Originally Posted by cydewaze

I consider myself very fortunate to have a really great LBS that's less than one mile away from me (as the crow flies). They do good work, and stock some pretty nice brands. In fact I got Jess's bike from them.

Recently, I noticed a bit of a change in staff. The owner is usually there, as usual, but there was one guy who seemed to be the second in command, who I haven't seen in a while. He's a VERY cool guy, and always humored me when I went in to shoot the breeze or waste time drooling over stuff. I figured he was just away for the holidays or something, until last night.

Jess and I were out to dinner with a friend, and we noticed a bike shop where there hadn't been one before. Our friend (who lives closer to there than we do) said it had just opened up. So after dinner I poked my head in, lo and behold it was the second in command guy from the other LBS. He hasn't been around the other LBS because he opened up his own! It's a nice place, and so far it's full of Specialized, but he should be getting more brands in soon.

So now we have a dilemma over who to buy from. Our LBS is a lot closer (the new one is 30-40 min away) but we'd also like to help the new guy get his business going. Maybe I'll get Jess to test-ride a Ruby when we upgrade her bike.