SOC15: Bulls Bikes Charges into United States with Consumer Direct Sales

When are we going to get Canyon over here? Now that’s what I’m waiting for!

$5800 for the Wild Edge Team, XTR/RS-1 seems very reasonable.

Compare it to a Trek Superfly 9.9 SL XTR or XX1 at $8600 and $9700 respectively…ouch. Its the way of the future I think.

Yeah, Specialized is doing something wrong.

Way to go Bulls!!

Coming to
America.
Not
Yet,
Or
Never?

If your local bike store won’t fix it for you, you can’t blame them. Support your LBS or they won’t be there when you need them.

@DJ we’ll always fix it for you. You’ll just end up paying way more!

Are people really going to spend $6,000 on a bike without a trip to a local store to see it? Or a place to support it.

We get Canyon here in Colombia. Costums charges 35% fee for nationalizing the product, plus 16% sales tax. So $5900 becomes $9240 … just go get the Superfly.

Last needs to come over. if yt and bulls can so can they. get the bundesliga over here….. hehe

Competition is good for the consumer. Good bike shops will adapt and survive.

Good reason to learn to work on your own bike. Buy a good set of specialty tools for $500 and use the other $3.000 for something you enjoy doing with your family. I bet your wife will give you more ride time.

+25 on Canyon

I think that the ccomenters on this site have a biased view. The people reading these articles know their bikes and can probably take care of them. But from my experience working at a shop, the majority of people with the money to buy these big ticket bikes dont know what there talking about and would never be able to figure out how to order one of these online. Theres space for both companies. People on this cite see value in the machine so they will buy direct. Other people see value in salesmanship and servvice so they will buy from trek/specialized

What i don’t like about our LBS (trek and Spec) here in town is that they try to push their products down your throat even when you ask for something else. So, i want a continental tire because i like them but the guy won’t even take it off the wall because he is too busy pushing the Spec tire in my hand. Needless to say, i left, bought my tires online and haven’t/won’t be(en) back.

But good job LBS, your cool attitude is worth the extra 45% you charge for anything.

As a bike shop owner I could care less what brand of bike we work on. However if you take away $1800 margin a week for selling just one bike I would have to bill 30 more hours just to make up for the revenue loss (if the work was there to bill) and hire an employee to do said work which means I really need to bill 60 hours… Anyway, do the math folks online retailers will put a lot of local shops out of business or said shops will need to increase their rates 2x to offset just a sale or two a week. You get what you pay for and with the industry racing to the bottom the customer generally gets left holding the bag. It’s the same with the Shimano shenanigans and the “pro-deals” for beginner and sport racers–the big companies are playing a margin game and cutting through their own distribution chain. As the manufacturers add less and less value to what is quickly becoming a cookie cutter product anyway, your LBS is really the one who can make the wrongs right and give customers more than just another carbon bike. Those who survive will win but the more consumer direct things go the bigger the blood bath on all sides.

How many here are buying a $6k bike they’ve never thrown a leg over, from a brand they’ve never heard of?
I didn’t think so.
This is the problem with consumer direct.

As far as i know is that shops don’t make much money on the bikes anyway, it’s mostly in the parts, accessories and services. That price pressure and market dominance of Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc is pushing Bulls, Canyon, Commencal and other into direct sales. I think it’s a win-win between those, not so much for the big brands of course.

Now will states ban direct sales of bikes like they are Tesla cars?

Shops cannot survive on service, people need a simple lesson in economics.

Here is a simple bike shop model. If i do 40 tuneups a week at 70 dollars a tuneup that equates to $2800 per week . If I do that with one employee and we each earn $30,000 a year that amounts to $1200 in labor per week (with no fica or workmans comp included, with those it’s more like $1650). Any place you rent in a metropolitan area will cost $3000 a month in rent which means another $750 dollars a week (don’t say you can rent a cheap space outside of town-no one will drive that far for service all the time). Add in gas,electricity, internet, phone, insurance, and other expenses and you are spending more than you earn per week. That is assuming you do 40 tuneups year round (which is impossible). This also doesn’t factor in buildout, upkeep, tools, and stock you need on the floor (can’t order everything).

For those of you who say that parts will provide the stop gap, here is a word of wisdom. If you are so “economically savvy” that you buy your bike direct you will also be walking into that shop knowing everyplace that has the parts you need on sale. If that shop is lucky then a $40 part they make $15 on they may make $5. However, if the shop is unlucky then the online seller is grey market and the parts are below their cost. So by ordering them and selling them to you they lose money.

I know that this will release a slew of comments on how the model needs to change and destructive change is good but here are some simple facts. auto Dealerships are smart, new cars are more complicated and expensive. Dealerships survive because they work with the manufacturer to limit the ability of a consumer to fix their own car. Buy a new bmw and then call BMW about directions to change the alternator and see if you get anything but “go to the dealer” or better yet a dial tone. That is how they stay in business, they work as a team. Bike companies fight their dealers at every turn by grey market sales and by simple counter-intuitive logic. Does this sound familiar “our 2015 “blank” is the most sophisticated component we have ever made, but check our website for videos on how to install and maintain it. Shimano, sram, fox, Campy, etc… all do this. I can’t tell you how many botched installs I had to fix because someone thought “its just a bike and the installation videos are online”. Don’t say cars are the same, autozone and the like exist but many do not stock for new cars till they are 2-4 years old. My father has a 2005 dodge sprinter, he couldn’t buy replacement rotors outside of the dealer till 2009.

The fact of the matter is the industry is collapsing. Ridership is down, New riders are not materializing, races are seeing abysmal registration numbers (I know this because every rep, industry person, and race coordinator I know talks non stop about it). Cycling is shrinking. Millennials don’t care about bikes. Some of this relates to bike shops closing. BIg box stores began this, when walmart opens a store in some small town parents buy their kids bike there instead of the lbs. That lbs closes, so does the one in the next town and the next etc…. If you look at a map of bike shops, most that are left are in destination areas like moab, or college towns, or big cities. With no bike shops there is no place to congregate, to immerse yourself in the culture and get into the sport. For all you naysayers, look at tennis- there used to be tennis shops everywhere, now they are gone. Who still plays tennis? It’s a sport for wasp holdovers and foreigners who think its upscale. At the same time where do you buy a tennis racket? Where do you go to learn about tennis? At least tennis players have courts to congregate in. All cyclists have is the side of the road/trail. If that the case then they are out of luck because the next cyclist to pass by cares more about his strava segment then a new riding partner. People use the internet as the end all be all of information, but its filled with repetitive articles. Every article on this site is also on bikeradar velonews pezcycling pinkbike etc… NO new info just re-posted news releases. People can’t find a restaurant in their neighborhood that opened months ago in the real world, but we expect them to learn and take up a lifestyle from a online blog.

So, all you shop owners: why should the public be forced to choose from your slim bike offerings? There are a lot more bikes beyond Trek, Specialized, Giant, and Cannonade. Do you argue just as vociferously against customers buying custom bikes direct from the manufacturer?

Lukee. I wanted to address your comments and say bravo. You are spot on. While everyone likes good prices the direct to consumer in complete bikes and frames is not a great idea.

Yes there are people that know what they are doing in assembly and working on their own high end bikes but for the most part many are clueless.

People will not realize all of this until they don’t have local bike shops to go to to provide all of the little things that they take for granted.

Dude

So I read your post and I would love for you to explain everyone how this shop / business would survive.

Let’s take each of your points.

1.) Service only. So how much per hour would you charge for service? $150.00 per hour? $250.00 per hour. Remember you only have service to work with. So while your mechanic or mechanics are doing repairs you do not have supplemental sales of bikes or clothing or shoes etc going on.

2.) How much do you charge to put together a nice fully internally cable routed road or mountain bike or tri bike? Simple bikes are easy to put build taking maybe an hour. Many times that more expensive the bike the longer it initially takes to put together. So say 3 hours at $150.00 to $250.00 an hour. So $450.00 to $750.00 for a bike build. Does that sound far? Remember you do not have bikes or clothing or shoes etc to sell in your service only shop.

Do you think a customer would pay $450.00 to $750.00 to put together that expensive and many times very technical bike?

3.) A light, open clean environment I agree with but they are just hanging out watching the mechanic or mechanics repair and build bikes? So as there are no bikes or accessories or clothing to browse then what are they doing? Just talking with the mechanics? So remember tine is money and at the labor rates that shop will need to charge if you keep distracting the mechanics it takes them much longer to complete the repairs which are now much more expensive than they used to be. We are working on an hourly rate you see.

4.) Mini Cafe with coffee and beer. Do you have any idea how expensive that is to get set up. We are talking food so the amount of permits needed plus proper plumbing which probably includes adding a double or triple sink, grease trap, possibly better ventilation, refrigeration, etc, etc, etc. I could keep going on about this but the cost to be able to serve a $4.00 Latte or a $5.00 beer is not really worth it.

5.) Ordering the right stuff for your bike. So why would the customers buy parts from you instead of on line. Have you seen the deep discounting that goes on with for example Shimano where the online prices are many time lower than what a dealer can by them for. Remember the customer base is very comfortable going around the shop to buy a bike why would they not buy everything else that way? So do we get to charge buy the hour for the knowledge supplied to the customer on what they need for their bike?

6.) Having a local builder display product is a great thing if there is one in your area so with that point no issue but why would a rep or reps put their products or even samples in the store as you are not buying from them as you are only doing service as you said.

Not trying to be a jerk to you but your idea of the future of the bike shop will mean we will not have bike shops anymore.