27″ Tire Sales Are Up – 10 Speeds Brought Back to Life?

Rich Kelly — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:54:27 +0000

I had the pleasure of having lunch today with a group that included Fred Clements, the head of the National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA). On the walk over to the restaurant here in San Juan Capistrano, I was picking his brain for feedback on what he’s been hearing from his constituents about the price of gas and it’s effect on their businesses. He said that it’s been mostly positive with strong interest in hybrids and cruisers. Then he added that he’d heard a curious thing from one of the biggest bicycle parts distributors in the US: sales of 27″ tires are through the roof this year. That can only mean one thing, in my opinion: people are pulling their old 10-speed bikes from the 70’s and 80’s down from the rafters of their garages or out of their basements and trying to get them back into riding shape – 27″ being the dominant wheel size for those bikes.

It’s been a while since I worked in a shop, but I believe that the 27″ inch size is just a bit larger in diameter than the 700c that is the current road bike standard. I’m sure the quality of 27″ tires is much better now, but it seems like all the 27″ tires I remember replacing at the shop ages ago had sidewalls made of cheap gum rubber that had totally dry rotted.

Any bike retailers out there reading this seeing many older bikes that haven’t seen action for awhile coming in for rejuvenation treatments to become commuters?

SRAM: “We Are Porsche” in Business Week

Rich Kelly — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:30:18 +0000

In another of my non-original posts here, I’m going to reference and plug another’s work again here in scooping this story. This article is right up our alley here at Interbike since it’s a great bike industry B2B story that is playing in the national non-endemic media. If there’s any way we can help promote or facilitate more of that for our industry members, we’re all over it. This is a little late – I was hoping to get this out last Friday when I first heard about it, but well, sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging. Still worth mentioning, though, in case our little site reaches some corner of the world that Bike Biz UK’s does not…

The article that appears on Business Week’s website is titled: “SRAM – A Bike Parts Tour de Force.” Stan Day, the co-founder of SRAM along with his brother and a friend, is the focus of the piece. Obviously written from a non-endemic point of view, there is still plenty of interesting background information about the company (I finally know where the name SRAM came from).

Not to call anyone out here, but there is an intriguing quote from a product manager at one of the major bike manufacturers about SRAM’s place in the OEM market:

“They are not really credible yet.”

While I understand that, from a sales standpoint, Shimano still dwarfs them, I don’t see how SRAM could not be considered a credible player at this point. Now I’m just a marketing guy and have no experience wearing a product manager’s shoes, but I’ve seen plenty of great brands spec’d by people I know and have great respect for with SRAM OEM componentry. [Shimano: I still love my Dura Ace pedals and shoes ] Plus, they’ve got a beer vending machine in the office! Instant cred right there.

By the way, we’re big fans of BikeBiz UK here. Carlton Reid – a great friend of the industry, and burgeoning internet cycling media mogul – got wind of this Business Week article about SRAM’s emergence as a player in the bicycle components game. Definitely worth the read. Check it out here.

Interbike Times » bicycle industry

27″ Tire Sales Are Up – 10 Speeds Brought Back to Life?

SRAM: “We Are Porsche” in Business Week