Originally Posted by
OuterMarker
I've got 3 bikes. Two were purchased at local shops, and one was purchased online from Canyon. I recently posted a picture of my Canyon and mentioned that I had to adjust the brakes. I got into a heated discussion with someone who claimed I got what I deserved since I bought from a company that is "destroying bike culture." Aside from the facts that my Canyon is 2 years old so well outside of any bike store warranty and that re-aligning brakes is something that someone should be capable of doing mid-ride without going to a shop, it got me thinking. How much are we supposed to support local shops?
For that Canyon, I recently spent $400 for a local shop to do a complete tear down and reassembly. I personally don't like the 2 brands that this bike shop has, so I would have never bought my bike from them. But because I purchased a Canyon, they were able to get some business from me. Since then, I have gone back to that shop to buy additional accessories.
And what about building a bike? I'm in the process of building a winter bike and lots of people in the bike community seem to think building your own bike is acceptable. Doesn't that also hurt local bike shops? Do those that hate the direct to consumer sales model of Canyon and similar manufactures also look down on people who build their own bike or buy used ones on Craigslist/eBay?
as a consumer I think Canyon is fine and anyone who gives you slack about direct to consumer models is crazy since most major bike brands now sell directly to consumers online yet at much higher margins. Yes in the end this will effect LBS but like any retail consumers are buying online and not in shops as much anymore. For the past 4 years I have only bought bikes online since on average I was getting 40% off retail and I was able to find bikes in my size which most shops never carry. I do however bring my bikes to local shops for maintenance or to install parts i simply don't have the patience or tools for.
For your instance yeah buying from Canyon you probably understood you simply would only have phone or email support and long term warranty issues become more of a problem. I will say warranties are such a fickle beast and while LBS love to work with you it really comes down to the bike rep or the manufacture them self approving whatever claim. I have had some shops do basic work like install pedals or index gears for free but in your instance I guarantee you would have been paying for that kind of service no matter what
LBS simply need to adapt. A great example of this is Piermont Bikes by my in NY. Amazing store with a huge selection of bikes, accessories, and parts at reasonable prices and they even have a pretty awesome cafe in store. However they differentiate themselves by being a multi faceted store that sells on ebay, takes in people's used bikes or parts and sell them on ebay for store credit, they sell leftover wholesale bikes ob ebay and are very transparent on the markups. I recently bought a bike that had a $3700 MSRP. The owner said yes it's a new in box bike with warranty and he would do $1900 in which he was making $200 profit, which was transparent and IMO very honest. He did say for $2200 I could buy the bike in store and it would include assembly and lifetime adjustments. I asked how much just assembly would be and he said $100, so basically for a LBS experience for minor adjustment I would be paying a $200 premium after assembly. I decided to just buy the bike and paid him $100 to assemble, ultimately I probably regret paying $100 because as soon as I got there he literally took my bike off the rack and his tech just greased and torqued parts to spec and indexed gears.Now with direct to consumer bike companies I think people are seeing that there is a bit of fluff in LBS pricing or people are now seeing they can find their desired bike in their size online new for dramatically less and they are not at the mercy of their LBS having it in stock or having to order it.