Any Bike Designer Want to Start Your Own Bike Company?
I'm frustrated with my kids' bikes weighing half of what they do (32 pounds for a $1,000 USD kids bike for a 60 lb kids. Heavier if cheaper). Looking at the companies out there that advertise "better bikes for kids" like Guardian bikes, they brag about parents being able to bunny hop the bikes because they are so tough. Well, that means they are overbuilt for kids. I wouldn't ride a 95lb bike...
I've contacted bike companies about this issue and they say the reason they do this is to avoid parents complaining when parts break, but adults buy bikes and expect to have some maintenance.
So, I'm thinking we change the business model. We engineer lighter bikes built actually for kids, (or lighter people in general. There is no reason a tall man or woman at 150lbs should ride the same bike as someone the same height and 225 lbs...). Then we use blockchain to have digital ownership of that bike and sell replacement parts to the owners of the bike at wholesale. This changes our relationship with the parents and could provide for a long-term resale value on the bike as second owners could get the appropriate cheap upgrades as well. We would make money on the initial sale, and we could be the brokers in the second-hand marketplace as well with the blockchain and take a commission. Bikes could hold value like cars, and we, as bike designers could design lighter bikes engineered for kids and lighter people without being criticized for quality.
Thoughts? I'd love to talk to anyone who had credentials as a bike designer, or blockchain engineer. Please pass along if you know bike designers, or comment below with your thoughts and constructive criticism.
Thanks,
LOL that all made sense to me until I got to "blockchain".
Speaking as a parent of two, one consideration is that when I buy a kid's bike I know my kid will grow out of it pretty soon. For that reason I always buy used bikes for them, and it's convenient that kids bikes are built to be totally bombproof. If the used bike basically works and is not obviously rusty I know it will be okay.
Also BTW I typically spend only about $100 on one of those used kids bikes.
@foreigner - When you start your constructive criticism with 'LOL' it is quite rude. Sounds more like a dig on Facebook or Twitter and not in the spirit of this site where people can come together and work through startup ideas to hone in from initial ideas to ones that might just have the right product market fit.
Your personal use case isn't what I'm shooting for with this suggestion. I recently bought bikes for my two older kids (12 and 10) for over $1,000 and $1,200 each. The purpose is to be able to take them single track mountain biking and downhill biking at ski resorts in the Rockies. While this isn't the use case for MOST parents I know it is for LOTS of parents because while picking up one of the bikes there were two other parents there shopping for similar bikes, and at the other store they had a row of bikes the same size as my 10 year old's in store that were MORE expensive.
However, the bike for my 10 year old weighs half of what he weighs which is a serious limiting factor for cross-country single track. I'm pushing him up hills when we ride with his older brother. The bike has a weight limit of 240lbs. That's 4 times what my kid weighs, so it's significantly over built for a kid.
Now, this is the way all the bikes being sold in today's are built, so clearly there are reasons that the existing market structure is how it is. So if a significantly different product is to be successful we have to understand the reasons why no one is providing that product, and have a strategy to deal with those reasons.
In startups that is often done by changing the business model, which entails changing one or more of the value streams. This is often, though not always tech-enabled.
I may be wrong in my assessment that a key reason that incumbents build tanks for kids is to avoid complaining parents. I may be wrong in assuming that using technology to change the relationship the producers has with the parents will allow for a different product. But those are the key parameters I'm looking at here.
Do you have any ideas of how to change the business model to deliver a lighter bike to children? Or, might it be as simple as educating parents? Like tool that shows parents how much their bike would weigh if they enter their children's bike name and their weight? Or something else interesting? I'm interested in hearing about ideas that would enable delivering lighter performance bikes to youth.
-Thanks - Brett
Yes, I'm interested and I have collaborated with a local agency to start working on its plan. I built my interest in it by managing my client's blog related to bikes and biking guides. You can check it here: sanantoniobikeshare.org
I'll share the progress with you again after I got the plan finished. Best of luck.
@RealNoahSmith I don't understand, are you starting to work on this business plan and you'll let me know when you are done? Or, are you working on something else? If you would like to collaborate on this idea do you want to connect for a conversation?