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Nov
4
Electric Bikes Fill the Void at Tokyo Motor Show
Filed Under Cycling, Gear, Industry News, Video | 3 Comments
Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking with a very knowledgeable industry expert and the topic of electric bikes came up – as it seems to more and more often lately. We chatted a bit about the opportunities in the category, and he mentioned how Yamaha had made a splash a few weeks back at the Tokyo Motor Show with their line of e-bikes. Not having been aware of the famous motorcycle (and piano, stereo and flute) maker’s e-bikes, I did a quick search for coverage. Here’s what I found.
It turns out that many car makers decided to not exhibit at this year’s big Tokyo Motor Show due to the effect the economic slowdown has had on that industry, and electric bikes helped fill the void on the show floor. Click the image to watch a brief video report from the show by CCTV. The video mentions that Yamaha actually created the first electric assist bicycle back in 1993. I can’t vouch for that claim, but it’s encouraging that the company sees great potential for e-bikes in the near future.
On a side note, it’s interesting that these electric bicycles are on display at the Motor Show. I caught a glimpse at an industry survey, recently, of IBD’s and their interest (or lack of, as it turns out) in selling electric bikes and have to wonder if the specialty bicycle dealer channel will be seen as the place to go for e-bikes in the future or if it will be served by others as well in a significant way. These could be motorcycle dealers or mass merchant electronics dealers like Best Buy. I know there has been a debate in the bicycle community about whether e-bikes should be considered bikes or essentially the equivalent of motorcycles that happen to run on batteries. Designed the proper way, I believe that they can fit into the bicycle category.
I have to say, I finally got to seriously try out an electric assist bike (a Giant) at our East Coast Demo event in Providence a few weeks ago, and I’m now convinced of the potential for the category. If a dealer can get the right customer on one, it’s an instant eye opening experience. Providence’s Mayor David Ciclline (in the photo below talking to Brad Klipping from Giant) came out to the event to try some bikes and I had to really talk him into trying the Giant. The mayor is a cyclist himself, and I think his pride was preventing him from giving the bike a try. He gave in and the smile came across his face right after the first electric-assisted pedal stroke as it did for me. To give him full credit as a cyclist, after the e-bike ride we hit the demo trails on a pair of the new Breezer MTB’s.
I would recommend a deliberate look into e-bikes for bike dealers out there who are on the fence. And give them a second chance if you have had less than stellar experiences with them in the past – it’s a whole new ball game with some high quality innovations by many companies.
Jul
20
Video: Tompkins & Fries on OutDoor Demo East 2009
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, OutDoor Demo East, Racing, Video | 1 Comment
Here’s a brief video we filmed back at Sea Otter earlier this year with Interbike show director, Andy Tompkins, and New England race promoter and announcer extraordinaire, Richard Fries. As we’ve announced, our OutDoor Demo East event in Providence, Rhode Island, will have two days open to the general public (Oct 10 & 11) following the trade-only days (Oct 8 & 9). We’re partnering with Richard’s company, GSD Promotions, to hold the public expo in conjuction with their Providence Cyclocross Festival. Lots of bike gear and cross racing – what could be better?
Public day registration isn’t open just yet, but if you’re a retailer, you can go ahead and register to attend here. Retailer badges allow access to all four days of the event – both trade-only and public. Find info about OutDoor Demo East here at the main Interbike website.
Jun
17
Bicycle Film Festival kicks off in NYC today
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, Video | Comments Off
For those of you lucky enough to find yourselves close enough to New York City, you owe it those of us that aren’t to attend the Bicycle Film Festival that kicks off tonight. Look for parties, rides and oh, yeah, films from today (June 17) through Sunday the 21st. The event is sponsored by beverage company42Below and a bunch of other forward thinking brands and organizations.
Check out their website for the schedule and details. Here’s the trailer for the 2009 BFF:
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a BFF event in Vegas in September?
May
8
Maurice Tierney, publisher of new Bicycle Times magazine
Filed Under Cycling, Exhibitor News, Industry News, Interbike, Video | 1 Comment
While at the recent Sea Otter Classic event in Monterey, CA, I was really pleased to be able to run into Maurice Tierney, publisher of the new Bicycle Times magazine and the venerable Dirt Rag, in the media center. He was kind enough to step outside into the unseasonably sunny Monterey weather for a quick interview.
The inaugural issue of BT had just been published and I was very excited to finally lay eyes on it since it further extends the reach of urban and transportation cycling in the media. I’ve really enjoyed the passion for cycling and the personality that the Dirt Rag team has always put into that magazine and have great expectations for what they can do with BT. Best of luck, guys!
TALES FROM SEA OTTER 2009 – Bicycle Times from CYCLEFILM on Vimeo.
Funny story about this video. So I start interviewing Maurice and notice that he’s got a clear plastic disposable fork sticking out of the right side of his cap. Now as a straight-laced native New Englander, who am I to question Maurice on his sense of style? Maybe all the cool kids are sporting plastic fork head gear these days. So I say nothing and continue the interview. After we’re done and just chatting a bit, he leans his head over and out falls the fork with a plunk on the concrete. He says, “Hey, was this fork sicking out of my hat the whole time?” Turns out he was camping out while at SOC and had just left his camping fork in his cap by accident. So don’t go getting any strange ideas about Maurice from his, um, accessorizing.
Bicycle Times on the web: www.bicycletimesmag.com
Follow Bicycle Times on Twitter: @bicycletimes
Video produced by Cyclefilm
Apr
30
Gary Fisher on Social Media from Sea Otter
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, Video | 2 Comments
At the Bicycle Leadership Conference that took place in Monterey, California, just before Sea Otter this year, I gave a presentation to the attendees on the topic of social media marketing. It was an interesting opportunity given the make up of the audience at the BLC: primarily the executive leadership of all the major brands in the bike industry. That’s an interesting group to speak to on the topic because at most other seminars, talks and panel sessions on the subject, the audience is typically made up of people in marketing that already “get it” about SM for the most part. What many of these marketing professionals and SM evangelists are looking for are tools to use when trying to explain the value of SM to upper management at their companies – exactly who I would be speaking directly to.
In framing the “why” of SM to executives, I believe that it’s imperative to address the value proposition that SM can bring to their companies. What is it that CEO’s and presidents need to hear to be convinced? It’s not just the fact that conversations are happening online (yawn…) – it’s how engaging these people through SM can add value to their companies and empower and excite employees and customers. I hope that we – I asked Chris Matthews of Specialized’s marketing department to co-present with me – were able to do that. (I’m still planning a full post on this as soon as I can finish writing it up.)
With that said, one of the examples we gave in our presentation (along with the photo above from fisherbikes.com) when describing the importance of *authenticity* and *personality* when engaging in social media, was Mr. Gary Fisher. If you’re at all familiar with the bike industry, you know what we mean about Gary. I was really hoping to run into Gary in the expo area of Sea Otter to ask him a few questions about his use of SM since he’s become a very active – and interesting – user of Twitter over the last few months. As you can see below, I did and was able to get some great insight into his use of the tool and what it means to his mom, of all people. Again, with the great video skills of Markus from Cyclefilm.
TALES FROM SEA OTTER 2009 – Gary Fisher from CYCLEFILM on Vimeo.
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Apr
29
Mia & Laura of Momentum Magazine Interview
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, Video | Comments Off
You meet all kinds of people walking the aisles at the Sea Otter Classic. One of the good ones I ran into – literally, into the arms of a big hug from her – was Mia Kohout, publisher of Momentum Magazine. Mia was visiting Sea Otter for the first time with her coworker Laura Brennan and the two of them were enlightening the racing masses about the self-propelled lifestyle. On the way (through San Jose) to Monterey, they managed to entice Gary Fisher to share a campsite with them at Laguna Seca, and the three were seemingly inseparable the whole event. Read Laura’s take on the event here.
If you’ve been living under a rock, Momentum is the “Magazine for self-propelled people.” They celebrate urban, transportation and utility cycling and generally promote a fun and practical cycling lifestyle. Partnering with Momentum, we were able to put on the awesome Urban Legend Fashion and Art Show at last year’s Interbike.
Since we happened to be standing next to a pair of purple comfortable and stylishly fuzzy chairs in the Cannondale team tent, I thought this was a perfect spot to capture Mia and Laura’s thoughts on the magazine, Sea Otter and whatever cycling thoughts were passing through their minds at the time. Good stuff. Enjoy and read the magazine.
TALES FROM SEA OTTER 2009 – Momentum from CYCLEFILM on Vimeo.
Apr
27
2009 Bicycle Leadership Conference Video
Filed Under Industry News, Interbike, Video | 2 Comments
For the first time ever, the annual Bicycle Leadership Conference was held in Monterey, California, from April 15-17 to coincide with another big industry gathering, the Sea Otter Classic. Typically, the BLC has been held in February in warm weather locales such as San Diego or Phoenix with the goal of getting people out of their businesses so that they can work on them, sharing notes with their peers in the industry on topics of mutual importance and finding better ways of working together. Monterey cooperated by playing the part of warm weather locale very nicely this year. Attendees also played nicely with a great spirit of openness.
The BLC is run by the BPSA (Bicycle Products Suppliers Association) and as such is primarily focused on supplier-related issues. In the past, it has varied in format and has been more equally weighted between supplier and retailer topics. Regardless, retailers are still welcome at the event and are encouraged to attend. It’s a great conference with a true “who’s who” of the bicycle industry present.
As you’ll see in our highlight video below, that was produced by Markus Neuert of Cyclefilm for us, this year’s event was notable for the refreshing openness among the attendees in sharing information about their businesses – especially given the economic climate we’re all operating under. Attendance is primarily executives from all of the major bike, component and accessory manufacturers and, understandably, some have been hesitant to share sales figures in the past while the president of their major competitor was sitting in the third row listening. What did we learn as a result of this openness? Well, I learned that despite the serious drop-off in sales in the last quarter following the economic drop-off that occurred a few weeks after the last Interbike, things aren’t all gloom and doom. Most retailers seem to be holding there own and still benefiting from the continued popularity of hybrid and pavement bike categories and labor in maintaining older bikes – a great indicator of the sustainability of the transportation and utility bike segments that were strengthened by the high gas prices of last year. With that said, there may be a looming factory inventory level issue ready to rear its head later this year depending on how sales go this Spring and Summer. Chris Speyer, of Raleigh, used a great analogy in describing the challenges that inventory can be during his industry statistics presentation (paraphrased): “Inventory is like fish: great when it’s fresh, but starts to stink if you don’t use it quickly.”
BICYCLE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE 2009 from CYCLEFILM & Interbike on Vimeo.
Notes: John Nedeau is VP of Global Sales for SRAM in addition to being head of the BPSA as he is listed in the video, and Al Budris was the conference director for the 2009 BLC.
Apr
20
Levi Leipheimer discusses Twitter at Sea Otter
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Racing, Video | 1 Comment
Just back from the Sea Otter Classic. If you’ve ever been but missed it this year, you really missed some unbelievable Monterey weather – absolutely gorgeous. Felt a little like we were at Bootleg Canyon in September.
I was up there for two reasons, one was to attend and present at the annual Bicycle Leadership Conference on the topic of social media marketing. I’ll be posting about that soon. The other reason was to meet with members of the industry to see how things are going and to try to capture some interesting video interviews with my new good friend, videographer/producer Markus Neuert of Cyclefilm.
So in the first of many videos we’ll be posting up, here’s one that ties both reasons together as we checked in with Levi Leipheimer about his use of Twitter.
Follow us on Twitter:
Levi: @levi_leipheimer
Me: @interbike
Cyclefilm: @cyclefilm
Mar
30
Video: RVCA X Cinelli present Pressure
Filed Under Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, Video | Comments Off
I referenced the RVCA-Cinelli partnership in a post last year, but Leanne, my counterpart in marketing for our sister-show ASR, just let me know that RVCA just posted a video about the their collaboration. It’s rare that our two worlds (bikes and surf/skate/swimwear/snow) intersect like this.
I find the partnership interesting not just because of the beautiful bikes that the art project created, but because it is a community that’s celebrating the bike outside of the traditional bike industry community. Am I wrong? BRAIN even had an article commenting on what channels are servicing these new bike categories, since it apparently was not the IBD. At the time, at least. Have things changed since last summer?
Enjoy the video, anyway. Antonio Colombo of Cinelli is featured as a long-time supporter of art-bike collaboration going way back the Cinelli Lazer days in the 80’s. (As an aside, I remember when I was working in Manhattan back in the early 90’s, I loved heading over to Conrad’s Bike Shop near the United Nations (around 41st St) during lunch breaks. It was a small old-school high end road shop that had a ’shrine’ to the Lazer in the back of the shop. They had one of the few Lazers made hanging from fishing wire, floating above a set of ancient wood rollers. If I remember correctly, the Cinelli Lazer is significant because it was one of the first modern aero bikes).
Cinelli x RVCA Presents: Pressure from RVCA on Vimeo.
Mar
27
Courtesy of our friend Mike Geraci of Base Camp Communications is this video from Alex Bogusky of advertising agency titans Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Good stuff. It’s short. Watch it.