Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

This morning on the Behance Network portfolio site I noticed the Trek Project One configurator. I previously noticed the online config tool for Trek’s high end bike when my recent project Syracuse Bike integrated it to their site.

Concepting, design and UI for Trek’s Project One – a custom bike program where you design the bike of your dreams. Work completed for Hanson Dodge Creative. Design your dream bike at projectone.trekbikes.com

Selling the Project One bikes through a configurator is a big bonus not only for dealers but for customers to be able to sort through the various options for the bikes. The configurator even estimates the delivery date and final price for the bike with the selected components. The configurator is funt o play around with to build up your dream bike, You can configure everything from your gruppo, paint scheme, brake hoods and cable colors. The end result is a bike that looks totally custom but is made through the usual Trek process.

Here is one orange bike I designed influenced by the Syracuse University colors.

Taking the custom project to extremes, you can design bikes to your choosing. Here are some designs that model after birds.

The configurator takes a concept of upselling and makes it easily accessible to the customer. Instead of browsing through catalogs and imagining what the final bike would look like, a customer can run through any option and get a solid idea of the finished product. Trek gets an easy way to upsell all sorts of products such as higher end wheels and carbon stems made from Bontrager. previously customers who would plunk down the cash to get a truly custom ride would get all of the extras in after market goods which would probably not be from the Trek empire. Now the configurator gives the customers one stop shopping to a tricked out ride.

The configurator is optimal when there is lots of money to spend. But now we are in a tough economy where some customers may actually balk at the prospect of spending 6 to 8k on a bike. With cost cutting in mind can customers use this configurator to actually get a better deal on a high end Trek? Here you can substitute a lower end gruppo and lower end s wheels to get a better price on the final bike. Go without the totally custom paint job and choose a semi-custom stock setup and you can be riding for a few thousand less than what a bike shop would typically get in a showroom. So if trek positions this correctly the configurator can be used to save money for the customer and still keep sales coming in to Trek.

Behance Portfolio Network
Bike as birds

Cervelo took a huge risk when they became the main bike supplier to Team CSC. The risk paid off nicely with the huge success of the team making Cervelo bikes one of the leading brands out there. Originally Cervelo was a small boutique brand with an emphasis on providing better aerodynamics with their airfoil downtubes. Their biggest market is triathlon with their slippery fast P2 TT bikes that are some of the most lusted after TT bikes on the market. Their approach is less is more in some respects as they have a limited line that is very high-end. There are no cheapy sub $1000 bikes in the Cervelo lineup and they are always in demand.

Despite the negative drug related press, with the Ivan Basso debacle in 2007 and the Riis revelations of 2007 their sales are still strong. This is especially with the premium lusting baby-boomers who are getting into cycling.

Checkout the article http://www.reportonbusiness.com/