Support your local bike shop ... puh !!

[dbmtb]

Go on, make us envious, whats so good about the Danish bike trade

The wages and employment conditions mostly.

Other reasons had less to do with the bike trade than they had to do with testostorone and the reproductive urge.

 

[dyna-ti]

You also get pounced on with the "can i help you" as soon as you walk in.

The people I work with sadly don't understand that 90% of people hate the hard sell If someone wants something then they will go up to the staff and ask . We have an offer on gt85 at the moment and I got pissed off with the boss a few days ago when he told me that for each sale we had to make a note of it , with all the other paperwork I have to do there is very little time to do any actual work :x

So you found a nice chick in Denmark :?
Thats all you needed to say..Found Chick ,had to move/Simple

Bike trade's incidental

 

[Scrat]

Its cheaper and faster for me to get it mail order out of the
UK than walk down to my local, who hold no stock and have to get it off the importer (if they even bring it into the country anyway)

 

[CAS]

Just out of interest after been made to feel a prat , A 32mm spanner is what you need for a 1" threaded headset? :?

Yeah, 32mm but it really needs to be a thin bike one to slot onto the bottom nut, i use a big shifting spanner for the top lock nut.

Dave - I have one of these spanners if you are likely to have the bike at HONC?

Our LBS - Coombes in Hereford is pretty good - they will often match internet prices although with wheels Merlin were a lot, lot cheaper. I get a lot of advice for free - I think I provide them with the odd challenge but generally I trust their judgement and they don't rip me off.

Even without being ripped off I manage tonspend hundreds of pounds per year there in odds and ends

 

[CrabadonAB]

I'm glad this forum has come up, wasn't so long ago we had the "support your LBS forum" or something alone those lines, I used to buy everything locally, but never took my bike in for work since i got it back with a badly adjusted rear mech (costing me a mech hanger, two spokes and a repair kit for an xtr rear mech), this was at least 3 years ago, since then the shop changed hands, so a couple of months back while i was to busy at work i dropped her off, it's only a small job, i told myself, FOUR days later i collected her, when asked if everything was ok the guy replied "a couple of the bolts were ceased, and a real bitch to get out, oh and i put a small scratch on it, sorry about that" after he pulled my Baby from what can only be descirbed as a heap of bikes i left, once outside i looked . . . at least 30mm long down to metal, so i did what any Englishman would, . . . . I turned smiled and waved. Its gets worse, once home i noticed a chip on the carbon frame, the only way i can deal with this is by stroking her, while rocking backwards and forwards repeating "we won't go back . . ever baby".

This is why i will NEVER take any of my bikes into any shop again, can't wait for the "worst damaged caused by your LBS forum" .

AB.

 

[Aeronaut]

I'm glad this forum has come up, wasn't so long ago we had the "support your LBS forum" or something alone those lines, I used to buy everything locally, but never took my bike in for work since i got it back with a badly adjusted rear mech (costing me a mech hanger, two spokes and a repair kit for an xtr rear mech), this was at least 3 years ago, since then the shop changed hands, so a couple of months back while i was to busy at work i dropped her off, it's only a small job, i told myself, FOUR days later i collected her, when asked if everything was ok the guy replied "a couple of the bolts were ceased, and a real bitch to get out, oh and i put a small scratch on it, sorry about that" after he pulled my Baby from what can only be descirbed as a heap of bikes i left, once outside i looked . . . at least 30mm long down to metal, so i did what any Englishman would, . . . . I turned smiled and waved. Its gets worse, once home i noticed a chip on the carbon frame, the only way i can deal with this is by stroking her, while rocking backwards and forwards repeating "we won't go back . . ever baby".

This is why i will NEVER take any of my bikes into any shop again, can't wait for the "worst damaged caused by your LBS forum" .

AB.

Ouch! and I don't blame you for not taking anything near a LBS again after that encounter.. bloody monkeys most of them!


I suppose like a lot of things unfortunately, if you want a job done properly do it yourself, or atleast give it a good go.
Bike maintenance shouldn't be rocket science and nothing a few of the basic tools can handle. Of course it's just finding the few, trusted shops for those trickier jobs and who'll treat your bike with the respect it deserves.

There's only a couple i'll deal with now and who i'd trust to do a job right. Just a shame they aren't the more local ones.. the more local ones being larger outlets who you'd think knew what they were doing and would have the correct facts to put you right.
I didn't even take my bike back for it's first free service after it was purchased because there was no way they were getting their mitts on it! It was the fear of slipped spanners, missing paint and rounded bolts that kept me at bay.

The smaller, more independent and often family run shops are priceless if you have one around. You know exactly who you are dealing with.. it's in their interest to give you a better service

 

[Andy R]

So we walk in , as soon as we close the door ..... " Can I help you?" grumpy looking 50 year old barks at us .... "

If he was fifty then he had every right to be grumpy - Once we get past fifty, being grumpy is what we do best.... :evil:

 

[perry]

Bike maintenance shouldn't be rocket science and nothing a few of the basic tools can handle.

It shouldn't but sadly it seems to be for many many people . I'm constantly amazed that so many people don't understand the idea of convex and concave washers on V brake pads ; come on people , just copy the ones already on there I feel quite scared a lot of the time as these are always people that seem to have important looking jobs and most have had to drive to me .

I would hate to be run over by a business man who couldn't change a brake pad .

I had to have a tube replaced once . I still feel the pain now . I had no other option other than walking for about 10 miles so I had to watch the heavy handed chap first throw the bike onto the stand , then loosen the chain tug :roll: When he was finished the chain was so slack it was hanging in the breeze . He seemed put out when I asked for the tools to tighten it , he should really have felt ashamed . There is no reason to ever adjust the chain tug once fitted . Once the Qr/bolt/nut or whatever is loosened the tug will pull away from the dropout letting the wheel slide forward giving enough slack in the chain to move it off the teeth . He was an old chap so I would have thought he had seen a horizontal dropout before

Scratched carbon would be gut wrenching .

 

[Neil]

So we walk in , as soon as we close the door ..... " Can I help you?" grumpy looking 50 year old barks at us .... "

If he was fifty then he had every right to be grumpy - Once we get past fifty, being grumpy is what we do best.... :evil:

Has anybody else noticed that male drivers of a certain age (50+) tend to be the most awkward out there?

You know the kind, drive 40 in a 60 limit, you overtake, they speed up whilst you're overtaking, then flash their headlights afterwards, then proceed to tailgate you when you've slowed down to drive through a 30 limit?

Practically every time I've encounted a real awkward to$$er when driving, and it's been a bloke, looking roughly in his 50s. Surely can't be a coincidence ;-)

 

[Andy R]

So we walk in , as soon as we close the door ..... " Can I help you?" grumpy looking 50 year old barks at us .... "

If he was fifty then he had every right to be grumpy - Once we get past fifty, being grumpy is what we do best.... :evil:

Has anybody else noticed that male drivers of a certain age (50+) tend to be the most awkward out there?

You know the kind, drive 40 in a 60 limit, you overtake, they speed up whilst you're overtaking, then flash their headlights afterwards, then proceed to tailgate you when you've slowed down to drive through a 30 limit?

Practically every time I've encountered a real awkward to$$er when driving, and it's been a bloke, looking roughly in his 50s. Surely can't be a coincidence ;-)

Now if you'd said that this applied to drivers over, say, 80 then I might (just might, mind you ) have agreed with you, because I've met a few like that. They usually seem to dive Honda Accords or A-class Mercs.

But I don't know any drivers of my age (so that'll be 58-ish then) who drive the way that you described - not any more than in any other age group at least.
Most of the tossers I encounter (driving or not) are in their twenties, for what it's worth, but around here there aren't even many of those.

I think any generalisation (especially on an Internet forum) is risky, because you never really know who you're "talking" to.... :roll: