Originally Posted by FedericoMena

The guy who owns the LBS I favor built my bike. It's a rigid MTB to which I added a rack and fenders.

I like the guy. He's 82 years old, a former bike racer, and very experienced in all matters mechanical. It's by far the best bike repair shop in town - not the flashiest one, but the kind of shop where you know real work gets done.

But our interactions have been very much like this: yeah, those fenders are fine, but you'll want to take them off eventually. Yeah, I can install a kickstand, but you'll want to take it off eventually. You want to change the flat bar to drop bars? But that would be wrong on this bike; those are for racing. You are going to prefer padded lycra shorts to your jeans. Your posture isn't aero enough.

On the other hand, his tips about riding technique are spot on, as is all the mechanical advice.

I just get annoyed that he can't seem to accept that there are other uses for a bike than racing. So I uh-huh him a lot and filter out a large part of his monologue. Apart from that, I like the guy.