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outskirtscustoms

outskirtscustoms

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Body: Kokomo, In... Mind: in the gutter. Soul: in
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I went into my lbs the other day just to look for something to add a touch of flavor to my build and I realized they don't have anything I had in mind. They don't even carry valve caps! No colored or whitewall tires, no cruiser bikes, nothing you'd even want on your bike. Just a bunch of plastic squeak toy horns, a few worse than Walmart grade seats at twice the price, some cheap plastic light sets for $100+, and a whole half wall of water bottles and bottle cages. It seems like he is catering to the hipsters now. I miss when his dad ran things, his dad had a very impressive collection of old bikes from the 1800's up to modern. Everything from high wheelers to shaft drives, skiptooths, and tank bikes all up on display. He was polite and would love to talk bikes and went the extra mile to find the exact part you wanted in the style you wanted and if he didn't have it he'd order it. His son seems like he just doesn't care unless you ride a $2,000+ road bike and wear spandex. Not that I have a problem with "those guys" but shouldn't a bike shop be accomedating to all types of bike riders?

Okay I'm done ranting.
 
Onewheelsqueel said:
Sounds like typical lbs inventory to me. Prices of bikes today at a bike store make me sick.
Click to expand...
Yeah but what bike shop doesn't carry valve caps? Like the little dice or skulls or 8 balls.
 
theres a half dozen bike shops around here and only one does BMX and cruisers, the other onlyy sell road MTB and hybrid of the two . then they tell tell you "walmart and sport chalet sell kids bikes , we dont"

I ask them, "do I look like a kid?" and they just stare at you... :roll:

and people slam the good guy on yelp for having a messy shop... but theres always kids in there buying stuff , I bet he does the best out of all of them.. I give him all my bussiness! :mrgreen:
 
I'm seriously thinking of saving up my money and open a summer bike shop right across the street from him in the flea market. I know I'd have much lower overhead, so i could cut his shop rates by 50%, sell used bikes and parts so my prices would be way lower and my profit margins larger, then maybe carry a few variations of tires.
 
theres a guy at our flea that sells nuthin but tires tubes fenders and seats for way less than anyplace around here .. he does pretty good from what I see, I've heard guys say they drove an hour to buy from him while I was hangin out talking with him.

M.Martian knows who I'm talkin about... :wink:
 
scrumblero said:
theres a guy at our flea that sells nuthin but tires tubes fenders and seats for way less than anyplace around here .. he does pretty good from what I see, I've heard guys say they drove an hour to buy from him while I was hangin out talking with him.

M.Martian knows who I'm talkin about... :wink:
Click to expand...
Cool, I know I have a bunch of tires and tubes in my shed already and I'm about to get buried in parts. Not to mention I normally get bikes from the scrapyard for $10 or less that I can easily double my money on. And I have my own truing stand. :mrgreen:
 
We have nine lbs in the Wichita area. Only one is like the one you described. Most are geared toward the roadies and/or MTBs and are cruiser friendly. Two are more BMX shops, but they carry some cruisers. If you need a someone who knows old bikes of any kind and sells new cruisers then Tom Sawyer is the place to go. They have been a Schwinn dealer since '63 and if you ask Alan, the owner, about a hard to find vintage part he might just have NOS on the on the shelf. Not to mention all the bells, whistles, valve caps and baskets, and just about any other accessory you might want.
 
Yeah here we got 7 places to get bikes, Kmart, Target, Walmart, Meijer, Kokomo Schwinn (which is awesome IF you own a Schwinn but it's clear across town), dk skate park/bike shop (awesome but clear across town and only deals in Bmx), and Victory cycle which is the one I was talking about above that used to be the best but has gone to the hipsters. Now I'm left to roam the scrapyards in search of awesome bikes and parts, the inventory is sketchy at best, changes daily, sometimes there's a pile, sometimes there's nothing, they dont offer service or accesories, you have to dig them out from under old junk and risk getting cut or dropping something heavy on yourself but their prices are the best in town.
 
Our lbs onl has road bikes, very high end according to the price tags. A couple mtbs. No valvecaps but a couple cheap horns and baskets at high prices. He even has a set of crummy aftermarket chrome fenders and mirrors. However he doesn't even sell chain tools. And I know for a fact by talking to him that he is very against customs, cruisers, anything different from the norm. I needed one headset bearing and he only wanted to sell me a headset for $35. I left and found the bearings I needed on a junk bike at the salvage yard. Plus it was a U.S.A. made bearing so it will probably last a long time.
 
hey now don't be callin bmx 'kid bikes' come on, they are bikes that people in their Youth ride to have fun and do stunts on.. 'walmart bikes are kid bikes' noone wants to buy little tommy a $500+ bmx bike that he will ride down the street and leave out side to have it stolen and not notice till a month later, when you ask him "hey lill tommy, wheres your FIT' at"...

but anyways... i totally agree with you about bikeshops with there none sence.. and over priced junk.. i paid $63.53 for some brand new 2x FIT-faf 20x2.30' teal wall tires and 2x tubes
the tires were about $25 each, not bad, about that much on Danscompe.com 'bmx parts place' but the Tubes, what in the Heck... they were $5 each! and they gave me 20x1.75s!?
i get home install them on my Machone GT '1990 race bike' and they look good, inflate the tired front' all good' back tire, i get it up to 50psi, 55psi and right at 60psi BOOOM!
The tube Exploded out a leak near the valve >:C what the heck? make me pay $5 per tube and then they blow up when inflating.. "may i remind you that these FiT tires are graded up to 110Psi max???? i only wanted to run them at 65psi, like the old school bikes were commonly run at..
luckially i had a spair left in the old tires when i swapped them out, when next week i went back and Asked for a refund, they were reluctent at first and were acting like it was somehow myfault that i damaged the tube.. but it was a blown hole out of the valve near the stem.. how the heck could i do that 'if i pinched the tube in the rim?? :|
it was obvious they thought i did something wrong since im a Younger, which means i must be stupid and not have a clue what im doing :roll:
they did finally give me my refund, but it felt like they really didnt want to refund a kid his $5dollars over a factory defect on a cheap tube :?

and yeah... whats up with all the roadbikes/fixies and junk lately??
its kinda funny about hipsters lately too, they being Indy has become 'cool' or a fad' which is becomming so popular that even its becomming 'Mainstreem' :lol:
poor fools, they must feel so terrible about all these people joining their cult :lol: oh its soo funny..

'think ill end this little rant/comment now' getting too long and im sure if you even read this your skimming.. sorry i get into comments sometimes :mrgreen:
 
Mine is like that unless you are speaking to the owner. But where I live that is the main business, mtb&roadies, so I can't blame them.
 
I have to agree that our lbs has very little I am interested in, but I recently bought some stuff off of eBay and had an interesting conversation with the seller. He owns a bicycle shop in Michigan (which I thought had all the old bikes, other than Kansas...) and he said he is selling off all his vintage items (4 barns full) because all their business has turned to mainstream roadbikes.

I know businesses have to follow the money, and I wonder how the old bicycle hobby will suffer in the future. Think about it, when I was a kid my bicycle gave me the chance to go and have a social life. My son, who has a computer, online games, telephone, etc. has a social life without ever leaving his bedroom. A bicycle will never have the nostalgic effect on him that they do on me. To me a bicycle is my "Wayback Machine". Ohh, that's my next build!

Rg
 
My 11 year old loves to cycle with me, but he's getting a 29er mtb for Christmas 'cos it's his 'must have'!!! I wonder if these will be their 'Ratrods' of the future, if we can keep them off the t'interwebnet etc long enough!!!
 
Yeah I remember when I was a kid I had a 1 1/2 car garage that was stuffed with bikes. I'd drag home ANY bike I found in the trash then buy, sell, and trade to build my collection....Much like today but I only have a shed now. I had bikes lined up like sardines across the floor, had 3 hooks on every rafter with bikes on each hook, had more bikes up on the "attic" above the rafters, then I had my "Junk pile" behind the garage inside the fence. I remember once I traded 10 bikes for a single one and you really couldn't tell I had gotten rid of any. :mrgreen:

Those were the days.
 
There are a ton of LBS in St. Louis. Some are better than others. If I'm looking for a part they never seem to have it and always say "we can order it for you"
I can order it. I just need it now, that's why I'm there.
 

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