Welcome to “Perfectly Fit,” our newsletter which is designed to help you get the most out of an active, cycling lifestyle. I have a team of pros from all over the world that will help me provide you with great info and a place for you to find out what you want to know. Your feedback is so important and we will make a place for you to be heard.

We announce a new alliance with a local bike shop, Cycle Logic, in our main article and describe how we are teaming with bike shops to leverage our expertise for your benefit.

Our BikeTech Help Desk has two questions. The first explains why aerobars are needed even on short triathlons and the second discusses the importance of torque wrenches for modern light weight bicycles.

Don’t forget to visit our blog as new stuff is posted there almost daily. It is easy to subscribe to the blog so you can get updates sent to you.

Thanks again for letting me share with you a little about cycling. I respect your time and will strive to continue to make it worth it.

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.

 

Comments

I have had so many positive comments lately about the new website, the blog, and the KGS experience I would have a long list indeed. We work for you and want to make cycling your Fountain of Youth! Keep those comments, questions and challenges coming. Thank you so much for your appreciation of our work.
Feature Article – Collaboration – The Best of Both Worlds

The economy has shaken up many businesses and the bicycle industry is no exception. For me, I have seen the term “high end” become a dirty word and many of my competitors have either gone out of business or have switched to selling much less expensive stock bikes to keep the doors open. I chose to keep KGS Bikes focused on what we do that is unique, special and different from the rest of the industry. This is a better way to design custom bicycles by finding an optimum position first and then designing the frame around that position. What I have not been able to do is to use the positioning techniques I discovered to create a traditional retail bike shop. What I have found, however, is that some traditional bike shops do want to offer a better custom bike to their customers. I am happy to announce the beginning of KGS Bikes’ Custom Frame Outsource Program.

The logic is simple. We have a great atmosphere for working one-on-one with clients to find the perfect position. Bike shops have a great atmosphere for retail and people like to go there to socialize as well as to get the products they need for the sport on a day to day basis. The disconnect is, KGS Bikes needs more traffic without disturbing the clients that are here to avoid the crowd while getting a positioning.

We are teaming with one bike shop in San Antonio to solve this problem for both stores. Cycle Logic has been in business for 17 years and has a long standing relationship with customers. They are now experts in the custom bike business thanks to KGS Bikes. Their customers will be able to be positioned by us and we can build their frame which can then be built and delivered to Cycle Logic. This solves both problems simultaneously and Cycle Logic has the full line of custom frames to offer their customers that we sell. We don’t have to ramp up traditional retail either, which would destroy our specialized environment.

I plan on expanding this concept in other towns, working with one key bike shop who embraces custom bikes but has not had much success in selling them. The processes are entirely different and almost no bikes shops have done well at both because of this. The bike shop wins because the customer really wins. For remote cities, I will place a KGS team member in their store, similar to how Martha Stewart places her brand in K Mart, Home Depot and other businesses. The BalancePoint™ positioning system is so dynamic, I want to be able to offer the same level of expertise to other shops as I can provide myself.

I am thrilled to be able to offer more people the advantages of our expertise and the fine folks at Cycle Logic are excited to be the first to partner with us. They are more efficient in building bikes than I am and have a full repair department to support much more volume than I can. I am still able to sell to my smaller group of clients without impacting their sales volume and I can do what I do best; continue to find ways to improve the comfort and efficiency of riding a bicycle.

Hats off to Allen Hodapp at Cycle Logic for finding a new and better way to serve their customers! You will hear more about KGS Bikes teaming with bike shops in other cities soon.

Until next time,

Kevin

President

KGS Bikes

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.

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.

Was this forwarded to you? Sign up for our Ezine, “Perfectly Fit” and get our free report: “The Big Three – What Every Cyclist Needs” by signing up at the top right hand corner of our website at kgsbikes.com.

Also visit our KGS Bikes BLOG and check out new and exciting things happening in the bicycling community every week!