Removed

[weeman_mtb]

3, forget the name forget the shop. Based in wednesbury town, the blokes a fool. Didnt know that 1 1/4" head even existed. Would let him near any bike of mine, he would take your xtr mech off and fit a new tourney mech and think he had done you a favour.

Thornleigh Cycles, totally agree, the bloke is not only useless but a complete t**t too. It's not just me, check out the reviews https://plus.google.com/107361588172887 ... l=uk&hl=en

Such a shame because Gill who used to own the shop was a passionate cyclist and mechanic, the sort who could lace wheels with his eyes shut.

 

[misteroo]

Im surprised that no one has come up with the obvious solution......

Er.....buy them online and fit them yourself..???

:shock:

 

[cannondale king]

some of the problems some lbs suffer from is the customers you either get those that are good and dont mind waiting or you get the ones that want it done there and then and then put bad reviews online because you didn't fit there bike in there and then as has happened when i work in one of the shops in Lowestoft the customer was really arrogant i politely said i couldn't fit it in for over a week and needed to order parts (full dura ace as his was run into the ground) need a new headset bb rings chain cassette and cables the full works his is the only king headset i've seen killed ever ps did i mention the guy was a tool. he came storming into the shop and wanted to know how much and wouldn't leave til we had done and estimate (we did that there and then to keep him happy) but after we said we needed parts and it would be over a week before we could fit it in he flipped out took his bikes called me a c you next tuesday and left 2 days later another customer pointed out some douche had left a nasty review online (it was pulled with 24hr's of finding it out)


On the other side of the coin there are a lot of crap LBS out there the one i worked was good as long as you stayed away from the boss he was a douche we kept him locked in the office 99% of the time not allowing him to upset customers especially lady customers we defo couldn't let him near any female that walked in the shop for there own safety i remember a coloured lady walking in really nice regular customer that came in for some bits her son had ordered for his bmx as she left the boss had court sight and then it started "you know what boys" he said "I LOVE EM WHEN THERE (you can guess the next word)" just as she walked back in to bring me and smithy some jaffa cakes to say thanks for fixing her son's bike on the saturday and not charging him needless to say we never saw her again :roll: i might we worked on any bike brought in we did a quote if we got the ok we did it and me and smithy both loved the retrobikes we even re built a few old trade bikes for a customer he said the only reason he brought them to us was the love of bikes and knowledge me and smithy had if it was just the boss here he would't have

 

[legrandefromage]

Well you know where I worked - 'old' stuff was often turned away until I did a few lucrative resto's on a Mercian and a Bob Jackson - then people started to bring just me stuff to service. Quite a few customers were also dicks too but if you know me, I 'handled' them in my own inimitable way.

Just wish I'd gotten a wheel building course out of them...

 

[cannondale king]

wheel building should have been part of your cyctech level2 course mate or did you not get that far or have the gov changed it since i did mine way back when i did it again on cytech level 3 but by that point i was already quite well established as a pro wheel building doing odd patterns so was kinda fun to pick out flaw's in there teaching (knew steve at atg from the airspace industry) so was fun to catch up and rib him

 

[Rich Aitch]

Re: No wonder I don't use local bike shops

Time to have a moan.


Me : walked into shop . Not halfords btw
Sales assistant : Yes can I help..
Me : Oh hello , I need a set of brake pads for some cantilever brakes , in fact can I bring the bike in for you to fit them and set them up for me ?
Shop assistant : erm... Can you just wait a minute whilst I go and see the mechanic.
Me : yes not a problem, I'll just take a look around.










Shop assistant +10 minutes later ,a mechanic comes up to me and looks at me like I'm some sort of alien , sorry not sure what you mean by cantilever brakes, maybe take a look for you week on Tuesday, we may need to order some parts in , so can you fetch the bike in next week :roll:

Me: no its ok , I'll find a proper bike shop.. Bye


Moan over.

I distinctly remember calling into Stiff in Headingley in 2003 or 4 because I needed a pair of canti straddles, not wierd Shimano straddles just any generic ones. Only to be told by the child behind the counter that they didn't sell "That kind of stuff because it was obsolete" and they wouldn't be able to order any in. So I went to Recycle Engineering round the corner and bought them there instead. Never bothered with Stiff since.

 

[taffy]

Re: No wonder I don't use local bike shops

I distinctly remember calling into Stiff in Headingley in 2003 or 4 because I needed a pair of canti straddles, not wierd Shimano straddles just any generic ones. Only to be told by the child behind the counter that they didn't sell "That kind of stuff because it was obsolete" and they wouldn't be able to order any in. So I went to Recycle Engineering round the corner and bought them there instead. Never bothered with Stiff since.

Helll I remember calling Stif in 1994 for xt Thumbs to be told "thats old technology now we don't do em.." and just to make me feel good it finished off with "dont know why your asking for em no one will get them in for you" cheers :?

 

[MD1]

Re: No wonder I don't use local bike shops

Time to have a moan.


Me : walked into shop . Not halfords btw
Sales assistant : Yes can I help..
Me : Oh hello , I need a set of brake pads for some cantilever brakes , in fact can I bring the bike in for you to fit them and set them up for me ?
Shop assistant : erm... Can you just wait a minute whilst I go and see the mechanic.
Me : yes not a problem, I'll just take a look around.











Shop assistant +10 minutes later ,a mechanic comes up to me and looks at me like I'm some sort of alien , sorry not sure what you mean by cantilever brakes, maybe take a look for you week on Tuesday, we may need to order some parts in , so can you fetch the bike in next week :roll:

Me: no its ok , I'll find a proper bike shop.. Bye


Moan over.

Sham of a bike shop...
1st off... they appear to have no stock of cantilever brake pads..
2nd.. Mechanic doesn't even know what a cantilever brake is LOL
It's not even as if a bike mechanic has to learn a lot and types of brakes are the basics.

 

[sylus]

Just wish I'd gotten a wheel building course out of them...

If you end up on the dole again LG ask your local job centre about this. Just before I went travelling I asked about a certificated cycle qualifications initially to specialise more into the technical parts but with a view to going self employed..In February this year in cambs they were still saying yes

 

[lae]

It's a youth thing in my opinion.
Kids today, and by that I mean anyone younger than 25, just don't get it.
The idea of wanting, or even riding anything over 10 years old baffles them.

That's rubbish, 'retro' anything is very much in fashion and bicycles aren't excluded - look at the LFGSS website and see all the 20-somethings restoring and riding vintage bikes. I'm 25 myself and I've owned dozens of vintage bikes (and, incidentally, a handful of 1960s/70s cars).