Retail
Inside Sydney’s Newest Bike Shop
Sydney Electric Bikes has just opened its fifth Sydney location, Centennial Park. Strictly speaking, the new store is in Woollahra but it is directly opposite one of the main entrances to Centennial Park, which is by far the most popular cycling destination in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Centennial Park covers 189 hectares and includes a wide 3.8 kilometre cycling loop. According…
Are Bike Shops Missing the Boat on Electric Scooters?
May bike shops refuse to sell electric scooters and not without valid reasons. In most Australian states they’re still illegal to ride, apart from on private land. But despite this, major retailers such as Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi (pictured) seem to have no such qualms. The day we visited this store in NSW a…
Bicycle Shop Owners Should Charge for New Bike Assembly
Erik Tonkin, the owner of Sellwood Cycle Repair in Portland Oregon recently published an opinion article in Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (USA). Here is some of that article: Bike shops need to charge for their new bike assemblies, and they need the support of bike industry manufacturers to make it happen. Building a bike…
Anaconda: Sold Out… But Still Discounting
A visit to a local Anaconda Store during mid-August revealed a bicycle section completely devoid of all adult bikes. There were a handful of children’s bike models. Normally there would be at least a dozen or more adult bikes on display, but a helpful salesperson explained that, like most other bike retail outlets, they haven’t…
Dealer Making Good Profit Selling Second-Hand Bikes
If you’re a bicycle dealer who is missing out on bike sales because you can’t get enough stock supplied, perhaps you might consider following the example of this USA based shop, who has pivoted his business to buy, refurbish and resell second hand bicycles. Jim Moore owns Moore’s Bike Shop in Hattiesburg Mississippi, a city…
Ebikes Praised on Better Homes and Gardens TV Show
Seven Network’s Better Homes and Gardens presenter James Tobin recently visited Sydney Electric Bikes (SEB) to film what became a five minute segment about the benefits of riding ebikes. Better Homes and Gardens is in its 25th year of production and has been hosted by Johanna Griggs since 2005. Even in this social media diversified…
Google Trends Shows Cycling Search Surge
Our new age of big data may send shivers down this spines of many civil libertarians, but it also reveals fascinating insights that were previously hidden. Using Google Trends software, we looked at the relative number of searches from within Australia for the three biggest bike brands over the past year, followed by four bicycle…
‘Bicycles Are the New Toilet Paper!’ Aussie Dealer Comment Goes Global
When Australian bicycle shop owner Grant Kaplan of Giant Sydney made this throwaway line to a journalist last month, he probably didn’t expect it to go global. But in a world that’s bored, desperate for some good news and starved of some comic relief his quote has gone global. Grant’s exact quote, according to The…
From Corporate Servicing to Cobweb Removal
Thomas Treloar’s business The Rolling Fix has established a profitable niche over the past seven years. Unlike most other mobile mechanics who go house to house, Thomas usually works in the underground car parks and bike parking facilities of the large office towers in Sydney’s CBD. Working with major corporates and building managers to a…
Some Bike Retailers Reporting Sales Boom
At 99 Bikes in Bondi Junction, queues have been snaking out the door over the past few weeks. The queues are thanks in part to physical distancing rules, but it’s also because the COVID-19 lockdown has everyone going gaga for cycling as they look for new ways to get active or alternatives to public transport.…