On my quest to educate myself and get fitted to find out what size bike I need etc... I went to a LBS. It's the first time I've entered a real bike shop in many years (on the order of 15+ yrs last time I was there it was for my skateboarding years). Anyway I had to meet up with some friends tonight and figure well theres a proper bike shop on the way I'll stop in. Sorry if this is long I just want to see if all shops are like this.

So I go up to the counter was greeted kindly. Tell the guy how I've been riding a walmart mtb special for a while and that I've never been fit for a bike and I have no idea what size I need. I also mentioned I've never actually taken the mtb off road and I'm interested in a road bike. So he's being honest with me tells me he's running late and should of left work already but he'll give me a quick tour of the place and see what might be suitable for me.

First off he tells me I don't care if you buy a bike from me or not I can turn over the inventory without your sale. But I'd like to educate you. I feel at this point like he's saying hey I've got the upper hand my price is what it is and oh to make you feel good about giving me your money I'll spend some time with you.

Starts of by telling me that if I spend about 2hrs with them on a set-up they use for fitting that it'll cost $200 to do a though fitting. Explains that everyone at the BS has been trained to fit cyclists. If I were to buy a bike $1000-1499 I'd get some of that back. If the bike cost $1500-3000 the fitting would be free. He also mentions that we've fit so many bikes that when we get you one something and we say it fits it fits.

So we get onto my budget. I say at the moment I don't have much but $600-800 might suit me. I also mentioned that I'm not prepared to buy today. At this point I feel he's already trying to sell me something. He asks you're about 5'6", pretty impressed he nailed my height. He says you'll need a 50-52cm. So he shows me 2 Raleigh's and says that one goes for $525, the other $600ish. I asked him about components as I couldn't tell what shimano setup was on them . I mentioned that I would like to find something with at least a Sora set-up yet he tells me that he doesn't have anything with that setup. I tell him I'm a little hesitant to go with anything less than Sora because of my experience with my current mtb. So he goes on a slight tangent showing me a Trek and says this one is $829, I ask "is this a 1.2" and he says, "I don't know" looks back at the tag and says. "why yes it is". I'm thinking why is it I know this and I've never bought a bike before. Then shows me another bike about a simliar price although he says the Trek has better rims than this one but this one has a better components. Then he shows me a Felt Z series with shimano 105's and give me a price $1200 or so. He seems to be trying to up-sell me something already. I ask, "well would it be a good idea to look for a better frame to start with and upgrade components in the future" I mention that I've seen a lot of people like the caad9, I mention how the cadd9-6 has slightly different components than the caad9-5 but the same frame to get my point across. he says. " I don't know what that is we don't sell them" .he didn't like that idea. what he says after this basically comes across as I think you should buy a bike with a ok frame and ok components and then you'll really know what you want and then instead of this 18lb bike you'll want something better liek this carbon fiber 16lber. So rather then upgrade components just buy a new bike.

At this point I'm running behind schedule and I need to head off. He tells me that he's the owner of the shop and to come back anytime to take something for a ride.

Anyway is this typical of most LBS I kinda didn't feel comfortable with the thought of buying a bike at this place I visited.