many of the first-to-market posts on websites irrelevant. Twitter and Facebook are so fast to pick up any little piece of info, that all it takes is one peep of info and the mobs are all over it. Additionally, it’s obvious (especially obvious in some instances) that some manufacturers partner up with certain media to be the release point/brand ambassador role for their goods. There is nothing wrong with this at all.

But, it’s a losing fight if you’re trying to get the inside scoop – you’ll never compete. It’s like trying to outfox the stock market and all of the insider knowledge. Trying to beat it on a day-to-day basis isn’t reasonable or valuable.

3.  Changes.

What is my personal opinion on the future of world of cycling/outdoor media, sites, podcasts? I think it’ll start to slow down and take a couple different routes. When I say slow down, I don’t mean in terms of the numbers of ads, posts, content, etc. literally slowing down. I see it more of taking a step back, using the information that’s been lobbed around the social media mobs, and taking some time to digest it and add some thought and value to it all.

Whether that value is via podcasts, written form, or both, it’ll contain some more commentary, insight, and value that we can sink our teeth into a little more. Rather than 1000 miles wide and an inch deep, it’ll be more like 10 inches deep and 100 miles wide. It’s hard to replace the trackable and traceable pageviews and clickthrough numbers, but those will slowly be phased out with more feeling based metrics. I’m not sure how we’ll track those feeling-based metrics, but we’ll figured out some way to capture the actual impact of something like an interview on a podcast or some references in an honest review. The days of spy glimpse of interbike releases on website x are fading fast.

It’s funny how trends come and go, but we’ll see some longer-ish form formats capture our attention more and more. I say longer-ish because we’re all busy and the likelihood of sitting down to read War and Peace in a weekend isn’t good. But there is a vast in between a 10-second glimpse of a top 10 list on Facebook before your boss catches you looking and sitting down for 100 hours to read a book. We have forums, discussions on whatever social media is and will become the in thing, and other quick hitters. We’re inundated with quick hits of everything and it’s killing our brains. It’s refreshing to be able to download 3 hours of a Joe Rogan Podcast and listen to him talk to some hunting guys about some interesting topics that I didn’t know about while taking a road trip down the road. It’s refreshing to be able to burn through an episode of Freakonomics while doing the dishes. It’s likely that a lot of people will click on the link of this post from some social media link and not bother reading past the title. That’s fine. The intent isn’t to write to that person. It’s intended for those interested in Mountain Bike Radio and are wondering why things are the way they are and to see why I’m doing the things I do because of where I see the future going – those who will sit down with their morning cup of coffee on their tablet and get a dose of fact, opinion, and storytelling.

4.  Branding.

The last thing that we’ll see more frequently is the use of branded sites, podcasts, and other media. I won’t mention names, because they do a good job and I’m just not sure how I feel when I see stuff that on the backside is funded for the sole benefit of that company. It’s kind of like watching a documentary about the history of flight, done for and paid by Boeing. While it might be very informative, there is that little guy in my head asking what are they getting out of it and how accurate is it rather than just a feel good story for Boeing. This will increasingly become a good way for small content creators to sell their stuff. People can contract out their sites or podcast abilities and build things that cater for the exact thing a brand needs – content that portrays a genuine, user-focused experience.

The fact is that things are changing rapidly. I’ve seen it just from the early days of Mountain Bike Radio in 2012. When I talked with people, I had to explain, in depth, what a podcast even was. Just in the last 2 years, there have been several other cycling sites that have cooked up podcasts, some in the mountain biking realm. This will continue and accelerate. I’m sure that I could sit down and write this in a year or two and there will be a competing network, exactly the same. That’s just the way it works. I’m sure it’ll be interesting anyway it works out.

Stats

I know that the inevitable questions arise about stats and listeners. I started typing out some info about it but decided that it’s best shared in it’s own little post. So, I’ll hold off there for now. I can go into the inner workings of what all happens behind the scenes at some point down the road.

What Do You Think?

You can see from my entire rambling discussion that I’m big on trying to look ahead and do what is best for my users and Mountain Bike Radio as a whole. Mountain Bike Radio is characterized by great content from several different hosts who think about mountain biking and mountain bike related topics constantly. It’s important to me that it’s sustainable and valuable. I appreciate you taking the time to read through this post. Thank you.

I invite any of you to send me some feedback. What do you see happening? Am I way off base in terms of the future of marketing? What do you think is the best answer? Are you just tired of being asked and just want to skip through some advertising. Send me a message, tweet me, leave a message on Facebook, do whatever you need to do, just let me know. If you have any questions about Mountain Bike Radio, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

– Ben