Can I create a link to your site?
How are parts chosen for review in the Buyer's Guide?
Who maintains this site?
How "big" is Bike-Pro?
Do you plan to use "ecash" or a secure server? / On-Line transactions direct & viable?
Who answers email?
Absolutely, by all means make it so! Create the link! We want this site to become a large general repository of information on bicycles and the bike industry. We consider the Buyer's Guide section of this site most important since many cyclists aren't aware of the breadth of parts available to serve the same purpose, and will never have a first hand experience of seeing or touching some of the more pricey parts made, much less determining how well they are made or are likely to perform against their needs. We want the Guide available to as a many cyclists as possible so they can make the best and correct decision the first time they go to buy a part.
The items chosen for review in the Buyer's Guide are selected based upon rate of sale, also interest by the shoppers at our retail store in California and our mail order customers. There are many parts we haven't reviewed because there is been no general interest, they are too poor in quality, or merely a bad idea with an ill conceived design. There has to be at least mail order customer interest to be reviewed at all.
Many magazines invite a manufacturer to submit a part for review. What they receive is frequently a unique, "apple polished" model with above average quality and workmanship characteristics. The specific parts reviewed in the Buyers Guide are written about items taken from our general inventory. There are no specific submissions asked for or accepted from manufacturers.
All of the content for this site is written or created by Frank. It is laid out and made graphically interesting by Susan Savage. We also rotate in other IM Team members to help with specific missions. These have included Kris Barins, Paul Hathaway, Kevin Bingham and Ian Bennett to help with image conversion and basic table creation for the Yakima Fit-List sections. Our IMF team leader has also chosen have Steve Snyder to take the recent digital stills used in the print version of our catalog known as the "TFE".
We have a staff of 32 people at Bike-Pro & its retail store which is known as the Pedal Pusher. Their jobs all vary. Some work in our service department, some work in the warehouse, many are our knowledgable phone professionals, some are retail sales people and some cross dress doing several jobs of different sorts throughout the day.
We have created an On-Line order form system that allows new and previous customers to place orders through the Internet. It uses 128 bit encryption using a Netscape Commerce server with a secure digital certificate. The payment methods will still be through credit cards as we have traditionally.
There was intially some uncertainty about the internet as a medium capable of transmitting sucessfully credit card information, in a way that interception for fraud was avoided. Now, ... I think all of us as users realize that credit card number interception is far easier if the criminal just waits for the restaurant to put the trash out at night and they steal the reciept there, or the criminal taps into a voice phone line with a Button Set and records them as given to phone agents at a mail order firm. The internet packet transport is far more secure and we keep all our billing records on a separate system not connected to our server network. Breaking into it for wholesale theft of records is impossible.
For previous customers, all you have to do is tell us the last 8 digits of the credit card we already have on file....completely safe.
Mail is answered either by Frank (sometimes answered, I already don't have a life and my skin is becoming lighter than parchment) or in the case of orders/inquiries Kris Barins, Matt Ornbaun, Sarkis, EG. Others are being trained and included.
