Kudos Road Shows-Post Mortem

[Kudoscycles]

Must say that myself and the Kudos Team want to take a breather and return to normal home life after 4 Kudos Roadshows inside the month of April,the next event is the Bristol hillclimb championship on June 23.
To reflect we have exhibited at-
Redbridge,London-Test an ebike day,April 7
Manifold Trail,Derbyshire,April 13
Hambleton Peninsula,Rutland Water,Leics,April 20
Eden Project,Cornwall,April 20-24
Whilst its fresh in everyones minds I would welcome comments/suggestions as to the suitability of these venues? Where they useful?Was the time of the year correct.
For me the Redbridge event was the star,other trade members also commented that it was a perfect venue for testing bikes,perhaps the best in Europe.Almost all of the ebike suppliers have expressed an interest for next year,so it is becoming the National Electric Bike Day.
I also enjoyed the Manifold Trail,it was a beautiful part of the UK,the lady at the Wetton Mill tea rooms made us very welcome and it gave easy rides and hill rides to those who wanted either.
The Eden Project was a difficult venue,the test track had a lot of compromises,the entry cost was high unless you were interested in the rest of the project and 5 days was too long,but it did attract pedelec newbies and sold many Kudos bikes to new converts.
I didn't attend the Hambleton event,but my guys said it worked well,just needed a few more people-I understand that there was a hill available adjacent to the pub to test hillclimbing.
Very interested in members opinions
KudosDave

 

[Taff]

I only attended the Manifold Roadshow and thought it was perfect. Hill and flat section. Plenty of parking. Tea rooms and toilets. Beautiful scenery.

 

[mountainsport]

Dave,

A hard working business man and his team quite often deserve a long rest and a cooling down period,you should know this Dave because we are all like batteries, but a trillion more times advanced,which had been given to us for free by GOD,think about it

Mountainsport.

 

[Artstu]

I only attended the Manifold Roadshow and thought it was perfect. Hill and flat section. Plenty of parking. Tea rooms and toilets. Beautiful scenery.

Same here, a great spot. Another option for a warm summers day would be Millers Dale station on the Monsal Trail. It's a bit busier than the Manifold Trail at the moment.

[video=youtube;KPPSzw-gYrg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPPSzw-gYrg[/video]

 

[JimB]

I enjoyed getting over to the Manifold Trail event and although brand new to the ebike experience on that day I thought the routes available were perfectly suited to trialling ebikes.

Others have said the parking was good, I'm not so sure, the on road parking may have been dominated by long term parking walkers and the café area had quite limited parking which filled up soon after we arrived (earlier than the official start).

Apart from that the area was busy with walkers and cyclists who hopefully were exactly the sort of people Kudos and their dealer were looking for. Being realistic, they weren't there for my entertainment but to sell bikes and only they will know whether the event came up to scratch in that respect. I would say the potential was there but after getting a rollocking from my wife for talking to Dave for so long I have to suggest that if you get stuck with verbose bores like me in future make sure you're positioned so you can always see the rest of your team. I'm told they had been frantically trying to attract your attention for some time to see a customer who was waving a large wad of notes around.

When I was testing the KTM Bold I stopped halfway up the hill and chatted to another tester and swapped bikes with another pair who were also testing Kudos bikes so they could try out the Bold...but that first cyclist I was talking to wasn't Artstu by any chance?

Rutland Water is a brilliant place to capture the interest of potential buyers. I wasn't there but in the past have cycled round the reservoir quite a few times with the kids. In fact we bought our 4 bikes at Rutland Cycling

UK Bike Shop | Discount Road & Mountain Bikes | Rutland Cycling

....who pretty much dominate the scene. Maybe that was why you were positioned in the pub car park on the peninsula. The problem with that is that most cyclists going round the reservoir don't go down there.

The places to be at Rutland Water would be in one of the big car parks but unfortunately Rutland Cycling kinda dominate those and I'm not sure if you wouldn't get run out of town if you tried to set up there. Whether there are other spots on the actual cycle tour round the water you could set up I'm not sure but there are other pubs around which may well have better locations than the one you were in.

However, if I was trying to sell Kudos Cycles around there I'd be aiming to sign Rutland Cycling as an agent....with apologies to your local dealer. They seem to be well in with Giant though.

JimB

 

[Kudoscycles]

We have now loaded photos on Facebook for the events-perhaps you can recognise pedelec members on the piccies.
Just Google 'Facebook KudosCycles'
Thanks to all who attended.
KudosDave

 

[flecc]

Facebook Kudos Cycles active link

 

[Croxden]

Facebook Kudos Cycles active link

Thanks Flecc, I couldn't get it to work, and as I'm not in the snaps they are safe to look at.

 

[shemozzle999]

Electricbikemag review of Redbridge event:

electricbikemag.co.uk::Event report: Redbridge try an E-bike day

 

[Eaglerider]

KudosDave, you are to be congratulated on your stalwart efforts in promoting ebiking. I do hope you were able to realise some sales from your endeavours.

For my part, since my introduction to Ebikes in October 2011, I have become somewhat of an Ebike evangelist, extolling their virtues to any and all who might listen. I have enjoyed a small amount of success, and certainly, at least five folk have subsequently purchased an ebike following my remonstrations.

I guess that to access new customers and make inroads to new business areas, perhaps marketing to niche interest groups may be of value. I would imagine the key indicators for new sales would be, the ability to ride a bicycle, secondly, an interest in things mechanical, or gadget appeal, and most importantly the disposable income to afford an ebike.

If I were a retailer of ebikes, I think I would target custom car shows, motorcycle events and the like. I personally have a long standing interest in light aircraft and there are routinely rallies and 'fly-ins' that take place throughout the country, and these are attended mostly by folk who meet the criteria mentioned above. The biggest of these annual rallies occurs at Sywell Airfield in Northants, and is usually attended by over 1000 aircraft owners, most of whom are ready and willing to blow cash on GPS goodies and new toys.

I can't help thinking this could be a target rich environment, and being held at an airfield would likely have suitable off road areas for testing. Most attendees spend the whole day on site, and would be in a "spending" frame of mind.

Of course, the logistics may be difficult and you may have tried this before KudosDave, but I felt obliged to mention it anyway. May the E-force be with you.

Let me know if I can help any further.

 

[jhruk]

KudosDave, you are to be congratulated on your stalwart efforts in promoting ebiking. I do hope you were able to realise some sales from your endeavours.

Kudos sales must be doing ok :