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TRAIL DIRTBy Michael WalshJune 2001It’s
vacation season again. Loads of mountain bikes
are all cleaned and greased for the summer adventures — including mine. As I travel across the countryside with my mountain
bike looking for new trails to ride or even familiar ones, I can’t help but notice
all the other mountain bikes dangling off the backs of other vehicles. Some of these bikes are for the serious
enthusiasts. But most I see are for the casual
biker. Take for instance a trip I had to Mont Santo State
Park in Alabama for the beautiful rocky technical trails, I witnessed a brand new RV bus
with bikes hanging off the back. As I passed
them. I glanced to see that the bikes were a variety of department store clunkers. It’s amazing that such dangerous gear would be
strapped to the back of a $100,000.00 RV. Obviously,
the owners could afford safe, quality bicycles, but for whatever reason, they chose these
bikes. So, I then speculated why. Maybe they had no bicycle shop where they live. Or they chose cheap bikes just for the sake
of saving a dollar. Or they just were
not aware of the choices and availability of good bikes.
Now I was thinking of how to inform RV enthusiasts and others of the
value of bicycles from a bicycle shop. The
foremost value that one can receive at a bicycle shop compared to department stores is the
knowledge the people have of their products. They
know how to size the bike to fit you, adjust brakes, and handle bars and even help you
determine if the bike you’re looking at is right for the type of riding you’ll
be doing. Still how do
we inform others of the value they are missing? Is
it possible to have a working relationship between the bicycle shops and the R.V. dealers? It is obvious what the R.V. dealers can offer
the bike shops, but what can the bike shops offer the R.V. dealers? What can the industries do to help each other? For example, the automobile industry and the
bicycle industry have worked together in the past. Does
anyone remember the VW / Trek combo or more recently the Ford / Kona combo? Or for an ongoing example, Subaru and IMBA
have a working relationship. One part is that
if you are a member of IMBA and you purchase a Subaru you get a bike rack. The other part is the loaner car IMBA Trail Care
Crews get. Along these lines, could there be a
deal that if you purchase an R.V., you could get a bike or bike rack? Many of the R.V.’s I have seen that are
carrying bikes have them strapped precariously to the ladder. Is this an untapped market for the bicycle
industry? Many club
members have started their biking hobby on the department store bike. I was one. Luckily,
I was not discouraged by the poor quality. I
taught myself basically how to make the bike work when it broke and it broke a lot. Finally, after years of toiling on the clunker and
saving money, I bought a better bike. The joy
of riding increased ten-fold. However, I have
met others who became discouraged with the department store clunker and never rode again. The money they saved was actually a joy they lost. I learned through the years the benefits of a
bicycle shop. It’s the knowledge
and the friendship made. See you on the dirt. Mike
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