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Why is Loomies so successful? It has a big parking area, serves decent grub and has some great riding roads on the way there and back. For me, it needs all those things. Same reason why loads of peeps ride all the way to Abergavenny to have a burger in a bus park.
That's the key.Originally Posted by Snowy
The Ace Cafe is a crap ride, and a dump of a building. The only reason it does well is that they do decent food and they put on "nights"
Go there on an ordinary day and it's dead.
Location or events is the key. I'm afraid the old "build it and they will come" doesn't always work so it would have to offer something that the others don't.
Be at the end of a great road, a place where bikers meet already or attached to an event.
Yep, I ride over to the bus park in Abergavenny on average 8 to 9 times a year for the reasons highlighted by Graeme and it is only an hour from my in-laws too. Stop for about 2 hours approx, chewing the fat with other bikers. I always have a mug of coffee and a bacon butty. Most of all the roads are kept in a much better standard compared to Somerset. It is a hard one James - to be fair I think teenagers taking up biking will be in ever dwindling numbers with the amount of hoops in place to jump through now. Difficult for a café to cater for one small sector of customers in the modern climate, but specialised events for biking groups could bring in additional custom to a café which serves decent grub at affordable prices.
Last edited by redken1; 16-11-13 at 09:06 PM.
Once you've got the right location, I would say you can't have too much publicity. I like to ride out to Abergavenny, AV8, Poole, George Whites old place etc..... Even though I regularly scan the internet and mags I only heard about the Hill Top at the same time as it closed down. If you consider all the popular destinations we all use, the secret seems to be a bit more than a car park and a definite reliance on revenue from a cross section of users. In answer to the question, yes I'd use a new place to stop for a cuppa.
Exactly...
I know a pair of bikers who were looking at doing the same thing in the summer (this year) now changed their mind and spending the 50K they had on a farmy place in France.
I suspect that it would be a long haul, but there's not a lot around here so a possible I think.
Think location, location, location would be the (main) key, but once you have a name as a biker meeting place I'm sure it would be profitable, as has already been mentioned Loomies, H café, Rikers café, Boxhill even the café in the Welsh village that I can't remember the name of (lots will know it though) all seem to keep busy. These days I think one of the key aids to success would be being really active on every forum you could think of, cars as well as bikes.
Re where, we are a bit short of nice roads around here, east we have the A4 and the roads South East of Marlborough, but central Wilts, not a lot (waits to be shot down).
Might be that you would have to choose between going balls out for a biker / car nut café (which would be more likely to attract bikers etc) or playing it safe and trying to attract everybody (bit like the unsuccessful Hilltop Diner - which is open again as you probably know).
Hard call...
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