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Listen up folks, for I have astounding news to share with you and you will not want to miss this one!! ……First of all, a question: Have
you seen those little snippet videos, around a minute and a half in
length, of those little baby goats just jumping around their pens, or
around a back yard, or even a chicken coop? You
know, the ones where the little buggers just wiggle and shake around on
their tiny little struts like they just ate a bag of Mexican jumping
beans and downed three shots of Strictly Forbidden and decided to try
and broad jump over a bowl of alligators? Welp…that’s just about how I feel right now because I have some really interesting news to share with y’all.
I
know that most of the people who read the pages that fly out of my head
are probably cyclists, or, at the very least, in and around the cycling
community at large, and I know that most of them know about the closing
of Nebo Ridge Bicycles in Carmel/Zionsville. We’ve
all been in there from time to time for one thing or another…yes, even
me, the guy who owned that other store in that other city over by Deer
Creek Music Center. I had a
great relationship with the owner of Nebo Ridge, Tim Casady, and we
often traded product with one another, when in need, in a sort of
friendly little fraternity of just the sort of people we are…bike
industry people.
A bike industry person is a member of a peculiar species. He or she is, shall we say, outside of the bell curve on most valid and reliable measures of psychological steadiness. The evidence, you ask? Well, let’s look at what we really do at a bike shop, as an owner, or even a person with a, say, interest in the business: We
generate this idea in our heads that we can open a business that sells
the very objects of our most childhood-dream, adolescent-daredevil,
hero-worshiping desire and we think we can turn a decent profit doing
it! It seems simple in the beginning. You
lease or buy a chunk of commercial real estate and deck it out with a
shit ton of industry-supplied fixtures, thick, durable paint, and
gleaming, polished concrete floors. You
sniff around town until you can find some reasonably-priced counters
and computers and tools and an air compressor and you just start
building bikes and, well, People Will Come, won’t they? …..well, sure they will. And they do. And they did, in my case as well as Tim’s.
And there you have it, in a nutshell. There is, of course, a lot more to it, but that is all that is really required to get started. That
and a bunch of money to pay for all that stuff that you just used to
make your store so purty, and that you otherwise wouldn’t mind if it
suddenly all started rocketing off into the heavens and exploding into
fiery smitherines. Because that’s what you absolutely have to be prepared to do to make it in this business. You have to be prepared to lose it all. You have to go for broke and not look back. You have to do your best to carry the best, most current, most inclusive, and most relevant product
you can at all times, no matter your business or personal financial
situation…and you have to have that product in stock in all sizes, RIGHT
NOW. And that’s not to
mention the service side of the business, which we all desperately hope
will be our “profit center” where we make all the "big bucks". If you liken a bike shop to a human body, the service department is the spine and brain…the central nervous system, if you will. It is absolutely critical to have a capable and timely service department. Even if that service department is just one person. Those
shiny 10K dream machines are what brings ‘em in the front door, but
that greasy guy in the back who sometimes throws very heavy steel tools
into the walls while shouting gibberish at the new Grom, but who also
bleeds your hydro disc brakes at 9PM on a Friday night because you have a
race the next day and you slammed into a stump two hours ago...that
guy? He's the one who keeps ‘em coming back.
I got off on a tangent there…as I often do. But I felt like I had to describe a little of what it is like to own or work in a bike shop. It is tough. It is a very tough business. The
margins are very tight these days on those beautiful carbon works of
art you see hanging all over our well-trodden concrete floors. You have to have a lot of heart to make it in this business. You absolutely have to care a shitload about your customers and your community. You
must always allow the Cub Scouts in and show them how to signal in
traffic and teach them about lights and helmets and noisemakers and GET
THEM THEIR WEBELOS BADGE!!! Volunteer
for every bike rodeo you can within a five mile radius and sit out in
the rain at a Fall Festival providing free service just because you care
about making sure some kids’ bikes are safe. Sponsor
a local club and volunteer your floor space for them all to come in and
sweat all over everything and elevate the humidity to dangerous levels
because they are raising tons of money to fund a cancer research
program. Organize the
largest, regularly-scheduled enthusiast group ride in the city and shout
directions and announcements out of a bullhorn because all the best
cyclists in the city NEED YOU TO DO IT. Do all of this stuff because you love doing it and it makes your heart full.
I know what the primary goal of any business should be. It should be to maximize profits. I
did my best when I had my store and I know Tim did his best at Nebo
Ridge and I know, very personally, what Tim did for the cycling
community in Indianapolis and the maximization of profits had very
little to do with those things. He is a good man and he ran a great business and many people are sad to see him call it quits. For my part, I know that I have many more friends now than I did before I started doing the Nebo group rides on Tuesday nights. I have met so many people on that ride and cultivated so many great relationships because of it that it astonishes me. And it also made me a much stronger bike racer! If you ride the A group at the Nebo Tuesday night ride, you are strong. So keep coming……. ;)
And
now it’s time for the news I promised six paragraphs ago…Gray Goat
Bicycle Company will be taking over the space formerly occupied by Nebo
Ridge Bicycles and I will be the general manager there. We
will be the northern outreach of the Gray Goat organization and we will
strive to do our best to serve the already well-obliged cycling
community in and around Carmel, Zionsville, and Westfield, Indiana. I expect that we will have a well-trained and ready and willing staff to help out in any way we can. Exciting times, buddy-roo! Stay tuned and keep your tires pumped up because I will be waiting at the back door at six o’clock next Tuesday….
-El Conchristador
