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Bike Shop Hub

Bike Shop Hub Center:

The business and work culture of Bike Shop Hub in all it's glory.

When we have new products, sales, weird marketing ideas, commentary on the cycling industry, or embarrasing photos of of the staff, this is where you'll find it.

And since we are located in Arizona, we'll talk about the cycling scene in the state.

Join the conversation.

Send In Your Cycling Photos

We get to see and touch and test all sorts of great cycling gear here at our world headquarters. But we actually get to meet very few of our customers in person.

We just know you are out there taking pictures of your amazing cycling adventures. We want to see them! The best ones will be shared on the relevant section of this blog: Bike Cargo Trailers, Bike Touring, Bike Technology and Family Cycling.

Monthly Archives: August 2010

State of the Hub: Shifting towards Fall

Written on August 31, 2010 by Josh Lipton in Shop Life

thorn-tandem-pulling-pumpkin-cart-cropA little bit of Fall is coming into the air which brings to mind a shifting of the season for us. This means a few things for us. First off we are preparing for our sales to taper off and for our to shift towards ramping up our efforts on our website content and configuration. Second, it means we will be heading to Interbike soon.

With the inevitable tapering off of sales in the fall, we have the great opportunity to really focus in on all aspects of our website. Some of our primary focuses will be really improving a variety of high level pages on our websites where we present our expert knowledge on bicycle trailer, bags, racks and children’s cycling equipment. As a part of this, we will be focusing attention on improving our product photography and getting into product videos.

It’s been an interesting year for BikeShopHub.com with our site move and our business move. In my next post, I will be reflecting on some of the implications of our fluctuations and changes as we move ahead.

Our Internet Marketing Agenda:

  1. Developing new marketing channels (currently feeds of our product database into shopping networks).
  2. Maintaining & growing our current channels (currently Adwords, Google Shopping, Our 3 Blogs, Twitter & Facebook).
  3. Developing analytics reporting on the success of our marketing channels.

chrome-corsair-bike-messenger-bag-navy-red-front-stockOur Products Agenda (shop content):

  1. Rewriting and adding images for our category descriptions.
  2. Increasing our lineup of messenger bags, balance bikes, and trailer-cycles to our product lineup’s at BikeBagShop.com and BikeKidShop.com.
  3. Preparing for better photography and video by investing in new equipment, software and setting up our photo area.

Our Website Interface Agenda (web programming):

  1. Building our link massaging tool that allows for rapid intuitive cross linking of our content.
  2. Cleaning up layout of our product description pages.
  3. Integrating video into our product descriptions.
  4. Working towards a broader spectrum at Bike Shop Hub with a forum, photo gallery, Wandertec manufacturing section, Extrawheel section and more integrated in (we’re considering getting started into Drupal for this).

Our Shipping & Logistics Agenda:

  1. Settling in our organization of our inventory.
  2. Integrating all of our inventory management and shipping management into one role.
  3. Exploring a relationship with a freight forwarder.

wandertec-bongo-bike-trailer-with-dolleyOur Wandertec Manufacturing Agenda:

  1. Setup relationship for manufacturing of the Wandertec BONGO load bed.
  2. Get our current batch of 50 BONGOs powder coated.
  3. Get back into brainstorming ideas for the BONGO rail system.

Current Promotions:

Last Week’s Blog Posts:

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Chariot + Strider = Awesome!

Written on August 27, 2010 by Adam Cornette in Bike Child Trailers

The Bike Kid Shop has decided to make an offer that can’t be refused. We all know that Chariot child trailers are some of the best child trailers on the market. They are the BMW of child trailers, with all the attention to detail and performance that will make any child smile and any parent contented. Bike Kid Shop is now offering even more of a reason to own one of these great child trailers. With the purchase of any Chariot CX 1, CX 2, Cougar 1, Cougar 2 or Corsaire XL the Bike Kid Shop is including a free Strider Balance Bike.

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Bike Trailer at Work Helping Local Food Share Program

Written on August 25, 2010 by Adam Cornette in Bike Cargo Trailers

A local food share program in Burlington, Vermont has incorporated bicycle trailers into their food distribution. Intervale Food Hub began as a research project of the Intervale Center in 2007. The goal was to identify the existing barriers and opportunities to increasing local food production and consumption, and to find appropriate solutions for “moving local food forward” in Chittenden County.

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State of the Hub

Written on August 23, 2010 by Josh Lipton in Shop Life

I’ve decided to take a stab at a new practice this week by doing my first of what I hope to be a weekly summary of our business activities and developments. I’ve decided to post this here on our blog at Bike Shop Hub both for our customers and our team, internal and external. Whether or not I get a good rhythm going with this (I’ve failed in some past attempts), at the least, I hope that this week’s affairs provide for interesting reading.

wandertec-bongo-bike-trailer-heavy-load-fort-collins-cropI’ve been working towards defining the purpose of all of our blogs a bit more specifically. I’ve found that blogging within an organization has been the most successful when the blog has a clear agenda to keep things moving forward. While inspiration starts and stops with various ideas for the blog, if there is a core purpose, the blog will continue to grow and foster opportunities for more inspiration to pop up. So here are our current core agendas for our 3 blogs:

The BikeShopHub.com Blog: Post this weekly “State of the Hub” post with the goal of clarifying, documenting and spreading the word about our direction and progress. Post product reviews on bike bags, bike racks and children’s cycling products that we carry. Post overviews, roundups, histories and news stories relevant to specific categories of bike bags, bike racks and children’s cycling products that we carry.
UtilityCycling.com: Bring clarity and elaborate on the topic of utility cycling. The approach is to define utility cycling by breaking it down into different categories, subcategories and topics.
BikeTrailerBlog.com: Publish our readers bike trailer photos and stories. In addition, post other stories, reviews, news and information about bike trailers.

robin-bike-rack-robot-man-dance-cropWe’ve come up with a new slogan for the BikeShopHub.com “The Bicycle Accessory Experts”. The slogan represents both our current expertise in bike cargo trailers, bike bags, bike racks and children’s cycling equipment as well as our ambition to continue to expand our realm of expertise into other bicycling accessories.

I’ve had some recent considerations on the Bike Shop Hub team’s approach to brainstorming ideas. As a growing business involved in technology and cycling, we have a broad array of inspiration to draw from as we move forward and grow. I have to say, it often feels like we are overburdened with too many ideas. I often feel the burden of explaining how an idea, while perhaps very intriguing, is often far more difficult to integrate in, fully adopt and fully move forward with than it might appear. The resulting benefits of many ideas would have to offer more promise in order to justify the cost of implementation. At the same time, it is important that we maintain a good flow of ideas and find a balance that fosters the generation of ideas without having them become over burdensome.

With this in mind, I hope to encourage an environment where we can let ideas flow freely without worrying about the fact that most of the ideas will likely not come to fruition. While an idea may never see the light of being fully adopted, it adds to the power of a stream of ideas. It may build up momentum in combination with similar ideas or it may serve to communicate something more subtle than the idea itself. In fostering an open exchange of ideas, I am also considering it in the context of specific meetings where parts of our team meet to openly exchange and kill off ideas. I use the term “kill off” to express the idea that we could become comfortable with the process of sprouting ideas and quickly tearing them down as needed without growing overly attached. My hope is that this process can help us thresh our way through the thickets of ideas, to emerge with the real fruit.

Our Internet Marketing Agenda:

  1. Developing new marketing channels (currently feeds of our product database into shopping networks).
  2. Maintaining & growing our current channels (currently Adwords & Google Shopping).
  3. Developing analytics reporting on the success of our marketing channels.

Our Products Agenda (shop content):

  1. Rewriting and adding images for categories and brand descriptions
  2. Catching up on writing product listings mainly in BikeBagShop.com and BikeKidShop.com.
  3. Adding in more messenger bags, balance bikes, and trailer-cycles to our product lineup’s at BikeBagShop.com and BikeKidShop.com.
  4. Begin writing our new expert articles
  5. Preparing for better photography and video by investing in new equipment and setting up our photo area.

shopping-cart-cargo-bike-on-route-66-cropOur Website Interface Agenda (web programming):

  1. Building our link massaging tool that allows for rapid intuitive cross linking of our content.
  2. Cleaning and organizing product description pages and their option pages.
  3. Setting up photo arrays and methods to display more product info on sub-category pages
  4. Working towards a broader spectrum at Bike Shop Hub with a forum, photo gallery, Wandertec manufacturing section, Extrawheel section and more integrated in (we’re considering getting started into Drupal for this).

Our Wandertec Manufacturing Agenda:

  1. Setup relationship for manufacturing of the Wandertec BONGO load bed.
  2. Get our current batch of 50 BONGOs powder coated.
  3. Get back into brainstorming ideas for the BONGO rail system.

Current Promotions:

Last Week’s Blog Posts:

Last Week’s New Products:

Last Week’s New Sponsored Riders:

- Leave a comment!

New Xtracycle Products for 2010

Written on August 20, 2010 by Adam Cornette in Long Tail Bicycles

Xtracycle is a name that has long been associated with utility cycling. With the introduction of the FreeRadical, the longtail movement was born. Now, Xtracycle is a household name, associated with putting your car keys down and putting your bike helmet on. The longtail revolution has become a not-so-uncommon scene on city streets with specialty bikes, such as the Big Dummy, now being produced specifically for long tail utility use. Xtracycle has continued to develop products and accessories to complement their original FreeRadical design and make it easier to integrate cycling into daily life. Keeping with that philosophy, Xtracycle has introduced some new products and refined some current ones for 2010, and the Bike Trailer Shop is proud to offer them to you.

With that said we should mention that some of the remaining 2009 Xtracycle product is on closeout at the BikeTrailerShop.com. Individually, we have the Xtracycle SnapDeck for only $39 or a pair of 2009 FreeLoaders for $120. Add them to an Xtracycle FreeRadical kit and get the whole package with SnapDeck, FreeLoaders and V-racks (the original longtail kit) for only $429.

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Our Final Chariot and Croozer Sale of 2010!

Written on August 16, 2010 by Adam Cornette in Shop Life

chariot-cx-bike-child-trailer-behind-road-biking-ladyNow through August 24 the Bike Kid Shop will be running our final Chariot and Croozer child trailer sale for 2010. Don’t miss this great opportunity to get your child in one of the best child trailers available. All Chariot and Croozer trailers will be an additional 10% off including 10% all accessories as well. Chariot is one of the most sought after child trailers on the market, touting creature comforts one would expect to find in a high end European luxury sedan.

robin-showing-chariot-cougar-at-flagstaff-hullabalo-croppedHeadlining the the Chariot roster are the CX-1 and the CX-2. The CX line is the high end of high end child trailers, delivered with all of Chariots bells and whistles. The ever popular Cougar 1 and Cougar 2 are Chariots major players. The Cougar line offers the same great quality as the CX line with a few less extras and coming in at a slight less price point. The Cougar 1 and 2 are some of our best selling child trailers. All of the XC trailers, CX, Cougars and Cheetahs come with Chariots CTS technology allowing any XC line trailer to be the ultimate multi-use child carrier. Whether you cycling, running, hiking skiing, or just out for a stroll the XC line can do it all.

The Chariot Classic series, which includes the Cabriolet and Corsaire XL, offers a slightly different approach then the XC line of trailers, with more room and a standard cycling kit included the Classic series are cycling and fun ready. Don’t miss this great opportunity to get your child in and your hands on some of the best child trailer available. Both you and your child will be riding in style and comfort with a new Chariot child trailer.chariot-cougar-1-bike-child-trailer-red

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Final Chariot and Croozer Sale of 2010

Written on August 16, 2010 by Adam Cornette in Bike Child Trailers

Here at the Bike Kid Shop we a super excited about Chariot Child trailers, we think they are great. In fact we think there so great that we want everyone to have the chance to enjoy the style, performance and comfort that Chariot is know for. That’s why now through August 24 the Bike Kid Shop is offering 10% off all Chariot and Croozer child trailers. Not only are the trailers 10% off but all Chariot and Croozer accessories are 10% as well. Now is the time to get you and your child into one of the best child trailers on the market.

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Open discussion: Bike Panniers or Bike Trailers?

Written on August 11, 2010 by Adam Cornette in Bike Touring Gear

Here at the Bike Shop Hub we love both bike panniers and bike trailers for our commuting and touring needs. Some of us swing more to one side then the other, but we want to know which one you prefer and why? Check out this article we wrote awhile back discussing this very dilemma, Panniers VS. Trailers, the battle royal.

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Free BikeShopHub.com T-Shirts!

Written on August 9, 2010 by Adam Cornette in Shop Life

bike-shop-hub-t-shirt-mens-royal-front-close-up-stockWhat could be better then owning one of the new, cool, stylish Bike Shop Hub designer T-shirts? Getting one for free! With the purchase of select bicycle cargo trailers and Ortlieb panniers you get a free Bike Shop Hub men’s or women’s T-shirt. These great shirts feature the Bike Shop Hub logo and come in a variety of colors. These aren’t some lame, fits good if you are shaped like a square T-shirt. I’m very picky about my T-shirt fit and you can take my word that the colors and the fit are spot on!

bike-shop-hub-t-shirt-mens-charcoal-front-stockNow you can still purchase one of these shirts by them selves, which I would highly recommend, but why buy one when you can have one for free. The Current promotion includes Croozer Cargo, Croozer Travel, Croozer Dog, Croozer Mini, Carry Freedom City, Extrawheel Voyager, Extrawheel Advert, Radical Designs Cyclone III Cargo, Radical Designs Cyclone III Flatbed, Wandertec BONGO LG, Wandertec BONGO LG, Weber Monoporter and the Xtracycle Cargo Kit. I know right, so many opportunities to get a great bike trailer with a free shirt. But wait, there’s more. Because we can, we are also offering a free Bike Shop Hub T-shirt with the purchase of Ortlieb Plus Pannier as well as the Ortlieb Bike Tourer Panniers and the new 2010 commuting panniers, the Ortlieb City, Downtowner and Vario.

bike-shop-hub-t-shirt-womens-sky-back-close-up-stockThe Bike Shop Hub T-shirt features our new logo reflecting our vision that the bicycle is a vehicle through which humanity can discover harmony and prosperity throughout the planet. Our slogan “The Road is Yours” speaks to the necessity that cyclists take ownership of the road in a variety of senses.bike-shop-hub-t-shirt-womens-orchid-front-stock

The men’s come in small, medium, large and extra-large available in deep blue a graphite gray. The women’s also come in small, medium, and large but with a different cut more flattering to the female figure available in lavender and sky blue. So don’t wait around, get your self into a great cargo trailer or some Ortlieb panniers for your next tour and have a great looking shirt to wear at the same time.

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A Happy Customer’s Burley Nomad

Written on August 4, 2010 by Josh Lipton in Bike Cargo Trailers

I thought I’d use the opportunity of this blissful photo of a Burley Nomad that Don sent in to mention that we just extended our Burley Cargo, Child & Pet Trailers 10% off Sale, thru August 10th.

Here is what Don has to say about his Nomad:

I love my Burley Nomad I have a hitch on both my mountain bike and my fixie (see photo). I use it for shopping for myself and my mom, and since I also commute by bike to work, there are weeks when I never start the engine in my truck. The Nomad tracks so smoothly I often forget it’s there.

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