Serotta et cetera

By Maynard Hershon

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I work for a three-store bike shop group in Tucson. Because we sell Serottas, Serotta Sales Manager Lori Hoefer came to Tucson in December to educate us about the bikes.

We talked about the models, about how to tell the Serotta story, about Ben Serotta himself, about how to use Serotta's Size-Cycle to fit bikes to their owners -- and how to allow (!) people to buy pricey bicycles. More about that in a few paragraphs.

I honestly could not pick a favorite Serotta model. I want a 7-Eleven replica with Huffy decals and a one-inch steerer and steel fork. I want a "normal" Ti bike and one of the ones with curved seat stays and tunable rear suspension. I want the exotic new Ti model with carbon fiber top and down tubes.

I believe in the bikes and the articulated Size-Cycle. Ben set me up on one of them at the factory some years ago. Since then I've used the drawing he made for me as if it'd been handed down on stone tablets.

You hear about guys charging hundreds of dollars to fit people on bikes; I'm of two minds about that. Twenty-five years ago, bike-fit was unscientific. We used the CONI (Italian Federation) book and ancient rules of thumb.

To determine stem length, we'd ask the rider, hands on his drops, to look down "through" the handlebar. The bar was supposed to obscure the front hub. We didn't have adjustable or quickly interchangeable stems. Once you'd installed a stem and taped the bars, you were reluctant to change anything.

Primitive and laborious as it was, we got along. Thousands of us rode millions of miles with infrequent injuries. We were young then, most of us, baby boomers 20 to 40 years old. Many keen cyclists are older now and perhaps more fragile, more dependent on careful bike fit.

Bike fit problems can turn into medical problems. Today, medical problems involve insurance companies and perhaps lawyers. Better to use a professional system in your shop to fit your customers. Lessens exposure to ruinous lawsuits.

No one insists that the Size-Cycle is the only way to fit rider to bike, but it's a good way. The Serotta folks take the trouble to educate shop employees about using it. Plus Serotta hosts seminars focusing on bike fit, theory and practice, at the highest, most painstaking level.

Even if, like me, you don't need a bike - Ben Serotta's bikes and company make you think.

Why don't you see Serotta ads? Instead of buying ads, Serotta flies Lori Hoefer to Serotta stores around the country. Hoefer tries to help shops understand what makes Ben's bikes cool.

For example, almost all Serottas are custom. Each is made-to-order, matched to its owner's measurements, weight and riding style. It's custom-made, not merely hand-made in stock sizes.

A typical Serotta owner is a white male, 45 or a bit older. He may own more than one Serotta, quite often more than two. He loves his bikes and seldom sells his old Serottas when he buys newer ones. He doesn't have to - and doesn't want to.

After all, a 10 year-old steel Serotta is still a Serotta. It's a thoroughbred racing bike made of steel. Only the last few years have Ben's Ti road bikes outsold his steel ones.

These days, he builds in steel and Ti. For a time not long ago, he built in aluminum. He produces a carbon fiber fork and now partial carbon fiber frames.

As I looked at the row of bikes at the seminar, I was struck by the number of models. As always, I wondered why Ben (and not JUST Ben) makes so many models. The answer you always hear is that there are many kinds of riders making different demands of their bikes. And many different budgets.

Really? No one broke or even poor is gonna buy a Serotta. After all, no one rich or poor NEEDS a Serotta; millions of our fellow Americans make it through long, fruitful lives without knowing what a Serotta is. Many cyclists merely buy a bike like the ones Lance or Marco ride.

And materials? When Serotta and Ernesto Colnago began building bikes, only one material, steel, was thought to be suitable for racing bicycles. Now Colnago builds in every-doggoned-material and Ben builds in three.

So... WWBB? What would Ben build? What does he think is best?

Does he believe that Ti represents a leap in effective bicycle technology, an honest benefit over steel? Or does he build in Ti because Ti excitement sells? Does he believe a carbon fork is superior in ride and handling to a steel one? Or does he feel that steel-forked bikes now look impossibly retro, and may linger unsold in dealer showrooms forever?

Does he feel that the two carbon tubes in the main triangle of an otherwise Ti frame improve that frame's ride nearly as much as they increase its cost? Or does the premium price represent a plus to some buyers, a guarantee of rarity?

Because both men's businesses have to respond to market demands, I'm afraid we may never know how they feel in their hearts about these things.

We do know there's a sales-floor problem in shops offering high-end lines. Serotta's Lori Hoefer talked with us about simply ALLOWING customers to buy pricey bicycles.

The employee, probably a rider himself or herself, has a bike that may have cost two or three grand. Works great. Probably it's Ultegra or Dura-Ace, light and stiff, it handles good... It's all the bike anyone needs.

Or maybe it isn't. Many people enjoy owning a better or more exclusive bike than their friends have, or the guys at the bike shop have -- better than they will ever need. They want to buy something special: That Bike. Maybe it's a Serotta.

But the guy at the shop is reluctant to show them That Bike, to let them see what a lovely thing it is, to let them imagine what riding That Bike might be like on a gorgeous Sunday morning with the club.

"Whoa," the employee thinks, "That Bike is way over the top for this customer. He must be 40, old as Mick Jagger but not nearly as skinny. He should be buying a hybrid with a bell and a basket. No way does he need a bike like That.

"No way. It's better than my own bike -- and I go way faster than this guy ever will. I've got a pretty good sprint, and dude, I can really descend! I'm the one who oughtta have That Bike.

"Maybe I'll sell this guy my bike and have the boss take money out of my checks for That One... By the time I'm his age, it'll be paid for!"

END