Originally Posted by
big chainring
Less knowledge, fewer skills, and a fat wallet. I have come to realize over the past couple months of riding with various groups, the new riders drop big dollars on trivial "latest thing" products. The "new" LBS is more of a boutique shop. Pricey, exotic bikes, components and clothing. Its a very different rider out on the group rides I do. Lawyers, stock brokers, businessmen, these guys are loaded and drop huge amounts of money on their bikes. I overheard one say that his time is worth more than what the bike shop would charge to do some work on his bike, so why not have the bike shop work on it. Most of these guys would have a hard time changing a tire anyway.
I agree.
But even if I was so well-heeled that my "time is worth more than the LBS wrench" I can still do most any job faster than it would take for me to load the bike up and drop it off at the LBS and then mess around waiting for it to be fixed or making a second trip to go back and pick it up.
Just trying to get a shop to call you back and tell you your bike has been finished is more of a PITA than most simple maintenance jobs entail.
I think that perhaps coming into the activity with zero knowledge it's easier to make multiple round trips to the LBS for routine simple tasks because of the effort to learn/build these skill from absolute scratch may seem harder and less worth it.
When it comes to mechanical aptitude I am constantly blown away by the complete lack of it these days for most kids under the age of 40. Schools are failing kids today in so many ways. Not only can they not wrench -but they can't even THINK clearly so that they can figure out simple tasks for themselves.