Originally Posted by
NitroExpress
Your LBS will always want you to buy a bike from them.
This is the 2nd biggest myth in the bicycle industry. ("Frame flex wastes energy" is #1.)
Bike shops make nothing on bike sales. In fact, it's not uncommon for MSRP on new bikes to be $1 less than wholesale. Buying a bike online and paying your shop a couple of hundred bucks to build it for you will probably make you the single most profitable customer they see that day... if not all week.
Labor and accessories are where shops make money. Not bikes.
--Shannon