Originally Posted by calimtb

There are insufficient facepalms to characterize how badly your posts fail.

Originally Posted by john4789

This thread reminds me of this story:

I brought our tandem bike in once to get a headset replaced. Normally I do all my own maintenance but this one seemed to tricky. Turning my own wrench I know this bike needs a good deal of work. When picking it up I remarked "thanks, I know this bike has a few things wrong with it". Mechanic replied "Actually, I'd say it doesn't have much right with it". Meh.

I put LBS, record shop, or craft beer stores in the same category. People who are really in to their hobby, so much so that they do it for a living, and get a little snobby as a result. So be it.

Originally Posted by calimtb

I wonder if someone could create a bike cafe: make all their money selling coffee at $4 a pop all day long, and then have some fun selling a few bikes here and there.

Originally Posted by calimtb

I had an odd exchange with a bike mechanic this weekend.

I was going to do a handlebar adjustment, and did a quick check of the stem. I noticed it was a touch off center.

Watched a few youtube videos, and it seemed straightforward enough of a job to take care of my own. Now, my rate of success with bike repair and adjustment is pretty good. I'm not bad at truing wheels and derailleurs and other basic stuff.

The stem adjustment seemed very basic. However, I have found a local mechanic who I think does some really high quality work. I figured I'd pay him $5 or $10 for a quick adjustment. Win-win.

I called the shop and asked him how much to get the stem centered. He said it was easy, wouldn't take long at all, and wouldn't cost anything. He said just bring it in, he'll take care of it. I thought that was awesome of him.

He's a square guy, I thought. I had come in before for a front and rear derailleur adjustment and he did excellent work. He actually discouraged me from getting the rear derailleur adjusted. He said it worked well enough. I paid him to adjust both though, since I knew he could improve on the work I had done on the rear derailleur.

My intuition was correct and his work was excellent. So, I roll in, tell him I had called earlier in the day about a stem adjustment. He seemed intent on dishing a wheel when I arrived.

He looks up and just glares at me. Without saying a word, he reached for my bike and gets to work. He loosens a couple of bolts, eyeballs the stem, nudges it to the side a bit, and re-tightens the bolts.

"Ten dollars." He stares me in the eye with a fair bit of menace. I didn't protest. I just paid the $10, thanked him and left. I checked the work very quickly (once I was outside) and noticed the stem still wasn't centered! Before, it was off right, and now, it was off left.

I just kind of had a chuckle, and rode off. I'll do the work on my own later, but I'm still curious as to why this mechanic was so angry.

I've paid for repairs before (paying for more work than recommended) here, and was willing to pay again if he had let me know ahead of time.

He's an excellent mechanic, but for whatever reason, seems very thin skinned and slightly volatile.

I was hoping to use him as my regular mechanic in the event (probably on more than one occasion) where my own work was less than stellar. Obviously, I can't do that now, but it's too bad that he seems so impatient.

What's going on with this mechanic?

Also, one thing that was a bit off: the shop is supposed to have a 10% discount for members of a local cycling club. I called about the discount over the phone with regard to the derailleur adjustments. He said, yes, they offer the discount when we talked on the phone.

However, once I was in the shop, he refused to honor the discount. He charged me the regular shop rate. Now, his work is outstanding, so it's well worth the regular rate, but it bothered me that he has baited and switched me twice now on shop rates.

I know shops don't make a ton of money, but I think a shop should honor it's word.

Originally Posted by calimtb

I wonder if someone could create a bike cafe: make all their money selling coffee at $4 a pop all day long, and then have some fun selling a few bikes here and there.

Originally Posted by calimtb

In addition to the snobbiness, there's a bit of economic pressure on shops. They have to become high volume repair shops to make any money.

So, a bit of elitism/snobbiness is compounded by everyday financial worries.

I wonder if someone could create a bike cafe: make all their money selling coffee at $4 a pop all day long, and then have some fun selling a few bikes here and there.

Originally Posted by Miele Man

Sometimes a mechanic will simply get frustrated that a bicyclist can't make an extremely simple adjustment. Unless the bicyclist doesn't have the tool to do that simple adjustment with.

Originally Posted by calimtb

I had an odd exchange with a bike mechanic this weekend.

I was going to do a handlebar adjustment, and did a quick check of the stem. I noticed it was a touch off center.

Watched a few youtube videos, and it seemed straightforward enough of a job to take care of my own. Now, my rate of success with bike repair and adjustment is pretty good. I'm not bad at truing wheels and derailleurs and other basic stuff.

The stem adjustment seemed very basic. However, I have found a local mechanic who I think does some really high quality work. I figured I'd pay him $5 or $10 for a quick adjustment. Win-win.

I called the shop and asked him how much to get the stem centered. He said it was easy, wouldn't take long at all, and wouldn't cost anything. He said just bring it in, he'll take care of it. I thought that was awesome of him.

He's a square guy, I thought. I had come in before for a front and rear derailleur adjustment and he did excellent work. He actually discouraged me from getting the rear derailleur adjusted. He said it worked well enough. I paid him to adjust both though, since I knew he could improve on the work I had done on the rear derailleur.

My intuition was correct and his work was excellent. So, I roll in, tell him I had called earlier in the day about a stem adjustment. He seemed intent on dishing a wheel when I arrived.

He looks up and just glares at me. Without saying a word, he reached for my bike and gets to work. He loosens a couple of bolts, eyeballs the stem, nudges it to the side a bit, and re-tightens the bolts.

"Ten dollars." He stares me in the eye with a fair bit of menace. I didn't protest. I just paid the $10, thanked him and left. I checked the work very quickly (once I was outside) and noticed the stem still wasn't centered! Before, it was off right, and now, it was off left.

I just kind of had a chuckle, and rode off. I'll do the work on my own later, but I'm still curious as to why this mechanic was so angry.

I've paid for repairs before (paying for more work than recommended) here, and was willing to pay again if he had let me know ahead of time.

He's an excellent mechanic, but for whatever reason, seems very thin skinned and slightly volatile.

I was hoping to use him as my regular mechanic in the event (probably on more than one occasion) where my own work was less than stellar. Obviously, I can't do that now, but it's too bad that he seems so impatient.

What's going on with this mechanic?

Also, one thing that was a bit off: the shop is supposed to have a 10% discount for members of a local cycling club. I called about the discount over the phone with regard to the derailleur adjustments. He said, yes, they offer the discount when we talked on the phone.

However, once I was in the shop, he refused to honor the discount. He charged me the regular shop rate. Now, his work is outstanding, so it's well worth the regular rate, but it bothered me that he has baited and switched me twice now on shop rates.

I know shops don't make a ton of money, but I think a shop should honor it's word.