Rapha, nice but a bit pricey?

I only know about spitalfields, which was apparently dead late afternoon. Soho has a lot more space and I could see soho staying busy later.

The point of a brand is consistency and familiarity. I should be able to know (broadly) what I'm going to get if I go into the Raphé in Houston, Soho, Boulder or Tokyo.

Now admittedly they are being consistent on the cafe closing - conceivably to save money in a quiet Spitalfields they're turning money away in Soho. This is, needless to say, the wrong way round.

Or they could remove the (high staff cost) cafe and get more sleeping bags and net-pocketed bibs in. Maybe a Rapha dangle-bong?

you are not wrong but luxury sector must have a protocol for cost saving, it might be the case that you were exposed to the one rapha is implementing

Never cut what the customer can see! This is really basic stuff.

Would you ask clients to make payments direct to your Wonga account at the end of your pitch?

It doesn't matter if you are literally foraging in bins on the way home, as long as the client doesn't see you eating half a battered cod from a McFlurry cup you can maintain the illusion.

Rapha Coffee Club, you mean?

Lots of people in San Francisco have no intention of riding a bike, they just join for coffee. I hung around the store for four days a couple of years ago. Some people would visit several times a day. Not bike riders.

You can imagine how saying “we have x thousand RCC members around the world, showing how loyal our customers are” when pitching the company to investors.

Maybe they were hoping Trump would take up cycling as it’s the new golf.

Hmm, a joint-branded Trump/Rapha velodrome in every US major city?

Is Mottram still in charge?

His bathroom looks nice. http://www.dezeen.com/2018/07/03/rapha-simon-mottram-richard-parr-architects-edwardian-house-renovation/amp/

Went to Belgo in the dodgy hotel between Kings Cross and the Royal Mail recently. Didn’t see him.

You can imagine how saying “we have x thousand RCC members around the world, showing how loyal our customers are” when pitching the company to investors.

Bingo. Those Rapha Coffee Club members formed part of the valuation that got £200M from the Walmart twins.

I joined the RCC, was a member for 2 years, let it lapse then joined again to hire a bike when I was in Boulder. I've bought more kit than I've drunk coffee, and I drink a lot of coffee.

Unless it's 16.31 of course.

https://youtu.be/JizzeERcZjg

I remember laughing out of the interview after being told the re-platform deadline and that the dev team probably wouldn't be able to enjoy any social benefits as we'd be way too busy for that.

I'm pretty sure it's React on the frontend which connects to a Hybris API which is why it sucks. You basically have to re-write every piece of routing logic.

No bikes in the living room - very telling

people have said 'free coffee' in the last few pages, but don't you have to pay for membership? Or was there a time when it was free to be a member?

They mean complimentary coffee to paying members.

I am surprised that he is actually into cycling

RCC = comp coffees.
Luxury =>comp coffees.

But as Dammit so very clearly enunciates above, never shatter the illusion, and never cut where the customer can see. It is the same as peeking behind the Wizard's curtain

Or up the wizard's sleeve?

Why didn't they just make the membership much more expensive - would surely have fitted better with their "luxury" image?

Would have stopped people joining just for the free coffee if it was say £1000/year or £100/month- which I am sure plenty of people would have paid. I am pretty sure that plenty of Golf club memberships are more than that.....

Why didn't they just make the membership much more expensive - would surely have fitted better with their "luxury" image?

When it came out there was an outrage that how can they charge this much for a cycling club membership.

Cycling has an image issue. Hard to mix 'premium' and cycling. Rapha although say towards the luxury end of spectrum is bloody cheap compared to other hobbies and interests people have.

Then you have people like EC1 ..

Its all strange to me being only a decade old in this country out of which only been cycling 7-ish years .. I still dont fully get the history of cycling in this country as working class sport .. I just adopted rapha as base point; for me a jersey should cost £150 as I dont know any better. Like how most people just pay for milk or something.

Because they wouldn’t get as much money and they’re a business.

Isn't it going be be tricky to grow a 'luxury' cycling brand when we've already hit peak road cycling?

There's only so many people that will buy £120 jerseys - the revolution will be on hybrids.

the revolution will be on hybrids.

e-bikes