Coffee Over Ideas
February 18th, 2005 by Tim GrahlI grabbed some coffee yesterday with Jack on Bikes Unlimited’s nickel and we talked about all kinds of ways to work together to grow the biking community here in Central VA. He has owned the shop for just under a year and, from what I can tell, he has got a perfect mindset to help him succeed. Instead of just pushing bikes and getting pissed when people aren’t “loyal” to the shop, his goal is to get people on bikes and enjoying the sport. I think he gets the obvious thing that is so many times overlooked. If you work to get more people on bikes instead of just working to sell bikes, you will get more people buying bikes which, go figure, helps your shop sell bikes. We kicked around some other ideas to help his shop become a hub for the biking community instead of just a shop that people buy things from.
We also talked about their upcoming Mountain Cross races (where yours truly is gonna get kicked) and how to get the word out, and attendance up, for the upcoming Virginia Derailleur Series. You can see that I didn’t link “Derailleur Series” to anything because there is no website that gives information. That is one thing we hope to change soon as well as doing some different kinds of things to get the word out better than in past years.
I’m looking forward to this coming season. April will be Blue Collar’s one year anniversary and we are hoping to get more involved in year two.
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The growth of this sport is NOT in the race scene. It is in the youth and your every-day-riders. These are the people that the sport depends on. My self and fellow poster, Guitar Ted, try to give back as much as we can. We help run and promote a Trail Day giving test rides on Hybrid and Comfort bikes. Also we both are involved in pushing mnt biking to the local boy scouts. Our race, Trans-Iowa, is taking all the profit to purchase helmets, and other needed gear for the boy scouts. This Spring we are helping teach mnt bike skills to the boy scouts. Just remember to help out. You guys do a great job of promoting the sport at a more realistic level. Not everybody rides and races $3000 bikes. But, almost everybody rides and races $300-$800 bikes. Keep up the great work. And here is to another great year!
Yeah, just like your friends bike shop, the more people that you can encourage to ride, the more that will buy, RACE, and recreate on bikes. More people may start seeing bikes as a way of life, rather than a toy. More people, yeah! That’s what we need. More people on bikes!