Winter in the Bike Industry

Dan Shell
Dec 10
5 min read

The toughest part of the year in the Bike Industry, and how I’ve used positivity to get through the bleak times.

It was my first winter season at Santiam Bicycle in Salem, and I was on the chopping block. We’d been getting less and less busy as the winter light dimmed earlier each day, and I was already forewarned that my seasonal hours would coming to an end come the end of the year.

I used the extra time away from work to build trail features at Black Rock when I probably should have been studying. Building always helped me feel like I could keep working toward growing the influence and customer base of the shop. I’d see customers on the trail sometimes more often than in the shop. I’d encourage them to go get their bike serviced during the winter and take advantage of the seasonal pricing, helping the shop get through the winter. It was a hard sell.

I remember the owners talking about how the silent partner had to float the shop another cash infusion to keep the lights on. How the full timers would be on rotating rounds of unemployment.

For the bulk of my years at the shop, I’d take the month or three of unemployment just as my coworkers would.

Take a Layoff, or start organizing.

When the customers stop coming in, and the bikes have all been built, there were two options. Taking a layoff as an employee isn’t too bad if you know its only for a few months or weeks. But it always seemed like such a waste, like just giving up.

Choice number two, finding something meaningful to organize, always made me feel much better. Even just organizing washers and screws so they can be easily found come summer can keep your mind focused on that positive effect and help a dreary winter day at the shop end with a sense of hope.

One winter I sat down and made a list of all the different advertising channels that were inexpensive, and accessible. I got all excited to start a marketing campaign and get us going with more work to do. The manager caught a sniff of what I was up to and told me to do something productive instead of wasting their time.

Keep connecting, give back.

Troy always had the best ways to fight the boredom. Organize the tubes, clean up the benches, count inventory, grab a jar of randoms and start making piles of divided up parts. The man had loads of tasks floating around his head every year until winter came, and then he’d start in on them. Connecting to the organization of the inventory helped him give the shop what it needed to succeed come summer. A new display rack, a section of slatwall, or a drawer organizer installed in the winter could be hugely beneficial to how the shop could operate come summer.

Troy also saw how crucial it was for him to support community efforts that his customers would directly benefit from.

Black Rock was the best example of this. Troy and his employees would pretty much run the annual fundraiser on behalf of BRMBA. The amount of hours that he or Ben or Tom would put into the raffle was kinda silly. Soliciting donations from every brand they could get ahold of made three or four years of Raffle’s hugely successful. We would have organizing events at the shop with half a dozen people just to tag and label all the prizes.

The shop put countless hours into those fundraisers,

without expecting any repayment for the efforts. It was probably hundreds of hours each winter. The effect was huge in those years. People would travel to Santiam from other areas to shop there because of the good image that was left in people’s minds of the shop and its contributions. Santiam Bicycle was unofficially associated with BRMBA, but in people’s minds at the time, it was a hand in hand kind of relationship. Every BRMBA event had the Santiam crew there supporting and volunteering.

Being involved as an employee was enlightening. You could see quite clearly your work to support the thing that is for everybody boosting the business.

About 20 years later, my approach to fighting the winter lull.

Years in the bike industry has taught me to ramp up efforts in certain areas to keep my que full and my repair business active.

First off, the number one thing that keeps me busy and hopeful in winter months is calling my customers to check in. When I call my customers, and check in on the work I’ve done for them, the response is overwhelmingly positive. It is genuinely so well received by most people, and why not?

“Somebody is calling to talk bikes?! Heck ya!” Is usually the response.

Having somebody remind them that it has in fact been two years since that shock overhaul is a good thing to most of my clients.

Second, going into bike shops and telling anyone that will listen about what I do and who might they refer helps spread brand awareness. Of course, If I’m expecting them to refer people to me, I have to know about each shop and their ideal customer and their specialties so I can return the favor. This helps me feel connected to other professionals in my local area and again, the winter seems a little less bleak when you have people to talk to about issues few others can relate to.

Third, participating on the board of a MTB non-profit helps me be visible to the community of local advocates and stewards who love to refer people to businesses that lend a hand. In addition, donating to raffles, showing up at fundraisers, and generally participating in as many winter events as I can find keeps the brand awareness growing and makes me feel connected to my people.

The All Comers Meet is a standout event every January, bringing people out of the winter lull in droves. Nothing like a few hundred mountain bikers getting together in the dead of winter to eat pizza, drink beer, and ride with fresh faces.

Organizing nuts and bolts is noble, but connecting to your community is more effective.

You can bet I’ll letting you know about the next shuttle day or gathering, talking shocks at the bike shop, and checking in to see how your bike has held up under the slop of winter.

I'd like to start a new section in my blog posts called, HEAR ME OUT....

I'm an ideas guy.

Ask any of my close friends, and they'll tell you, I'm full of 'em.

So this is going to be a place where I air out my ideas, and my customers or anyone else, can read about the, give some input, and maybe it will turn into a

new direction for Shell Bike

Hear Me Out.....

The Idea is a subscription service for home mechanics or bike shop mechanics in which the subscriber gets live support. I'm not really too into making videos and hosting them, and that has been done to death on the youtoobs.

I'm talking about me, on a phone or video connection with you, assisting in technical bike repairs. It could be a monthly fee, say $50. It gets you a certain amount of direct support per month to have assistance with projects. How to bleed your brakes, do a lowers service, build a wheel. Any technical job that you want to try and bite off, you'll have the ability to try, fail, and call for support when you get stuck. Or schedule a time so you're less likely to get stuck.

Manuals exist, and they can take you thru the process. However, with or without the manual there will be a learning curve, and I feel like I could make it not so steep for a lot of people out there who would like to do more service themselves.

Thoughts?

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