No one is safe from the force that is online
shopping. From books to food to furniture,
retailers are grappling with how to transition
into this brave new world.
Mountain biking hasn’t escaped this but
with most riders prefering to physically grasp
any potential purchase, how does shopping
online for bikes compare?
I investigated one of the preeminent players
in the Aussie market, Intense Cycles.Intense, California
Headquartered in Temecula, California,
Intense Cycles has been at the forefront of
downhill and gravity since their origins in- They’ve produced legendary bikes
such as the M1 and M3 and lately the
BUYING ONLINETHE RISE OF ONLINE SHOPPING HAS TAKEN THE RETAIL WORLD
BY STORM AND THE MTB INDUSTRY IS NO DIFFERENT. HOW DOES
ORDERING SOMETHING ON A SCREEN DIFFER FROM WALKING
INTO A SHOP AND BEING ABLE TO TOUCH IT?BUYING ONLINE: CAN YOU
GET PEACE OF MIND?
WORDS AND PICS: BEN SYKES
M29 downhill race bike now under Aussie
downhill racer Jack Moir along with new
team-mate Aaron Gwin.
I had the chance to visit their
headquarters earlier this year. While a few
years ago the welders, frame jigs and CNC
machines moved out with a push to produce
carbon frames exclusively over the alloy
frames they’d been hand building in their
workshop, there is still hand-building for
prototyping and testing going on under the
hands of founder Jeff Steber.
Since early 2018 they’ve been following a
new direct and online sales model, bearing
proof to the constant change they’ve had to
execute in changing their brief around what
their customer expects.