Old 05-11-19, 11:52 AM
  #50  
lasauge 
Pedalin' Erry Day
 
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Location: Newbury Park, CA
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I'm going play devil's advocate here - yes, the many posts in this thread pointing out how silly it is that some cyclists look down on nice older bikes just because they're old are correct, and I agree that classic bikes are awesome, and indeed I do the vast majority of my riding on 'old' bikes.

HOWEVER, not all bikes are equally worthy of fixing. If I'm working in a shop and someone brings in a Walmart "full suspension" bike, or a rusted out Huffy, that bike is still going to be a mediocre ride after the tune-up. I really don't want to deal with a customer who's going to be unhappy with the service we provided after attempting to fix up something that the manufacturer intended to be discarded instead of repaired, and I'm absolutely not going to take the liability of touching something that I don't think will be safe to ride in any case. Plus, it just makes more business sense to steer a customer towards a different bike in some cases, not only because it generates more immediate income, but because shops want people to fall in love with cycling and if you don't enjoy the bike you just got tuned up then odds are that bike will just be hung up in the garage after two rides and the customer may give up on cycling altogether.

Then there are the bikes that fall into grey areas: old bikes where the shop is unsure they can find out-of-production parts, the risk of causing damage to someone's beloved old machine that cannot be replaced, and uncertainty of how many labor hours will need to be expended on a bike that might have been neglected for decades. For instance, when you wrench on old bikes at home as a hobby, it's not a big deal if you need to let a stuck seatpost soak in penetrating oil for hours or days - but a shop doesn't have that luxury and it's not a good business decision to take in repair projects that might last for weeks and prevent you from taking in other bikes that can be repaired and returned to their riders in a timely fashion. Sure, there are snobby bike shop mechanics - but there are also non-snobby mechanics who like old bikes but know that practically you have to selective about the projects you take on at any given time. I'm most definitely not a snob, but I've been in that position where I've had to discourage or refuse people from bringing in low-end bikes for service - not because I didn't think those bikes were beyond repair or not worthy of repair, but because my role in the context of a retail bike shop meant I wouldn't be looking out for the shop's interest if I took those projects on.
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