Hi all,

I,m new here and just wanted to know or wondered if the following was a viable option ?

I appreciate i,m new and its a bit of a bizzare question but your help would be appreciated very much,

I,m looking at opening a Bike Shop ? with a twist !
And rather than being all things to all people what i wanted to do was open up a fitting centre, where the shop floor space was transformed into booths ? Maybe X4 ? where riders could drop in a bike for repairs or the replacement of parts ?
Rather than keeping stock or even ordering parts in the customer supplies the parts that He / She has purchased say on the Internet ? @ either X,Y or Z online store ?

I would be specifically targeting those that have parts delivered who then struggle to fit them correctly ?
Those that work all week and want to ride on the weekend ?
And rather than saying “Our Workshop is fully booked for the next 8 days” there is the oportunity to pay a slight premium for immediate fitting !

A bit of a tall story ?
I,m sure some reading this will be thinking so.
Personally i feel that there is a market to offer a service that is good and reliable.

The shop itself would keep no stock of value, No high end builds or expensive parts, there would be provision for a few essential parts, Tubes, energy gels / Bars, repair outfits,

I cant see the point in taking on the internet in parts, however fitting them is another thing,
Is it viable as a cost effective business though ?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Let the verbals Begin ???????

I thought of a similar idea, but take it a step further…….. you offer a “personal shopper” service. Things like headset, bb, chainset, through axle compatibility, seat post/collar diameters still confuses some so you shop for them, be it online, lbs wherever. You recommend and shop for appropriate parts and establish a shoppers fee (5-10% maybe) plus your labour fee. The parts will fit and be compatible, you replicate internet prices, there’s a face to face style service and you get your “fettling-fix”!

I think some would subscribe to this, whether it’s enough to be a viable business is another matter, but low stock/overheads is a big bonus! Would love to know how you get on!

You will probably suffer in the winter – my LBS (where I work) takes on extra mechanics in summer, and repairs/fitting drop off a lot at points during the year – if you’re not selling bikes in winter, I suspect you won’t be selling much!

It would be difficult to make enough margin to cover all the costs without making anything on the components.
If you could minimize overheads….maybe.Its hard enough making a going concern of a bikeshop without limiting your income stream/market.

I have thought of this myself. Not as a business for me to run but as the only really logical way forward

At the very least part of the service would be taking reciept of deliveries for those people who are out at work. Before CRC seemed to get a bit slow I’d wondered if you could do a deal on a daily delivery from them. I think climbingkev has a good idea about getting the correct size bits.

I think that the nearest to this at the moment is mobile bike mechanics. I wonder if that knocks the over heads even lower and increases the busy life style convenience

It would be more attractive if you could do fork servicing.

But your going to have to charge local garage hourly rates. Will people pay you enough per hour to cover light, heat, insurance, time on the phone, answering e-mails etc

In America where cycling is very seasonal bike shops offer alot of winter service packages

Bronze new cables, clean and aligh gears….

silver

gold service both shocks, new pivots etc….

Any way best of luck and I hope you can make it work