Comments on: Episode 61: The Season Begins

By: owen_p

owen_p — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:25:59 +0000

Good point about the Olympics Scott. True, the Cervelo ladies have done well in the European race scene and we should see more of that on TV. The UCI could look to tennis or athletics. (mind you, tennis only just got parity on prize money for Grand slam events)

Liz does market herself though- she has a calendar I think. With that in mind, I'm not ashamed- merely reacting in the way that is expected of me!

By: Steve_S_T

Steve_S_T — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:23:21 +0000

I'll have to look into the enhanced podcast/ Podtrapper situation, although I hadn't realised that enhanced podcasts were an iTunes only thing. BlackBerry will certainly play m4a and I wish more people would get one so that we could have a BB equivalent of all of these iPhone bike apps that keep starring in Pick Of The Week, but sadly iPhone and iPod are now irreversibly ubiquitous methinks.

By: VeloCast

VeloCast — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:12:10 +0000

Totally agree John, there's real satisfaction in knowing you've been the one who chose every part so it best suited your needs and budget. Nothing better. It used to be even more fun back in the days when you could mix and match different manufacturers drivetrain components to get what you wanted. (8 Speed Suntour thumbies with an XT rear mech and the secret cable clamping etc ;oD) Sadly modern excellence has ruined that fun!
Boardman? Only downside is Halfords, nothing else.

By: John_the_Monkey

John_the_Monkey — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:00:36 +0000

Re: Building vs buying – The downside of buying a complete is that the bike isn't “yours”.

I could have bought a Surly LHT for about the same price I built mine for. But the wheels wouldn't have been the ones I wanted, the stem would have been too short, it wouldn't have had the brakes I wanted or STis either. If the off the peg bike has everything you want, I guess it's a good deal, but for me, buying a complete would have meant compromise, or adding the cost of the extras/replacements. (Now I think about it, my build included the cost of a rack & guards which doesn't come on the built LHT).

As for Boardman – the bikes are fantastic, and Mr B himself believes in them & stands behind them (as he's proved in threads on Bike Radar, iirc). The weak point is Halfords themselves, who don't have any consistency in the quality of setup offered, it seems. Fine if you know what you're about, not great if you're a beginner. I guess at least with the Wiggle bike, you know you're doing the setup from the outset! FWIW, Wiggle's first own brand (sold as the Kiron) got rave reviews.

By: VeloCast

VeloCast — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:58:44 +0000

The rule of thumb used to be that building a bike buying the bits at retail would cost you roughly 30% more than buying the same bike as a standard bike from a big manufacturer. It still seems to hold roughly true. Re wholesale prices and margins? I know that I've seen groupsets from all the major manufacturers for sale on the likes of Chain Reaction's site for less than a wee bricks and mortar store could buy them at trade. I take advantage of it myself now, used to make me sick when I was in the trade though. ;o( The only way wee bike businesses are going to survive moving forward is by niche marketing and excellent service and even then it's becoming more of a struggle.

By: VeloCast

VeloCast — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:47:39 +0000

The retail side of things would be better tackled by John, but the corollary of this could be – and I stress COULD; how much markup are we paying for gruppos on a Trek, Spesh or Giant?

No offense to Boardman – and you're right; John and I have talked often about the stigma associated with a “Halfords” bike – but I don't imagine that they are shifting enough Race Prepared Carbon Pros to afford them 'buying power' and merit big discounts on SRAM Red.

Scott.

By: bmfw

bmfw — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:21:19 +0000

I admit to still having slight “inner snob” feelings about Boardman bikes (buying a bike in Halfords just seems wrong!), but they have the benefit of the Boardman name to give them a bit more clout and like you, I have also heard nothing but good reviews about them. I suppose if I was in the market for a new road bike & either Boardman or Wiggle (or Be-One from CRC) were in my budget, my inner snob would quickly be vanquished by my inner skinflint!

It really seams to be the buying-power that these companies have, particularly when it comes to components & groupos, that results in great value bikes. Joe public could never put a bike together for anything approaching the cost of a Boardman, for example. How much do you reckon Wiggle pay for Dura-Ace, Ultegra or Sram Red or compared to the retail price – or even the “average” bike shop's wholesale price? The mind boggles!

By: VeloCast

VeloCast — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:23:23 +0000

Hi Steve,

No up until the last 2 episodes we have been producing an enhanced podcast in m4a format. The enhanced features included chapter markers, links and separate images for each of the stories. Maybe the features have been there but perhaps you didn't notice? I don't use a Blackberry so I couldn't say whether it or Podtrapper supports enhanced podcast features or it was just playing the audio layer from the m4a file.

Cheers,

Scott.

By: Steve_S_T

Steve_S_T — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:49:27 +0000

Didn't I always get the Podcast in mp3 format then? I susbscibe via Podtrapper on my BlackBerry and get it direct from velocast.co.uk – never checked the format (but I never got any of the enhanced stuff either).

By: VeloCast

VeloCast — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:41:05 +0000

As far as I know, very few people have ridden the Wiggle bikes yet (I think the guys at Cycling Plus have had a tootle round the car park, kinda thing) so I wouldn't want to defend or condem them to any great degree.

But what immediately leapt to mind when reading the "inner snob" part of your message was the range of bikes from Chris Boardman, currently selling through Halfords. You're right, the years of conditioning make us want something more exotic but that Boardman Race Prepared bike is a hell of a tempting proposition. And I've seen it given nothing but fantastic reviews.

Re the enhanced podcast: We decided to go to MP3 as lots of people got in touch asking if they could get the show as an MP3 (their players didn't support m4a). So it's just makes more sense to put out the show in format that absolutely anyone can listen to. The show notes will always be there from now on for anyone that needs to follow up on stories.

Scott.