Hiya BFers. Just wondering if anyone else bought their bike from a shop that was not so "local." I live in Trenton New Jersey, and when I was shopping for my bike I browsed all 3 of the shops here in town (or thereabouts). While 2 of the shops were quite nice and offered a good selection, the 3rd was a Giant/Cannondale shop and the staff just rubbed me the wrong way....elitist I guess you could say. So I went down to Philadelphia to another shop I had been browsing and asked a few questions about LeMond bikes (Trek/LeMond shop). The guys there were very patient with me and answered every one of my questions without any pressure to buy.

When the day came to actually purchase the bike I had no problem going back down to Philly to pick my new bike. The fact that they are 30 miles away does not bother me at all. In fact it gives me an excuse to go down there to ride the Schuylkill River trail from time to time. Those guys are still really good to me and it is nice to feel like a valued customer. I even go down there to pick up all of my other cycling stuff when I can.

Cheers,

Brian

Glad you found a good shop. Treat 'em right, and they'll do the same.

my lbs isn't so local either... it's an hour away (or just over if traffic getting into town is bad)... the closest shop (20ish minutes.. SUX and doesn't carry any of the "big name" brands well.. doesn't carry much of anything )

the shop we go to has nice employees... a nice owner.... all are personable AND knowledgable... they all ride.....! makes it worth the drive..... (when we were in there friday evening.. the owner's wife was getting set up on a brand new carbon fiber mountain bike! i was jealous! lol! we hung out talking for an hour after the store closed and spent way too much money on stuff we didn't need.. but wanted! lol!)

Since I like to direct people to good places here in Philly, I'm curious which shop you went to. Can you say?

I drove about 150 miles to buy my road bike. Met the shop owner on a web forum, and he's ALWAYS been good to me.

Every time I drive out there, he rolls out the red carpet as well.

It's still close to a 3 hour drive, but I think it's worth it.

Bike Line at 1028 Arch Street. I used to see a girl in Philly and when she was at work I would hang out there and talk to the guys before I met her for lunch or dinner. They do not have the greatest selection (Trek, LeMond, a few Surlys....nice ones too, and a few Kleins) as far as roadies go.

They are all a bunch of really good guys and I will continue to do my business with them.

Cheers,

Brian

PS: Thanks again for your info on ACCC, it was much appreciated.

Having done the retail sales route myself I always try to remain loyal to the shops that treat me well. I plan on moving to Canada this year but since I have friends here I will keep coming back to buy my stuff from these guys.

Cheers,

Brian

I have a lot of good shops around my neighborhood. I just end up patronizing the one with the nicest people.

my lbs is 3 hours away...the "lbs" here is just a garage with barely anything in stock, just some spare parts and things for fixing bikes. its more of a shop than a store. a shop in a garage. its homely, but it does the trick.

steve

The one LBS near me, a "common man's" LBS, closed. Now, I have the choice of driving into OK City (I'm on the outskirts of the suburbs) with the nearest one about 18 miles away with mediocre service/selection or driving 30 miles the other direction to Shawnee with great service and an awesome selection of all sorts of goodies (especially loads and loads of used and NOS components). It seems that in my part of town, neither coffee shops nor bike shops do well (there have been about 6 attempts in the last 10 years on bike shops, I can't count the number of coffee shops that went belly up). I'm kind of wondering if something a bit more non-traditional may succeed here--except that it's hard to get on many distributors' networks without the traditional storefront.

Similar for me. I used to live in MEsa Az. Found a great LBS a few miles away. Now I live in Tucson Az (about a 2 hour drive) and I still go to the same LBS in Mesa for all my major cycling needs.

I'm lucky. My LBS is all of 3/4 of a mile away from my house. It is staffed with 2 wonderfull bicycle mechanics. Sells trek and lemond. The accessories are high priced with a limited selection. However, I could care less. I use these guys to help me fix my bike when I do not have enough time. Plus, they are a blast to chat with.
I purchase accessories from various other stores throughout the denver metro area.