Why The Merger Of CycleGear With RevZilla Matters

CycleGear feels like the Walmart of motorcycle gear. They carry all the basics and a lot of their own in-house brands, but not always everything you're looking for. If they don't have it and you can find it in any catalog they can and will get it for you, just don't expect them to know much about the item you want to order. I can't really say much about their web presence. A little blasé with some lost leaders and specials to get you into the brick-and-mortar. You can order on line, but you really need to already know what your looking for first.

RevZilla, on the other hand has a really strong web presence. They really are the go to website for comprehensive reviews and in depth help on fitment of apparel and equipment. They have strived to make ordering something sight unseen easy, so it is going to fit your needs when it arrives, and if it doesn't fit, returns are more or less painless. You might say they are the Zappos of motorcycle gear stores. But sometimes you just need to touch it and see how it's made before you buy. In this case with no real brick-and-mortar to speak of, choosing can be a little tough.

When I heard rumors that CycleGear was acquiring RevZilla for $400M+, I thought to myself this could be a marriage made in heaven or the merger from hell. If CycleGear is just purchasing the competition, and ends up flushing them down the toilet, either by a poor implementation of their web presence, or by not embracing the true talent that went into building that web presence.........

Well enough of the doom and gloom. On the up beat, it turns out CycleGear is not just acquiring RevZilla, it is a "Joint Venture" with a new jointly-held holding company, partly owned by RevZilla and partly owned by CycleGear. This could end up being the all encompassing, go to, motorcycle centric shopping experience on the web and in store combined.

Both were lacking a piece of the puzzle when shopping for gear. When you need that tactile in store feel to compare those jackets you are drawn to, or the helmet you want to try on, and the squid behind the counter just couldn't fill in the blanks for you enough to make that purchase decision, Well that's where Revzilla could fill that gap. All the research you need but in one place for a change would be nice. And that jacket that's not in the store that you really wanted to compare, is reviewed on the website, and ready to ship to the store maybe, or at least return it to a brick-and-mortar store, without the hassle of packing and shipping back.

Who knows what positive direction this will end up taking, but the keyword here is positive!

No word yet on what the new collaborative venture will be called. How about CycleZilla, or RevGear ? Looks like we will all find out together when this new venture comes to fruition.