That conversation is about to get a bit louder with Google’s recent entry into the Yelp territory. Aside from the obvious impact that Yelp has on the brands that are discussed on their site, Yelp’s business model has proven to be very lucrative. And Google wants a piece of it.

In typical Google fashion, they are adding their own innovative touch to an existing concept with their Google Place Pages and even newer Favorite Places services. Just the search market share that Google commands alone gives pause for concern. Just envision all those searches for bikes and accessories that begin on Google and end up on a Google Maps page with a list of local retailers down the left side – each one with a 1-5 star rating and list of reviews from customers.

With all the talk about the impact that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have on businesses, you may want to consider that managing and monitoring your online presence on services like Google Maps and Yelp are arguably even more important to a brick-and-mortar retailer.

Recently Google launched Favorite Places, a service that seeks to further highlight popular local businesses and help promote its existing Places service. In the announcement, Google said that they have “identified over 100,000 businesses in the U.S. as “Favorite Places on Google” based on Google users’ interaction with local business listings,” and will be sending out special decals for placement in the storefront windows. This physical element of an online service is nothing new as Yelp provides similar labels to businesses, but Google is taking it to the next level by adding QRCodes to each that allow people to scan them with an appropriate smart phone and instantly access all the information available about that business. You may have noticed QR or similar codes appearing more frequently lately such as this one:

These codes are becoming increasingly popular, although much more slowly than in places like Japan where they appear everywhere as easy ways to get more information via your cell phone or mobile device. I worked for a Japanese company in the past and all of their business cards now have small codes on them that contain contact information. Here’s a link to an QR Code generator if you’d like to play around with them (like I did above).

Curiosity piqued, I tried searching to see if any bike shops are listed as a favorite place. Unfortunately, only one popped up. The lucky (and popular) shop is Coventry Cycle Works in (of course) Portland, Oregon.

Such local consumer review and popularity services are only going to become more popular and prevalent and a bigger influence on your retail customers’ behavior. Add emerging sites like Foursquare and Gowalla to the list of online location-based services and trends to be aware of as a store owner. With the growing capabilities of mobile devices, look for this data to continue to guide shopping and buying decisions – even while they are standing in your store. Just remember to keep using your good old-fashioned customer service and people skills on them. That rule never changes.

If you’re a retailer reading this, have you seen the effect of these services on your business yet? Have you been active in monitoring and responding to that community?

One last thing, the first person to decode my QR Code above wins a pair of Sock Guy Interbike socks. Just right the answer in the comments below and make sure to enter your valid email address in the right spot.

Have you registered for Interbike, yet? It’s not free anymore, but still more than worth the price of entry. Register here online to save time at the convention center.

This is an ideal opportunity to network and discuss bicycle advocacy best practices. Join the conversation that makes our communities bicycle friendly and our industry stronger.

Refreshments will be served.

Date: Wednesday, September 23
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: Planet Bike booth #1425

presented by: Planet Bike, Bikes Belong and Interbike

See the invite/event on Facebook here.

Rest assured that no travel company has the authority or ability to interfere with your Interbike booth and the only company that can claim to have any relationship with Interbike is our official travel partner, Travel Planners Inc. You can access their site securely through the Hotel & Travel page of Interbike.com.

While we do guarantee the lowest rates at the hotels on our list through Travel Planners and carefully monitor and adjust your rate if the hotel lowers prices after you make your reservation, there is no obligation to use them in booking your travel and housing for the show. If you choose to use another travel company, we strongly recommend that you choose a well-known and reputable company to avoid any disappointments or problems down the road.

This has been a great concept and all of us basked in the neutral BRAIN glow as dealers opened up to us and expressed their hopes, expectations, results and experiences of the past and future of the bike business. And it was a good excuse to get out of the office and ride a really nice bike for a week…

At Interbike in 2007, I was walking around with a camera crew from Cycling.TV looking for footage of interesting sites and events to capture. I led them over to the MirraCo booth where bmx legend Dave Mirra was supposed to be wrapping up an autograph session. Since the booth looked quiet, I walked up to the guy standing near the entrance to the booth and ended up asking Dave Mirra himself if “Dave was coming back to sign more autographs” later that day. Mr. Foot, meet Mr. Mouth. Without saying a word, Dave pointed to his head with both hands and smiled. Now, I don’t think I can be faulted for not recognizing fellow-bmx kegend, Perry Kramer, he of PK Ripper fame, last Tuesday on our tour, but I was darn happy to see him in the BRAIN office again on Friday so that I could properly introduce myself and express my excitement in meeting the Man. Turns out we’re almost neighbors and he offered to show me some trails near my house. The fact that he is PK would explain why he was jumping every curb and bunny-hopping sewer greats the whole ride on his flat-bar road bike.

Another very familiar face (and new ex-coworker) getting ready for the day’s ride was Robert Roman, now in the employs of Bicycle Retailer. After 9 years serving Interbike exhibitors, Robert decided to make a change and move a few exits north on the 5 freeway to our industry’s trade mag. We’ll miss his wit and sense of humor here, but will hopefully still get to experience his powerful turn of the pedals on a regular basis as BRAIN’s lunch rides frequently go past Interbike’s HQ.

Nice to see Fred Clements, executive director of the NBDA, working from the saddle of a bike. This is why we all work in this industry, right?

Mr. Tony Lo, CEO of Giant Bicycles. Guest of honor on today’s ride and inspiration for the whole tour itself. Tony’s industry tour of Taiwan last year planted the seed for this Stateside version. Tony is an avid cyclist and rides with style and class.

Scene from an Orange County bike path as we wind our way from BRAIN’s offices to our first stop in Dana Point. I believe that’s Kip Mikler of Bike Magazine, Megan Tompkins and Nicole Formosa of BRAIN (L to R).

Robert and Tony enjoying the typically sunny, but unusually hot November OC day during the ride.

First stop of the day: Revo Cycles in Dana Point, CA: Bicycles & Espresso.

Darrin Duhamel – ex corporate suit and current Revo owner, explaining his bike retailing philosophy to the group. Darrin woke up one day unhappy with his life as a globe-trotting executive and decided to go into business in one of his passions: cycling or scuba. Guess which one won?

Kip Mikler with Andrew Juskaitis of Giant listening in at Revo.

Chris Zigmont of Pedro’s doing his job (actually Tyler’s) of spreading the love with bike shop mechanics – the people that use their products the most and the ones most likely to recommend it to their customers.

Revo Cycles’ colors:

Some of the other brands that Revo carries besides BMC, Bianchi and Specialized. I think you can infer the typical Revo customer by these brands.

The tour group stoppong for a photo opp overlooking Dana Point Harbor.

Marc Sani, publisher of Bicycle Retailer on the roads of Dana Point.

Our lunch time rides here from the Interbike offices typically include a swing by Doheny Beach. Below, Lance Camisasca of Lifeboat Solutions and Interbike consultant and Zig from Pedro’s ride by some volleyball players at Doheny.

What am I supposed to do at South Coast Cyclery again? SCC believe in making what they do obvious – no ifs, ands or buts.

Andrew from Giant (center) began his bike industry career in high school here at South Coast in San Juan Capistrano. SCC is Interbike’s LBS, by the way, a short walk from our office.

Passionate owner, Jim Curwood, espousing some of his many ideas for growing the bike industry. Megan doesn’t seems convinced… If you live in Orange County and watch (very) late night television, you’ve certainly seen some of Jim’s homegrown “Buy My Bikes!” ads. He says that the ads that he runs around the holidays have a big impact on sales. A perk of working for Jim? He believes in saying “thank you” to his employees at the end of each day and buys lunch for them daily.

Call me immature, but I love bike industry stickers. My tool chest back home in my garage is plastered with them. When I see a display in a shop like the door below at SSC, I’ll pause for a few minutes admiring all the classic and retro company logos. When a shop’s been in the same place for close to 30 years, there’s bopund to be a great collection.

SCC also have an awesome collection of Rosarito-Ensenada posters. R-E is an anual ride in Baja California, Mexico, with thouands of riders. Tons of So Cal bikers head down for the party on wheels just south of Tijuana.

Karl and Kenny have tended the wrenches at SCC for many years and are a friendly and knowledgeable team. And yes, they speak Campagnolo.

Jim has a poster in the window for the First Annual High School Mountain Bike Series.

In the courtyard in front of SCC saying our goodbyes.

Merry, my trusty Giant Advance 2 treated me well this week of the tour. Too bad I need to give her back.

Waiting for the invite for the next dealer tour…

One constant at all but one shop we’ve visited so far is that fixed gear bikes are firmly entrenched in their shops. Most had a special section devoted to fixie gear, but even traditionally mountain bike focused shops like The Path in Tustin have seen fixie cultire become an important catgory and visible presence on the show floor as evidenced by the MKS and Nitto caps for sale.

Here’s part of The Path’s fixie parts and accessories section that was typical of most shops on out tour. And remember, this is Orange County – not New York, San Francisco or even LA. The fixed gear phenomenon has hit suburbia pretty hard.

Another common sight in our shops was colored Velocity wheels – a big seller.

The Path\ had a pretty awesome invengtory of Chris King componentry on display:

Marc Sani of Bicycle Retailer talking to The Path’s Tani Walling:

Santiago Cycling, just a few hundred yards away from The Path. Another true roadie oriented shop. He’s solely a Trek dealer and sought them out back in the 80’s since they were a USA made brand and still makes their high end bikes here.

Owner Robert Kahler, owner of Santiago Cycling. He’s in fatigues to commemorate Veteren’s Day. Thanks for your service, Robert! Robert is a former California state road race champ and national team member and his wife, Jill Koval, raced for the 7-11 women’s team.

A big part of Robert’s business is training. He has a huge fleet of Monark ergometers and wind trainers and rollers to lead classes of up to 50 riders in indoor training sessions that he calls “Torture Clinics”.

Lunch in downtown Orange at Watson’s Drug and Soda shop with the tour gang and John Pavlisin Jr., owner of Orange Cycle.

Arriving at Orange Cycle:

I have never seen more beach cruisers in one place than I saw today at Orange Cycle. Needless to say, an important category for this family-oriented shop.

Al from Orange Cycle educating us on the influences that are bringing suburban kids into the fixie scene. He pointed to music videos with the bikes, dj’s, Complex Magazine among other influences. He is amazed that kids will pay $100 for NJS-certified toe straps. Hate to sound like an old fart here, but seeing high school kids on fixies in my suburban San Diego neighborhood just floors me and I’m really curious where they are getting the vibe from.

In the back of Orange Cycle, there’s a semi-hidden room/lounge/office that is just unreal. These photos don’t do it justice. John P. Sr. served up some awesome espressos and some wine to our group in a the uber-posh room. Fully stocked kitchen, bar and lounge area made with fine wood and granite counters. You just wouldn’t expect something like this in a bike shop. Sort of remids me of the hidden kitchen in the Italian Pavilion at Interbike – if you know about it, they’ll serve you a fine pasta lunch.

Tyler James, tech guru with Pedro’s and Elysa from Giant enjoying Orange’s hospitality.

Throught the magic of  Twitter and updates of our tour throughout the day, Steve Boehmke found out we had seen him in his truck while we were eating lunch. He called me and met up with us at Orange with his bike and gear to join us on the rest of our ride. In the photo below riding next to Steve is none other than Perry Kramer, former BMX pro and Hall of Famer. If you’ve ever heard of the classic PK Ripper model from SE Racing, Perry’s the “PK” in the name. I didn’t realize who he was until later in the day – just thought he was a really cool guy named Perry. He’s a sales rep for Giant here in SoCal and led us around Orange County today.

Here’s Chris Zigmont of Pedro’s, 2003 ABA Grand Nationals Champion next to his trophy at Fullerton Bicycles. You don’t see enough trophy’s like this anymore. Growing up it seemed like every pizza joint had a few on a shelf. All joking aside, Fullerton takes their BMX racing heritage and business very seriously and had more than one of these trophys on display at the shop.

Mike Franze, owner of Fullerton and Buena Park Bicycles. Great guy with a passion for the industry. He’s working with Giant on re-merchandising the store – obviously a big Giant dealer.

Just some quick comments from today since it’s late. Unfortunately, I’m back in the office for some meetings Wednesday and Thursday. I’ll be making a return to the tour on Friday. This has been a really insightful trip so far getting to know so many great dealers and learn about their businesses and where they see bike retail heading. More on some of what we’ve learned once I’m back and settled.

Here’s the gang at the Bicycle Retailer & Industry News world headquarters before we set off. We’re all on very nice Giants and are sporting Giant and Pedro’s jerseys courtesy of the ride sponsors. Thanks! Left to right: Chris Zigmont of Pedro’s, Jason Norman, Megan Tompkins and Marc Sani of BRAIN, An Le of Giant, Lynette Carpiet of BRAIN, myself, and Nicole Formosa of BRAIN.

First stop was Ladera Cyclery in Ladera Ranch. Nice higher end shop with a range of family to high end road and tri gear. Jeff is the owner and is passionate about cycling.

Very different and up next is the classic shop Bicic Sports owned by Marcel Calborn. BS is in the vein of classic road shops. They definitely speak Campy here. I remember first seeing him almost 10 years ago at the ol LA Bike Expo selling Mapei team bikes since he was friends with someoneo on the team. Very cool. Still has tons of classic bikes and gear in the shop. Endless trove of stories to go along with them.

Marcel has made his own brand of frames for over 20 years including this old school time trial bike with the Silva aluminum disc wheels. I love this stuff. The counter displays are full of old cranks and Delta Brakes.

How many shops have Colnago and Pogliaghi tandems in stock?

Any shop can have a shop-brnaded water bottle, but how many have shop pantographed cranksets?

If you’re ever in the shop, ask Marcel about his Jacques Villeneuve Vespa. If you don’t know who Villeneuve was, don’t bother.

Edge Cyclesports in Laguna Woods is a contrast to Bici Sports: high end boutique road and tri shop. Only the latest bikes and gear, all super high end. Most striking, though, is how nice and welcoming co-owner Mary Ann is. Maybe it’s because she’s from Ohio. One of the niceset and most fiercely knowledgeable people in the bike industry I’ve met. I’ve been to many high end shops in my life, and unfortunately, many of them come with a high dose of arrogance. Not so at Edge.

Mary Anne made sure to point out the (hard to miss) Ridely Dean – one of the only that have made their way into a shop in the US so far. This was one of THE hot bikes at Interbike this year.

They love Made in USA (and Canada) brands like IF, Calfee and Guru. This IF fixie is beautiful.

On our way to the next shop, we came upon this group of OC fixie hipsters. There’s even a Bianchi Pista in there to complete the look. It’s amazing to me how much fixies have infiltrated suburbia. Where are suburban kids seeing them to get the influence?

When we got to Jax Bicycles in Irvine, we were welcomed by this nice display of balloons, snacks and cool drinks (hope the rest of our tour stops are reading this…).

Dave Hansen, the owner, is passionate about his business and gave us a great presentation on his business philosophy. Jax is a Trek concept store and is very nicely laid out and designed. He’s really focused into the numbers of his business and should be an inspiration to all retailers in that regard. “What gets measured gets done.” He’s very open about his business with both employees and his suppliers. He’s also very willing to help out his fellow retailers as it will elevate the bike retail business for all if all are stronger and doing better. amen.

We’ve got four more shops on the schedule for today. Weather looks good again this morning. Ride on!

Gatherings of the bike industry like this are awesome. Couldn’t enjoy my job anymore than on days like today. Thanks to all retailers that turned out today and hope to see many more of you on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed for decent weather…

It’s late, so here are some photos to give some flavor of what’s going on.

Aisle shot while the sun was still strong. With those trees in the back, this definitely is NOT Bootleg Canyon.

The Jamis and SRAM corner of the Demo. Jamis has over 40 models on display here.

Chris DiStefano of Chris King in the CK booth. Just like in Vegas, one of the more popular booths.

Mike Steidley put on a show for the dealers in attendance to break up the business talk and riding. Richard Fries was the MC. Mike is sponsored by Kenda.

Jamis area at the Demo. They made a real commitment to put on a good show for their retailers this first year.

Meeting of the minds: Tim Blumenthal of Bikes Belong (in blue), Scott Montgomery of Scott USA, and Maurice Tierney of Dirt Rag and the new Bicycle Times magazines. Tim said he liked how he could have a longer conversation with people here without as many distractions as the big show in Vegas. Had a nice lunch with Tim and Lance Camisasca today.

Tim Jackson of Masi having a good chat with some retailers. Just like at Bootleg Canyon, Tim seemed to be constantly busy.

Some of the Specialized bikes on display for demo’ing.

Parlee is one of the regional manufacturers from new England with displays here.

Here’s a retailer from one of the quintessential New England bike shops: the West Hill Shop in Putney, VT on some of the singletrack trails at the Demo site that we spent all day yesterday maintaining and cleaning up. One of the great things about having a demo event here is that the retailers can ride the bikes in conditions that they and their customers will be riding in. Here, that would be rocks, roots, dirt and mud when it’s wet.

I’m way past ready to call it a day, but wanted to get at least a few photos up of setup. They were all taken with my iPhone since the van that I left the real camera in was out running errands all day so that’s why they look crappy. It was a gorgeous sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. Got close to hitting 60 degrees F. Hope the weather holds out for Tues and Wed.

First off, an overview of part of the demo area:

Santa Cruz bicycles tent:

Always great to see Civia bicycles. Come on out to try one yourself, retailers:

You can always count on a large presence for Specialized:

Rocky Mountain bikes:

Fuji has a lot of carbon fiber available to demo in their tent:

Spent most of the day pounding in the these stakes and running Interbike caution tape between them to mark the trails. Think we laid out about 3 miles of this tape today with Lance, Chip and Robert. That and raking, clipping, shoveling and picking up seemingly tons of garbage out of the woods. Why do people go out in the woods to experience nature and then trash it with urban waste? Shame. But I feel like if nothing else, we’re leaving this great park a lot cleaner. Can’t wait for the soreness tomorrow.