Rick Vosper
All articles by Rick Vosper
Bro Deal culture is an integral part of bike culture and just as integral to the bike industry itself. In theory, it’s one of the things that keeps our culture and our industry alive. But in practice it’s also one of the things that holds it back.
As a new generation of competitors enters the once-profitable high-end carbon bike market, everybody’s going to get squeezed … although probably not the way you’re thinking.
New estimates show more than double the number of bike shops in the U.S. as previously thought. Here are the numbers behind those estimates, plus dealer share and what it all means for brands, retailers and, maybe, the future of the bicycle industry.
If competition among IBD, EBD and consumer-direct channels for e-bike dominance isn’t enough, there are two more looming market forces to consider. These have the potential to not just disrupt e-bike markets, but to turn the entire Bike 3.0 business model on its head.
In terms of e-bike units sold, the e-bike-only EBD channel is as big as the IBD. And they’re both growing.
Much Bigger Pond = Much Smaller Frog: The IBD's slice of the e-bike pie is a whole lot smaller than we think it is. It's time we stopped kidding ourselves about that fact ... and start getting a whole lot smarter about what we're going to do about it.
Robbie Kellman Baxter wants you to eliminate your customers and replace them with members. And she's written a book to tell you why you should do it, and how.
In Part Three, we'll talk about what we might do about to deal with the stigmatization of bicycles, and the industry-wide loss of revenue.
This time, we're going to look at how the ghosts of dead cyclists directly — or not so directly — haunt the bike business.
There is nothing the media likes better than a dead cyclist. Unless it’s a dead cyclist who was not wearing a helmet.