On The Pedals
By Jason Giacchino

One Less Choice For Potential Bike Buyers

It’s very likely that June 13th 2008 passed you by without much fanfare but I was saddened to recently learn that the date marks the official and permanent closing of Woodstock Bicycles. After four years of manufacturer-direct internet sales, the brainchild of husband and wife Jimmy and Libby Rigsby sealed up shop for a final time and while I never met them personally, I did have the pleasure of exchanging several electronic correspondence over the months of early 2007 for our review of their full suspension mountain bike (the 707) back in April of last year. In the event that you missed our review, our testers were quite impressed with both the bike’s personality and the price point. Believers in the simple economic theory that the consumer saves money by cutting out the middleman (the bike shop), both the 505 and 707 from Woodstock were prime examples of these savings in action.

And so that brings us to one of the testier debates among the bicycle community by and large: Supporting the local bike shop versus purchasing manufacturer (or in some cases importer) direct. My intention on bringing up this controversial subject matter isn’t to add fuel to the flames (that’s what forums are for, after all) but rather to point out the simple realism that what works for some doesn’t necessarily work for another. Ibex, for example, is one of few manufacturer direct bicycle suppliers that seems to have displayed longevity and perseverance in an ever-changing market place. A few years ago many bike shop owners began expressing growing concern that the internet as a whole (and that does include eBay of course) was hurting both current and potential future business. These concerns weren’t without justification either as the bicycle industry is known for its relatively small profit margins and high overhead cost to begin with- factor in competition coming in from virtually every angle with price points impossible for the LBS to match much less beat and it becomes clear that there was cause for concern.

Of course, these fears aren’t isolated to the bike business either- back in the mid 1990s when the internet was gaining popularity in leaps in bounds, many were quick to label the net as the nail in the coffin for print. Why read the newspaper, magazines, or books when the information could be delivered quicker and produce far less waste in the process? These legitimate predictions have since faded to an equilibrium of digital and paper & ink information. When last I checked, a majority of the morning commuters still carried a folded morning newspaper under their arm just as they did in 1993 proving that apparently both ideals can coexist after all.

Through a recent google search, it seems as though two of the big four online-direct mountain bike suppliers have closed up shop (Kinley and now Woodstock) leaving two (Ibex and Fezzari) to hold the fort. While there aren’t published numbers to either support or contradict claims of local bike shop dismay as a result of the existence of such companies, it seems pretty clear that price shavings alone isn’t enough to guarantee success. Blame it on the skepticism of a “look before purchasing” society or the insecurity of those who doubt their abilities to partially assemble (or to maintain) a product as demanding as a bicycle. Additionally there will always be those who simply feel more comfortable knowing that there is a brick and mortar building and a face with which they can vent to if things don’t go according to plan. In that line of thinking a majority of the customers “stolen away” by online distributors would likely have been stolen away anyway by catalogs, toll-free order lines, and importers anyway. In other words, a true bike shop supporter isn’t going to be swayed by a direct-distributor even if they were giving the product away.

Back to the point of such rambling, however: it’s sad whenever the dream of running a successful business falters, even more so when that dream involves the relatively close-knit family that is the mountain bike niche. We can attest to the fact that Woodstock’s demise certainly had nothing to do with product quality, customer service, or the attitude of its owners. In fact, quite the opposite- dealing with Woodstock made us want to own one more than when we first browsed their catalog. Worse still is the simple reality that the more choices for a potential consumer, the better. This is a universal economic principle that extends well beyond the narrow scope of our own industry. We here at MBT extend our best wishes to Jimmy and Libby in the hopes of their future ventures. While they state only that it was circumstances beyond their control that caused their decision to pull the plug, we can only hope that their path will one day return them to the bike industry.

Questions? Comments? Love letters? Send 'em to Editor@mountainbiketales.com.