I am in Austin up to four days a week now and can meet at the River Place Country Club to define your new custom bike or at a place of your choosing. We make house calls! I also have some clinics and other events in the works and will share that info soon. Don’t forget to send me invitations if you want me to come to your event. I am able to put together a very nice talk, clinic or even a custom bicycle event. Since expanding into Austin I now am suggesting that Dallasites consider meeting me in Austin to consult about custom bikes. In polling the audience, people seem to have no problem driving to Austin from Dallas for a day trip, while San Antonio is a little far. I have not forsaken the fine folks in Dallas but am stretching myself too far to be in three places at once. Thanks for understanding and you will have a great experience in either Austin or San Antonio. As I wrote in my article this issue, a little extra effort on the front end pays big dividends later when you consider custom bikes.

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Feature Article – The Order of Business or How do you Run the Math?

The economy is reviving and as such, more people are beginning to buy nice bicycles. Magazines and online media publish stories on thriftiness and “smart” buying, while Trek dealers sell $8,300 Madones for $6,000 in a big post Tour de France promotion. I have had a huge uptick in people telling me that they either just bought a bike and want me to “fit” them to it or that they are going to get a great deal on a bike and then come see me. They got a “great deal” but it doesn’t fit!

While I love getting new business, I thought I would write about my perspective of the wisdom of buying bikes this way. The bike business, with the exception of KGS Bikes, seems to be all about “the deal” and in instant gratification. I believe most bikes are purchased on impulse and then the decisions made are rationalized after the fact. Sometimes I feel that it puts my business model at a disadvantage, because you actually have to plan your bike project and “your” bike is not going to be on the showroom floor.

With that said, what is the better deal? Is it better to save a little on the front end and then count on me to make it work? If you knew what my success rate was with production bikes purchased and then shown to me after the fact vs the success rate with custom bikes that are comparable in price to the nice production bikes, you would totally rethink the way you buy bicycles!

I recently audited the last 100 bike fits that I did for clients. A bike fit is a positional analysis session that focuses on adapting you to an existing bike. My BalancePoint™ system doesn’t use an existing bike and because of this freedom, we can find your real position. Here is the math. Of the people that had me do a bike fit, I was able to get them to fit their existing bike with their real position about 5% of the time. If I design a bike for a client, I have yet to have an individual say that I blew it and the bike just doesn’t fit. That is a huge discrepancy, so let’s refine the statement a bit. Since a custom frame starts at $2,200 and the least expensive custom bike I have built is a little over $5,000 that still rules out people that are unable to consider a bike at this level. If you really need to get a stock bike and your budget doesn’t justify something I can provide, I don’t count you in the numbers that I mentioned above.

There are lots of reasons to buy a particular bike and I understand that comfort and performance are sometimes less important than style or a particular brand. I get many people that don’t consider custom because they are led to believe that a custom bike starts at over $20,000, so they don’t consider this option at all. Others are so enamored with a brand that they will ride it whether it fits or not, regardless of price. A Pinarello Prince with Campy Super Record 11 components and Bora wheels can cost upwards of $14,000, so production bikes can be quite pricey, though they may not fit any better than a $1,000 Felt. To some, the ability to own a Cervelo or Colnago is something they have dreamed about and they will suffer greatly for the privilege of riding such a machine.

Here is where I see the value balance shift from stock to custom. If you need to get a bike today, or you want a brand that is popular above all others, or if you cannot afford a custom frame that costs $2,200 or more, than by all means a stock bike is what you should get. If your bike needs to be comfortable, or it needs to be efficient so you can go faster with less effort, or if you like buying durable goods that will outlast similar commodity bikes, or if you like having something designed for you, then a custom bike will serve you so much better that you will thank yourself each time you ride it.

There is a price, however, for the benefits of custom. The purchase price is not the expensive part of a custom bike, because as I mentioned, stock bikes can be just as expensive if not more so than some custom bikes. The real expense is time. You have to take time and plan to get a custom bike. It takes between six and twelve weeks from your positional analysis to taking delivery and this is can seem like an eternity. If you are a triathlete and want to get a new bike at the end of the season so you can get used to it over the off season, you have to plan ahead!

The back end value of custom is the easy part. This is where the custom bike outpaces stock bikes and delivers enjoyment and performance time after time, for years to come. The tough part is the front end. Our society is moving to shorter and shorter lead times, quicker satisfaction, and shorter lifetimes. It seems like we have the attention span of a twitter tweet; anything longer than 140 characters is too long.

If you have made it this far, you at least have the attention span to read an article. This too is becoming a lost art. I do ask you to think, however, about your true costs. Bicycles cost a lot of money and they last a long time. Do you want to buy a bike in 10 minutes, which is the average time to decide on a stock bike, or can you wait a few weeks to get something that will change your cycling for years? It’s ok either way, but at least consider what you are getting into before you show up at my door with your new bike, hoping to get me to fix it. I only have a 5% chance in turning your hasty decision and a “good deal” into a great bike for you.

Until next time,

Kevin

President

KGS Bikes

Kevin Recommends

We only recommend products, services or companies that we have actually tried or worked with personally. A recommendation, like a reputation, is very important and we do not take this responsibility lightly. The following links are to our friends at the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. Dr. Kenneth Cooper is considered “The Father of Aerobics” and has put together a group of world class companies that have a direct impact on us as cyclists and as professional people:

Cooper Complete – We have arranged for 10% off anything you buy from Cooper Complete if you put “KGS” in the coupon link and then “recalculate”.

Cooper Clinic - The world renowned Cooper Clinic is starting to create medical exams and services aimed at professional adults who ride bicycles.

Cooper Fitness Center – The Cooper Fitness Center has a special strength training introductory program for cyclists.

These links are to our frame builders and other providers that make KGS Bikes the premiere custom bicycle studio in the world:

Co-Motion Cycles – We’ve long enjoyed a reputation for building tandems that simply handle better.

Guru Bikes – Our approach is based on combining the best of both worlds: cutting edge technology delivered by hand and with an old school attention-to-detail.

Kirklee Bicycles – KirkLee is an up and coming great framebuilder from Austin. We are very excited about the quality and performance they bring and are proud to offer KirkLee frames as part of our KGS custom bicycle options.

Parlee Cycles – Simply put, PARLEE frames are the best built and best riding carbon fiber frames available today, at any price. They are functional works of art.

Red Licorice Events – The “Sweet and Twisted” team that promotes Austin’s best athletic events. KGS Bikes is an ongoing sponsor of triathlons produced by our friends Erin and Leilani and we are thrilled with the relationship.

River Place Country Club – This is our Austin address where we can meet in person to define your custom bike. We arranged with the folks at River Place CC to rent space on an as needed basis to offer a quiet focused environment to determine your ultimate bicycle position and then design a custom bike around that position. The New York Times describes cycling as “the new golf” and River Place CC recognizes that they can offer more than golf to the active lifestyle advocate.

Sem Custom Paint – Dave Sem is the best extreme detail painter in the world.

Serotta – Only Serottas have the extensive engineering of our proprietary Colorado Concept tubing design. It’s the foundation behind the unique ride of each and every Serotta.

Source Endurance – They are teaming with us to provide physiological testing, data analysis, training consultation and long-term coaching. They have two state-of-the art labs, one in Austin and one in San Marcus. We are proud to recommend them and invite you to check them out.

Tacx – Home of the Fortius Virtual Reality trainer. This is the trainer component of our “Ultimate Spin Bike”. Tacx also makes many other fine products. KGS Bikes is an Authorized Tacx Testing Center.

Topolino Technology – Our wheels embody this ethic: A fundamental redesign of wheel construction to take advantage of extraordinary materials with amazing properties, yielding a wheelset that performs like no other.

Zinn Cycles – For more than a quarter of a century, Zinn Cycles have been working to make cycling more enjoyable for customers, and that commitment remains at the heart of everything they do.

About KGS Bikes and Kevin

KGS Bikes is known around the world as the premiere custom bicycle studio. Kevin Saunders, President, has over 25 years experience in bicycle fitting and design of custom bicycles. He also has a broad knowledge of anatomy, structural engineering and industrial design. KGS Bikes creates custom bicycles with the best components available and uses framebuilders such as Co-Motion, Guru, KirkLee, Parlee, Serotta and Zinn. Visit kgsbikes.com for more information, including beautiful photography of the bikes carefully created for their owners. Don’t forget to find us on Facebook, twitter and at your next event to photograph your bike position and post it on Facebook and Flickr for you to share with your friends.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends! We appreciate your time and interest.

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