william negron

I am always having issues with performance bike magazine. These suck when it comes to ship the items on time. I have been waiting 3 weeks for a wind breaker jersey. Should I switch to Nashbar better. What do you guys think?

fore

as a bike shop employee, i'd be enthused if you'd forget the concept of mail order and supported one of the many fine bike shops in your area.

but that's just me...

Waldo

Any particular reason you're not checking your LBS? The various brands I've dealt with have never taken longer than a week to get me a special order, and they might have had something for you in stock to begin with.

djbowen1

same **** different name. performance has an order status now atleast. i ordered a derailleur from performance in early december and it is forever backorderded. someone ordered me an ultegra front derailleur from supergo along with other stuff for a christams gift and it is still backorded. they are all the same. if you have a 20% coupon you cant beat them. if not ask your lbs to match the catolog price. when i go to one of my lbs they use the performance catolog as a price sheet. sad but true. they are not even discreet about it they look at it for the price in front of you. most lbs will match it, they are ****ing fools if they dont.

~LongRider~

Ive had nothing but good luck with Nashbar. Ive ordered from them 3 or 4 times. They are very prompt. Last time they accidentally sent me two seat posts though. I had to ship one back. It was because they were trying to assist in getting it to me quickly, and the second person didnt know that the first had already shipped it. The error was made, because they were going the extra distance to help me. That's a good thing.

velodemon

performance owns nashbar and supergo

Saso

excelsports.com I like them cause they dont bill you for stuff they dont stock.

4130phile

I don't know about you guys, but what's all this gunho mumbojumbo of "supporting your LBS" It's Captialism, if Nashbar has a deal on Deore XT Derailleurs while the bike shop sells them for an arm and a leg, I'm going to go with the cheaper price.

I do go to the LBS for bottom bracket stuff, but for bicycle parts, the internet is where it's at.

4130phile

landrover

I order online...i learned my lesson some time ago that my local performance bike shop couldn't compete with its online h-q...the flyers used to lure me in, only to find out i'd have to purchase the item online.

It's either nashbar or performancebike.

nashbar rules right now!!

DnvrFox

Recently I had a technical question for Nashbar concerning their bars, and emailed them.

Guess what?

My answer came from PerformanceBike. They didn't even attempt to disguise it.

But, then, who cares as long as Nashbar gives good service. I have never had a problem with them, and they recently replaced for free a wrist band on a HRM I bought 4 years ago. No questions asked, although I did have to call them on the 800 as the emails seemed to get lost.

I have ordered at least 10 times from them. I am a sale junkie.

But, I do also support my LBS - having bought 4 bikes, and other stuff, and they do all my repair, which I understand is their best profit center.

fore

last time i checked, the bottom bracket is a bicycle part.

put yourself in my shoes. someone comes into my shop with a nashbar or performance catalog and they say "i want you to pricematch this and this and this."

i take a look at what my cost is on those things, and somehow, nashbar is selling them for pennies above what my cost is. sometimes less than my cost.

what do you suggest i do? i have no interest in turning my shop into the next performance bike. it'll just be another faceless company. point at any of my regular customers and i can tell you anything about them. what they ride, how often they ride, what their riding style is like, how many kids they have. when they come in asking about getting some new part i can tell them without hesitation whether or not it's the best part for the job. the only thing nashbar knows about you is when the last time they sent you a catalog is and how many dollars you've spent with them in the past 12 months.

i put in a solid 4000 miles per year on the same streets as my customers, and that's just commuting. i dont track my off-road mileage or my race mileage, and there's a hell of a lot of that as well. i inadvertently wind up battle testing quite a few of the more popular items my shop carries, i can tell you from experience what works and what doesn't. what are the odds that the person on the other end of the line over at nashbar even rides a bicycle?

4130phile

I meant I go to the LBS to get my bottom bracket adjusted.

4130phile

AeroDog

If my LBS is within 15% of Performance Bike, I'll buy from my LBS. I think we should help support those guys. However, I've had great service from Performance Bike. They're always prompt with shipments and easy to deal with if there's a problem.

indecisive

So why don't LBS's try to find the same suppliers that places like Performance or Nashbar use and get there inventory there instead of some distributer? Or is it that Performance or nashbar buy in greater quantities that they get a price cut on their purchase?

Arsbars

I agree. The service, respect, and knowledge you'll gain by shopping at a bikeshop is more than you'll find at any online/catalog shop. Everyonce in awhile I do find a good deal on some blow out jersey or something... Not that I want to, but because they can't be found anywhere else.

pitboss

I prefer to give my hard-earned dollars to locals/smallies. The last thing I want is some 17 yr old kid at an "On-line Bike Shop" (the pure concept is laughable) with my personal info. I will buy from eBay and there are a few shops online (BusinessCycle, NYCBikes, et al) that I will buy from, but they are NOT chain stores. I am choosy in my online dealings, and maybe I am a purest, but Performance, Nashbar, Supergo, etc can burn. I like walking into my fav shop and chilling out with a cat on a ratty sofa, having a smoke, and waiting my turn.

fore

it's quantity. they can buy 500 xt deraillers while my shop has trouble getting rid of more than a few per season. (we don't have trouble because of our prices, but because the majority of our customers have no need for something that high in the line.)

Dchiefransom

Something is wrong here. If a local store (5 of them here) doesn't have what's in the catalog, I do a "Red Phone" order in the store. I call straight to the same place the online orders go, and they get my order, giving me an order number. I use that number to pay at the local Performance, and it's shipped there with no shipping charge. The local store calls when it's in, and I take my receipt and pick it up. The local store will also match sale prices online, provided I print the page out. When my printer was broken, they went online at the store and looked it up.

Grampy™

In 2003 I spent a minimum of 2 grand with my Lbs. I've already spent about $600 with them this year. I will still order some stuff on-line. Usually it's the stuff I find at crazy low prices that I do not think my LBS can match. I'm not going to feel bad because I save some money.

Rev.Chuck

djbowen1-"most lbs will match it, they are ****ing fools if they dont."

Well then my boss has done well for a ****ing fool. In business for 25 years, three stores, shops voted best in the Triangle nine of the last ten years (hon. mention that one year)

djbowen1

and if someone comes in and asks for a price match he says no.

djbowen1

and what is best in triangle.

rancid_chicken

The triangle that he is talking about is the research triangle of NC; Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill.

Arsbars

Maybe ur shop is huge, or they/you have no clue about business. Performance/Nashbar/Joe smoe.com buy crap in bulk and sell it usually right above cost. If we sold everything right above cost we would be out of business in less than 2 months. Hell, employees usually get cost +10-20%, for shipping fees.

Also with shops we don't order things in bulk, so that derailleur you were talking about would be in by now. Performance/Nashbar/Etc, has to wait till they have the key number to reorder the bulk of them. They aren't going to special order 1 part from shimano and make probably less than 5 bucks. They will wait till they have 50 on backorder and then go ahead to place the order.

Btw I'm not bull****ting you, my dad for about 6 months as regional manager for Performance Bike shops, he quit because I hated what he did so much. Even 99% of the people at the bike shops that Performance slapped their name on didn't know jack crap.

roadwarrior

I am also in the LBS business...and we sponsor four local road teams and also sponsor the MTB racing series, statewide. In addition, we sponsor the cycling club (touring and leisure riding) as well as pay taxes and employ people in our local area. We also contribute to several charities, and support and sponsor an underprivledged family at Christmas.

oh...we also fix the problems amateur mechanics get themselves into... After they try to install their "on sale" items purchased off the internet.

I love when the internet buyer tries to come in and return an item claiming they bought it from us but "lost the receipt"...or the guy who bought a $3,500 Litespeed over the internet that did not fit and wanted us to help...

LMAO

oh...we sell about 12,000 bikes a year, so one Deore is not going to break us. We find that most people still want the "face to face" approach...especially the ones who are buying really good stuff. They want expert advice on the purchase.

some folks go to Nordstroms...some go to Walmart.