Saturday, January 10, 2009
Stratton Delany: Great spokes man for fixed-gear, brakeless specialized bikes
Stratton Delany opened his Southwest Roanoke store in November.
Photo by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
Stratton Delany's fixed-gear, brakeless bikes are designed for racing on tracks. However, they also appeal to fearless big-city bike messengers or others attracted by the track bike's stripped-down, urbanite statement of rebellion.
Photo by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
Stratton Delany, 32, puts a bike together Wednesday for a client at his shop in Roanoke. He opened the shop, Keirin Culture, in the Black Dog Salvage building on 13th Street in November. The Kazane frame, his own invention, has attracted buyers worldwide.
Photo by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
Stratton Delany recently moved his bicycle shop to Roanoke from Richmond. He said Western Virginia has the potential to become a bike center, which is music to the ears of regional development leaders.
The latest from The Ticker blog
A bicycle designer described by a champion bike racer as an internationally known "counterculture icon" works now out of a small, Spartan space in Southwest Roanoke.
Stratton Delany could be a poster boy for regional economic developers' strategies to create jobs, boost the region's profile and stir population growth. In economic development these days, industrial recruitment is just one egg in a great big basket.
Delany's poster qualifications include:
- At 32, he is a young professional. Bingo!
- He is an entrepreneur. Yes!
- The region's much ballyhooed opportunities for outdoor recreation helped lure his small, niche business from Richmond to Roanoke. And, Keirin Culture, his bicycling-focused venture, is another spoke in a wheel the Roanoke Regional Partnership intends to help spin as a regional "sub-economy." Four-leaf clover!
(Of course, his girlfriend, Becky Cloudt, also landed a job as a dentist in Salem, which didn't hurt.)
Delany moved in September to join her. The store opened in November.
He has talked to Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership, about how he hopes to promote the region as a bicycle-racing venue. Doughty said Delany's relocation is a positive sign.
"It's an endorsement that he believed his business could succeed here and it is an endorsement that other kinds of outdoor-related businesses can succeed here," she said.
Delany, a native of Palestine, Texas, emphasizes that Keirin Culture does not compete with existing bike shops in the Roanoke and New River valleys.
"I have to go after really different customers," he said. "I'm not a full-service bike shop. I'm more of a cycling boutique store."
For now, the bulk of his customers are fans of fixed-gear, brakeless bikes -- designed primarily for velodrome track racing but sexy also to fearless big city bike messengers or others hip to the track bike's stripped-down, urbanite statement of rebellion. Within the larger cycling world, they can be considered countercultural.
"The main focus of the Kazane brand is to market to young riders, people who might not have a lot of money but deserve an excellent bike," Delany said.
The average price of one of his track bikes is about $1,000.
"Kazane" honors the name of a friend's daughter. Delany said the word, pronounced kah-zah-nay, means "sound of the wind" in Japanese.
"Keirin" refers to a Japanese version of track racing.
Delany designs the frames, which are built in Taiwan. He has dealers in far-flung places such as Australia, as well as coast to coast in the United States.
Craig Dodson, founder of Richmond Pro Cycling, described Delany in an e-mail as "one of the most forward-thinking cycling enthusiasts in the country."
Delany sells his Kazane frames to people who seek him out or discover Keirin Culture on the Internet. He hopes walk-in traffic in Roanoke will increase once he sells Kazane frames for road bikes and outfits those riders with a custom build and fit.
An average price for one of his road bikes will probably be about $2,500, he said.
He currently sells Italian-made road-bike frames and adds components.
"Stratton has a unique ability to sell on his reputation alone," Dodson said. "He has positioned himself in a niche market by trying not to be niche.
"While every other company in the industry is experimenting with the latest, greatest technology, Stratton has anchored his product to time-tested materials and craftsmanship," he said.
Jeff Hopkins is a retired champion track racer and an official for the Dick Lane Velodrome near Atlanta.
Delany said he consulted Hopkins before designing the Kazane.
"He's the guy I went to for expert advice on track bikes," Delany said.
Hopkins, who has no financial stake in the business and never has, said the geometry of the Kazane frames and their solid steel construction make for an ideal racing bike.
The bikes' handling is precise and direct, Hopkins said. The Kazane frame "will do everything you ask of it," he added.
Delany graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, where he studied political science and philosophy. He sort of slid-stopped into the bicycle business, beginning as a bike shop employee.
He received his first good bicycle, a Diamondback mountain bike, in fifth grade.
His street-facing shop, located in the Black Dog Salvage building on 13th Street, is adjacent to a stretch of the Roanoke River Greenway under development and just off a designated bike lane.
Delany said the region boasts excellent bicycling amenities.
"This area has such great potential to become a bike center," he said. "There is an abundance of good roads, mountain-bike trails, the Blue Ridge Parkway. And there are a lot of outdoor enthusiasts in the community."
He is one of the sponsors of two racing teams, including Richmond Pro Cycling, which uses the Kazane track bikes. Delany said he anticipates the teams will do some training in the area.
"This place is nice enough for people to move to just for the outdoor opportunities," he said.
That's the kind of talk that makes Doughty, her colleagues, local government officials and others as happy as a bicyclist burning pavement on a long downhill stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
And Delany, the entrepreneur, said he loves his work.
"You're helping people get healthy. It's something I have a passion for. I get to travel and set my own hours."
