bike stores in my area SUCK!!!!!!!!

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Von Stans

Von Stans

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so i have come to the conclusion that in my whole area in the niagara region of ontario,cananda the bike stores are no help. they rarly have ne thing i am loonking for and they look at me like i have 3 heads,or give me attitued. when i ask for things that don't have to do with MTB's,race bikes or BMX's there arn't even interested in helping out.... for example i have been looking for rims that are 24 or 26 inch round and are from 3"(80mm) to 4"(100mm) wide, so i have called around everywhere cause i like trying to put my money in the comunitty instead of ordering online. you know try and give the cash to the small buissiness's in the town you live in, but no such luck... i was curiose if i am the only person that has this problem or if this is a commin occurance in the world of customizing bicycle?????
 
well i am always curiose since you can find bikes with rims like these and they make rims spacific to tire of the same size why would they not carry them???? i am lucky i do have one shop i deal with and they are the best out of of all the ones in my region but they still only have some of the things i look for......i have drooled over the chopperu.s. site and though's rims for over 2 years but i just don't feel like shelling out the moola to buy them not to mention the duty to pay to ship them to cananda......but i am looking at having to get the rims there....
 
yeah, the bike shops around here are strictly about exotic mountain bikes and road bikes, like $5000USD bikes. i saw a nice Masi Soulville at one shop, which is an Italian commuter bike with a somewhat cruiser style cro-moly frame with very nice-looking flat aluminum fenders and a leather seat - a pretty cool bike, really, but it was right around a thousand bucks.

all i've been able to get from the LBS is tires and tools. at one shop they're pretty friendly, but i'm just not their target demographic.
 
i know how that is. the lbs down the street here (only one for at least 25 miles in any direction) has a cramped showroom filled with expensive bikes and they give me crap when i stop by on my next mtn bike for something. i think a certain amount of snobbyness is out there in alot of shops, but the other day i did see the owner fix a kids mtn bike for free while the kid waited. thats just good karma.
 
Same thing in Ormond Beach, FL. I must say there is a couple guys willing to help you order something in but for the most part if you dont have a $6000.00 road bike or are willing to drool over theirs thenyou are up a creek. Besides, they will sell you a new "custom cruiser" that was built a rat bike right on the assembly line. I am not saying those bikes are bad, but most of us aren't headed that direction.
 
I live just outside of Philadelphia and experience the same issue. I think its pretty common anywhere. There is a shop near Flemington NJ called Wheelfine Imports thats actually pretty rad. The dude is all about cruisers and has awesome parts laying in every corner of the store. I went to a shop in Long Beach CA a few weeks ago that was sick too. But there are a lot of rad shops in southern Cal from what I could tell. Every bike shop near my house thinks Im crazy for riding a cruiser. Philadelphia appears to be the Fixie capital. Booooooo...
 
every shop I've been to since starting this crazy rat rod hobby has been extremely helpful. I use 3 shops in central Connecticut. All three sell family style bikes to higher end road racing and mtb racing bikes. Sure, they look at me a little weird at first, but when I explain what I'm attempting to achieve, before long I'm in the back perusing through boxes of take-off crap, or they make a trip to the basement and emerge with what I'm looking for and make up a price that is right. Sorry to hear you guys aren't having the same experience.

one thing I don't do is call them asking for obscure parts. Face time works best I think. But then all three are within a 10 mile radius.
 
Face time is always a great idea. One of my friends parents own a large bike shop in my area and I wont even go there cause they look at me crazy when I explain what Im trying to do. Ive known them for 15 years and I still cant get excellent service.... lol. Theyre actually very nice, just never have what I want.
 
I'm still exploring all the bike shops in my area since I'm new to building bikes of any type. I'm finding that many are only into racing bikes and BMX styles. Not a whole lotta help. I have found a low rider shop that is pretty helpful. At least they understand about customizing and creating rolling art...

Spike
 
Hey Von Stans, have you tried Backpeddling in Guelph. They have a wicked shop with tons of everything. The owner is into vintage bikes bigtime and I'm pretty sure I saw the rims your lookin for but if not he'll order them. Their # is 519-763-7878 and ask for Clayton, he's the owner...great guy! Hope this helps.
 
It's like that here too. We have 1 bike shop withing 100 miles of me, but if you don't show up in licra or spandex they won't even look at you. It's no wonder that folks go on down to Wally World for some Chinese stuff. At least we can get things there, and can afford it. Hand Grips are Hand grips, when I can get a pair for 6 bucks instead of 20, where do you think I'm going to go? If you want to stay in business, you MUST cater to the customer. Not all of us want to wear pretty pink spandex!
 
I have the coolest LBS up here in Maine called Ernie's Cycle Shop. The owner and his wife are really down to earth and Bruce (owner) is a crazy guy. He's into ALL types of riding, even snow! I wish he was a bit closer to me, but the trips are always worth the 35-40 minute drive.
He still rides an old Stingray, and never flinches when I explain what my projects are and is always willing to help. He also carries skate decks and accessories as well. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. If you ever come to the state look him up
http://www.erniescycleshop.com/showroom.html 8)
 
The thing that gets me is how little bike shops actually do anymore. They basically just sell and assemble new bikes and do small adjustments and replace tires I guess. It costs a ton for something like wheel truing, and they don't even build or rebuild wheels, they send them off to some place else. Back in the day bike shops could do anything from building wheels to your specs, repairing your broken frame and many could BUILD you a whole new frame from scratch. On top of that they were actually equipped with the tools to do so, torches, drill press, lathe, etc. On the plus side I guess it forces me to learn to do everything myself.
 
Wow.. horror stories. My shop, "My Bike of Michigan City" does EVERYTHING!!!
This last summer we built custom wheels, welded broken frames, installed car racks, baby sat customers kids! heck...you name it, we probably did it.
We aren't one of those bike shops that's been around and gotten lazy. We just celebrated our first year open in September. But I'm no newcomer either. I've been working in bike shops for almost 10 years now. Trek, Giant, and Schwinn certified Mechanic. We know what were're doing.
I wish all you guys lived close to my shop. Our customer service is 2nd to none.
If there is anything I can help you guys with, give me a call. 219.879.0899 Located in Northwest Indiana.
 
Bike Shop? There none in this town, I'd have to go 100 miles to find one and I don't drive. I can't wait to see their faces when I bring in those 100mm rims that I need built. I'd be better off shipping them to somebody which I planed to do anyway. Look like I might have one more option in the previous post.

Jeff
 
out of all the bike shops in the greater Orlando area (there must be about 40 of them) there is only one that I deal with Retro City Cycles. the closest LBS to me told me they won't even order parts for bikes that they didn't sell. there is one that is very well stocked for any of the fad bikes (road bikes at the moment) but they are extremely overpriced ( 1 spoke is $1.50 :shock: ) but there always packed with the spandex, safety mirrored, carbon fibre crowd.
there one shop that is run by a great bunch of guys, but their parts stock is almost nonexistant and you have to weed your way through the b o and petchuly smelling fixie riding counter monkeys to get to the counter for service.
 

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