Koos Kroon and Bike Tech

This isn't a very good picture of Koos but it's the best I have from the very nice tour of Barcelona he took me on. (Koos, you're a photographer, maybe you can send me a better picture.)

I’d only been in Barcelona a few hours and I said to my wife Susan, ”Wow , there are a lot of Bromptons here.”  It turns out that a Brompton folder is the most desirable commuter bike throughout Spain.  It happened because of Koos Kroon and his company Bike Tech.   As a Dutchman and a cycle tourist, Koos saw the potential of the bicycle in Barcelona.  When he couldn’t get a proper tire for his Dutch bike he got the idea of opening a shop.  He never imagined that his business would grow so quickly.  His stroke of genius was seeing the potential of the Brompton.  Realizing that apartments in Barcelona were too small for full size bikes, he talked the UK maker of folding bikes into letting him try a shipment of ten.  They sold quickly and soon he was buying them by the hundreds.  Now his company, Bike Tech, distributes to shops throughout Spain.  They also sell Ortlieb bags and other high-quality transport oriented gear.

Like in the US, The bike industry in Spain has always been very sport oriented.  With the great road racing tradition, they have been very high-end focused.  As a result, the economic crisis that began at the end of 2008 has been very hard on them.  Interestingly, Bike Tech has bucked this trend with 2009 being their best year ever.  Koos attributes this to strength of the city bike market.  Even in tough times people need to travel.  He tells the story of a customer coming in with a flat tire on his Brompton.  Instead of a repair, the customer asked for a new bike because he had to get to work.  Koos say that would never happen with sport bikes.