Part IV - The Bicycle Industry Machine only knows how mimic enthusiasm to shake-down riders

Only passionate riders know how to mentor and bring up the next generation of riders

The Bicycle Industry Empire strikes back, but independent bicycle rebels will not be defeated. If you think things in the galaxy of bicycles are odd now, just wait, the bicycle industry is about to get really, really strange

In my previous posts, I outlined three points; 1. There is no such thing as the Bicycle Industry, 2. Independent folks within what the machine calls the Bicycle Industry were running a ministry, disguised as a business, and 3. Those independent individuals imbued with cycling passion, are viewed as a liability by marketers, corporate interests, holding companies, and venture capitalist.

Bicycle industry commentators, in their quest to understand how the industry got here, where we are now, and where we might go next, have missed not one, but all three of these points. Indeed, the very financial strings attached to this endeavor they call The Bicycle Industry, have all equally missed these three points. Therefore, you are all hereby fired.

“You’re fired.”

I am not firing you, boards of directors are not firing you, even current bicycle riders are not firing you. It is the yet-to-be-born, in fact, that are firing you. Young children who will come up riding are firing you. They will vote with their feet, future finances, and fathers decisions (I ask for grace; I’m working on my alliteration). The youth of today are already hypnotized by influences of ease and emptiness, and have succumbed to the white lies told them about instant gratification. Promises of the next product featuring “all the flavor, none of the calories!” have already been consumed. Indeed, it tastes delicious in the mouth, but turns to bitter gall in the stomach.

Let me be plain; bicycle ridership has always been cyclical. The reason for this is because current riders, parents, bicycle shops, and bicycle companies have been inconsistent at bringing up the next generation. It’s that simple. Bicycle Industry commentators, listen carefully - the Apostles of cycling regularly rise up, are cut down, and rise again. Don’t believe me? Why are so many passionate company founders who sold off their business, reclaiming the helm of those companies? Why does @mattyactive on YouTube have 55k loyal followers who are now excited about Wal-Mart’s Ozark Trail brand of bicycles? Why are the “Kids Ride Shotgun”, and “Woom” companies expanding in the marketplace?

“Go ye therefore and make disciples”

By the mid 1980’s, kids had been taping baseball cards to their bicycle frames in order to flap against the rotating wheel’s spokes to make motorcycle-like sounds. BMX, short for bicycle motor cross, took off. By the early 1990’s, the bicycle industry began riding a new wave of bicycle disciples going out into the world, and making new disciples in their own name. We saw the fruit of this in new bike sales, parts and accessories purchases, service and repairs, and bicycle racing. But the most important sector where we saw this trend of growth, was in the independent, organic growth of bicycle “shop rats”. Don’t believe me? Ask the last generation of bicycle business owners & operators how they got their start. Ask that generation, now considering early retirement, or jumping ship into other industries, how they got into riding bicycles. I guarantee that they can name the person who fed them the sacrament, the tool that inspired their passion, and the bike shop that facilitated their new religion.

During those days, wild personalities reigned, crazy ideas were hatched by passionate enthusiasts, and new riders were authentically recruited through genuine grassroots relationship-building. Excitement beget more excitement. Kids grew up riding bikes, hanging out in bike shops, and becoming mentored when they finally first began to turn a wrench. However, money was hard to come by, and this rag-tag group of enthusiasts leveraged everything, even their own name, to fund the endeavor.

Don’t doubt, influence your way out

There have always been false prophets and false gods in what you may call the Bicycle Industry. There has always been a bifurcation between the “true believers” in cycling, and those who see dollar signs over discipleship. Back in my day, even Mercedes tried to put their name on an AMP branded bicycle. A company called “Specialized” had ripped-off the early mountain bike visionaries designs, only to replicate them in mass, cheaply in Taiwan. Part of the wild-west movement meant that bicycle enthusiasts, who happened to be in other industries, found ingenious ways of using economies-of-scale in those other industries, to launch bicycle related undertakings. Thomson seatposts, AMP Research, and a lot of the CNC machining companies, were made possible by the welders and machinists, dreamers and inventors who all had day-jobs doing other related work.

By the 2000’s a new trend emerged. The corporate sponsorships of X-games, road tours, and Red Bull riders, combined together with the financial strings of capital investors, to create and then completely control what they called “The Bicycle Industry”. Put plainly; every single dollar needed to continue the bicycle riding project, had a string equally attached to the continued funding of that project. And not just finacial strings attached to new bicycle enterprises. Not just financial strings attached to independent bicycle shops’ ability to buy inventory. Not even just financial strings attached to all business entities having to do with bicycle riding. But even strings attached to individual riders continuing to ride themselves. Don’t believe me? How did we get to Giant concept stores, Specialized concept stores, and Trek’s purchase of so many of their “special partner” independent dealers? Additionally, when did Giant Bicycles introduce bicycle purchase financing? Ride now, pay later was the motto, easy application and quick approval, and the hijacking of bicycle riding itself was complete.

Today, an independent bicycle business, run by enthusiast seeking to bring up the next generation of enthusiasts, is as close to impossible you can get.

Return on investment is the main metric used in the new landscape, only it’s purely financial. Behind the curtain of “every butt on a bike” campaigns, is a wizard of Oz dispassionately hawking widgets with a spreadsheet to track earnings. Marketers, sales managers, boards of directors, and the venture capitalists who feed them, are all buying and selling what is most important to you and I as market commodities and stock trades. They will sell you out for the next “outdoor sports” trend coming along that looks good in the portfolio. But they have a blindspot just as big as the hole in their own heads - they don’t understand Apostleship.

By the 2010’s an odd trend began to take shape. Corporate bicycle interests believed they could turn to a new marketing phenomenon in light of lagging sales - social media influencers. Since the uncontrollable passionate individuals running discipleship ministries were getting in the way of raw profits, corporate interests martyred them to make larger margins. This presented with a problem, because internal marketers could never quite figure out the customers their companies were selling product to. The solution to this problem, was initially to hire some of the high-profile passionate ones who could be controlled and toe the company line. However, controlling the uncontrollable became more like using their likeness and putting words in their mouth until they rebelled or retired, so that tact didn’t last very long. Why not instead, just 1099 anyone willing to cheaply shill your product? Why not just utilize directly those who were already willing to prostitute themselves to the highest bidder? Why not just pay this new breed of home-taught algorithm-learned amateur marketers who had figured out a thing called “engagement”, to hawk your products as independent contractors?

What good is it to invest in pump tracks and skate parks, without bringing up the next generation of riders and skaters to ride them?

As of this writing, the corporate Bicycle Industry controllers are now bringing marketing back “in-house”. They are getting another new round of investment capital, consolidating, selling off underperforming assets, and hiring new marketing managers. Don’t believe me? Look up a company called Revelyst, and search the job postings over the last year. The direct-to-consumer model was designed to cut out uncontrollable independent bike shops. The original swap between brand representation by uncontrollable bicycle personalities, to bought-and-paid-for fake influencers, is now being swapped out again, but this time, for more direct control of messaging. Oh by the way, they will be using AI to steal your passion, repackage it as their own, and sell it back to you at a healthy margin. We don’t need a crystal ball to understand what is coming, but simply an honest map of what got us here in the first place.

A complete bifurcation of the industry is already upon us, and a wider gap is coming. There are genuine, true grassroots, rider-driven endeavors coming back online as we speak (and some that never went away, but survived the slings and arrows). There is a glimmer of hope, as these riders are discipling new riders. However, the financing to create another movement, especially if it to be more sustainable, must come from the independent bicycle riders themselves, supported by one another. Simply riding another wave of beholden corporate investment, without shrewdly using that machine as a pawn to build new generations of riders, will lead to even more fruitless cycles. Watch closely, as one group of passionate individuals will “plant trees whose shade they will never enjoy themselves”, while the other group of rent seekers will continue their project to enslave, pilfer, and crucify the first group.

This industry is already odd, and it’s about to get really weird, really quick.