THE BUSINESS OF BIKE FITTING
Bike fitting has become quite a popular topic this year as bicycle shops look for ways to make a personal connection with their customers and provide the services that keep them coming back. There’s a lot to consider for retail bike shops as they analyze the business of bike fitting and the very reason we decided to share a success story. We spoke with Justin Lucke of City Cycle in San Francisco, California to learn how bike fitting is a part of their business and to provide a little insight how one bike shop is making it all come together and making it a huge success.
JUSTIN’S JOURNEY
As the Fit Service Manager at City Cycle, Justin has had quite a journey to this point. He’s spent the last 25 years racing bikes and ultimately reaching the Cat 1 level, spent 12 years practicing law only to discover that the thing missing from his law practice was the deep love and passion for cycling. Fitting soon became a new profession that brought together all the aspects of cycling in his life into a true calling. His journey starts back around 2002 while visiting Christopher Kautz for a fit in his Fairfax, California garage. Chris helped open Justin’s eyes to what was possible and launched him into exploring the philosophy of fit from every possible system since then: Wobblenaught, Retul, BG, Serotta, FIST and more. Justin is now certified by Trek as a Level 2 Precision Fitter (the highest level Trek offers) with training with Trek’s fit expert and Cyclologic founder, Paraic McGlynn. He’s also done an extensive internship and mentorship with Curtis Cramblett of Revolutions in Fitness. Justin’s journey has served him well as he oversees bike fitting at both of City Cycle stores, not only does he provide the training for staff, Justin personally conducts bike fits for clientele.
ABOUT THAT PHILOSOPHY
Justin believes that every person has unique needs, strengths and challenges on the bike and it’s his role as a fitter to help communicate with the client to reach a solution. Many bike shop owners got into the business through a passion for cycling, wanting to share that with their customers. Unfortunately the reality has been several customers who only talk price and shop on-line for their next bike. We like to believe bike fitting changes this. When you can offer a solution like the one Justin speaks about, your customer values your time, your recommendations and has a good experience on a bike. As Justin explains, “a good fit means the difference between that experience being joyous, freeing and powerful and being trapped on a two-wheeled torture device.”
HAPPY CUSTOMERS
City Cycle clients are consistently amazed at what an enormous difference a professional bike fit makes. Probably the greatest single success has been learning how to optimize saddle choice using saddle pressure analysis, according to Justin. Synthesizing the new technology with knowledge of biomechanics and integrating into a bike fit has meant making a game changing difference. At City Cycle, they use a whole suite of tools; the Purely Custom fit bike and software for infinitely tuning the perfect positions, and even motion capture video with analysis at 60fps to accurately set the bike up to optimize biomechanics and comfort. If you’ve flipped through the Purely Custom bike fitting brochure lately, you’ll see many of the items in action including the X/Y tool for quickly measuring where the saddle and handlebars are in space and using Pure Position software for turning X/Y numbers into real bikes. Justin does stress an investment in the fitter. The real game changer for Justin came with the confidence and knowledge that came from certification with Paraic McGlynn and interning with Chris Kautz. The fit bikes, software, and fitting tools make the process possible in less time to achieve precise measurements, but tools are just tools until unleashed in the hands of an knowledgeable fitter.
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
So when we asked Justin how bike fitting has solidified customers and increased their bottom line, his response was, “Once we started focusing on and marketing the bike fit business, we saw the income from fits increase 300%. All it took was the confidence to communicate professional bike fit as a service to customers and demand skyrocketed.” Having a bike shop located in an area where bike culture is thriving makes this a little easier to achieve. If a bike shop is not sure about the level of cycling in their area, maybe it’s time to get involved and see what can be done. Charity rides, races and bike shop events can all contribute to more people through the door. When you place a rider on a fit bike, make the appropriate adjustments and they can feel a measurable improvement, you have a rider who will obviously ride more and become more immersed in what your shop has to offer. The business recipe at City Cycle: We believe that if we take great care of people, it will come back to us and we will be successful.
MORE ABOUT CITY CYCLE
City Cycle has quite a history in the bike shop industry, the shop was founded in 1986 by Clay Mankin, a legendary bike shop owner who was described as larger than life and used to close down the shop on Jimi Hendrix’s birthday each year for a memorial bike ride. The San Francisco location has been in continuous operation ever since. Clay was always a big Serotta dealer, and it was Clay who first connected with Ben Serotta to work up the basis for what we now know of as modern bicycle fit. Clay unfortunately passed away, while bicycling on a weeklong solo trip to Santa Barbara in 2005 when he collapsed at the side of the road. His inspiration and legacy lives on at City Cycle, as Justin states, “I consider it my duty and honor to carry on with the highest quality bike fitting possible.”
The original City Cycle store is still located in Cow Hollow at Steiner and Union in San Francisco and they have also added a location in Corte Madera, in Marin County north of San Francisco.
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