HAVERHILL, MA (BRAIN) — The Mavic Scree is a new shoe model for the 2013 season from Mavic. The $189 shoes is intended for epic mountain bike rides, with a Gore-Tex liner and a supportive mid-ankle height. 

The model has four Velcro closure straps and a semi-rigid composite sole that's engineered for efficiency on the bike while maintaining comfort off the bike. The Contagrip tread lugs and tuned flex under the toes allows for comfortable scrambling off the bike.

The dual-density Ortholite insole was developed by Salomon for cooler, drier, healthier cushioning and comfortable arch support.

More information: Mavic.com.

PORTLAND, OR (BRAIN) — Whether it’s dealing in used bikes, specializing in parts and accessories, or serving up beer and coffee and hosting cycling-related events, retailers visited on the first day of the BRAIN Portland Dealer Tour ranged as much in target market and client base as in size and longevity. Bike retailers—much like Portland’s coffee shops, beer makers and restaurants—craft their businesses carefully to suit the city’s diverse tastes. Old, new, small, large, single, multi-location—Portland is home to all.

Our group of 24 riders racked up a short 13 mostly dry but cool miles during visits to five shops, crossing the iconic Hawthorne and Steel Bridges and sampling many of Portland’s sharrows. Here’s a brief recap of the stores we toured:

Universal Cycles

This shop relocated 18 months ago to a prime location along the heavily cycled Ankeny Street in Southeast Portland, where commuters will find open doors and free coffee at 6 a.m. It’s a move that has helped drive up local business for Universal Cycles, which rings up 75 percent of its approximately $10 million in annual sales through online orders.

The Internet-based business started in San Bruno, California in 1997 and first relocated to Portland three years later. Today’s 18,000-square-foot building includes a 6,000-square-foot retail space stocked with 6,000 products—mostly commuter oriented P&A like tires, tubes, fenders, helmets, apparel and bags—and a warehouse that holds 10,000 SKUs to fulfill online orders. Manager Victor Sandrin likens the shop to the Napa Auto Parts of the bike industry.

“We carry everything you can think of besides the car,” he joked, although Universal does stock a small selection of complete bikes by Surly, Salsa, Civia and All-City.

Universal also staffs warehouses in Ogden, Utah, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Minneapolis, Minnesota in order to reach most of its customers with two-day shipping. It is opening its second brick and mortar location in Ogden next week and is also eyeing an East Coast warehouse location. While some online retailers are shunned by their brick-and-mortar counterparts, Universal has managed to play nice in both worlds by staying out of the down and dirty pricing game. The shop also contributes time and money to local advocacy efforts, sponsoring Portland’s popular Sunday Parkways, which closes various downtown streets to promote walking and biking and working to gain mountain bike access in the city’s Forest Park.

Bike n Hike

Kevin Chudy gave up his newspaper delivery gig for his first bike job at Bike n Hike, owned at the time by Al French. “I’ve only had two jobs in my life,” referring to his time as a courier and then bike retail. “In retail, all you have to do is be a little better than the next guy,” to thrive. And thrive he has. Chudy now owns four of the six Bike n Hike stores in the area.

Chudy has worked every job at the shop where he first became a frequent customer. He remembers clearly how at the tender age of 15 he went to several bike shops in search of a high-end road bike. “I wanted a double-butted chromoly frame, sew-up wheels and tires. I had $869 in my pocket but nobody was interested in talking to me,” he said.

The folks at the Corvallis Bike n Hike listened and gained a loyal customer, and eventual employee. Ten years later, Chudy would become partner in the business with French. Over the years he’s built his stores’ around loyalty—to his suppliers (he has two Giant Retail Partner stores) and employees, several of which have repaid him back with decades of service.

Portland is a highly competitive market with an estimated 80 shops catering to the cycling community. “You can’t run fast enough in this town,” Chudy said. “After the Front Range in Colorado, this might be the most competitive.”

Chudy reads a fair share of business strategy books and looks for ways to update his shops to stay in the race. In 2008, he undertook a major expansion of his Portland store, adding a spacious and well-stocked women’s section. Now, more than 50 percent of adult bikes are sold to women every month at that location—much more than at his other stores.

Citybikes Annex

Doing business as a co-op can be an egalitarian ideal. But sometimes, it’s just a pain in the neck. Decision-making gets bogged down in the pursuit of consensus—one of the reasons Citybikes Annex still doesn’t have a POS system. And the retailer, which deals primarily in refurbished transportation bikes—plus new bikes from KHS, Surly, Jamis and Birria—and also operates a repair and accessories shop 11 blocks from the Annex, has no fewer than six committees to separately address such issues as finance, personnel, operations and inventory. But the model works for the quarter-century-old business.

 “The idea is that the shop can keep going long after the original owners are gone,” said Hazel Gross, who joined Citybikes four-and-a-half years ago and is one of seven current co-owners compensated based on the work hours they put in each year.

The two-shop operation employs an additional 25-30 staffers, all of whom have a say at monthly committee meetings. They’re also all trained mechanics in order to help with any service issue or head-scratching bike rehab customers bring through the front door. No one is a manager; all are equals.

To better serve the broad demographic and socioeconomic profile of cyclists it serves, Citybikes cultivates a wide-ranging employee base, including the mechanics it develops through its apprenticeship program. “We definitely strive to have a diverse work force,” said Gross.

Bike Gallery

Among the biggest players on Portland’s retail scene is Bike Gallery, the 38-year-old family-owned business, which operates six stores in an 8-mile radius. The Bike Gallery is Portland’s only Trek retailer (and in a former life, Bridgestone’s largest U.S. retailer) and runs efficiently with one central warehouse at its flagship location on Sandy Boulevard and scheduled freight deliveries during the week to the other shops.

Second-generation owner Jay Graves brightens most when talking about his staff—with numerous employees tenured at 15 years on staff or more, the business has a comfortable family feel—or advocacy, a tenet on which the Bike Gallery was founded.

Graves was one of the earliest supporters of Portland’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance; and a founding board member of Cycle Oregon and Community Cycling Center.

Velo Cult

Our drop-in on this recent Rip City transplant was like a scholarly, though gleeful, treatise on the history of mountain biking. Owner Sky Boyer generously served up pints of craft beer from the shop’s bar before guiding the BRAIN Dealer Tour crew into his basement. That’s where some of us—how to put it delicately?—well, we kinda lost our shit.

We oohed and ahhed over the Cook Bros. cranks and bits of purple-ano 1980s and ’90s mountain bikes. Fat-tire pioneer Joe Breeze, along for the ride as sponsor, admired the Moto Cruiser that was the precursor to the first Yeti mountain bike and among Boyer’s collection of Fat Chances, Bontragers hand-built by Keith himself during the sport’s earliest days.

All of it is the product of Boyer’s single-minded obsession with bikes and the culture and lifestyle around cycling. Boyer knows what he likes. He also knows what he doesn’t like—and that includes most bike shops. That’s why Velo Cult is less a bike retailer than a place where cycling culture lives and breathes.

Since his relocation from San Diego to Portland six months ago, Boyer has made Velo Cult available, at no charge, for cycling-related events and advocacy meetings. He’s repurposed a 1,500-pound castle drawbridge door from a 1920s Portland home into a performance stage that drops down from a wall. Downstairs, a screening room for 40 is outfitted with seating from a historic movie theater. A lounge next door serves as a green room for performers as well as Velo Cult’s photo studio.

The full-size bar and table seating dominate the front of Velo Cult. Customers don’t even see bike stuff for sale until they’re halfway into the store. Nearly all complete bikes—such as cyclocross, urban, touring and randonee rigs from Surly, Redline, Bianchi and Linus—are displayed in the back of the store.

“None of this is a business model,” Boyer said. “I just like doing cool shit.”

SAN DIEGO, CA (BRAIN) — Emilio De Soto has recently bought back shares in the privately held De Soto Clothing, Inc. from one of last remaining original shareholders, giving the company's founder full control of the brand.

The last original shareholder was triathlete Dan Neyenhuis.

“Emilio and I have had a great run with this company,”  said Neyenhuis. “We have done real estate development projects, started and sold a triathlon internet auction site, we have traveled the world together, and we are still close partners in another venture, all thanks to the success of De Soto Sport, so not much will change between us."

Emilio de Soto said, “Dan has been a huge mentor and like a big brother to me, and this purchase has only strengthened it.  In fact we still have a some other irons in the fire.”

De Soto Sport Triathlon Company was founded in 1990. The San Diego-based company designs, manufactures, and sells technical clothing for swimming, biking, and running, including a complete line of custom team apparel.  All De Soto garments are made in America.

LONDON, UK (BRAIN) – Hornit is launching its 140 decibel bicycle horn in North America, with distribution by Action Bicycle, Olympic Supply Company, Cyclone Bicycle Supply and Cycles Lambert.

The $44.95 retail horn is designed to be heard above city noise and car radios. It is operated by a trigger positioned under the cyclist's thumb on the handlebars. It runs on two AAA batteries, which last 6-12 months with normal use. 

The product was invented by London-based ex-lawyer and Ironman triathlete, Tom de Pelet and launched at the London Cycle Show in January 2012. It's already sold in 20 countries.

More information: www.thehornit.com.

MONROVIA, CA (BRAIN) — If you’ve called American Cycle Systems (ACS BMX) in the last 40 years, chances are you’ve spoken with Sheri Johnson, who is retiring this week after a long career with the brand.

The company hired Johnson in 1973, two years after ACS started manufacturing bike hubs in El Monte, California. Johnson was in charge of orders, bookkeeping and payroll, and was the voice of ACS on the phone.

"She was friendly, thorough and diligent, and was appreciated by everyone who she helped," ACS said in an announcement this week.

The company said Johnson plans to spend time caring for her extended family, including the children of her daughter who recently succumbed to cancer. 

ASHEVILLE, NC (BRAIN) — Former UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team trainer and soigneur, Bill Haelsen, died Monday at his home in Asheville, North Carolina. Haelsen was 45 years old.

Haelsen was a licensed massage therapist and certified physical trainer who worked with the team’s athletes and sponsors for more than two years, said team manager and director Mike Tamayo.

“Bill worked for us for two plus years and he was passionate about making our riders physically and mentally stronger, especially with the core training programs he developed. At the races, Bill was always the last one standing when work had to be done and incredibly passionate about his riders and their performances.

“I remember many times when one of our riders would win a race and Bill would be more excited than the athlete himself. He took just as much pride as the riders in their results. He will be greatly missed on the racing scene, in the cycling community and in the city of Asheville. Our hearts and thoughts are with his family right now.”

A celebration of life service will be held at 2 pm on Sunday, Oct. 28th at Cederhill Freewill Baptist Church at 227 Johnston Boulevard, Asheville, North Carolina. Donations in Haelsen's memory are being collected by Asheville Youth Cycling.

SAN CLEMENTE, CA (BRAIN) — Southern California race promoter Over the Hump Bike Race Series is offering limited license agreements to expand the event's brand to new territories. Licensees will gain access to Over the Hump’s know-how, event tools, merchandise, sponsors, marketing material, creative, advertising and branding. 

Organizers said the Orange County race series draws 425 to 600 racers per week and boasts a sold-out vendor area and 1,000 spectators weekly.

“Since OTH started in 2009, we’ve seen the sport of mountain biking explode here in Orange County. We’ve been thrilled to see the casual mountain biker become an active, zealous participant in the sport we love,” said Over the Hump founder Matt Wenger. 

“Every Tuesday during the summer, we provide a venue to create more cycling enthusiasts. We have a passion for inspiring that same energy across the nation. Our dream is to help other promoters replicate the formula that has been so successful here.”

Interested licensees can apply at overthehumpseries.com/license/. 

NORTHVALE, NJ (BRAIN) — Jamis Bicycles has hired Mike Abrams as Eastern regional sales manager. 

Abrams comes to Jamis with more than 15 years of experience in the industry, most recently as bicycle product manager at Cardo Systems. Abrams also spent 10 years at Specialized, first as territory manager and then as regional manager for the Eastern U.S. Before that, he was territory manager at Trek.

“We are pleased to have Mike on board with Jamis. His keen understanding of independent bike shop needs, and the relationships he’s forged during his tenure in the bike industry, will help create strong opportunities with new retailers as well as help grow our existing family of Jamis dealers,” said Carine Joannou, Jamis’ president and CEO.

BOSTON, MA (BRAIN) — Sales agency New England Athletic has a new name and has added Cervélo and Focus bikes to its portfolio.

The agency has been renamed GPM Sports Group.

GPM also has hired Kurt Begeman to oversee custom apparel and equipment sales to teams, clubs, and bike shops throughout New England.  Begeman joins Matt Shoemaker and Jess Hughston who were each hired at the beginning of 2011.

Andy Ewas, the founder and principal of the agency said the new name was chosen in part to avoid confusion with similarly named groups. “With the new brands and new staff, the time was right to give the agency a fresh new look,” Ewas said. Ewas founded the group in 2008.

More information: www.gpmsport.com.  

WASHINGTON, DC (BRAIN) — The League of American Bicyclists has designated nine new  schools to its "Bicycle Friendly Universities" list, bringing the total to 44 institutions in 25 states. Among the new names on the list are Ivy League schools Yale and Princeton, League officials noted. 

"Just like many students aspire to an Ivy League education, a growing number of college students want their university to be smart about biking, too" said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. "Young adults want to drive less and ride more -- and they're choosing schools, like Yale and Princeton, that are making bicycling a vibrant part of campus life."

Yale and Princeton each joined the list at the Bronze level.

State schools were honored, too. The University of Utah joined the list at the Silver level in its first application.

The League noted the university's "innovative on-road facilities, bicycle-related academic course offerings, a successful anti-theft campaign, on-campus bike rental and bike collective, and a wealth of pro-cycling policies."

More information: the full list.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (BRAIN) — Rocky Mountain Bicycles has added new sales reps in the U.S, in addtion to new inside sales and demo staff members.

In New England, industry veteran Mark Jenks is returning to Rocky Mountain after several years away in the motorsports industry. Jenks was with Rocky Mountain in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.   

Michael Murphy and Shawn Withers  of Podium Sales Group are now representing Rocky Mountain in the Mid-Atlantic region. 

Adam Williams is the brand's new Colorado sales rep after spending last year as Rocky Mountain’s outside technical rep and demo tour manager. Before that he worked extensively in bicycle retail from the age of 16 in Illinois, then onto Ajax Bike and Sport in Carbondale,  Colorado, and then helped start Golden Bike Shop in Golden, Colorado.

Rocky Mountain’s general manager Guillaume Senechal said the new hires are a result of increased consumer demand.

“It’s fantastic to see consumer demand so high after some flat years and we feel it’s the result of a huge amount of R&D resources pooled into our bike development," Senechal said. "Our 2013 lineup, especially the Element 29 RSL and our 27.5” wheel Altitude lineup has generated more excitement and interest than we could have hoped. It was obvious we had to add to our U.S.. sales force to properly handle the demand.”

PORTLAND, OR (BRAIN)—While Portland is a commuter market, it also has a thriving mountain bike, tri and road scene. New shops offering only service are also finding success in this crowded retail market, as are Internet-based businesses that are expanding into brick and mortar.

Here’s a recap of the shops visited on the second day of the Portland Dealer Tour:

Western Bikeworks

For a business whose roots are in a garage operation run by two pre-teens, Western Bikeworks certainly has come a long way.

The success Louis Doctor saw after enlisting his sons to sell unwanted Continental GP3000 tires on eBay—his U.K. source for him and his cycling buddies mistakenly shipped over treads in Bianchi blue rather than sky blue—led to the 2001 founding of BikeTiresDirect.com, a business that moved $1 million in product by the end of its first year. The boys, shipping out of the family’s Bay Area garage, were 11 and 13 at the time. “It was completely accidental,” Doctor recalled.

The site started selling more cycling products, and soon WesternBikeworks.com was born. A move to Portland followed in 2002, with the company opening a warehouse and small, attached retail storefront near Portland International Airport.

In the ensuing years Doctor and partner Jay Torborg, brought aboard by his college buddy in 2002 to set up e-commerce architecture after retiring from Microsoft, branched out into retail sites for consumer markets including billiards and golf. Today, Torborg runs the company’s entire cycling business under the VeloTech Inc. banner.

In May 2011, Western Bikeworks opened its 10,000-square-foot, road-focused store in Portland’s Pearl District as a complement to its online business. The move has boosted sales of complete bikes—lines include primary brand Cannondale plus Focus, Cyfac, Bianchi and All City—and the shop now accounts for about a third of Western’s $20 million in annual cycling sales.

Despite its history—and current involvement—in e-commerce, Western Bikeworks’ biggest stated threat will sound familiar to many brick-and-mortar stores: With its slashed pricing and built-in expectation of free shipping, “Amazon seems to be able to operate as a multibillion-dollar company and not make any money,” Torborg said.

UpCycles Bike Shop

Kai Druzdzel and Mark Hoskins started this service-focused shop two and a half years ago on a shoestring budget, renting a converted garage on NE Dekum Street in the revitalized Woodlawn neighborhood. With little to no inventory to drain their pockets, opening shop required a small investment. Aside from their main 400-square-foot location, they also lease a smaller space just a couple doors down, where they house a third work stand.

Tune-ups, flat fixes, wheel truing and bearing overhauls are its bread and butter, but UpCycles also does a fair amount of wheel builds and assembles custom touring and commuter bikes with Soma frames. It also sells refurbished bikes and offers basic bike maintenance classes. Though Druzdzel and Hoskins would like more room to spread out and stock product, including new bikes, they’re also weary about raising their cost of doing business. They prefer to keep overhead low and service prices reasonable. 

Despite cramped quarters, the co-owners have managed to build up their business catering to the area’s bountiful commuters. The shop is open until 7 p.m. during the week for riders who might need to drop in for service on their commute home from work. “We pride ourselves in offering friendly service,” said Druzdzel. “We will work on any bike—stuff other shops turn down,” because they’re too run down or not worth fixing.

Hoskins, a United Bicycle Institute graduate who worked at the Community Cycling Center, Bike n Hike, The Recyclery and other local shops before buying his own stand and tools, said they have seen steady growth in business since they opened. “The neighborhood has embraced us,” he said.

West End Bikes

Mark Ontiveros may own one of the newer shops in Portland, but he’s not new to bike retail. A longtime employee and at one time part-owner of River City Bicycles, he decided to strike out on a business of his own, opening a Specialized Concept Store in January 2011 with business partner Mike France.

West End Bikes, named aptly after the West End shopping district in which it’s situated, is the only Specialized Concept Store in Oregon, and according to Ontiveros, the first in the Northwest. So far the business model has proven successful. “We’ve done $1.5 million in the first year in business with no ads or Internet sales,” he said. Specialized accounts for about 75 percent of his product selection. West End also carries bikes from Wilier, Calfee, Beloved, Santana and Cinelli, and is the top U.S. dealer for San Francisco commuter apparel and messenger bag brand Mission Workshop.

The 5,000-square-foot store is located in a historic downtown building that used to house Django Records, and Ontiveros has kept some of the old signage and wallpaper. The space required many updates, but Ontiveros said the location—a dedicated bike lane out front—was key. He leases space to a coffee shop, the Maglia Rosa, which offers curbside espressos.

Athletes Lounge

The Athletes Lounge has cornered the city’s triathlon market with a 6,000-square-foot retail, service and fit space in Northwest Portland. Owners Scott Benjamin, Chris Boudreaux and Gary Wallesen bought the business out of near bankruptcy three years ago. Since then, the trio has moved into a building four times the size of the old shop and doubled revenue to $2 million annually. A big part of that success has been giving customers what they want; Athletes Lounge doesn’t shy away from going deep on product.

“You will not find too many tri stores outside of San Diego with this kind of inventory,” Benjamin said, standing in the middle of the shop filled with aero bikes from Cervélo, Giant, BMC, Argon 18 and Scott, wetsuits, running shoes, apparel and nutrition.

 Athletes Lounge has built a community around its commitment to clinics, open swim classes and race and athlete support and has earned a reputation for the Portland’s experts on aero and fit specialists. While Portland may not be a hotbed for triathlon, Athletes Lounge has found its niche in the über competitive bike retail market at the same time as the three-sport discipline shows strong signs of growth. This year’s Portland Triathlon saw 900 racers, up 30 percent over the previous year, making it the largest tri in Oregon.

And while most of Portland’s bike retailers rely on the weather to dictate business, Athletes Lounge is not as subjected to Mother Nature’s whims. “The Ironman calendar really determines our sales,” Benjamin said. “In spring, weather is an issue, but if an athlete signed up for Coeur D’Alene, they’ve got to be training, they can’t wait for nice weather to get on their bike.”

Fat Tire Farm

Portland is a commuter town, not a mountain bike town. But that hasn’t kept off-road specialist Fat Tire Farm from thriving. Trail access in the Rose City is less than desirable. Fat Tire Farm, for example, is a short pedal from Portland’s Forest Park, but bikes are marginalized there mostly to dirt and gravel roads. Single track remains the dominion of hikers and trail runners.

Fortunately for FTF, the city’s dirt-addicted are willing to put in some drive time to get their fix. First-class trail facilities like Post Canyon and Sandy Ridge are within an hour’s drive, while the epic selection of purpose-built trails in farther-off Bend lures many for long weekends. Downhill riding at lift-assisted Ski Bowl on Mount Hood and challenging terrain at Port Angeles keep long-travel rigs moving out FTF’s front door.

Not that owner Park Chambers is content with the status quo of trail access in his business’ hometown. His shop helps support trail advocacy group the Northwest Trails Alliance and recently had a full-time employee dedicated solely to building trails at Sandy Ridge, a Bureau of Land Management trail system dedicated to mountain bikes.

Chambers also personally stays in close contact with land managers to improve relations with the mountain biking crowd. “It helps with riding in the community. It doesn’t matter whether the riders know about it,” he said.

TREVIGLIO, Italy (BRAIN) — Bianchi is building a limited edition  of 70 special Oltre XR road bikes to honor the 70th birthday of Italian racing icon Felice Gimondi.

The Special Edition Oltre XR model will be built and customized at Bianchi headquarters in Treviglio. The bikes will be painted in Celeste Bianchi. Multi-color stripes recognize Gimondi's leaders jerseys of Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, World and Italian Championships.

The bike is built with a Campagnolo Super Record EPS group with customized Campagnolo Bora high-profile carbon wheels, Selle San Marco Concor carbon FX saddle, La Spirale white grip and Elite Corsa bottle. Each of those components is customized with Gimondi's name. The bike will retail for about $15,000.