I’ve definitely found engaging with the local scene and even getting amongst the racing, be it road or mtb, makes a big difference in brand awareness. Mostly getting eyeballs and hands on the bikes in use creates a lot of positivity.
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This is the most important point here. It’s half the reason one man brands like Crust and Stooge (and now Sklar) can sell a Maxaway frameset for 1.5-2x a Surly. People think those brands are the shit. The amount of people I’ve met in the last few years who know nothing about bikes but think Crust is “cool” is insane. I don’t love the bikes myself but can totally appreciate what Matt has done building up that brand, especially in the surf/skate/BMX scene, winning over people to bikes who aren’t bikers.
Also in my experience ordering a custom bike is as much about the experience as it is about the product. I always laugh at builders who complain about fussy customers and having to hold peoples hands through the build process. Like isn’t that’s why you’re selling custom bikes in the first place. This is coming from someone who worked many years working in high end residential architectural. Same kinda shit.
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Marketing has been weighing on me lately.
Everyone, myself included, has these amazing full suspension bikes that can plow through anything without ever putting a foot down and they almost never mechanically fail on the trail. If you don’t have the fitness you get one with a motor. If you can’t afford it, you get a loan and make payments. It’s marketing insanity!
I have reached a point where I do not ride with people. There is no point. We just pedal our big capable bikes around the woods and don’t talk.
All of our bikes used to be so bad that we sat around on stumps and rocks while someone was fixing their bike. We talked and mad fun. Those are the rides I remember and why I became a cyclist. I don’t remember the riding, I remember when we weren’t riding.
How is anyone going to keep in the sport if all they do is finance these super bikes and pedal around alone? This marketing is killing bikes at their core.
I miss bikes being bad…
Surly is probably doing 10x the quantity as a smaller brand, which is why they get better pricing. For a run of “engineered” steel frames, you need $10-20k in tooling. So for a “small” batch of qty 200, you add $100 to the frame cost, which results in a ~$200-300 increase in MSRP.
That being said, I am honestly surprised by how much a Karate Monkey costs these days.
Sure, that price includes a rigid fork, but it also has QR dropouts and very simple features. Surly, owned by QBP, probably needs a higher margin (3-4x) because QBP’s business model is being a middleman distributor. Smaller brands are direct-to-consumer.
I found builders like to complain no matter what, including me 
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I think maybe you need to find a new crew to ride with?
I make and ride a very capable 160mm travel Enduro bike and ride with a great group of friends where we talk and chat on the climbs and at stops. We do pre-work morning rides at 6am, we race the local beer league Enduro series, we have a WhatsApp group and chat endlessly in there about everything bike and general life. Some of them also ride ebikes.
Spending most of a ride having someone repair a bike isn’t how I remember the most memorable rides, mine are a combination of great trails and great people to share the day with.
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This is very true! I suppose what I’m getting at is that the companionship around the ride is what got me hooked. There is just such a culture shift in the last few years. It seems like people are less interested in the experience.
I think this ties in with American culture where there is a lot more value placed on possessions and I feel like the off-road community has fallen deeper into that than before. Friends that are into ATVs have aired similar concerns.
I do not know how to express this feeling because cycling has always been this nerdy niche thing where everyone shows off the latest and greatest toy. There is just something intangible that has changed.
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Coming in hot with the facts.
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That’s what happens when a fringe activity goes mainstream. There is a smaller percentage of the hard core enthusiast in it for the lifestyle and experience and more of the casual, who likes to show off the ‘latest and greatest’. There is nothing stopping you from sticking to your ‘traditional’ riding and enjoying your own experience with your mates. Let the others go and have their own experience and care less about what they are doing. It doesn’t invaildate your experience unless you chose to judge what you do in the eyes of others…grasshopper 
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