Matt @ MBT; here's the deal or inquiring minds wish to know.

[matthewkelley]

Hey guys, haven't been on here lately, and am here to apologize for our lack of good customer service lately. We've generally tried to be pretty good about getting you guys your stuff on time, but lately- specifically since the turn of 2010 our collective shit had hit the fan. And I let MBT slide pretty far.
And since the first step is recognizing you have a problem, here is the real long winded story of just wtf has been going on with those guys at MBT.


MBT (Graham, Jake, Matt) has been around for a bunch of years, basically run out of our collective basements, garages and back half of a bike shop. Jake decided to grow up, get married and moved to the north side of Chicago to pursue his I.T. career. We bought him out at that point and moved most of MBT into the back room of the LBS Graham managed. I had just graduated from Purdue and was working two jobs to pay for that while part timing at the LBS (like everyone else here has done at some point). Roughly the same time, Graham's dad, was killed by a "sleeping at the wheel commuter" while cycling. A little after that the family was offered the opportunity to purchase the LBS we all just about now lived at. That deal went through sometime around the fall of 09ish. He had also married his wife that summer. She has since been diagnosed with Chiari Malformation, and has been in and out of North Western hospital for that and an as of yet undiagnosed severe/ localized adominal pain. Lots of hospital trips and pain therapy, I think there may have been a thingy on our homepage about that. Graham had a lot on his plate after the summer of '09 so we tied my cell to the MBT line and reorganized the MBT "shop" so that I could actually do things quickly after I got back from work.

Last autumn the bikeshop (formerly Byron's Cycling and Fitness) changed it's name to GoodSpeed Cycles and purchased a large building on the other end of town. At this point I quit the other two lame grown up jobs and went to work full time at GoodSpeed. We then spent the next seven months renovating that new building. Hopefully my pics show up below somewhere. We managed to move MBT into the new space, carload by carload by the beginning of May. Which is great except that we were apparently the last ones to re-up stock for 2010 so Echo/ Neon/ and some of Rockman took forever to get here. To boot, half of what we wanted was out of stock anyway. So now we have a new big empty space. Should've seen that one coming. So around the turn of MArch 2010 we're sunk about half of a million bucks into this gamble of a "new, hip bikeshop in town"; praying to Christ it'll work. Which it seems to be. We just had our Opening weekend over Memorial Day weekend and it's been going gangbusters since. And let me tell you, it's been no fun putting in 11 hour days wrestling with moving and opening a new shop that has no stock but plenty of customers- only to go home to move and re-open MBT which has no stock, giant manufacturer turnaround times and of course plenty of customers with really ruffled feathers.

/rant.

As an end user of the internet, if I click "buy" on a shiny new trials dukat, I too expect to see it, hassle free, in a few days time. Because afterall, regardless of that store operator's personal baggage, he/she does, in fact, run a business. And people are consuming with the confidence that we can be depended on. So for the folks that did not experience MBT shopping that way, I would like to offer my apologies. We like to think that we have always been a pretty reputable shop to work with and I will be working very hard to regain the ground I've lost.

So here's the silver lining.
To solve several of the nuts and bolts issues with MBT, GoodSpeed Cycles will be buying the MBT LLC. No, the front end will not change; MBTdotcom will remain so, however; lots of other things will be much different. Some to be disclosed later. Basically the big, glossed over points are these:

1. We will have the inventory management and financial backings of a typically large LBS. The benefit to you, the hopefully loyal consumer , will be larger in store volumes and consistently in stock items.

2. If and when a new company or component is released we won't have to wait until we've sold enough current product to be able to afford the new stuff. (Some of you have experienced the current version of this problem whereby we haven't gotten what you want yet because we still have to much of what you already have!)

3. With the exception of SOME of the higher end stuff, we are dropping 20". We of course will do special orders/ custom builds for 20" but we will no longer be stocking much of any mod components. 26" and 24" will continue. (We will probably also drop Because bikes. Nothing drains the spirit like selling trials bikes with Schwinn headsets...)

4. While we will still stock Echo/ Neon products, we will be greatly increasing our volume of Rockman products. We will also be picking up Atomz, Califera and Koxx.

5. Rider Sponsorship is being redeveloped. There will most likely be only one or two fully sponsored riders and they will be qualifying/competing at World's levels and so on.

6. The website will maybe change, whenever I get the time.

Basically MBT is actually going to become a 10 to 7 business that allows for us to be more serious than some bro's with bike parts. Please please please be patient with me/us while all these changes are happening. The new deal is vaguely scheduled to be running full steam later this summer; let's say end of July/August. Until then MBT is going to be pretty dormant, concentrating on circling the wagons before coming out guns blazing (to mix some metaphors) late this summer.


You can certainly call/ email us. We've got some stuff in stock; the reason most things are marked "out of stock" on the website is simply to give us some breathing room to make these changes. (granted stock IS still pretty dang low though, heh!)
That's most of it.


Matt

Midwest Bike Trials
219.880.6462
sales@midwestbiketrials.com
matthew@midwestbiketrials.com


P.S. Here's a quick cell pic of part of Goodspeed in the newly renovated building.

[sxbud138]

Sounds good..

[sumotoad21]

Wow thats a awesome shop Matt, hope everything goes well. Hopefully your post will put some of the whining to rest. Glad to hear MBT will still be around

[IndianaTrials]

Hey Matt! Sounds good, just too bad your not stocking mod stuff anymore, but us americans are gay and we all ride stocks, (except for me cause im gayer than gay) so i see why =P BTW i just started working in my LBS too! Its gotta be the best job on earth!

[eastside]

Matt, Thanks for the update. I will continue to support MBT and I hope the dust settle's soon and your guys can enjoy life and sleep a bit too .....Loooks like I'll be buying a KOXX in a few months

[stocktrials]

Only a portion of good customer service is how well you deliver; the rest is how well you recover from problems... good response mate.

Originally Posted by matthewkelley

We will also be picking up Atomz..

eyyyyyyy....!

[THEDEMOLITIONMAN]

The shop looks great!




thedman

[rupintart]

That's a sick looking shop...reminds me of like Trek concept stores....cept I know the people behind the desk actually know what they're doing.

[Dethklok]

sweet shop man, you guys hiring? lol

[Lowlogic]

Well stated, as a witness to this alibi I can't wait for things to settle down for you both. The store looks awesome all around and having a physical presence like that should really boost consumer confidence.

On a side note, I can't thank you and Graham enough for trying so hard to get things I break to work again.

[slobert]

I appreciate you coming on this forum to let us know whats up. One question for you. I placed an order on the 18th and havent recieved any confirmation or anything. I dont mind waiting while you guys get it together, just wondering if there is a chance the order got lost in the shuffle, and how long I should wait before calling to bug you guys. I look foward to your new set up and hope it works out for you guys and for us!

[giventofly]

Hey Guys.

I just wanted to chime in. For me, MBT has delivered nothing less than stellar service since the beginning. 3 bikes, and countless parts later, I'm proud to be an MBT customer, and you guys will continue to have my business as long as you have bike parts to sell....(although it looks like I'll finally have to go to stock

Congratulations on the expansion / buyout, and I hope that this turns the tide for you guys. Props for the up-front way you're dealing with all of this. Good Luck.

-Dan

[J Trials 31]

Everything sounds pretty good, but I'm not liking the idea of getting rid of mods. There are still a ton of mod riders, like myself who need parts to get a hold of.The more places I can get stuff from the better.

[Eric2]

Matt- thanks for getting on here and clarifying my inquiry from last week (which got so blown WAY past what it needed to be thanks to all the guys that have nothing better to do then talk shit on this forum;-) ).

Good luck to you guys on the newly designed business- just one piece of advice to keep future and current customers happy...don't lie to them as you did with me bro...I would have much rather heard from you the above story rather than blowing smoke up my ass that you had already shipped my order when in fact it hadn't.

As I've told you Matt- I too work at a large online shop who ships tons of bikes- frames- packages etc daily and while I have had customers get pissed that manufacturers are out of product (which is beyond our control) and we have no ETA on it's arrival I have never lied to them and said an order is en route to them when in fact it isn't- let alone dodge their calls...but that is said and done and I have no more hard feelings since my bike is complete and I've got a couple enjoyable rides in!

Like I said above (before the other guys lay into me again on this thread as they did the one which prompted this reply) I wish nothing but the best for you and Graham and all your business ventures.
Ride On-

Now let the bashing begin in 3...2...1...

[alexzero13]

I drew a picture of this cat to compensate.



Sincerely, Alex

[Stock]

Originally Posted by Eric2

.

You made your views abundantly clear elsewhere. Now you're just trolling.

[Rob Drizzle]

.

[CoppellStereo]

i've always had awesome service from MBT as well as they let me borrow some tools i didn't have and i quickly shipped them back when I was done. What other kind of shop would do that? Thanks guys!

[alexzero13]

^^ LOL ROB

[hopsalot]

I've had fine service always, keep up the good work.

[Boots]

Matt and Midwest: respect to you guys for pursuing your dreams through some incredibly trying experiences/circumstances. Glad that things are starting to turn in your guys' favor.

I hope you guys do pick up Atomz... no one else in the country has them (right?), from what I've been told they're not the easiest to deal with. And to have Caelifera frames/bikes in a shop has been a long time coming

Originally Posted by Stock

Your made your views abundantly clear elsewhere. Now you're just trolling.

Yes. Eric, you can still eat a dick.

[Eric2]

Damn High Heels...oops I mean Boots...took longer for you to chime in than expected..a little proud of you bro.

Is it trolling I'm doing or that you are doing? After all my original thread is what prompted this one.

Have fun with it guys. LATER!

[tra la log]

Originally Posted by Eric2

Good luck to you guys on the newly designed business- just one piece of advice to keep future and current customers happy...don't lie to them as you did with me bro...I would have much rather heard from you the above story rather than blowing smoke up my ass that you had already shipped my order when in fact it hadn't.

+1

well said

[BrettM]

Originally Posted by Boots

Atomz... no one else in the country has them (right?), from what I've been told they're not the easiest to deal with.


Yes. Eric, you can still eat a dick.

Boots I like ya, but I'm gonna pick on you, even tho its meant for all the erik2 haters out there. The guy gave a bad review based on factual things that actually happened to him. Whats the big deal? I don't get why everyone is jumping all over him. And really what is so different between that and your text I quoted. Atomz is not easy to deal with you hear. Should you eat a dick for having a negative review (I know its not yours, but who hasn't had a bad experience with a product or service, bike trials or not). It doesn't sound any worse or better than some guy having problems with MBT.

I know there are usually bad things said before all proper procedures are followed, but this guy seems to have tried everything in his power and wanted to put the word out there. Then those come in and say everything has been fine, and some say things have been less than perfect. Why not just leave things at that and let people make an informed opinion? I really don't get why the guy has been heckled so much for just putting a review out there. Personally I want all the reviews (good and bad) about a product or service as possible and base them on what happened and who the reviewer is.

I'm really at a loss over this one.

[eric grimmett]

Originally Posted by BrettM

Boots I like ya, but I'm gonna pick on you, even tho its meant for all the erik2 haters out there. The guy gave a bad review based on factual things that actually happened to him. Whats the big deal? I don't get why everyone is jumping all over him. And really what is so different between that and your text I quoted. Atomz is not easy to deal with you hear. Should you eat a dick for having a negative review (I know its not yours, but who hasn't had a bad experience with a product or service, bike trials or not). It doesn't sound any worse or better than some guy having problems with MBT.

I know there are usually bad things said before all proper procedures are followed, but this guy seems to have tried everything in his power and wanted to put the word out there. Then those come in and say everything has been fine, and some say things have been less than perfect. Why not just leave things at that and let people make an informed opinion? I really don't get why the guy has been heckled so much for just putting a review out there. Personally I want all the reviews (good and bad) about a product or service as possible and base them on what happened and who the reviewer is.

I'm really at a loss over this one.

+3 BrettM