mconlonx

Not really. I like them. When someone rolls one in for service, often they will be a bit sheepish about having mail-ordered their bike. But noglider was correct a few pages ago -- margins on bikes are horrible. If all we did was sell bikes, we'd be out of business. Luckily, there are all kinds of things people like to put on their bikes, which keep the lights on and my paychecks coming.

On top of low margin, we have to set the bike up for sale for free (duh), we offer free service on bikes, warranty service is usually done gratis in the rare cases when something goes wrong... and a million little things like merchandising the bike (shop space = sq ft $$$s), dealing with the paperwork, storing bikes in boxes (not small packages...), carrying inventory, dusting/filling tires, selling them to customers...

Whereas if we are servicing a bikes direct bike, other than regular shop overhead -- which is also eats into new bike sale profit -- it's pretty much pure profit. No unit cost on labor beyond overhead.

There are some who can buy a BD bike, assemble and tune it correctly, but that's not the majority who do, and we are happy to take care of the rest at much better profit than if they bought a bike in our shop.

BD pricing is closer to what shops pay for their bikes from the bigger companies. Even if you are a total klutz and bring a boxed BD bike to a shop for initial assembly and tuning, you're still paying much less than a shop bike. Do it yourself, or learn how, and they are a bargain.