Listen now by clicking here: [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/spokesmen/The_Spokesmen_113.mp3]
Topics Included:
- Cav wins tour of Dubai
- Lance Would Do it Again
- Forget Lance. The next big doper could be your dad.
- Advertisement: Jenson USA
- Death of Park Tool’s Howard Hawkins
- Steve Flagg Encourages Dealers to Support Supplied with MAP.
- Listeners’ letters
- London is really, really – almost – going Dutch
- Tips!
- Book: Bicycle Design by Mike Burrows
- JIS Screwdrivers
- Technical Info about JIS vs. Phillips Screwdrivers
I think it is a mistake to blame all the success of on-line retailers. It is about choice and not choosing a few bucks.
If I go to my local shop they will just a limited choice of products, and whoever is there will try to sell me what he has and not what I need. Or maybe he orders it from the distributor, which will take weeks. With an on-retailer I will have a choice of tens of different versions of a product and pick the one I want and get it delivered in the next days a shop will never be able to compete with this.
The shops have to concentrate on what they are good at: providing the common replacement parts, fixing bikes and most importantly building a community. Shops here start to realise this and add coffee shops, regular rides and clubs. I like to go to the local shop, but they have to provide what I want.
i think the distributors like QBP should disappear.. in europe shimano sell direct to shop…
btw go to france/germany/england. bike shops everywhere.
producers should go dealer direct.
http://www.bikerumor.com/2015/02/08/uncle-dicks-bead-slip-slides-out-of-distributors-goes-consumer-direct-at-half-the-price/
btw once canyonbikes comes to usa it will force specialized/trek to lower there prices…
@ Christof – I’ve written about this countless times, including most recently in Cyclepress of Japan, home of Shimano. Certain products can certainly no longer be sold in bike shops. And, yes, bike shops have to add more layers of service. The best do this well.
@ jb – it’s certainly different in Europe, but there’s still a Shimano distributor in the main EU countries – Paul Lange in Germany and Madison in UK are the biggest.
AWESOME tip about JIS screwdrivers! Thanks!
Nice tip about the screwdrivers, but what size tip? 1, 2, or 3? Thanks!
I use a toolkit from for JIS screws. The 54 piece kit is relatively cheap and has JIS 1,0,00,000 size bits. It also has a ton of torx, and hex bits as well. I’m sure there are other places to get JIS bits, but this is where I scored mine.
Cripes I had a brain fart and didn’t format the above link correctly. The company I bought my JIS bits from is IFixit.
What’s an “IVV channel of trade”? I’ve been googling but can’t find a definition that matches the topic you were discussing.