I went into a bike shop in gainesville,fl. and the guy behind the counter says hey you need to quit walking on my flowers I said what flowers he said the ones you just walked on by the sidewalk and I said where I just walked thier was no flowers just dirt so I said sorry and walked right back out the door didn't even look around. Tony
LBS rant..
- Thread starter beatcad
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I own a bike shop here in Michigan City, In. and there is a bike shop across town that I used to work for... The owners race and ride road bikes and treat everyone else that doesn't, like second class citizens. Tey're customers are doctors and lawers and drive suv's and sports cars. Our customers usually ride bikes to the shop. Personaly, I love bikes. Carbon or steel, 20" nanner seats or a well worn brooks. I love to help customers hunt down that front fender brace for that 1926 elgin that was hanging in they're grandfather's barn. I had a customer come in yesterday looking for some "original style" grips that would look good on his 69' Typhoon. You should have seen the look on his face when I pulled out a pair of NOS. He told me that I made his day. That's why I opened up my shop. To adjust that frozen front derailer in the middle of winter so that the crazy guy that's touring across country can make it to his next destination... or to fix a flat on the 10 year old kids bike down the street because his dad is a loser alcoholic and can't spend the money on a tube but can always find a bottle. I'm sure we could make some improvements around here also, we're not perfect. I think you gotta be in in for the right reasons. I dont have any interest in marking up a pair of shimano road shoes at a 300% mark up. I'll leave that up to the guys across town. :wink:
I found a very good LBS. It is in a storefront in a shopping center, and looks run of the mill. The guy that owns it has been in the bike industry for years. He built wheels for Santana Tandems for a long time. He's a little crusty but really knows his stuff. If something won't fit, he'll fabricate. I don't build wheels, so if I don't buy them off of e-bay, I have him build them. He has an apprentice(college kid) who he's teaching well. The shop is Free Wheelin' in Chino, CA.
I buy a lot of stuff from Jensen. I do local pickup at the headquarters in Ontario. Steve, who works the pickup desk is fantastic. I can't recall ever having had better customer service, anytime, anywhere.
I'm seriously thinking of opening a store that caters to the cruiser/chopper/lowrider/ratrod crowd. I'm tired of visiting cookie-cutter bike stores with only a couple of Electras shoved into a corner. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Is it asking too much to find a bike store without 500 road bikes chained together on the walls?
The bikes shops these days, I believe, only carry cruisers and a few parts as an afterthought. It seems Spandex is more respected than whitewalls.
Is it asking too much to find a bike store without 500 road bikes chained together on the walls?
The bikes shops these days, I believe, only carry cruisers and a few parts as an afterthought. It seems Spandex is more respected than whitewalls.
Gotta jump in and give a quick thanks to Two shops in town. First isCharles A James Bike shop downtown SA, great shop and You can find anything and if he doesn't have it or can't work on it I would be surprsed. I took a bendix two speed auto to another shop and that was the first one any of the mechs had ever seen in real life. Granted they are hard to come by. The second is the Blue Star Bike shop and Jimmy the jedi. Yeah there are roadbikes and electras, but they work on anything. The buds and I went on a First Friday ride ( First Friday is a gallery opening and mini fiesta every month) and parked our boardtrackers right in front of the shop. After some meet and greets I now have a re-pop large hairpin seat for my Monark and Mike has a set of Cork Grips.....high-fives were exchanged.
I too am very lucky when it comes to LBS. We have many to choose from and now I know where the couple of bad ones are, but i have 3 good ones to choose from for each of the bad ones!Mikes Bike Chalet in Mesa is always my first choice, this is an LDS family owned shop and the owner is a died in the wool Schwinn fan! He used to build wheels in his college days for the old school Schwinn collectors to earn extra money.He will work on anything as well, he also stocks older, useable parts for his customers like me who like to work on their own stuff.I have aquired many bits and pieces for little or no cost from him!My giant Simplex Cruiser had an ISIS bottom bracket that gave up the ghost, sealed bearings were shot! I took it to him to match,he whipped out a state of the art Titanium one from his "parts stash" and said it had come off a brand new 29er down hill bike. The customer wanted an upgrade before it even rolled out the door, I'll let you have it for $20.00 :shock: Gotta love that guy! Later & PEACE!!! :mrgreen:
mybike1 said:
while i appreciate the passion, let's be honest- the markup is more likely to be 300% on a cheap blackwall tire than it is on shimano shoes
heck, it's hard to even keystone shimano products.......
honestly i have about 10 lbs by me and i only deal with one because they have no problem helping me. If they can't get what i need i go to the internet because i'd rather give my money to someone i'll never meet than someone that treats me like a leper I think it's the spandex biker shorts that gives them a big head.
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voodoo curse said:
This sounds a lot like me too. I am a little worried because the more I learn about bikes and opening my shop, I realize there is much much more to learn. I am hoping to find enough people like the ones on here to keep me going. I was seriously thinking about not even having any road bikes here. Would that be sort of reverse discrimination? Is that a bad thing?
I am hoping to carry Electra Bikes, but I have heard they want you to sell so many or they will drop you. I guess I will find out. I would sell as many as I can, but it is up to the customer what bikes they want to buy in the end. I think they will do well here and no one else is selling them. There are a lot of car clubs here, and if any of those guys are interested in a bike, I think they are exactly what would appeal to them.
We have quite a few shops locally to my home and work and most of them are operated by knowledgeable people sometimes their approach to a potential customer is off. The closest shop (less than a mile) is owned by a tool bag who would rather complain about the Internet killing his biz than cut you a few bucks off his overpriced list and order a part...BUT he opened several ice cream shops in the past 2 years (avoids the bike shop like a plague) and his manager (the only employee) is a friend of mine which translates into me hanging out A LOT and getting all my parts at cost + occasional beer money.
I am a roadie too with a nearly 3K bike so I speak that language too but man is it nice to just look through the QBP, Action, whatever catalog and write down the part # you want with no BS.
I am a roadie too with a nearly 3K bike so I speak that language too but man is it nice to just look through the QBP, Action, whatever catalog and write down the part # you want with no BS.
I have two good lbs by me. One is 3 blocks away, the guy has been doing it forever and holds weired hours. He dont get much buisness but thats good for me. He still has alot of old and mid school bmx nos parts on the shelf for a modest price. The other is right beside a bike trail and sells mostly confort bikes and mtbs. But if you look up in the rafters its a vintage bike heaven. Non of the old stock is for sale but they atleast accept that I need a 40 year old wheel trued and wont buy a brand new one for a cheaper price, lol.
