How to Make Money in the Bike Biz - A Product Manager's View

When I initially came up with the idea of this series I figured I'd ask some close friends about their experiences in the biz and just what it takes to make a decent living around bikes. The response has been overwhelming, since my first interview with Shaums March ran last week, I've been deluged with requests to be included in the series. Todd Seplavy of Iron Horse Bicycles was the first to speak up, but we'll have many more to follow over the summer including a bike tour operator, shop owner, bike tech, engineer, sales guys and bike company owners. If I've learned one thing in my different career choices, it's that money ain't the be all and end all. In fact, as long as you can pay for the roof over your head and keep the family fed, job satisfaction means a whole hell of a lot more than your bank account balance! Todd is just one of the many industry types who share my view!

PB: Todd, what's your "official" job title and some of the duties that job entails?

TS: Technically I’m the Chief Product Manager of Iron Horse Bicycles, which means that I am directly responsible for the specification of what is turning out to be approximately 50 models of bicycles for the IBD range of Iron Horse bikes for the 2004 model year. On top of that we have different variations and permutations of those bikes for international dealers and Australia and Canada as well as some special makeup bikes for some larger scale US retailers.

PB: What education and experience were required to get to where you are now?

TS: I didn’t go to college thinking I would go into the bike industry. This was, quite truthfully, an accidental job. You know when you step in dog shit, you kind of step in it and then you’re like “Man, I can’t get this off my foot”. And I guess after a while you kind of get used to the smell of it but, I went off to college as a bike rider. Coincidentally enough my sole selection criteria for going to the school I went to is because there was dope mountain bike riding around there. I went to the University of Massachusetts. I graduated in December of 1997 with a B.A. in History. Which basically means I have a B.A. in B.S. And coincidentally that major also had the least number of credit hours required for graduation. Which meant I got to ride my bicycle a whole lot. So while I was in college I was riding and racing a lot and then in my last year of college I met Ken Avery, who now works for Maxxis Tires as their product development guy. I needed to buy a new mountain bike and he said “I’ve got a deal on a Santa Cruz Tazmon”. I can get you a really sweet deal on it so I said “Sweet! I’ll go buy a Santa Cruz Tazmon!” Then as soon as I built the thing up I said “Man, this thing has dual suspension I’m going to go race a downhill”, and I raced a downhill race the next weekend – I got third place in Sport downhill. It was my best place EVER on a bicycle and now I basically quit road racing and cross country racing after that and I don’t think I’ve gotten as good a result since. I got suckered into it and since 1997 I’ve been doing the downhill thing. But back to your question, how did I get a job in the bike industry? Well after I graduated from college I happened to be going “Hmmmm what am I going to do?” I wanted to go and teach but I would have had to go back and get a masters to get a teaching certificate so I planned on spending the spring wrenching at my local shop and then just go out and do the Norba series and come back and go to grad school. So, I’m out on the trail in one of the beautiful 60 degree days in New York soon after Christmas and I got stuck on a trail behind this guy and I just blabbed my mouth off to him and when we got back to the trailhead he hands me his business card and says “Hey if you’re looking for a job, fax me your resume.” On Monday I faxed him my resume and the next day I had a job at Iron Horse Bicycles as the customer service guy. An entry level - piece of shit job – I was making no money - I was probably making less money there than I was at my local bike shop but it was so much cooler. I never had to work weekends. I never had to work late. I got some schwag on the side so I was super stoked. That was 5 ½ years ago. I’ve been here ever since.

PB: Was it difficult moving up?

TS: You have to suck a lot of dick. How else do you do it? No seriously, I initially started off trying to do sales, and it wasn’t exactly was cut out for and the company quickly found out that Todd wasn’t exactly cut out for sales. I had an infinite amount of product knowledge. I guess being a history major you learn how to retain useless facts and information and on top of that being a cyclist I retain useless facts and information about hubs or cassettes or model numbers on stuff and it just all sorta gelled together. I moved onto doing customer service, race team support, tech support and stuff like that. I liked to spend my free time tinkering with stuff and making up specs on stupid cool bikes and one thing led to another and about a year and a half ago the product manager moved on to start his own on-line bike shop and I was asked to fill that void. So I’ve been doing this gig since November of ’01.

PB: It’s kind of a round about way to get there but who can argue with success

TS: It all works. I’ve done just about everything here at this company shy of doing the books. I’ve been on the phone with you, I’ve been on the phone with consumers, I’ve been in the back shipping out warranty parts. I’ve been in the factories in Asia and trade shows at the Norba Nationals here, there and everywhere else… it’s pretty damn cool. I can’t really bitch about that at all.

PB: How about job security?

TS: I guess my position is kinda unique I feel like my job is pretty secure here just because of the fact I bust my ass and I work a lot of hours to make a really cool product line. And I know hanging over my head is the fact that shit if I don’t do my job then I’m gonna lose it and that’s how it should be no matter what your job is. If you’re not putting out, they’re going to kick you to the curb. I know that and I know that the economy’s down so you gotta be wary of that. I constantly strive to bust my ass and not do a half-assed job.

PB: What’s the pay like relative to similarly qualified folks in other industries?

TS: I would say truthfully across the bike industry we tend to make shit pay compared to other product mangers. Across the bike industry we don’t make good pay. But then again, it’s a tradeoff. It’s the fact that almost all of us involved in the product side of the industry, we really are cyclists and we’re going to work every day to a job that we actually like versus – I could be going to work as the product manager for some other bullshit company – I could be making toilet plungers all day long or something like that. That would suck. I’m sure I’d be making more money, but then again it’s a different place, different time. This is what I think is cool and that’s just how it is.

PB: I think that’s part of what makes the bike industry what it is today because there’s so many people in it, not for the money, but because they love what they’re doing

TS: I’ll be the first to admit there’s a bunch of people in this industry who are in it solely because they don’t know anything besides bikes whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. They haven’t moved on to another industry because they don’t know shit about anything else and that’s what holding their head above water. But I really think as a whole everybody who works in the product side of the industry really loves the product and they really care about the riders, they care about the riding scene, they care and you see it. And I think that he consumers can tell when they see a product - they’ll call bullshit on you quick if you’re doing something stupid. There’s a difference between trying to cut corners on a bike as a product manager – down-specing a bottom bracket or something like that – which is a part that’s gonna wear out versus putting the cheese-dickest crank on a bike just so they can dress it up with an XTR rear derailleur. People smell that bullshit quick.

PB: Let’s get to the upsides of the job.

TS: Well, yeah I get to talk to cool rock star people all the time. Seriously. It’s weird. The very first tradeshow I go to – it was the first day of the trade show, probably around midday within a span of 15 minutes I met 3 of my childhood idols. It was so weird. I was a bike guy even when I was in like 4th, 5th and 6th grades. The very first famous person I met was Matt Hoffman. I’m like holy f*ck. The guys from the company are like “Hey we want to introduce you to somebody. This is Matt Hoffman and I’m sitting there talking to Matt Hoffman and who walks over but Ron Wilkerson. This is too damn weird, as soon as I leave that conversation cuz those guys got to talking, like 15 min later, not even , a co-worker’s says “Hey Todd, come here I want you to meet Bob Haro.” How could you not think that is the coolest shit in the world. Where else can you do that? Within a week of working here I had to call up Pistol Pete Loncarevich and get his order for parts he needed for his personal bike… this is the dopest job I’ve ever had! If I go into my email box I’ve got all these names of these pro riders and stuff. It kinda weird but it’s kinda funny. That’s definitely the cool upside you get to interact with these people who a lot of people in the general riding world hold to idol type standards.

PB: I know exactly what you mean. I felt the same way on my first trip to Interbike. It was like “holy shit, this is heaven for me.” I was the bike geek who would subscribe to magazines and be pissed that they would be available on newsstands 3 or 4 days before I got them in the mail. It was pathetic, I’d buy them knowing full well I’d have a copy in my mailbox within days. Then going to Interbike, it’s all right there in front of you, I’m telling you it was like heaven.

TS: Yeah, and that’s definitely another cool upside. Even as a product manager, it’s even cooler than the sales guys. I get to know the scoop on companies like Manitou, Marzocchi and SRAM. It’s like I knew SRAM was coming out with trigger shifters long before the public. I held them in my hand at the last Interbike show, and the public only just found out about them just a short time ago! I’ve known about them for 6 months and I’m telling my friends, there’s something coming out soon, I can’t tell you about it, but trust me, it’s gonna be some cool shit! My friends will joke about it, they call me “Top Secret Todd”. Another cool perk is I choose to ride whatever bike I want and I can outfit it as such. I don’t know about other companies and their dress codes, but I know our company is very lax, I mean, I’m wearing a pair of Dickies shorts, a Truvativ shirt, Intense shoes and a knit cap. These are the same clothes I’d wear when I go dirt jumping!

PB: Sweet!

TS: Yeah, I have to admit, it’s a pretty cool job. My parents still think I play with toys for a living!

PB: The best part is someone is paying you to do it! How about downsides?

TS: Downsides? You’ve really got to bust you ass. At least at Iron Horse, we’re still a small company, though people think otherwise, we employ only about a dozen people, and we ALL work our asses off. A lot of times there’s long hours, 16 hour flights to Taiwan, late nights spent in cold factories in what are now SARS infected areas. Sometimes that stuff is just not fun! There’s issues with pricing and you know, negotiating prices, that stuff can be a real drag, but it’s a small part and it’s just how it is. This holds true for just a small portion of the industry, there’s not many of us who have to put up with those issues. I mean, I love Iron Horse, I would probably even get a tattoo that said Iron Horse on it, but man, Long Island is a shitty-ass place to work and it’s a shitty-ass place to ride your bike and it’s a shitty ass place if you want to buy a house and start a family and stuff like that. It’s just too damn expensive to live here. Actually I think it’s a problem for the entire bike industry in that in general the pay scales are kind of low and where are most of the bike companies based? Unless you’re like Trek or Pacific you’re in a major population center where housing prices are super high. If you’re with Iron Horse or Jamis or Fuji, you’re in the New York City area. So it’s super f-ing expensive to live. There are lots of companies in the Boston area, same thing, So-Cal, everybody knows how expensive it is to live there, and Nor-Cal, companies like Specialized, Fox and WTB. It’s tough, but other industries have the same issues, I can’t really complain because I still have a super cool job that I love.

PB: Last question, Do you still have the time or inclination to get out and ride you bike?

TS: I love to ride my bike! I mean I really LOVE to ride my bike! I wish I had more time in the day to ride my bike. I mean, sometimes I’ll roll in here at 9 in the morning and roll out at 9 at night and it doesn’t give you a lot of time to ride your bike, especially if you still want to have a wife and a life! I get out to the mountains every chance I get and I like to race. I raced like 15 downhills last year, so… I mean I’m no slouch on a bike; I just want to ride as much as I can. I started out as a roadie and I’ll always be a roadie at heart, I just love to ride bikes. I know of others in the industry who don’t ride and I’m like ”What the hell are you doing?” but then I remember it’s just a job like anywhere else, and we can’t all be cyclists. In fact, the amount of non-cyclists probably balances out the over-zealous riders like myself who eat, breathe and shit cycling and makes us more normal as an industry as a whole.

If you've got any questions or comments for Todd, shoot us an email and we'll be sure to pass it along!