Dan
August 2013

Yesterday a customer of mine from Kansas (let’s call him Robert) sent me a review that he’s writing on his new Rodriguez Makeshift bicycle that he recently purchased. He’s submitting the review to a popular touring bike magazine, and he wanted me to look it over for any inaccuracies on the specifications of the bicycle. As I read the review, I noticed a mention that he had searched high and low for a bicycle company before ordering, and he had never read nor seen a review of a Rodriguez touring bike. He’s correct. Even though we’ve been making bicycles here for 40 years (that’s longer than just about any custom bike company still in the business) we don’t get requests from magazines very often for a bike to review. It does happen once in a while, but you won’t see nearly the press interest as in other companies. In the world of bicycle reviews, it becomes important to advertise in those magazines to be considered for a bicycle review. Simply, they may not even know that we exist.

It’s been a few years since I’ve explained our philosophy on this, so it’s time for a quick post to tell you about our manufacturing model, and our method of ‘getting the word out’.

If you’ve heard of us, it’s not because you saw us in an expensive magazine advertisement, or glossy magazine product review. Magazine ads and reviews take a lot of time and money, and don’t improve a company’s product or service. In reality, consumers are paying for those ads in the price of their bicycle. We prefer what’s called a ‘product focused’ business model. This simply means that we choose to focus our efforts (and money) on developing new products and improving our existing products. We also choose to work directly with our customers (no dealers or distributors). This provides us with direct, immediate feedback, and helps us improve our product in a more effective manner. Another plus for the customer is that our pricing can be extremely competitive, as there is no middle man.

If you’ve heard of us, we hope it’s because someone you ran into along the way….a friend or an acquaintance perhaps…. recommended our shop. (Many thanks to all of you who are getting the word out, like Robert.) A lot of folks find us on the web, and read through our collection of articles that we’ve written through the years for the newsletter (we used to print one back in the days of paper and ink).

We feel that a recommendation from a friend or acquaintance is much more valuable than a recommendation from a magazine. This is why we focus our efforts on making top-notch products and satisfying our customers rather than ‘getting press.’ We know that this is an unconventional approach to running a business in the highly competitive market, but it’s been a successful model for decades now, so I think we’ll stick with it.

Who are we?
As you look through our website, you’ll notice that we manufacture more than just bikes. You’ll notice that we write software, manufacture highly specialized bicycle parts, and made our own phenomenal adjustable fitting machine. All of these products were designed, engineered, and produced right here in our shop by people who have dedicated their lives to the bicycle business.

A lot of people are surprised when they learn that we are just 13 people, fitting, selling, manufacturing, and servicing bicycles all in one shop in Seattle’s University District. The truth is, the talented people that work here do it because of their love for bicycles and our customers who ride them. Everyone here is a long-term employee. We have several employees who have been with us for a decade or more, and some who have been here even longer.

When you buy a bicycle from us, you’re buying the whole shop. We promise to do our best to make that the best value of all!

Thanks for reading, and have a great cycling season!

–Dan

Links in this article:
Our Home Page
Mr. Rodriguez
Rodriguez Makeshift Bicycle
Rodriguez Historical Tour
The Best Value in the Industry
Customer Testimonials and Letters
Meet the Staff