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BIKE SHOP names...

Dylan Dean

Monkey
Oct 12, 2007
608
0
southern California
soooooo... another one of my pet projects finally coming to fruition is a new bike shop here in my town (Escondido, California). ...yah, that’s all I need is ANOTHER job! Haha… but it’s not as bad as it sounds. I’ve already been helping my dad out with his recumbent trike shop, it’s a fairly high end trike shop, & we do quite well for this niche market… but we need to expand into more of a traditional bike shop. We’ll be essentially a family type shop (Adult bikes (MTB, Road, Cruisers, etc), as well as some BMX/Kids lines. But I’m DEFINITELY going to bring in some high end lines (bikes/frames & components). It’s gonna be pretty cool when we make the full transition, but we’re taking it one step at a time.

I’ve got a few ideas, but I’m stumped on a cool name for the shop! Any suggestions?
 

Dylan Dean

Monkey
Oct 12, 2007
608
0
southern California
a quick list of names... haven't done a detailed search yet, so i "think" they're more or less available. some names cross over into other sports, but i think it's kosher if you're dealing with other genres... & especially if you're using the name "cycling, etc" in the title
any thoughts?


Dylan Dean Cycles
Shift Cycles
Elements Bike Shop
Phantom Cycles
Armada Cycling
Force Cycling
Sessions Cyclery
The Bike Vault



....& we're already carrying DEAN OPTICS & NEMA! :thumb:
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
no offense to the monkeys but I think this is something that you should hand over to the pro's.

http://addisonwhitney.com/

your business will be known as a name or a place. names like starbucks, specialized, intel all have very powerful names that are common place, not sure if you can afford it but it may be very worth your time looking into.


my vote for a name would be

monkey butt bikes
 

Dylan Dean

Monkey
Oct 12, 2007
608
0
southern California
a few of you have sent me messages or posted about the "recumbent trike" deal.. here's the 411 on that before this gets any further or the thread gets derailed.

Personally i'm not intersted in these trikes at all. It's my father's shop & he's the one into it. Is there a huge market? of course not. there are only a few shops in the country that can essentially survive as a trike/recumbent only shop. He's got his ups & downs, but has really surprised me at its success... but being relatively a new & small shop, it's still hard to profit....hence we're turning it more into a "normal" bike shop.

ANYWAY i agree.. they look extremely weird & "gay"....& UNTIL you ride one, you really don't want to ride one. ...they're actually surprisingly fun to screw around on. would i buy one? hell no.. but there's a market for it... somewhere! haha

What turned me around was the fact that we sell MANY Trikes to people with disabilities, injuries & health problems. My dad suffered a stroke years ago & has steadily lost his balance & can't ride a "normal" bike anymore. That's the main reason he got into it & started up the shop.

We've also sold one to a guy who went to the same rehab facility as Tara Llanes. he broke his back & uses the trike in his rehab. The guys still in a wheelchair & can maybe walk a few feet with a walker, & that's about it... but when he rides a trike... he's a new person!

Yes there are the many "dorks" who come in & spaz out about the trikes.. but honestly, it's worth putting up with to help out those guys whos lives are changed, ya know?

anyway, that's my rant. With that said, i'm not saying trikes are bitchin.. but i have a lot more respect for them after dealing with them a bit.

... but i'm still gonna do my best to make it into a bad ass BIKE shop that happens to sell trikes! ;-)

cheers,
 
Apr 9, 2004
516
8
Mount Carmel,PA
Tri-D & True Bikes

Learned a long time ago to not use you name on Your store. People tend to get too personal. Plus too easy to find your number a call you at odd times for cables and stuff.

Being friendly and going out of your way seems like good customer service, but many customers can take it way too far when they stsrt infringing on your family time too often.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
24,182
media blackout
no offense to the monkeys but I think this is something that you should hand over to the pro's.

http://addisonwhitney.com/

your business will be known as a name or a place. names like starbucks, specialized, intel all have very powerful names that are common place, not sure if you can afford it but it may be very worth your time looking into.


my vote for a name would be

monkey butt bikes

No offense, but companies like Addison Whitney are geared more towards large scale manufacturing corporations of consumer products, vehicles, healthcare, etc. Companies that deal with high volume and low margins, where competition is very cut-throat, so a distinct shelf presence and consistent branding are crucial. Take a look at A-W's portfolio, they're working with some of the largest companies and most recognizable brands in the world (Coca-Cola, Cambell's, GSK, Novartis, and most of the major automakers). Hiring them to do a branding for an LBS is like using a Tomahawk missile to get deer out of your garden, its just overkill.

Besides, Dylan is pretty well ingrained with the bike industry, and is already running 2 of his own brands. He definitely seems talented enough to be able to brainstorm a name for a bike shop. Granted, we don't know his full business plan and what he intends to do. And depending on what his primary brands are going to be, some of them actually have style guides for how the shop has to look, and catalogs of racks, displays, those kinds of things - all to provide a consistent branding/presence in the shop. Now I'm not sure if this is what Mr Dean is going for, but its certainly an option.


Dylan - my vote would go for Dylan Dean Cycles. Having your name in the shop name helps establish a more personal feel right off the bat. My LBS is a place called Marty's Reliable Cycles, and Marty is the owner. It gives it a little more of a personal touch to it, to see the name of the shop and right away knowing the owner. The fact that you have your own line of goggles with similar branding only helps to reinforce that.
 
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guitarhero

Chimp
Nov 1, 2005
33
0
Scotland
Bikes U Like
It is about the bike.
Bike, Bikes and more Bikes
Bike Me
Get Biked
Got Bike
Biker Grove (one for the UK'ers)
Bike Shop at the Gates of Dawn
 

Jason4

Monkey
Aug 27, 2008
338
0
Bellingham
Some of the things I've learned when it comes to branding is to keep the name simple and easy to remember but unique. There's a funny story about how Mike Olsen came up with the name for Gnu snowboards and that has been a good one. I would avoid using your name in the name of the shop unless you plan to be there 80%+ of the time otherwise you get customers that come in expecting to talk to the guy whose name is on the sign. Another part of that is tied to your long term plan. If you ever want to sell the shop you'd a large part of the brand equity is the name and you'd have to make the decision to sell your name along with it. We have a local shop called Jack's Bike shop but I think it has been sold/passed on to family as there isn't anybody named Jack there anymore and it has been in business for 25 years now.

Some ideas of mine:
Spoked World
True Wheels
Life Cycles
Cycles of Life

Already in use in Wa state:
Cycle Therapy
 

Jeremy R

<b>x</b>
Nov 15, 2001
9,698
1,053
behind you with a snap pop
How about:

Bat $hit Crazy to Open up a Bike Shop in this Economy Cycles.

Its got a nice ring to it. ;)

Ha, good luck with it, and that was a cool story about the trikes/health problems. I see a couple of examples around here from time to time,
including one maniac who did the Mt. Mitchell Century (30 mile climb at the end) on a hand cycled trike.:eek: