Hello and good day to you from episode 49 of our podcast series Project Breakaway. A metaphorical and a literal time in the day when we here at Predator cycling take some time away. From working in the back shop to come and share with our listeners what we're doing. How we're doing it, what it takes to do it. Our ideas, our innovative success stories and even our missteps and failures. If you find yourself with an interest in bicycles, composite manufacturing. Out of the box design or even curiosities beyond. I encourage you to stick with us. Settle in and learn a little. I'm Courtney B. Co-owner and project manager of Predator cycling. And I'm here with my partner Arm and the other co-owner, CEO, lead designer and engineer. And co-train engineer. We're train engineers now. Definitely. So our four-year-old is obsessed with trains. Yeah. Brio, Thomas. Real ones. YouTube videos of other people playing with trains. Yep. Basically the whole train spectrum. Yes. And we being the smart people we are, got him a kid's Kindle. Which has games on it and he discovered two games. Yep. Thomas, Minnie and friends and Gogo Thomas. Yep. One being where you build your own track. And the other is purely a race game. Yep. It's a race train. So it seems like every time that we think we're putting a screen in front of our kid. And that's like a babysitter for him. It's not. We're actually just having to play the game with him. Yes, we are. So we are train engineers. We are train engineers. Yeah, pretty much. Um. I do know more about trains in the last year. Like pointing out all of the. Oh yeah, for sure. Parts of a train. Oh yeah, I've I've learned a lot. I've learned quite a bit and I've learned. What you can and cannot do with Brios and how things connect. And the tolerances of Brios and how long you make a track, how much bend you can get out of it. Oh, because you decided you wanted to 3D print some stuff. And like cuz he wanted a loopy loop. Loopy loop. Loopy loop. Loopy. Loopy loop or loopy loop? I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, he wanted one. And you're like, oh, I can build that. And I told him like, you do know trains can't physically like go. Cuz he saw on TV. But you did it. And that thing just like. Crack. Well, I think that the loop wasn't wide enough. Too. It wasn't big enough. Cuz I was trying to print it in two parts on our printer. On one of our printers. So I didn't really want to like break it into like five pieces and do it. And so I was just trying to test to see if the concept worked. And if all my tolerances worked. Which they did. It just needed to be scaled twice as big. You know they make sites though that like were like. You can print at home parts for like Brio and stuff. I wonder if someone already has a loop. No, they don't. Oh, did you check those? Yeah, I already checked. And I saw if any of them had it and a lot of the ones too. That they print for Brios, like I've gotten some of those models and they're really bad. Well, they're just hobbyists at home. They're not working for you. Right, yes, but they're not. Like they're not well done models. So I have the model now. I could we could make anything. a little bit bigger, but also it needs to with we be like, you know, Godzilla, the one-year-old when he comes by. It just like cracked under the stress of being thrown on the floor. Yeah. Well, it was just it was very simply just super glued together. I didn't really do anything fancy. I tried to just see if it would work. It was more again, tolerancing. And it was actually kind of tricky to get that. Anyways. I won't get into it. But it's it's. I think toy engineering is actually something I've never really thought about. But you have to like really think about how these toys get played with and like. Oh, for sure. Or not, or most of the stuff we buy just breaks anyway. No. Well. Well, um. But yeah, no. It was uh it was hard too because I did it as I wanted to do as a sweep. It's a 3D it's a 3D spline and then it was a sweep tool to sweep the track to do the loop. So it's actually done nicely. I don't know, it's pretty cool. You probably just need a different type of 3D print material. Probably. Probably like a nylon or something and then just just print it bigger. It needs to be twice as big. Anyway. That's a whole. Oh, that. That's a whole sector of uh design we haven't gotten into. Yeah. Anyway, let me just wipe this ant off my paper because we are having the spring attack of ants in the office. We are. Um, so it's been a while. Because you've been in and out a lot lately. And um our schedule's just generally have not aligned. No. I just see you in passing and like, hey, how's it going? Hey. This is true. Anyway, um, but we're here today today. And uh I want to kind of discuss our intended uh workloads and maybe um we've been discussing like a reconfiguration of uh what we offer and. to our like our bars and stuff. So, um. I wanted to talk about like the road and track uh pilot and the and the road major bars. Like the custom ones we make versus maybe other options that we could possibly make in the future. Yeah, for sure. So. There's definitely been a shift recently away from the average custom client. And I think there's a few factors for this. The sport in general is coming back from basically being destroyed by the COVID era. Yeah, I mean sectors especially. Yeah. Like I mean every sector, but I'm specifically talking about us. Um, so from canceled races, canceled Olympics. Um, part shortages, uh inflated prices across the board. And I'm not just say like even like us getting tiny parts, screws. Like things that shouldn't affect how we. For sure. sell to our clients. Yeah. It's just things are quadrupled. Like boxes. We ship you a product in a box. Guess what? That box is now double the price that it cost me. I think it's literally like 120% increase. Yeah. In the last. For a box. And you know, to the average person that's like, oh, it's a box. But like to me, I have to buy like a thousand of them at a time. Right. So. Yeah. it's astronomical some of these prices, but I think it's just dwindles down to the customer. And we feel we feel that. Oh yeah. When we buy things. So. Yeah, well, and then that, but like also, I mean, like you said, like even screws and fasteners and materials and. Yeah. Shipping. First. They're hard to find and then when you find them, they you have to, you know. Yeah. You have to wait. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then also. Uh, conventions. Like I just got the invite for the Philly bike show for 2024. Because they basically got rid of the 2023. Yeah. One. Um, the May or the handmade bike show, which is like not existent now. Right. And then they're trying to gear up for this new made bike show. Yeah. But even the advertising in that is like I signed up for the newsletter. And I haven't gotten anything. So like it's just like miscommunication. Yeah. I mean, I think I. No, I don't think it happened yet. No, but the sign up's done and over. Oh, yeah. I know. But I signed up and then I never heard anything. Right. So I mean, it's just like. Honestly, like even in the tech sector that we're in, we've gone to shows and we've just noticed cutbacks and vendors and attendance and new products being showcased. So. I think everyone's trying to regain their footing. So we've been talking about what we can do. Yeah. For us. Um, so we've always been a custom shop. And all of our frames are still currently custom one-offs. Um, but we've been toying with the idea of making a stock version of the major and the pilot. Yep. Um, so they're one piece bar stem combos. Like that's our thing. Yeah. So what is to you a stock bar? It's changed. I mean, it's changed quite a bit. Like so when we first started Predator, I mean, what, 15, 16 years ago. It was all custom, we only did custom work. Oh, it's been longer than that. I think it's. I think it's 18 now. I think they updated the website. Okay. So 18 years ago. So, um, I mean, that's all we did and before that, I mean, the last 20 years, it's just been custom work. Um, but yeah, it's definitely shifted. It's there's been a huge shift in the market in the last, I mean, it's been. I'd say in the last 10 years you've seen it happen and in the last two years, three years. It's exponential. Um, the the movement away from, I mean, people are just not interested in custom. Um. I think a lot of people aren't familiar with custom. I feel like a lot of people, like a lot of older people like that service. They come in. Hi, how are you? Oh, you're a returning customer. I know everything about you and your family and how's it going? And like. Sure. I want a bike fit and I'll figure out how I want my bike built. And then I want to be with you through the process of picking out all the components and the paint. And then. I want to come in and test ride it. And how do I look on it? Take a picture. Yeah. That whole, I mean, that's like months and months and months process. Yeah, I mean, that's probably like, I what we've noticed, that's probably like 5% of the customer base now. Right. Everyone's like, that's cool. I want this now. Oh, the new tech thing, I want it now because if I don't get it now. It's not going to be cool anymore. And like the next new thing's coming. I mean. Yeah. I mean, it's just this. Sense of urgency and across everything. For sure. Like even last night. We downloaded an app for ice cream. I accidentally hit a button. It was like, you know. claim your free ice cream. Yeah. I hit a button thinking, oh, this will just go and like every other app, like it'll just go in like your rewards section. Yeah. But a 30-minute timer started. Yeah. And it created a sense of urgency. And what did we do? We threw everyone in the car. We drove. tried to get ice for free ice cream. We we didn't get there in 30 minutes. No, we were 20 seconds short. But like that urgency that was created. Like it wasn't it was just like. Well, the funny thing is if they hadn't have given us the coupon anyways. That would have probably been the last time I went. I probably didn't go back. Why? Cuz I'm like that's screwed up you made me like like rush to go do this. I'm like I'm done. Like I'm not doing this. No, they do that with like Ticketmaster. Oh, yeah. You have 10 minutes to purchase these tickets. I think maybe we should start incorporating that. Yeah. Yeah. If you don't buy these shims in 10 minutes, you know. Yeah. They go up 15%. Yeah, right. How many times you visit the site has to do with what the price is. Every time you visit the site it goes up 10%. I'm just saying there's this new there's a whole section of potential buyers. They want the newest tech and the newest shapes. But they're either not budget for them. Or they don't have like the turnaround time between how long it takes us to manufacture and when they need it by their race. Well, yeah, I I know exactly what you're saying. I also think though there's a big sector of the custom of now, the modern day custom, which there's a. Um, people are just um hesitant or intimidated by the concept of custom. Also, when I hear custom, like if if I I think, oh, that's that's out of my budget. Like I'm not even going to look into it. Right. I I agree. 100%. Um, I think that's totally the case. And I just think too, there's a lot of time like we get I mean we've gotten the phone call a handful of times. I want this like dude it's six weeks, eight weeks. And they're like, well, I need it in two. Well, it's like, well then it's not we can't. Like that's not possible. Um, I we could do four maybe and get like a rush charge on there and we can maybe crank it out in four, but like. There's not we can't go any faster than that. Yeah. So. Yeah. I know I totally see it I mean I see it and it's been something that we've seen and like obviously you've seen from us over the years. Like I mean, you know, with the hooks and the spires and the um the cleat, you know, the cleat angle adapters and uh, you know. All of these parts we've done more and more parts that are, you know, off the shelf. for say. Um, but our anchor, you know, products have not gone that route. Um. So yeah. It's definitely been a discussion. Over. Um, you know, I mean over the RF 20, over um the pilots, the majors. Um, even the arrow bars, it's been a huge discussion point. So where are the concepts for you? Because like having. What are the concepts in terms of taking a custom part and making it a stock part? Because obviously it's not like a bend to do. The reason, okay, so like, well, first off. The reason that a lot of the parts that we do are custom is not just because custom's cool. Um, it's because there's a performance benefit. Um, there there is there is an advantage to it. Um, so I mean, it's not to say that any of our custom would go away, I mean, we'd still have the custom option on the, you know, our product line. But like the having the stock version of it. So like for instance, we've the first one up is the the the pilot. The major pilot. The track bar. Track bar. That is the first bar that is the first product that is up for um a stock version being offered. Now, there is a relatively large performance hit that you take. Right. From taking it away from a one-piece bar stem custom geometry, I mean, custom adjustment. So when I say adjustment, stem angle, length, mounting system to bike. There is a very large performance penalty that you take to go to just a bar where a stem would attach to it. Yeah. I mean, it's significant. Um, but like people are asking for it constantly. And even at the really highest level, people are like, yeah, I get it, but I don't want to make the commitment to custom. Like I'd rather just have the stem. I could replace it. But like a a bar that still has like the like palm shapes for your hands, is that still not significantly, but a little bit better than like the, you know, foreign made, you know, Chinese made. Sure, it's. Two metal tube. Yeah, even like. It's still carbon. It's still carbon fiber, it's still manufacturing process. There's no quality difference. It's the difference is is like when you're going after those those watts and those seconds and like when everything counts. You know, what's the performance benefit? Now you can go on Amazon still and just buy like a carbon tube. Or a carbon bar. Bar. Yeah, you can. But it's not like are there performance factors because like ours has that V-shape. How are you connecting that V middle, what did I call it? The nose. Oh yeah, the well that was the original reason why it's called the pilot. Yeah. Because it looks like a plane. Yeah, it was like a plane. Um, yeah, so that nose, that that is now going to go to a round. Steer tube. So that's gone and that was there to for air flow effects. One was air flow. And the other for the pilot was actually for Madison exchanges. So when you have, you know, you do an exchange. Hand placement. The whole bar is hand placement. The entire bar is hand placement. Also, it's load distribution. The way we shape the carbon there and can dissipate the load in that high load section. Okay. That that was shaped like that for that reason. So that goes to a round universal thing. So you can hook it to a stem. Yep. And then so what does that leave for the pilot? So I mean, the whole top section is still very similar. It's still that very that thin paper shape. Or does that change? Plus it flares out for the hand positions. Yeah, yeah. All of that basically stays very similar. It has. But you lose quite a bit when you lose that nose. Yep. Oh yeah. I mean, there's a huge performance penalty for comparing. I'm just curious though when we do start manufacturing just like the difference. Or maybe you get a custom. customer who gets the base stock one and they're like, you know what, this is cool, but I want it to be better. Maybe I will do custom. Sure. Uh that's so that's led to to option number two that people have come up with. Like, well, like, do you have a stem version that we could just try? Because the thing about the pilot that's really different is, I mean, obviously, we spent, I mean, we built on the 10 years of building custom track bars to build the pilot. And the hand placement spots. Um, a lot of people just come back like, do those hand places are really cool, but it really messes with my fit. Can I get like a stock one just for sizing sake? Um, and and so we've offered that in like a 3D printed version and stuff. We've offered some some things for that. Um, but that's one of the other things for the custom, the stock version that would be, like, it would be the same, the drop section and the hood section is the same. It will be the same on the stock version or the the custom. Um, even some of our accessories that come for the pilots, like our our integrated grip system and all that would be the same. The difference is that stem center section. Um, and when, again, when you come back to like, when you're when you're talking about bars and performance, like this. I mean, we're not talking about massive. Well, when we go narrower bars and things, there's pretty big time savings that can happen. But like when we're doing actual bar shapes, it's not you're splitting hairs on what the benefit is. Um, and the biggest benefit that we get is by integrating the stem system. And that's why we always opted that. Because we've always been a performance-based company. Like that's always kind of been our standard. Right. Um, but now we're at a point where, you know, we need to make, you know, people have spoken and they want just a bar. So, um, Yeah. It's something that we've. I think it might be an introduction. Like I feel like people think custom is scary. So having like a semi custom introduction. Well, it's not going to be. Yeah, it's it's a highly optimized part. It's just an off-the-shelf part. The other concept is is that, you know, I mean, we ship. Almost if you order before 2:00 in on most cases, you get same day shipments. Um, for our parts. Um, I mean, I think our actual cut off is. You get it much faster. You would get it same day. I mean, most on most cases, you order the part on Monday, we ship on Monday. If we don't ship it Monday, it goes out Tuesday. I mean, it's, you know, I think our cut off is 11:00 or something for central. But like, you know, yeah, we ship same day next day. Is what we're shipping. So, I mean, that's a definitely a big game changer for people. And, you know, for us, it's also, I mean, it's easier to manage scaling up and making, you know, I think just offering it is going to really show us like what the demand is. Especially just like as the industry rebuilds. Yeah, for sure. And it's like not that any of like I said, it's the same bar that's made by us, it's made in house. Designed, manufactured, done in house. Oh yeah. It's not like we're not. It's not that it's going to be changed in any way, shape or form that way. But it's just literally and it's not even. The the drop system is exactly the same. Um, now, anyways, that's the first. That's the first. going up and then um, and then the arrow bars, the arrow bars is one. that we had always well, the arrow bars had always anticipated of making a stock version. Those are super custom though. Yes. Um, but we had originally, the original design. So is that less like undulating like hand placement? It's more of a straight bar. It's more so basically the the arrow bar will come in three styles. where there's three style of hand positions and depending on the type of position you hold. Um, and there's some adjustability in length. And then it would just be a arrow bar ecosystem. Maybe you call it. where you'd have different base adapters and they would adapt to bars and you could build it up. Um, and that's just how it would work. Um, um, yeah. That would be a big one. I mean, that's a big. That one is um, that was always the anticipation of how we were going to do it. But. So you're starting with track and then air. I'm sorry, isn't road bar like the more universal one that people want? The road bar. Yes, but the road bar. The the. The big thing about our road bar is the one piece system. Like the one piece system is kind of what makes it the road bar. Um, so I don't know. Maybe yeah. I just feel like that's the one that would be like people would want. We could. We could we could it could we could jump it. I mean, the track bar is the first up. Yeah. And you're going to just start. You've been designing it or you're going to start designing it? It's been designed in a while. We've been working on it for a while and just finalizing the parts now. And we have one that's already ready to go because that we sent to samples. Um, that's done. Um, but it's I never kind of focused on the elegance of the how the transition happens. to the the 318 steer like the clamp diameter. Oh yeah. That transition I'd never really focused on because I didn't care because it was just like I just it was just a replacement piece. Um, so now that it's actually a part that's going to get molded. There's some work that has to go into that. And and it's a production mold, so the molding process for that front cockpit, the front bar is different than what we do for the custom ones. So that whole process is a little bit different. So I'm just trying to finalize. Um, how how it. How we mold it. So there there might be some very slight changes on. Yeah. There's we have there are so when you are building something like this, there are some limitations. You're going to be naming stuff because I don't feel like we should name stock pieces like the pilot. Because obviously it doesn't have the nose anymore. Yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. I'm with that. I'm just thinking of new naming structures over here. Uh, yeah. I mean, like I said, that is coming that I mean, I think what for us is on the on the blocks for stock. is going to be uh the pilot. Um, the road bar. The arrow bar. Um, the and the arrow bar systems. Those are the first. What is stock RF 20 mean? because that's a custom bike. stock triangle piece. So, yeah. So, I mean, the RF 20, a stock RF 20 would basically mean for us that we would have all of the sizes. We would have all, you know, five, six standardized sizes, geometry charts, full frames built ready here. ready to go to paint. Because I don't think we would do paint stock. I think we should do custom paint jobs. Oh, really? Oh, maybe not. I don't know. Because that adds. We're talking about a customer who's like, if you had a customer walked in two weeks ago and he said, oh, that's really cool demo frame up there. Do you have one available now if you had one I'd walk out with it? I don't know. You can't walk out with it if it's not painted. That's that adds like three to four weeks additional. Sure. But here's the problem though with that. Like, I mean, the thing is is like, I mean, we're not going to have stock components on it, are we? Are we going to have stock components and wheels? Oh, I have an idea, what does it mean when a customer walks into a custom shop and says if you had one ready today, I'd take it home? What does that mean? I think this is why we're having this conversation because we're trying to define what this means. And the custom realm. We're not. Academy sports or REI. Okay. We're not. You know, your son, I took your son to Target. We were walking up and down the sports aisle. We saw all the other bike racks. Sure. And he obviously had a predator push bike and he has a second bike. That is not our bike, but it is also not a store. It's a nice bike. It is a nice bike bought from another reputable company. He said, he saw a missing, the bikes are all in racks. He saw one that was missing. And an empty spot. He goes, oh. Is this where mine was? I mean, he's four. He doesn't know. Right. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, yours was much, you know. Much more. But that company had stock. They had five colors to choose from. Okay, but like. Do you understand the skew bottle you're going to turn into? You have five sizes and three colors. That's 15 frames hanging on the wall. Or you could always just have one like painted and then like offer it to have. It's probably more to actually have it painted. I'm not I'm not saying that we finish it again. Um. We should have one in here painted. But like the the common size we've gotten is what is what's that? 2028. 56. 56, I don't know where I came up with 28. 56 and 58. 56 and 58 are the ones. 56 and 58 are the one that I keep hearing the most out of. Yeah, 58. 58 in a nice, I don't know, blue. Black, black is safe. Okay. I get where you're going with this. This is a big discussion. I did that. Um, yeah. I would not be opposed. Or just raw carbon, not epoxy. Clear coated. Clear coated. With a nice graphic. Blue, I don't know why I keep saying blue. Because it's your favorite color. Um. They have it on carbon. It didn't have to be like. yellow or orange or something. Yeah, okay. I'm trying to wrap my head around this concept. Um. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know because we've always been custom. It's always been six to eight weeks on a bike and we've had a customer walk in. I said, you know, I I consider that a missale. Absolutely. If you had a bike today. I take it home. I wish I had a bike today so I could sell you a $10,000 bike. Yeah. Um. Um. That'd be great. Go home and have some ice cream. In 30 minutes. Or less. Yeah, right. If you can get there. Um. No, I mean, I. Yeah. Well, and to be honest, like after the part shortages that we've experienced. And like, we've always been able to get a full build kit in two weeks. Like that's always been. Well, if we had a customer. Because our customers are usually picky. On their build kits. And their components. But if someone said if you had a bike here and I'd take it home. Does that mean they don't care what components are on it? Care less. I guess. Maybe it's just like what's an average build kit? What's like a normal person? I mean, I think the request that we've been getting the most, actually the most requested build kit on bikes right now. Just like a normal. Is an old. Is an old Tiger DI 2. That has been the build kit. Of choice. But like, so then, okay, that brings. Okay, now this is opening a can of worms. But like. So I mean. Then. Well. Yeah. Okay, so the other thing on that note is. Is that you don't for say have to have the build kit on the bike. I mean, if you had stock build kits. If we stock. Because that's our thing. We've always not standardized stuff. So if someone came to us and said, oh, I want Campy, I want Shimano, I want SRAM. We're like, okay. But I think that's. The people that are pure custom. Now we're talking about this non-pure custom customer. This customer is like, I want it now. So maybe they don't get a choice. Maybe they get the the stock Shimano DI, I'll take or whatever you just said build kit. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I've always just been like. I don't know, and that's been my thing. I've just always wanted custom and options and not have to, you know. Conform to what's there and just, I don't know. I've I've. But you're rare. I mean. You. I mean. Everyone wants their own thing. But not everyone actually goes after their own thing. I get it. So you're a rare customer. And well, that's the thing that we've always done for customers. For our custom bikes is that we've given them that level of uh detail to the build kits. And to the purpose and what they wanted. But I get it, I get where it's coming from. I it's yeah. I want something that's custom, but something I don't have to come in and do anything about and I want you to read my mind and make it for me. And have it tomorrow. Well, that's why I'm your husband. Uh. But uh, no, I get it. I get it, I I get it. And like, you know, I the last like, you know. Five years, seven years for us. We've just been focused so much on the manufacturing process and the platforms and the technology behind it. It's like the thing that I know that I've definitely dropped the ball on. Or not focused on. We've definitely sparkled in the tech industry side and we've really um. taken off from there. But we have to remember we are selling bikes to customers. Yeah. But it's it's that that customer portion of it. I mean customer is the wrong word. But how we how we platform some of the products has definitely been something that I have not thought of that much because we've always done custom, we've always done things like that. And so like now looking at it saying, oh, yeah, maybe we should offer it. It's just a stock part. It's it makes it more palatable to customers as like a as a platform as a product. And then, you know, having the customers. It's not saying that like for the major pilot. Like you would not have. The major pilot's not going away. Like the custom part of it's not going away. You can still get custom. Yeah. I think that's a gateway. It's just the option. It's a gateway. Like it's a gateway drug. Once you get a stock part. You're like, wow, this is really cool. Oh, it can be cooler. Well, it's always been cooler. But we offered you the cool. Yeah. Now you have the cool, cooler, coolest. There you go. The custom is the coolest. Um, yeah. For sure. No, I get it. I get it. Um, you know. We just need to work on our menu. Our menu of product. Yeah. For sure. I mean, I also to be honest, it's it's uh it's definitely nice thinking of a custom. In stock sizes and stuff. Because it I mean a lot of the the work that goes behind custom. There's a lot of work behind it. It's not easy. It's not simple to do. It's very complicated and very difficult and there's a lot of constraints that you have. In the design manufacturing process. Um that you have to think about. So I mean stock is definitely um. Lessons a lot of that. I only have to do it once. I also want to have a customer. Reaches out to me and asks me if I have something. And I want to be like, well, you know. This is our process and this is, you know, 79 weeks away. But I want to be like, oh, there's an option that's like two to three weeks away. And I didn't lose a sale and like I'm not like, oh. Son of a bee. Like come on. Yeah, no. I get it. I get it. And especially like the RF 20s, I mean, being able to have that. You know, stock ready to go, you know, in one or two colors that's ready with a couple build options. I mean that's. So. We're we're thinking. We're thinking deep thought over here. RF 20 is a little ways away. From being a stock version. Okay. Let's wrap it up. Things to mention. We're working on uh some cool custom projects. With potential clients. So I can't mention what they are until they're officially green lit. Um they are not in the sports realm. They're in a different industry, which we've done previously. Yeah. A couple times. Um we are um also working on our small business National Science Foundation grant. Yep. I think we'll have some really good future podcasts about that subject. Yeah. I'm in the final stretches. I need a rough draft here like by the end of May. Yep. For submission in July. And then we wait, wait, wait, wait. You're almost there. I was reading only 26% of NSF proposals submissions get accepted. Well. You can do it. So one and four. And the thing is. I've been working on this solo. I don't want to toot my own horn. But here I am. Toot, toot. Um, I have, I don't have PhDs. I don't have grad students. I don't have third party assistance and funding. I have me, myself, I, Predator cycling and you. Some of me. Sometimes. Um, so I just have your little arm and his idea. And a little. trying to make sense of those ideas. Oh, that's a challenge. And trying to put that into a bazillion page document to submit. Yeah. Yeah. I really think that instead of writing a proposal, if I could just do like a video of you speaking. That would just like. Why can't I do that? Yeah, that'd be great. Um. Let's make it. Yeah. What's your idea? Here he is, let him sit let me put him in a chair and he'll tell you everything about it. I don't know. Anyway. I do have a gift of gab. Putting your thoughts on paper is probably one of the most difficult things I've ever done. Yeah. So, anyway. I mean, if it's any consolation, me putting my own ideas on paper is even more difficult. I am aware. So. Um, anyway. So that's it. So. We're going to wrap it up here. Okay. We thank you for choosing to take some time with us. And we look forward to future breakaways. Look for us on Instagram and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. And in person here in Tennessee. We ask our listeners to please share, like and subscribe. We're available on all major streaming platforms. Thanks for listening. Have a good one and find some time to break away.
EpisodeMar 31, 2023 · 31:11
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Project Breakaway with Predator Cycling
49: Is Custom Scary? A Stock Part Question, EP. 049
Hosts Courtney and Arm from Predator Cycling discuss their business direction, exploring the possibility of offering stock versions of their Major and Pilot bar-stem combos. This potential shift from their purely custom model is prompted by recent industry changes, including post-COVID challenges, supply chain issues, and a general decline in custom demand.
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