Editor's note: A version of this article ran in the May issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News.
SAN DIEGO (BRAIN) — Hearing Brett Lindstrom talk, one might recall Steve Job’s 2007 introduction of the first iPhone. “It’s three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communications device. An iPod, a phone and an internet communications device … are you getting it?” Jobs teased a crowd of rapt Apple devotees.
Lindstrom’s three things are: A Velofix mobile repair franchise, an international cycling tour company, and a business selling custom road bikes from a company based in Monaco.
The three apparently disparate businesses are part of Lindstrom’s company, Mechanism Cycling. We’re not suggesting they make up one hand-held product, or that Mechanism is the next Apple. But the three are surprisingly complementary.
Put it this way: Some of Mechanism’s Velofix clients learn about its European tours when they get their bikes serviced. They book a trip, ride a Stajvelo bike and visit Stajvelo’s headquarters, order a bike and get it delivered and serviced by Mechanism’s Velofix business.
Are you getting it?
Lindstrom is an industry vet, having managed stores in Colorado, directed sales for Speedplay, Time, Lapierre, and Chapter 2, and served as Lake Cycling’s brand manager for nine years. He began working in retail at 15 and did a stint welding frames for R&A Cycles in Seattle as a teenager. In a past life he was even a tech writing intern, working with Lennard Zinn at VeloNews in Boulder, Colorado.
The Stajvelo story
We’ll tell Mechanism’s three-part story in reverse chronological order.
Within tiny Monaco, Stajvelo is well known for its founder and owner, Thierry Manni, who made his fortune in the injection molding business and is best known as the uncle and close advisor to top Formula 1 racer Charles Leclerc. Stajvelo has frames made nearby in Italy and offers a custom program for consumers and a corporate bike fleet program for corporations that want bikes or e-bikes with custom paint.
Lindstrom learned of the brand last summer when he was organizing a tour in Tuscany and needed a few rental bikes for clients. A French contact connected him with the Monaco bike brand.
“My clients really liked the bikes and I kept in touch,” he said. At a Tour de France viewing party in Monaco last year he met Manni and other company officials and began talking about importing the brand in the U.S.
Lindstrom is now working with IBDs and professional bike fitters to establish Stajvelo in the U.S., focusing on the brand’s high-end road and gravel offerings.
“When you’re launching a European brand into the U.S. market, especially in the current state of cycling retail, it’s a much easier pathway with high-end road than it is with a high-end e-bike.
Stajvelo’s frames have a tube-to-tube construction that allows custom sizing, which is why Lindstrom sees professional fitters as a good fit for the brand.
MSRP starts at about $6,000 for a frameset. Lindstrom said custom turnaround is three to four weeks.
The tour business story
After COVID, Lindstrom noted that some of his Velofix clients had expressed interest in going on overseas bike tours.
“Since I’d led bike tours for almost 20 years with Bicycle France and Italy Too, which is based out of Denver and run by Bill Wildberger, I thought, ‘Shoot, this is something that could be an interesting aspect of my business,’ because a lot of the Velofix customers are high-end road customers that want to go to Europe and ride bikes. And I raced bikes in France, and I speak and read French so for me it was a very interesting way to get back over to France and Europe on a regular basis,” he said.
Wildberger agreed to sell, and Mechanism took over some of its infrastructure including its liability insurance packages. The first independent Mechanism tour was in Spain two years ago.
Putting it together
Mechanism’s tour customers tend to be well-heeled; the company’s flagship trip next summer starts at $7,000 per person, not including travel.
There’s even more: “My wife Kelly is a senior apparel design developer for Hincapie Sports,” Lindstrom said. She designs complete custom kits for each tour, including riding kit and off-bike items.
“In some ways that’s kind of marketing as well, um, but that’s on a much smaller scale,” he said.
