[Closed] If you ran a bike shop bike brands would you stock...

I'd stock Specialized. Well respected brand, good back up, great range of bikes, good accessories and finishing kit for add on sales.

But then I'd want a shop that would be profitable and appeal to the general public, not just niche beardy brands and boutique cack.

Not Giant/Spec/Trek/Scott

See response from Robdob above.

I'd have Spesh and Giant as well, as they're excellent value for money, offer excellent business terms and support and do your "Decent Value Full Sus" better than almost anyone else.

Except they are not available in this case, hence popping that line in the criteria 🙂

The new niche is 26" wheels.

Why are they not available?
Rather pointless, really.

If I was setting up a bike shop, I'd want it to be profitable and successful. Spesh and Giant would offer me the best shot at that.

Try and stock a successful shop selling

Mountain Bikes
Decent Value Full Sus

Giant/Spec/Trek/Scott

It'll fold soon enough.

Those Cube bikes look rather nice. Also Cotic.

ktm or saracen? and ibis cos i like them!

Margins and terms on Cube are scary.
Cotic are, indeed, ace bikes. Not really in the "Decent Value Full Sus" category though, I'd say.

KTM? Stocked by shops that can't get a dealership on anything else. Sorry.
Saracen? Yep, good call. Excellent dealer support from Madison. Sorry, Sportline, not Madison. Totally different, oh yes! Good range of bikes, and good company to deal with.

CaptainFlashheart - Member
Why are they not available?
Rather pointless, really.

So, you're looking at opening a shop, and because of your location, you can't get a dealership with them?

Try KTM, then. 😉

Seriously, though, if you are opening a shop, unless you follow the CTBM model, don't go niche. The people who buy niche are, sadly, often the people on here asking for the cheapest places for XY and Z. Money in bike shops comes from your knowledge, experience and passion. The sort of person who's going to buy a Cotic or an Ibis already has their own knowledge, experience and passion, so there's a lot less money to be made out of them.

Sounds like you`re missing out there Mike!, 😥

Trek N Spec are the "bread n butter" bikes. 😉

A nice "good value", well Cube are ok!, but surley Orange???? 🙄

I'm not, I'm asking a question based on a conversation that I had with somebody about "Other brands" the UK seems to have had a lot more new smaller brands breaking in compared to Australia - we tend to get the rough end of things with distribution, no Cube, no Saracen limited ranges and stocks on some models.

Somebody always chucks in some other more leftfield suggestions into the mix when everyone else says Trek/Spec/Giant etc.

Would depend on the location, demographics and competition shirley?

Even then, none. An effective 8 month shelf life, large stockholdings, no sale or return, for 30% gross margin before you get google shopping waved in your face? Nah, I'll pass thanks.

Good luck though.

but surley Orange????

Forgot you were in Oz. Sorry!

Malvern Star? Avanti? ;- )

If I was starting up a bike shop I'd sell coffee. Stock one of anything popular on the internets, let people showroom and sell them coffee & snacks as they do.

Empire - downhill/enduro british et al
cube - bit of everything
momsen - race whippets
onza - long travel steel hardtails and street bikes etc

Merida.

Ibis!!!! 😆

I would pick a less "seasonal" brand and one that tends not to dump stock to be sold at rock bottom prices

good luck

Kona
Whyte

not so good value: Orange due to following in the UK

Custom builds buying in things like Cotic and Bird frames

I wonder if you could offer on-one framed bike builds for budget options?

here's a look around my virtual showroom

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If you're ruling out spesh/trek/giant then uk wise I'd be looking at bulk of your mid range stock made up with Genesis, then top end with stanton, orange (or santa cruz) and if you wanted something classy road wise, parlee

sure there must be equivalent stuff australia wise

Bikes= Singular,Cotic,Sabbath,Yeti Surly
Clothing Endura Howies Mavic
Helmets=MET,Fox
Shoes= Shimano
Components Hope,Middleburn,Shimano,
Energy Drinks Irn Bru 🙂

like the reading and comprehension that leads to lots of suggestions for HT's when one criteria was good value mid range FS 🙂

One of the nice things about being in Oz is not seeing Fives everywhere with people bleating on about them 😉

Energy Drinks [s]Irn bru[/s] Bundie & Coke

Morewood
Kona
Raleigh (USA)

I've no idea about full sussers, but it's not a bike shop without hardtails.
🙂

GT.
History, reasonable price, look good, ride well.

Not a huge range so easier to hold stock, not that many about so a little niche appeal.

Plus, you get the BMX range too.

Sorry, don't think you need a "big" brands to do well, most do a very good range etc, but they are common (for good reason)but they also get heavyly discounted on line. which is the main battle of getting people to buy in a shop and not on line, you have to add that extra service etc.

Polygon bikes
Superior bikes
avanti bikes (thought Oz's would like to ride a New Zealand bike)
Marlin
plenty out there just have to look, also take in account who you have to go through for thing like back up, small parts etc.

Polygon do the direct Sales thing here, Avanti are everywhere, they sort of form the "Supermarket" bike shop thing - you get them when you get Scott.

I looked up Kona, great looking range but the first 10 hits on google are the entire 2014 range for 40% off.
GT also look good with the small range, not seen many about but a few over in rotorua.

How are the new range of Whyte holding up?

Anyone suggesting Cube may be interested to hear that my LBS has stocked their bikes for as long as I have known him. They were pretty well unheard of at the time, and he was proud to have the brand on board, selling quality bikes at a pretty reasonable price. No doubt he and many other smaller retailers were willing to gamble on the brand and help the establish a foothold in the UK market. This year I went to order one from him, just after they launched their 2015 catalogue. He was unsure as to whether they would keep him on as a retailer, as he hadn't been invited to the launch events. He tells me their margins are crippling, and now he simply can't turn them over like the big guys, so has, effectively been dumped.

Cube are also not being brought into Oz, I guess the margin doesn't work for that either.
It's an interesting space as in the small town I live in there are 6 main bike shops, sometimes there might not be enough bikes to go round 🙂

Some interesting suggestions, in some ways Oz is slightly protected as the German direct sales won't ship here and it's only really Polygon and Nukeproof you can get shipped in, it's easier to get a Nukeproof from CRC than it is from a shop here despite Sam Hill parading them round the place.

I'm tripping over pivot mach 6s here in Sydney - they look good but there is a disproportionate number of them.

Perth seems to be dominated by Giants and Santa Cruz. I have never seen so many really nice top end Santa Cruz bikes anywhere else. Also only place i've ever seen a pivot in the flesh.

What you don't see compared to home is nice hardtails (Well nice steel hardtails ha) so I would be tempted to stock something along those lines. I also think fatbikes would probably really suit the loose sandy drifty conditions we have here. Seen tracks once but not in the flesh so i suspect they are rareish still.

Yeah, see very few steel HT's every HT over here is 29r carbon and very XC.

The most SC's you will see is Rotorua NZ apparently they sell as many as Oz does in total.

Mate with the shop just got a fat bike in as a demo.

Actually if I was to open a bike shop in Perth, would be 90% road unfortunately. The high end Mamil dream machine is where its at here. Nice but affordable roads bikes along the lines of Boardman would be perfect.
Would love to stock Rocky mountain though. I spent most of university wanting the one Psyclewerx had in its window and the new stuff looks amazing.

Are Norco worth a look for you? They seem to do some well respected bouncy bikes and the geography of head office and manufacture might work for you.

Mondraker or BMC.

Whyte for value.
Orange for contrast.

I'd need giant for my roadie customers though, sorry.

My mate stocks Rocky and sells out of them very quick. Exceedingly popular bikes, I'm borrowing an element to race on at the end of November.

My LBS does very well on ridgeback & Genesis-so Madison would be a no brainer. Just because I like the look of them ,Kinesis & then a couple of dandy lines - Bianci?Cannondale?
Wollie boolie ,buff, Endura ,Gore bike wear , Giro helmets ,Fizik saddles , shimano shoes et'al .
Oh -torq stuff and cliff bars.

Saracen Whyte and Genesis would offer a good range of bikes. Not much though for mamils.

Oh and how about the well established niche brand Marin?

I'd imagine import costs could scupper thoughts of Orange, Genesis and Whyte.

Equally, they're all quite small brands. What sort of dealer and warranty back up would they offer at that distance?

Pyga, commencal, pivot, norco, rocky mountain, transition.
Not as low end as spesh but most have some value options.

Lapierre do a full range from basic to all singing. I'd have to sell Banshee. Awesome bikes with a decent following.
Charge bikes. UK, good back up and offer everything from urban to full on fat bikes at a decent price.
Finishing kit - Spank. The usual shimano/sram Groupset stuff. Maxxis tyres.

Given the wide open spaces and bikepacking potential in Australia ir might be worth looking at Salsa and Surly.

A pal who has an LBS rates Merida highly to deal with plus Cube.