Wolf Tooth Components
Have you heard about the recent craze of bikes going from a two derailleur system to a one derailleur system? A “1 by 7, 8,9, 10 or 11sp” system reduces the complexity of the bike, drops weight between the shifter, cable and derailleur, and makes it look cooler.
1 x 10 speed Drivetrain Systems:
As a professional bike mechanic, I am all for things that reduce the amount of parts on your bike. It is very common for a person to roll in with a suspension bike with 21 gears. This is the customer who unknowingly succumbed to the front suspension mountain bike craze that comes with the added monstrosity of a cheap front suspension system and more gears than they will ever need.
Wolf Bike specializes in 1 x 10 speed systems. According to their website, you could run a 9sp chain with one of their patented no-drop chainrings, but it is not the best idea.
From the Wolf Tooth website: “Use a 10 or 11 speed chain. If using a 9 speed drivetrain, plan to use a 10 speed chain (it will shift great), as the 9 speed chain fits too loosely on the ring.”
Announcement: SBR now carries Wolf Tooth Components
The reasons that I am bringing up Wolf Bike Components is to drive the SEO traffic, announce that Standard Bike Repair is a seller of their fine bicycle components and continue my crusade to make bikes simpler so that it is easier to fix them when they come into the shop.
Kevin Stiffler is SBR’s first customer requesting Wolf Tooth Components. He is waiting on the 16T cassette cog which will be ready next week and a 40T red GC cog for Shimano drivetrains.
People in the Cycling Industry Inevitably Turn into Bike Snobs
It is true that just about anybody who is in the bike business eventually turns into a snob. We can’t help it. Bikes are being sold enmasse that are built to sustain a profit as well as to ride. The original bicycles handcrafted in apartments in Italy were built by guys who planned to ride them. That means that they built by the same guys who intended to ride them as well as repair them.
Bicycles need repair inevitably. Certain bikes built with quality can go without a major tune-up for years as long as it does not suffer a wreck or left outside for multiple winters. Recently I replaced cables and overhauled the bearings on a bike that had never seen a mechanic before. It was over thirty years old. It wasn’t ridden that much and it was stored inside.
Niagara Cycle: Operates within Amazon and without
As a bike shop, are we supposed to seek a moral stance and refuse to take place in the game of Amazon because their existence has lowered margins of bike parts? Standard Bike Repair could gain from selling the items of it’s wall over the course of winter. As a business person managing the company checking account, you start to see inventory as cash on the wall. Most of the parts can be bought back again from our part distributors in as quick as 24 hours.
A Bike that is left Outside
If the bike is left outside, the fork that is heavy and causes the cyclist inefficiency for every pedal stroke that is unnecessarily cycled through the fork, it is common for it to seize. Extra parts make for extra things to repair.
Latest Attempt to produce an Online Inventory
Here is the Google doc that is embedded in the page as an example of SBR’s inventory. I include the basic characteristics as well as price, link to the item and cost of goods sold. I don’t necessarily want to include the COGS, which is typically unknown to the average consumer, but I can’t figure out how to hide that particular information from the website user.
Here is why I am willing to show the down and dirty cost of goods sold:
1. With the rise of Amazon, ebay, “pro deals”, current and former industry insiders already know it anyway.
2. I want to use this sheet too. With Google docs, I can upload an item with any of my five devices. I could bring a laptop to the computer and a backpack of parts and list a dozen items. With this Boulder winter here, all I got is time to do inventory and sell these parts. The question is: how to tell the whole world what I have for sale.
Do you have a website? They say that you have to choose an ecosystem within the tech realm to live in. If you are a bank teller, you live in Hogan. If you own a small business, you get to choose. Common choices include Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and Google. Essentially, if you have a virtual life or a job to do online, you are operating within the rules and environment of that ecosystem. Neighborhood Nerd Grant Meers convinced me to choose Google environment. “Your entire business can run on Google. It is free. You have the added benefit that the more you play Google’s game, the more searchable your business will be. The more likely it is for your prospective buyers to see you, the more chances your business will have to be profitable.”
Google in 25 years
If you were to know where Google is in 25 years, you would probably have a lot of money and power. Where will Google be in 25 years? We are seeing the innovation and size of Amazon move markets and get us talking. What will Amazon be doing for us in 25 years?
