Originally Posted by
Roody
Same thing at my LBS! The only bike rack thay have is used to display the few usd bikes they have for sale. I complained to the owner. He said you could just bring your bike in. I told him he didn't even have a place to lean a bike inside the shop, and besides it was the whole idea of a bike shop not even having a rack that seemed screwy to me. Part of that whole LBS thing of looking down on transit cyclists. Most customers drive in to get stuff for their dedicated road bikes and mountain bikes, I guess.
Yeah... I just bring my bike inside. One bike shop I've been to actually had the rack INSIDE next to the cash registers. Only problem was I came back from their (unhelpful) service section, and someone is letting their kid mess around with my bike... turn the lights on and off, etc.
The kid apologized to me... told me he thought it was a store model bike... no way the employee or the mom standing there watching him thought that, though.
I smiled and thanked the boy for his apology and gave the woman and the cashier the dirtiest look I could muster. Their service section was as spectacularly uncaring about customer service as was their cashier... I've never been back to that store.
Even the most commuter/transportation/utility oriented bike store I've been to falls into the same 'they'll DRIVE their bikes over for maintenance' mode of thinking.... sure, they've got bike racks out front... but they're full of used bikes for sale... hardly ever is there room to lock another bike to the rack. (I generally just lock to their bikes at the end of the rack)