Looigi

I set up a paypal account for the many people who want to tip me for the wisdom and sage advice I dole out in my posts in this and other forums. It's allowed me to retire.

IthaDan 

A 750ml of Duvel or Chimay blue is about $12 here.

bakeoh99

Tipping? Absolutely.

My LBS has excellent mechanics, great service and wonderful attitudes and locally owned. After buying my bike, I tipped $60 to the sales/mechanic and also sent a positive email to the owner and general manager about their employee.

Have a locally owned LBS is a huge plus for the bikers and well a the local economy. I am willing to pay more to the local LBS than buy online and have done so many times.

Heres to the local LBS!!

zvez

Just getting into cycling. Feel fortunate as the LBS I go to (on friend's recommendation) is locally owned by enthusiasts.

The owner's been really good to me and spent alot of time on purchasing choice. The techs have done a great job, they even stayed late to put my bike together when it came in so I could ride next morning.

Around the holidays, I'm going to give the owner a $100 to buy pizza or whatever for lunch for everyone there.

fietsbob

a voucher payable to the landlord would have let me live indoors .

phoebeisis

Tip $$-not coffee or beer.
Mechanics are poorly paid-
$5-$10 seems about right!

Medic Zero

I'm really lucky in that the shop I like in town is not only near my home, but everyone there does good work. I've gotten in the habit of just bringing in a sixpack of nice beer with me when I bring a bike in. The first time I did this at the bottom of my receipt instead of a total it said "beer".*

* They still charged me $10 for parts, but it probably would've been about $30 otherwise.

Jed19

I kinda tip, but not at the time of service. I have given candies, beer cases, pizza, but never money. My lbs takes prompt care of me, almost always taking care of any issue on a daily basis, except when I tell them that I don't need the bike back right away. And I always give something at christmas.

You don't have to tip anybody, but I just like to tip any service provider that makes my life easier.

Medic Zero

On the one hand, I can emphathize, I've definitely dealt with shops like you describe, including some with good reputations locally, and one doesn't have to wonder where the stereotypes of either surly, rude shop mechanics or incompetent dope smoking kids as mechanics come from, but I still don't think it is fair to paint all shops with this brush. Not only are some of us lucky enough to have shops that don't fit this decription to go to, right here on bike forums we have a number of mechanics who work at shops who must be really nice and helpful, because here they are giving away their wisdom for free.

If you haven't searched for other nearby LBS and tried them out to see if they are better because of your assumption that they are all like that, you should give some other shops a chance.

Medic Zero

That is great service! I don't really want to jump on the bashing bandwagon, but it reminds me of a time I got about the opposite in service from probably the best known shop locally. They happen to be on my commute and not far from my home or where my girlfriend worked at the time, and so with their reputation it seemed like a no brainer to go there. After taking my bike there and having them not really listen and do what I needed, I had to go back a few days later to have them fix some of the things they didn't do. This is where I first ran into the stereotype of the dope smoker youth mechanic. Frankly, I could care less is someone smokes pot - on their own time! Not before working on my bike! I was there when the shop opened and a kid who looked like he wasn't old enough to legally drink was the one behind the counter and had clearly "waked and baked". I explained my issues to him and he acted like he understood and was going to fix it, but when I came to pick up my bike (after they called me and said it was ready!) I still had to come back a third time to get them to fix what I first asked them to do, but the real kicker was this kid wasted time doing things like repositioning my bar ends! HEY! I put them at the angle that I want them, for my needs! You don't decide that I had them the wrong way and put them how you think they go! I wouldn't have really cared much about that, but he didn't fix my bike and instead wasted time on messing with things like that! Obviously that was the end of my patronage of that shop, and in a way I suppose I should thank them for finding an excellent shop with great mechanics not too far from me that I look forward to going in to and am pleased to bring them beer.

Sorry for the rant, somehow it came to mind as the opposite side of the coin of the great service you offered in the story above. A mechanic who listens to what his customer wants, even if it isn't the way he'd do it on his bike, and delivers what they want is as good as it gets! Kudos to you sir!

Medic Zero

I don't know about NY, although I assume it is much the same as here in Seattle where we can not only get just about any Belgian beer imported, but we have tons of microbreweries turning out faithful reproductions and local variations of Beligan beers. I can get decent Belgian beers at the grocery store in many neighborhoods in the city and a number of other stores have either a handful of amazing imported Belgian beers or a staggering selection. Belgian beer is quite popular here!

Zef

Yowser!!! I will have to stock up before we move back to the US in a couple of years. Chimay and Duvel are as ubiquitous as water is here and only costs about 1.30euro for a 330ml bottle at most any grocery store over here.

I wonder if the ABV is the same for exported products as it is for the Belgian domestic market...the bottle of Chimay blue I have in front of me is marked 9%...it gives you a good slap in the face and tells ya to sit back down when you try to stand up after two or three bottles.

-j

Medic Zero

Here the Chimay comes in three ABV's as denoted by the different label colors (red, white, blue). Off the top off my head I couldn't tell you which was which but they are in that ballpark, something like 7%, 8% and 9% or 8%,9% and 10% or 9,10, and 11.

woodcraft

Plus, it would feel real bad when they clamped you in the repair stand!

Zef

Thats about right compared to what we have over here. There is Chimay red, Chimay Blue, and a Triple that comes in a yellow labeled bottle. I haven't had the Tripple in awhile but have a bunch of red and blue out in the garage. The blue is 9%, red is 7%, and the triple is 8% and is a lighter color than the other two.

I have a couple of bottles of Chimay's 150 year anniversary brew. Waiting for a special occasion to open them up but have heard lots of good things about it from some colleagues that have tried it.

Chimay is a good beer and for the price it is selling in the US would be a great tip for a mechanic who is a beer enthusiast...but man I need to see if and how I can bring some back to the US because I would cry if I had to pay that kind of premium.

Beer, fries, chocolate, and bike racing...Belgium would be nirvana if the weather wasn't so blah.

-j

Medic Zero

.

It almost feels like there is a tax on the higher percentage beers, I think most (all) the higher percentage beers I see in Washington state cost more, at least at stores. In bars that feature stronger beers I don't think that is usually the case though.

This thread did remind me that I wanted to ask next time if I am in the shop if beer is an appropriate tip, I can tell the two younger mechanics are drinkers, by their enthusiam with this form of tipping, and they seem to be the guys wrenching on my rigs, but I really like the older guy too, and I have no idea if he drinks or not. Since all my equipment is ~20 year old technology I feel he makes them work on it so they can learn it. They all do a great job, but one of the first times I went in there one of the younger mechanics confided to me that working on my cantilevers was one of the first times he had done so!

I make an awesome key lime pie too, I told them I was going to bring one of those in the next time I make a batch of them, I've got a couple of ships to bring in for some extensive work, I just might have to do that on one of the next three times I expect to be in there over the next month or six weeks...

Dan Burkhart 

Well, it helps that their trade isn't seasonal.

saturnhr

I thought this forum is about avoiding that whole scenario in the first place?

Sixty Fiver

When it comes to tips I prefer good Scotch...

Sixty Fiver

For those little jobs that come in like headset adjustments I just tell people to make a donation to the girl's college fund and they usually drop more than $7.50 in the jar because they;

A: Did not have the right hex key, or headset tools.
B: The time or skills to make a proper headset adjustment
C: Really appreciate the fact that I do have the right tools, experience, and skills.

I do not understand this expectation that you can walk into a business and expect that they service they offer will be free because you could do it yourself... because you aren't doing it yourself.

There are very few 1 minute jobs in a bike shop and I am that old guy with a shop full of cool parts that just repairs bicycles.

rgwinn

I have a great LBS. Like the ones that used to be in every city.

They have taken great care of me.

two weeks ago I brought them a half-dozen fresh made Cannolis from a local bakery.

They are still talking about it

Zef

While a couple Belgian brews would be a good tip, a bottle of single malt would be an awesome tip. Currently working my way through a bottle of Balvenie doublewood 12 and a bottle of Aberlour 12.


-j

leaway2

LOL loving the Americans debating tipping. Every time I travel to the US I never know who gets a tip as a routine payment, except waitresses.
Why don't you just put it on the bill. After a nice meal + copious amounts of acohol, the last thing I want is a maths test!
(Please see reservoir dogs).

Zef

+1...

As a US citizen living overseas tipping seems to be a very American institution at least from the standpoint of percentage of a bill (which I know is not what is being discussed here). Repair service industries tend to be expensive and there seems to be less folks who tinker as a hobby in Europe and North Africa so folks seem to accept the higher costs but also tend to not feel the need to add anything extra....nor does anything extra tend to be expected.

-j

eja_ bottecchia

Or buy low sell high. Since mechanics are usually underpaid, they will always appreciate this one.