At Kandanchavadi on Old Mahabalipuram Road, I shuttle back and forth trying to locate the Pro-Bikers outlet. According to instructions, it’s after Paradise Briyani and Savoury Sea Shell. Going over covered ground again and again, with eyes peeled, I look for the high-end cycle showroom, crossing these strikingly conspicuous landmarks, but in vain.
After expending much energy and fuel, I decide to ask. Is there some truth to the gender stereotype that men don’t ask for directions?
Finally admitting I am lost, I ask and learn that the outlet is on a cul-de-sac leading off OMR, and not on OMR.
Lesson Learnt:Instructions can get drowned in the noise of our assumptions.
When L.B. Suresh Kumar, owner of Pro-Bikers, had given me the directions over the phone, I had unwittingly skipped the second part of it.
The moment I heard him say “after Hyderabad Paradise Biryani and Savoury Sea Shell…” my ears probably turned leaden with assumptions and stopped listening. It was as if they did not want to hear that the outlet was on a lane off OMR.
How can a cycle showroom whose cheapest bike costs Rs. 25,000 and its most expensive, Rs. 9 lakh, be located on a short, narrow lane, and a cul-de-sac at that?
At the showroom, I am face-to-face with a motley group of cycling enthusiasts, who are lionised for their achievements on pedals.
Each of them had dropped in to keep their hobby well-oiled: Pro-Bikers undertakes servicing of bikes.
With sixty-seven years and the distinction of being one of India’s oldest Super Randonneurs behind him, Sundar Rajan has set his sights on Tour de Rotary, an ambitious Kashmir to Kanyakumari cycle rally by a group of cyclists to “commemorate 100 years of The Rotary Foundation” and raising funds for its projects by connecting with Rotarians along the way.
Expected to kick off in November, it’s going to be a gruelling exercise for man and machine and Sundar is getting prepared for it with the first step being a thorough service of his Lynskey titanium roadbike.
Ashwin Govindasamy is also having his pedals serviced, partly as a token of appreciation for what it helped him achieve, in the first week of this month, when he completed an IronMan triathlon in Barcelona. Having done a 3.8-km sea swim, an 180km bike ride and 42.2km run back-to-back in 11:43:02 hours, he has reasons to be happy.
Suresh assures he is assured of am steady clientèle.
“Word of mouth plays a big role in my business,” he explains, adding he stays in touch with the cycling community. In fact, he’s played a significant role in nurturing this community.
“If there is a cycling initiative, I will try to be a part of it,” he says.
Suresh has been associating so closely with cycling groups since 2006 that he’s hardly seen as a seller of cycles, but as a member of the community
Lesson Learnt:A great location can be elusive. But the best location is always reachable, because it is always found in the customer’s mindspace.
When he entered the cycle business, Suresh was following in the footsteps of his father, L. Balasundaram, who established Balaji Cycle Store on Jones Road in Saidapet in 1975.
“The store was stocking regular cycles and at 100 sq.ft, was strapped for space,” says Suresh. “This showroom is now spread over 8,000 sq.ft. My brother L.B. Viswanath runs this store under the guidance of our father.”
Suresh entered the family business in 1994, but it was in 2006 that he realised he could follow a new trail. “At that time, I had a membership with the Maverick gym and they organised a duathlon, and as I was in the cycling business I was taken on board. The event was an eye-opener for me: I realised there was a demand for high-end cycles.”
Most significantly, he got hooked on long-distance cycling.
However, the much-needed momentum that would take him down this new path came in 2008, when TI Cycles introduced its Track & Trail bicycles, which were high-end cycles capable of meeting the demands of competitive and recreational cycling.
“TI Cycles announced that whoever would sell 50 Track & Trail bicycles first would be taken to the Bianchi Café & Cycles, one of Bianchi’s flagship showrooms, in Stockholm. I did and got to visit the famous facility.” In 2008, Suresh started hanging out with cycling groups, going on group rides.
“For these rides, I would leave home around 3 a.m. and this got my father worried. He thought I was losing focus and interest in the business. It was a 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. job and he was convinced that such interests, though related to cycles, would come in the way of the business. When encomiums and awards, including TI cycles’ Best Sales Award in 2009, started coming my way, my father began to have faith in my methods.”
In 2010, he was part of a group of cycling enthusiasts who founded Tamil Nadu Cycling Club, and this move gave a fillip to the hobby.
“Every Sunday would have an activity and there was a pattern to it. Every first Sunday would witness an endurance ride; second Sunday, a time-based race; third Sunday, a recreational ride; and every fourth Sunday, there would be a workshop aimed at enlightening cyclists about the cycles they rode.”
In 2010, Balaji Cycle World established its second outlet in Kodambakkam.
Lesson Learnt: Let an idea take total possession of you. Once it does, the right action will follow naturally. Until it does, keep doing all you have to do, but avoid making a big commitment . The Kodambakkam outlet would offer high-end cycles. Two years later, there was further expansion. The outlet on Kandanchavadi came up, but with a new name — Pro-Bikers.
“The outlets in Kandanchavadi and Kodambakkam, which I run with, of course, support from our father, now go with the brand name Pro-Bikers. I wanted the name ‘Pro’, because it has a positive ring to it. It is a place ‘for’ bikers to hang out at.”
