Electric Bike Expo Heads To Burnsville/Minneapolis this Month

[EBike Expo]

For all of you followers, the Electric Bike Expo is making its second stop in the Midwest! this time we are heading to the Burnsville Center Mall outside of Minneapolis on July 21-23, 2017.

This location offers us a well-known place where locals shop in the more than 1.1 million square feet, with ample flat surface and free parking. The track design will offer a number of straightaways and a large outside loop for the speed pedelecs.

Because so many of the attendees that came to the Chicagoland event had never ridden an electric bike prior to the event (more than 66%) we have adjusted our marketing and are working with the largest classic rock radio station in the city to market this to the non-cycling community. KQRS will be promoting the event for 2 weeks prior to the Expo and Lisa Miller (afternoon DJ) will be riding a new electric bike for a week prior to the event to report on how it works and where she went on the bike. Then the KQRS team will be broadcasting love from the event on Saturday morning from 10 am to 12 noon.

At this event, NBDA will be jointly hosting our industry peer-to-peer roundtable conversation with dealers from the surrounding area and manufacturers. As with these events in the past, the attendance gets up to 20+ and the discussion is lively. This will happen on Friday afternoon. If you are going to be near the Burnsville area and are involved with the industry and would like to participate, reach out to Melissa Balmer and let her know you would like to participate. There will be some food and beverages and of course, test rides right after!

In Chicago, we ended up with more than 150 different bikes to test ride and we had one individual that was recorded test riding 40 bikes over the weekend.

if you plan to come (it's free), register in advance to cut through the line: www.ebikeexpos.com will take you right to the page.

 

[pxpaulx]

You should consider advertising on sports radio here it is quite popular as well...kfan is the station... If it isn't too late.

Looking forward to it!

 

[EBike Expo]

Pxpaulx,
Thanks for the advice.
This is a big switch for us as we normally concentrate on cable TV commercials. In Chicago we had more than 360 30-second spots playing in the targeted markets that best meet our demographics. They worked well but the Twin City area offers such a wide scope of coverage that it would be impractical to reach many of the markets we would need.

Radio is very expensive by comparison and trying to tell the story about pedal-assist electric bikes through words only in 30 seconds is tough. The visual of the commercial really helped, considering the majority of our attendees are not typical cyclists. We are trying this because we are getting more than just the recorded message. Lisa will direct traffic to her Facebook page to see the TV commercial and then act upon it by registering in advance. We are also attracting their listeners to come and see for themselves when the station broadcasts live from the event on Saturday.

The idea of a sports radio channel is interesting, but considering most of the attendees we have coming to the Expos do so because of the lifestyle aspect of getting out and about on a bicycle, I am not sure a hardcore sports channel would reach our group.

We will still do our social media marketing, some local community advertising and we will work with the mall to get the word out to their customer base. This all adds up to a decent marketing and promotional budget but we think the Minneapolis market is worth it. While you have a very strong cycling community, let's see whether the casual bicycle rider is interested in coming out and learning about legal, pedal-assist, electric bikes.

 

[EBike Expo]

You should consider advertising on sports radio here it is quite popular as well...kfan is the station... If it isn't too late.

Looking forward to it!

Pxpaulx, we actually just put a marketing program together with one of the retailers participating in the expo and we will be advertising on the local ESPN Sports Radio channel for this week as well. Hope that meets your criteria! They do a fair amount of advertising on that station and we are working together on this.

 

[pxpaulx]

That should be a good one too!

 

[EBike Expo]

We are a nonprofit US based association that markets the concept of legal pedal-assist electric bikes to the general public and does extensive market research. We do not sell electric bikes, nor do we sell any specific brands of parts, battery cells or finished imported packs. We only work with companies that have established US businesses, with an actual business facility, local personnel, business licenses, US-based product liability insurance and all the necessary UNDOT 38.3 battery certifications. All of our drive suppliers are international brands and exceed all of our requirements. The companies need to be in business for 1 full year here in the US as a minimum and should have a national sales presence, warranty program, and service department. We require the companies to demonstrate that their products meet the current California standards of the 3 classes and that there is no offering of modifications to increase speed beyond the legislatively set standard. For the Expos, we have even more select requirements including being approved by the major sponsors if there is a question. We don't promote the technical nature of any bike, but rather promote the industry as a whole and the fun and benefits to the consumer.

 

[EBike Expo]

Latest Burnsville/Minneapolis Expo News-
We now have 5 major retailers participating in the 2017 Electric Bike Expo - Burnsville/Minneapolis. Erik's Bike; Penn Cycle, Evolve Segway, Excelr8 e-Bikes, and Perennial Cycle. They are joining a full tent of manufacturers as well as Bosch and Trek in their Pavilions. BMW will be showcasing their commuter bike along with 2 electric cars. One will feature their new custom bike rack. Minneapolis's own Gocycle will be showing off their compact folding bike.

The Classic Rock station KQRS has DJ Lisa Miller who is riding a new electric bike all this week and reporting on it during her afternoon broadcasts. Lisa will select her own official bike after testing riding a bunch on Saturday morning. The KQRS team will be broadcasting live from the Expo from 10 am until 12noon. Our Charity Raffle program sponsored by Tempo will benefit the Ronald McDonald House in the MN area and the winner will be picked at 3 pm on Sunday.

Speaking of test riding, we have 176 different bikes registered for attendees to ride. Cargo Bikes, Road Bikes, Fat Tire and Mountain Bikes, Compact Folding Bikes, Trikes, Speed Pedelecs, and Cruisers will all be available throughout the weekend. Some brand new models will be introduced at the event as well, so even the hardcore regulars will have something new to check out.

Our education program will run on Friday afternoon before the event opens to the public and this will be moderated by Todd Grant (president of the NBDA, as well as Charlie Gandy, CalBike Coalition). This is open to shop owners (existing and prospective) and bike and parts manufacturers (especially within the electric bike community). Reach out to Melissa Balmer for more details and to reserve your space. [email protected]

 

[bob armani]

For all of you followers, the Electric Bike Expo is making its second stop in the Midwest! this time we are heading to the Burnsville Center Mall outside of Minneapolis on July 21-23, 2017.

This location offers us a well-known place where locals shop in the more than 1.1 million square feet, with ample flat surface and free parking. The track design will offer a number of straightaways and a large outside loop for the speed pedelecs.

Because so many of the attendees that came to the Chicagoland event had never ridden an electric bike prior to the event (more than 66%) we have adjusted our marketing and are working with the largest classic rock radio station in the city to market this to the non-cycling community. KQRS will be promoting the event for 2 weeks prior to the Expo and Lisa Miller (afternoon DJ) will be riding a new electric bike for a week prior to the event to report on how it works and where she went on the bike. Then the KQRS team will be broadcasting love from the event on Saturday morning from 10 am to 12 noon.

At this event, NBDA will be jointly hosting our industry peer-to-peer roundtable conversation with dealers from the surrounding area and manufacturers. As with these events in the past, the attendance gets up to 20+ and the discussion is lively. This will happen on Friday afternoon. If you are going to be near the Burnsville area and are involved with the industry and would like to participate, reach out to Melissa Balmer and let her know you would like to participate. There will be some food and beverages and of course, test rides right after!

In Chicago, we ended up with more than 150 different bikes to test ride and we had one individual that was recorded test riding 40 bikes over the weekend.

if you plan to come (it's free), register in advance to cut through the line: www.ebikeexpos.com will take you right to the page.

I know I test rode quite a few at the Chicago Expo, but I lost count. Perhaps not 40 bikes, but at least half of that. You want to be in ebike heaven? Go to this Expo and you will not be disappointed! Great group and a fun crowd running it IMHO. So many models to choose from, you would need Jay Leno's Garage to fit them all and to have them in your own personal collection. Hope the Expo is a big success in the Midwest region. We really need to get the word out here in this neck of the woods. I am now ebike riding here on a regular basis and the general biking community are intrigued by the look and whole concept. Most riders are oblivious to the fact that they even exist. It is great to get the word out to the locals. Such a gas without having to burn any! LOL