Originally Posted by
whatsmyname
Plus also the fact that LBSs usually seem to want to upsell desperately by telling people they have to have suspension, full suspension, this, that and the other, when it's obvious that 90% of riders would be more than fine with a simple rigid bike with a hub gear. OK, 20% of the people might fall for that, but 80% will just be scared off by the high price. (I'm making those numbers up, and that might be the important bit).
You know what's funny? I work in a shop and I constantly try to 'down sell'. Every single person, I ask what type of riding they think they will be doing. A large number of people will say "cruising the bike paths, riding to work, maybe the occasional rail trail", so I point them towards our
Devinici Hybrids. 4 out of 5 them still end up buying mountain bikes with suspension despite my best efforts to convince them otherwise. We even just got an
Electra Amsterdam in and 95% of people kind of laugh when I show it to them. Most customers have the exact same reaction to the Electra cruisers as to the Amsterdam.
