Spreading the Love

In each of our brick-and-mortar stores (six Trek Bicycle Stores), we have a customer database that tracks purchases and stores contact info. In that, we’re exactly like every other retailer who has a computerized point-of-sale operation. Why do they ask you for your phone number when you buy batteries at Radio Shack? Because they’re building a customer history profile.

We do the same thing (you can opt out at any time and not get a guilt trip, of course), ostensibly to accumulate a better base for our local marketing efforts. I use it in a perhaps-futile effort to learn our customers’ names. Over the course of days, weeks and months, a few thousand people come into the store. I recognize many of them. I get to know some of them fairly well. And yes, I even manage to remember a fair share of names.

For those who want to go fast, I invite them to the bloodbath that is Wednesday Night Worlds, if only to get a feel for what it’s like to really go fast. Last night, I accompanied two new WNW riders on their maiden voyages. Both had grins spread wide as the bunch rolled out of town.

The grins, of course, went away when the rockets launched and the group shattered — that happens to everybody, really. But their smiles soon returned as they settled in for the rest of the ride.

There’s much to be said for the thrum of tires on pavement; for the clicks of derailleurs. To be a part of a group of 30 or more means each sound is amplified. It’s loud, actually. But it’s a sound I love. I miss it throughout the winter, when the soundtrack to training is only the wind whipping through the fleece skullcap you thought was pretty warm.

Last night, we gained two more converts. Even though they had it handed to them — again, that happens to pretty much everybody at some point — they’ll be back for more.

Random link time:

• The ongoing saga of radios/no radios in WorldTour racing is probably one of the dumber arguments going right now. As a reasonably new fan of cycling (only a few years), I’ve never been turned off by having every rider wired up. In fact, some of the more boring race footage I’ve seen came from the pre-radio era. Two guys 25 minutes off the front? Fun. Memo to the boys: just go race your bikes and shut up. Memo to the UCI: listen to your constituents. The NFL is having a problem with that right now. The riders and teams are the show, not the executives.
• The Little 500 was held this past weekend in Bloomington, Ind. If you’re a cycling movie fan, the Little 500 serves as the climax of Breaking Away. Check out the VeloNews galleries from the men’s and women’s races.
• Want to start an argument? Check out this UK survey. Personally, as a guy who’s slid across pavement on his face, I’m pretty pro-helmet.