IRVINE, CA (BRAIN)—Bob Mckiernan is still reliving the moment when the raffle numbers called at a recent Shimano Multi-Service seminar bounced around the number he held.
“I knew I was close and could maybe count on a t-shirt. You bet I was surprised when they called my number for a new Dura Ace group,” said Mckiernan, manager of Temple City Bike Shop, in Temple City, California. “My buddy who I carpooled down to the event with still can’t believe it.”
Shortly after getting home Mckiernan was tooling around on local rides in the Pasadena area with his bike built up the new parts. He is still using his 7800 crankset because it’s the length he likes.
“What first catches everyone’s attention is there are no cables outside the tape, then they make the connection that I’ve got the new Dura Ace. People are really excited about it,” he added.
He thinks the new group will find immediate sales regardless of the bad economy. But after that first wave of hardcore enthusiasts he is not so sure the group—or new high-end bikes in general—will win over those for whom the economy is as important as their bike. The shop is taking a wait and see attitude so far and has not been too aggressive getting its hands on the first few new Dura Ace equipped bikes now arriving in California.
Shimano’s Multi-Service tour will still be making six more stops in 2009, with six more groups still set to be raffled off. Shimano techs will be stopping in Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Park Ridge, New Jersey; and Vienna, Virginia in January, and Chicago, Illinois and Minneapolis, Minnesota in February.
—Matt Wiebe
