Bikes coming, bikes going. Slowly. The way of buying and selling in the car world extends to that of the bicycle and found an… exceptional dealer in Bike room. A platform a global reference point, which has systematized the high-end second-hand marketNew bikes are also up for grabs, thanks to the Bid feature (a Mondo exclusive), which lets you bid on new bikes from dozens of brands.
«But the shops also have new bikes – he explains Matteo Maruzzi, founder and CEO of Bike-room – the reason we are recognized is the certified used and refurbished. So Mid-range/high-end bicycles that have a list price of, for example, 14.000 euros can be bought here for 6.000 euros. We sell them all over the world; this month we shipped to 45 countries. The teams are happy to collaborate with us, because We are taking back the entire stock and this is a great service we are doing them on a financial level.. And then there is a theme of its own positioning and marketing, because the bikes are reconditioned and put on the market in the best possible condition."
The pros' bikes
In the center there are the professionals' bicycles, which are collected thanks to the very close collaboration started at the beginning of each season. These are the second, third and sometimes fourth bikes.With any luck, they're really new; at most, they've been driven for miles on the roof of the flagship. However, to be sure everything is in order, The bicycles are sifted through and reconditioned, complete with certificazione. Finally, the shipment passes only through ultra-secure couriers, using Transport-proof packaging: four-layer carton, as Canyon does with the new one.
But the real novelty compared to what was happening is the possibility of having the collection of used goodsI buy the top-of-the-line bike from the pro teams and give the old bike back: this is the real turning point launched on July 6th. Let's see how.
The flyer
The Bike-room weekly catalogue has recently added the Cannondales of the EF Education-EasyPost Team (2021 season) and those of EF Education-Tibco-SVB (2022 season): both WorldTour teams, for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
To understand each other, Bettiol, Langeveld and Powless' bikes in sizes from 44 to 58. Or those of Letizia Borghesi and its companions in sizes from 44 to 56.
Among the goodies coming soon – mark the date of Thursday 13th July – there are the 30 BMCs of 2022 of the Ag2R-Citroen, the bikes of Greg Van Avermaet and Andrea Vendrame, as well as Cosnefroy and the Paret-Peintre brothers. Thirty bikes from size 51 to 58.
Second-hand: two steps
Repurchasing used items: how do you do it? They thought about it for a long time and then they started working on the platform. No problem, one might say, given that 15 people work in Bike-room, 7 of whom are developers who created this real marketplace.
«First of all – continues Maruzzi – you have to be very efficient in disposing of used items, so We have made it a point to have the bikes we collect shipped out within a month.This was the real challenge, and we managed to do it by opening channels. Then there's obviously a financial issue, because The exchange is a loss of income, so if you want to trade for example 200 bikes a month, you need to have broad shouldersTo do this, we have structured ourselves with the investment funds we have behind us. That is, Azimuth, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti e Digital Magics, publicly traded companies that have the wallet to finance us. Having achieved efficiency and financial capacity, we decided to come out into the open. And since July 6th we have made the possibility of returning used items online."
Only high quality
Someone's eyes lit up the possibility of giving back the old iron That's been gathering dust in the cellar for years? It can't be helped; Bike-room is choosing clarity on this one.
«The moment we start the online exchange process – explains Maruzzi – we also declare what we do not accept. So, bicycles that are too old are left out: what market can a 2008 bike have? We do not accept bicycles with certain damagesAnd then we want to be clear about the fact that if you trade in a Pinarello F 12, we value it differently than an unknown brand. These may be rules that the customer can imagine, but we still want to clarify them.
«That said, At the beginning we will have very large meshesLet's take for example a 2016 Pinarello F8, which perhaps they no longer sell in shops. For us it is one of the products with the highest rotation speed, so we could withdraw it, because we know that they have a market in England or in Asia. Unexpected markets are opening up. Malaysia, for example. Or Hungary.We've seen these dynamics before, marketing across the globe. Will there be a market in Africa in two years, thanks to the 2025 World Cup? We're trying to understand: from this point of view, we are almost an observatory».
There's a whole new world opening up, just like with cars, where you're looking for zero-mile vehicles, or even used ones that come back after long-term rentals. Used yes, but safe and certifiedAnd if we look at the price lists of certain brands, we have to admit that there are cars that cost even less than certain bicycles. It's a new way of being inside and it's brilliant in its own way.We notice this at the races, when we meet the guys from Bike-room: At first they welcomed them with suspicion, now they too are at home.
