Originally Posted by
Bianchigirll
Why don't you just buy your bike online?
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...ge_pro_xii.htm
In general bike shops are lucky if they make 30% on a bike after they warehouse, build, sell and make multiple adjustments on it for you after you buy it. So if your buying a $900 bike the shop will make about 300 from which they need to deduct the above plus lights, rent, insurance, and a host of other things. after expenses they will be lucky to have $50 profit.
accesories may seem expensive at the shop but again there all the over head for those items too.
After you buy your rack and all the other stuff are you going to install them or ask the shop to do it?
Because I need to be able to see it in person before I buy it, and going to one or two bike shops is a lot simpler than going to dozens of websites. Also, I doubt I will spend more than five hundred on my bike, not including all the accessories I need. Even after accessories, it should not cost more than seven or eight hundred- and that's if I get my accessories at the expensive bike shop. I will most likely ask the shop to do what I cannot do.