What me Worry, wait until the bill comes

Mass Market Meeting

This is the hour before I meet the importer/wholesaler for Magna bicycles. Next post will be outcome of meeting. Yes, no one is watching. The irony of it all. But have to get in practice for more blogging. I have just had a bout of the missing password so no post since first on the 29th.

Concept Store

The concept stores I visited in Madison WI this weekend can be said to be more a state of mind for the bicycle industry than the reality of normal bicycling. Specialized and Trek offer two very different experiences. It could be that Trek is an entity of the corporation and the Specialized store is owned by Erik's bike a large midwestern chain store. Corporation or big chain non withstanding each had a slick array of bicycles and were a paradox to the beater bikes that campus students ride daily to wit they primarily leave outside for 9 months. Maybe it was my dad looks but I did get the full attention of sales staff when visiting. Of course neither shop was busy either with repairs of other customers so asking questions came easily. The Specialized shop interestingly had what was called "the assmeter" this was a dense foam pad that one would sit on and after 30 seconds ones ass impression could be measured for proper seat width. Did not look to be too sophisticated but the bench did double duty for tired customers. This being my first ever visit to a concept store I was impressed that every product in the store was Specialized. I had only heard from independent bike dealers how Specialized wanted a certain level of financial commitment for entry into their sacred realm. It would appear that Eriks has got that covered. Are we to believe that this brand is so much better or maybe the name sells better? Whatever we believe there are a few facts to remember. Bikes are designed at HQ here in the states and made with parts overseas and frames are fabricated in China and Taiwan regardless of the brand. Our Specialized store in the heart of the campus had only the funky Yellow Jersey store to compete with. Boy is this like night and day. Specialized  is located street level in Lucky 101 and does a nice job of display in that bikes line the walls and accessories fill the floor.  Models range from uninspired to over technical. When will we see better ways to hang onto a bicycle so that we don't look like apes on two wheels, pained and bent over grimacing with each pedal stroke? I know at least two handlebar designs that put me into very comfortable positions. The national standard bar seen on billions of bicycles around the world is one and the other is the flopped bull horn. Whatever is lacking at the Specialized store is compounded by the over the top Trek store. Upon entering I am accosted by a half dozen Madones each one size larger than the other. This is Trek! Four hundred and forty different models with six price points but not one bike in the store that I would ride in the winter up here. I asked the purpose of one model on sale for $799. Nice slanted frame, carbon fork, multispeed with flat bars and finger shifter/brakes. The sales manager just said its their most popular model. He was evasive and said it could be a long distance commuter. So could any racing style bike or tourist bike for that matter. So buyer beware again. When shopping around  start by asking yourself a couple questions. What is the purpose of this purchase? What will I be doing with this bike and can it do more than one thing? There are reluctant purchases that eventually become someone else bargains, so do some research first before you buy.