Hi Folks - I cannot be trusted to handle my own checking account responsibly, much less make any claim to business acumen in the cut-throat, bottom-line world of bike sales, but I just looked at Grant's Blug post, dated May 26th:
*" ...we’d also like your help in nominating dealers to maybe sell some Sams, and possibly Chevs and CLEMs later on. We’re too uppity to grovel ourselves, so if you know of a good local shop that’s already familiar with our work (maybe they’ve seen and admired your bike, if you have one of ours)—then contact them, refer them to this BLUG post, and we’ll take it from there. We want five good dealers in the country. Ideally they’d be in big cities with decent populations of riders, but if there’s a good, kindred shop in Turkeyscratch, Arkansas, we’re open to that, too.* *Have the dealer contact Will if they are interested : **800 345-3918 **or **will at rivbike.com* *OK. Much thanks for your help with this. There’s no “finders” fee, but the shop should still let us know who sent ‘em. "* Given the sense from some of you that Rivendell has historically made a conscious choice for direct sales, and that at least some shops may have found previous prospects of doing business with RBW unattractive, I wonder what it would be like to just take the above at face value, roll up with a coupla bikes or three to Bicycle Space <http://www.bicyclespacedc.com/city/> like merchant emissaries of Venice, have a friendly chat, then let Riv take it from there as Grant proposes. Bicycle Space sells Pashley, Linus, Handsome, Surly (also Felt, Bianci, Cannonale), but also euro-baskets and crane bells. There is also the well-known blogger Mary Gersemalina of Chasing Mailboxes <http://chasingmailboxes.com/about-chasing-mailboxes/>, herself a Rivendell Owner, and promoter of all things two-wheeled - please note that her profile pic for her blog features her seated atop a Quickbeam in front of the Capitol. Perhaps she would be enthusiastic. The idea of a DC Pop-up sounds sort of cool, urban, and trendy, and perhaps relatively low risk on both sides. I have to admit that Grant's post ("We are too uppity to grovel ourselves...") doesn't make me exactly want to stick my neck out and pump the brand, but I would be happy to go with a couple of folks on what we might call an S2O (sub 2 hour outing) and show off a couple of bikes, maybe see if Mary is interested in joining? Any interest from the Bunch On Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 10:12:30 AM UTC-4, Alan Pickett wrote: > > What to DC-centric folks think about helping develop a local dealer for > Riv Bikes, as requested a bug-post or two ago? > > I love the gang at Proteus Bikes in College Park, and I know that College > Park Bicycles has an affinity with Grant/Riv, but somehow I wonder if a > place like Bicycle Space - which just recently opened a new shop right > smack in downtown DC, might have real potential, by tapping into a well > moneyed, bike-commutin' crowd with consumer tastes just precious enough to > make the gorgeous lugs and paint on Riv Bikes a beacon of irresistible > attraction. Does anyone know the Bicycle Space people? Could we talk to > them? > > Either that, or a few of us could quit our day jobs and attempt to open a > bike store... I would assume that we would all become filthy stinking rich > in short order, right? > > Alan in Silver Spring > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
