HobbesOnTour

With encouragement like that.......

​​​​​​​

abdon 

Not to mention that at no point I asked for encouragement. Out of the blue he just claimed that was what he was doing all along.

​​​​​​​

njkayaker

You aren't making any sense. You are pretty much saying the only acceptable thing is to blow smoke up his butt.

njkayaker

But you are endlessly complaining about things not being encouraging enough for you. Bizarre.

You just want people to blow smoke up your butt.

So, you were lying here.

abdon 

No my cranky friend, what I'm asking from post one is comments and suggestions, so I can refine my assumptions, so I can put together my proof of concept test case.

It goes like this: Do you know how I know I can sell 250 grafted apple trees a year from my backyard orchard? Because one year I did 60, which I can extrapolate (with some adjustments for the added complexities of volume) to my eventual retirement goal of 250. I had to test assumptions as to effectiveness of grafting (was aiming for 50 but the graft rate was better than expected), assumptions as to costs, assumptions on infrastructure, assumptions as to apple variety selection, assumptions as to marketing approaches, and very important to me, assumptions as to how much time this endeavor would take. If I could not streamline the whole process into about 40 hours of labor I would not have deemed the exercise a success. But I managed to pull it off, learned a f* ton, and I'm currently not doing it again at that scale until retirement.

Heck you'll probably recognize this as typical of me: I have a preference for heritage varieties and cider apples over the honey crisps of the world everybody else is selling, so most of what I grafted was said obscure heritage varieties (and about 10 honey crisps). Yes, the honey crisps sold like hotcakes, but the heritage varieties also moved amazingly well because nobody else is doing them. I not trying to supply the 20k or so people that buys apple trees from say Home Depot, I just want to sell the 200 or so vintage varieties that you can't find anywhere else to customers that jump at the opportunity to get what they have been looking for.

So, my ill conceived bike rental business. Either next year or more likely than not 2025 I'll design a proof of concept test case. So far it looks like this: I'll take about 5 or 6 decked out touring bikes built up on vintage touring frames, and list them on a bike rental platform. I'll also start working on mapping routes by riding every single one (this is like cheating life, I have to force myself to do something I love to do). So far the goal is to achieve 25 rental days for the season. Not a life changing amount of money but probably enough money for the exercise to pay for itself and still have some leftover beer money.

So you can piss some more over the idea this is how it is taking shape so far:
.

• As stated designed around 5~6 bikes, 25 rental days. I should be able to extrapolate this to an end goal of 20 or so bikes, 100 rental days. This is retirement, I don't want a full time occupation just a fun side gig.
• To test whether the planned selection (vintage steel) actually plays on this market place. Also configurations; Alaska touring has a lot more gravel and trails than on most places.
• To test the amount of effort it takes to hit the targets; I love doing this but I don't do minimum wage. I want to know how the hours of labor it takes per rental day.
• To test marketing, both listing platforms and social media approaches.
• To test rental of ancillary equipment and services; camping gear, pick up and drop off services, rental of my GPS emergency beacon to those going into the yonder; can't get bailed out if nobody knows you need to be bailed out.
• To learn what I know I don't know, and better yet what I don't know that I don't even know.
• To gather some data as to infrastructure needs; tripping over your own tail is a sure way to squander time.

Comments, suggestions, they help me design my proof of concept. Running it is the only way to get some real data.

abdon 

I still have to go over this:
Quote where that happened or it only happened in your mind.

Really? Care to quote anything I said that made it sound like that?

abdon 

If nothing else talking about this leads me to do some more homework. I found two potential leads for the insurance side of things

https://www.veracityinsurance.com/bi...ntal-insurance
https://aegisinsurancemarkets.com/Ad...Shop-Insurance

Long story short I'm not getting a warm and fuzzy with the insurance spinlister offers plus I would like to find a solution that doesn't revolve around a single listing venue and not tied up to a full blown business insurance. It looks like these could be an adequate solution.

njkayaker

I very clearly there wasn't anything to stop you from doing what you proposed.

I criticized particular things about your proposal

And here you are whining about that not being "encouraging".

You want people to blow smoke up your butt. QED.

https://media.giphy.com/media/5OQQxLxmLffyg/giphy.gif

abdon 

And yet again you fail to point where I complained about people not being encouraging. Dude, the entire transcript is here, do please point out where that happened.

​​

HobbesOnTour

Not at all.

And if you quote me, please do not change what I wrote. Or what you wrote, to be accurate.

njkayaker

No, absolutely. The ridiculous whining about "encouragement" proves it.

My critiques weren't a big deal but neither abdon or you address them. You and he just resorted to whining.

I didn't change what you wrote. I just showed that you are cherry picking.

If you and abdon had any sense, you'd realize that it should be a place to critique the elements of the proposal.

Instead, you both are just whining about "encouragement". Which is silly, useless, and not something adults do.

The following applies to you too:

https://media.giphy.com/media/5OQQxLxmLffyg/giphy.gif

abdon 

It is official, you are full of $hit. At no point I even mention encouragement even tangentially, you were the one that brought it up out of the blue. Now you think that by just repeating it enough it will make it true?

But again, prove me wrong. Show me where anything I said that sounded like I was seeking encouragement or complaining about not feeling supported. _anything_. Yes, pretty broad. It should be relatively easy to prove you are not bat $hit crazy making $hit up.

njkayaker

You were the first person who mentioned it.



You literally complained about me failing to be "encouraging" about critiques that weren't a big deal.

Atlas Shrugged

Discussing vintage gear often stirs intense emotions, but let's be practical. The OP wants to start a bike touring rental business in rural Alaska, focusing on vintage gear and offering minimal support services. It's a niche within a niche, and there's little precedent for success in any market, including cycling hotspots. As with most discussions involving Vintage advocates, it quickly becomes argumentative as it is emotion-based, not rational. The touring component adds so many levels of complexity which need to be addressed it is laughable to contemplate. Now add vintage gear to this, and we have crossed the Rubicon. You asked our opinion, and you have had your responses. Enjoy having another excuse to load up on gear from the usual resellers, and I am looking forward to how this works out.

njkayaker

Pretty much what I said (but I said it more nicely!).

I don't have a problem with vintage bikes. I even like the fact that there are people who are enthusiastic about them. But that isn't relevant to this thread at all.

It doesn't seem likely that even enthusiasts would have any particular interest in renting "vintage" bikes in Alaska (an expensive "trip of a lifetime" for many).

Keep in mind that these enthusiasts might be quite particular about what is "worthy" of being considered vintage.

The "vintage" aspect of this proposal might make the marketing of the proposal harder. It doesn't seem the OP has rented bikes anywhere. I have and it can be kind of a pain (especially, if one isn't a normal size). The "vintage" stuff doesn't help to make it seem like renting bikes would be less of a pain.

abdon 

Yup, mental case here. That was as a direct response to your claim that what you were doing was meant to be taken as an encouragement. The same bull somebody else called you on.

njkayaker

More ridiculous whining.

This is unequivocal encouragement. This is what I was referring to.

How much encouragement do you want?

StanSeven

Nothing new has been added lately to the discussion. Let’s call it quits. Thread closed