Yeah, for every "my LBS guy mowed my lawn on Christmas while my son was being born" story I hear just a many saying the opposite. I think it's a condition endemic to all specialty/hobby stores staffed by a small number of rabid enthusiasts (I'm thinking of Jack Black in High Fidelity here). I'm sure that running an LBS is a real nightmare, and I understand that bike shops probably get more than their fair share of crazy coming in off the streets...but I've been burned soooo many times that I'm pretty cynical about it.

And here's a story that's relevant to the foregoing discussion of bike gearing being "too complicated:"

As I was riding home from school today I passed a fellah and his son puzzling over their bikes on the side of the path. I whipped around and rode back, asking if they needed any help. The guy seemed sort of embarrassed at first, but then pointed to the crank/chainring cluster and asked, "Is the chain supposed to be on this one [pointing to the largest ring] all the time, or should it be on one of the others?" I didn't understand the question...but he hemmed and hawed, trying to ask in a different way, and I finally realized that he didn't understand that the bike could shift. It was a Hummer-brand (!!) Mtn. bike-- big ugly beast of a thing-- w/ gripshift. I gave him a short lesson on how to shift the bike, and turned to go. The guy was so grateful that I'd stopped, he kept shaking my hand and thanking me. I don't know what upset me more: that he didn't know how to operate a bike (and hadn't been taught by whoever sold it to him), or that he was surprised and relieved at how nice a fellow biker was, taking the time to help him and not ridiculing his question.

I don't know that I 'agree' with the Coasting Concept, but I don't think that we [as cyclists] should ever underestimate how confusing a bike can seem to people who don't ride, and have no friends who ride.