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Jim Felt on High-End Racing Bikes (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: All right, the lux life when it comes to two wheels.
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  Speaker 1: Here to tell us more is the founder of Felt Racing,
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  Speaker 1: a maker of Felt bicycles, Jim Felt. Jim Felt, thanks
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  Speaker 1: very much for being with us worries. Glad I can help,
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  Speaker 1: all right, So tell us tell people that are not
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  Speaker 1: familiar with the with Felt the bicycles, why a bicycle
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  Speaker 1: might not have any breaks, why it might have the
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  Speaker 1: gear change on the left hand side, and tell us
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  Speaker 1: about the price. Well, you're probably talking about the bike
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  Speaker 1: we just developed for the Olympic Games for the US
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  Speaker 1: cycling team women's pursuit team, uh this year for the
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  Speaker 1: real Olympics. And what we did is like any projects.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes sometimes we pick and choose projects ahead of time, um,
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  Speaker 1: based on marketing trends. Sometimes it's purely that it comes
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  Speaker 1: to us. And we were asked to take on a
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  Speaker 1: project for like the Olympic Games or something. This in
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  Speaker 1: particular was the Olympic Games. So we developed a bike
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  Speaker 1: a track for the women's pursuit team from ground up,
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  Speaker 1: which consisted of and we just started with a clean canvas,
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  Speaker 1: as I'll say, and uh, you know, we're kind of
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  Speaker 1: known for pushing the envelope on aerodynamics and everything and
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  Speaker 1: when you're in riding inside of a velodrome. We wanted
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  Speaker 1: to find out some new new information that hasn't been
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  Speaker 1: found before on what goes on aerodynamically inside of a velodrome,
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  Speaker 1: and that caused us to put the drive train on
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  Speaker 1: the left hand side. Matt Miller here um joining him today,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm excited to talk to you because I'm really
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  Speaker 1: into UM bikes. Can you make money on these super
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  Speaker 1: high end and we're talking about, you know, ten twenty
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  Speaker 1: dollar bikes. Can you make money in that market or
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  Speaker 1: do you have to get out into UM the cross market,
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  Speaker 1: into the gravel bikes, into the fitness bikes and the
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  Speaker 1: mountain bikes to really make money. I think you really
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  Speaker 1: have to have a broad range in order to make money.
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  Speaker 1: To be a full branded bike. It certainly helps do
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  Speaker 1: that the projects. You know, when you're talking about the
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  Speaker 1: thirty track bike, you know, I mean the consumers and
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  Speaker 1: the customers that you have to to use those bike.
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  Speaker 1: Those bikes are specific for that, you know, for that
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  Speaker 1: event or something like that. So there's uh kind of
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  Speaker 1: the niche of the niche markets. But it does well
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  Speaker 1: for our branding, exercise and stuff like that. We definitely
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  Speaker 1: got some huge exposure from that project for doing that
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  Speaker 1: Olympic project. And you keep making bikes UM in America.
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  Speaker 1: I know that almost everybody, especially obviously the big brands
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  Speaker 1: that we think of as American made bikes like Cannondale,
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  Speaker 1: UM and Raleigh have all moved the most the majority
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  Speaker 1: of their production out to UM lower labor countries. Do
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  Speaker 1: you have to move as well? Yeah, I think. I
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  Speaker 1: think for a couple of reasons. That is one price
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  Speaker 1: for the end price of the bike, because the bikes,
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  Speaker 1: as as you know, some bikes are you know, ten
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  Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars now at some of the high end bikes,
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  Speaker 1: and they would be even more than that if we
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  Speaker 1: were to do of the labor in the US. UM.
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  Speaker 1: But one of the biggest things is that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: five ten years ago, most of the bikes out there
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  Speaker 1: were steel or aluminum. Uh now we're now the bikes
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  Speaker 1: out there are probably composite construction, meaning carbon fiber. And
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  Speaker 1: you know, the Orient especially is well known and pretty
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  Speaker 1: much the leader in composite technology. So they're doing things
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  Speaker 1: over there UM with those materials that we just simply
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  Speaker 1: haven't caught up to. In here in the state. It's
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  Speaker 1: it's interesting because we developed the materials for aerospace over here,
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  Speaker 1: but aerospace is actually looking to the bicycle industry for
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  Speaker 1: the technology because we're using those materials unlike that they
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  Speaker 1: can even do in in aerospace right now. So we're
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  Speaker 1: kind of, uh, we kind of complement each other. Jim
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  Speaker 1: Felt tell us a little bit about the one bike
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  Speaker 1: in particular, because I know that Matt Miller has been
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  Speaker 1: desirous of this. It's across F sixt X with the
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  Speaker 1: Shamano one oh five groups Set. Whatever that means, You've
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  Speaker 1: got to tell me. And then I want to know
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  Speaker 1: about this new uh seven seven thousand five Eastern aluminum
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  Speaker 1: that you've put together. Well, yeah, that's um, there's there's
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  Speaker 1: uh yeah. I mean the F sixty five is uh
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  Speaker 1: been a go to bike for us for for quite
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  Speaker 1: some time now. UM and Shimano, the who is the
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  Speaker 1: manufacturer of the group set as a leader. I mean
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  Speaker 1: they're known for their bicycle components and their fishing equipment.
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  Speaker 1: UM kind of well known for that. UM and the
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  Speaker 1: one oh five is reliable and not too expensive. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not looking to drop ten grand, but Jim, to what
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  Speaker 1: extent are you beholden to these groups that manufacturers because
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  Speaker 1: Shimano and s ram Um they're so expensive, it's it
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  Speaker 1: seems odd that someone would pay so much or unusual
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  Speaker 1: unique so much um for a component of a part
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  Speaker 1: of the product he makes. Yeah. No, and you're talking
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  Speaker 1: about the two probably leaders. There's a couple other component
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  Speaker 1: manufacturers out there, European brands that are that are also
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  Speaker 1: producing components, but your Shimono and shram are the two
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  Speaker 1: key suppliers to the bike industry. They go head to
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  Speaker 1: head on on price and quality, and it's at those
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  Speaker 1: different levels. You are correct, one oh five. There's kind
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  Speaker 1: of a mid price point level of very good quality.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Jim, thanks so much for joining us. Jim
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  Speaker 1: Felt there, uh, the head of Felt Bicycles. This is Bloomberg. Yeah,