Originally Posted by
jade408
The most important lesson I learned along the way is that the average shop doesn't actually have all the options, or all of the knowledge of all the bike style niches out there. And if what is in the shop doesn't appeal to you, there is no way to know there are more options out there.
(emphasis added.) When I read stuff like this I chuckle.
Back before all you kids were born .... There Was No Internet. Back then, "exploring options" was really hard to do. One would have to visit the local library and do research ... and if the library system wasn't that large or comprehensive, or if the particular activity wasn't of the sort that got books or magazine articles written about it ...
Nowadays anyone with the gumption to type "Google" has almost the entire globe at his or her fingertips. Blaming some poor store clerk for not knowing what you want him to know ....
As a kid, like kids do, I rode whatever, until I graduated to the ubiquitous 42-lb Schwinn. Those things never broke, so I never had to do maintenance. When I started commuting, using whatever bikes I could find in the trash or on the roadside or at yard sales ... I had to actually go to the library and read books on bike repair ... and also books about bike touring ... there were no books about mountain biking yet, but there were magazines about cycling .... I never saw the inside of a bike store except to buy tires and tubes---just about everything else was scavenged from another junk bike.
If I had let bike shops limit me ... I would have stayed walking and taking the lame buses which never seemed to go where or when I needed them.
Nowadays ... i bet if typed "Dynamo lights" I would get three pages of entries, including reviews of products and testimonials/blog entries from people who used, tested, rejected, and repaired, dynamo hubs and lighting systems.
Sure, go to a bike store which is trying to serve a more general public and they will not know all the ins and outs of a very specific niche of cycling equipment. If I go to the hairdressers and ask about dental care, they won't know either.
There simply aren't enough cyclists who need a wide variety of dynamo lighting systems, for it to be profitable for a store to stock them, or to train employees about products it is not profitable to stock. Don't blame the shop---they are in business to sell stuff, not to be repositories of specialized information.