sers

that guy sounds like he was ****ing with you on purpose.

2mtr

the bastards put my bike together wrong, then scoffed at me when i said "I was just riding along," as if their bikes don't just break for no reason. Which they do. Because they're a "bike factory" and they treat their customers like cattle.

ImOnCrank

Eh, my LBS gave me a free campy chorus aero seatpost yesterday. Although when I went into the one across the street for a cheap 144BCD chainring the guy said, those haven't been made since like the 50s. You must have some old shiz.

riotboy

honestly i dont think my hub is italian. its a no name hub. so i wonder if it would even work then?

mihlbach

Yeah, I have another shop, a small shop, run by a guy who rides fixed. That place is great, but they guy is almost never open during hours I can get there. So I have to occasionally go the the big shop where the average emplopyee is much less knowledgable.

zelah

yeah i had someone at a local shop tell me that i better start making friends in France if i wanted to find track pedals/clips/leather straps

sigh

the two other LBS's closer to me are much better though. one has a lot of fixed gear riders and the other has a guy thats very helpful, every one else there seems to be a dick half the time, but the helpful guy is working almost every day

seely

I'm not sure if you were expecting housing and cables to be free, or what, but all four shops I have worked at charge exactly the same for cables and housing. $2.99 cable, $1.99/ft housing. We all use the "Inline" branded cables too. Thing is, they are about the best you can get since they are a stainless die extruded cable. Just so happens they come in bulk I guess. Honestly though, if it was a concern you should ask the price before saying you "need" something. I would just assume you wanted it to and either knew the cost or didn't care.

ken cummings

An old favorite lbs had been bought out and I went in to check out the new owners. I went to buy a couple of Powerbars and the teen girl clerking said, " Eew, those thing are Gross!" I shook my head, left the bars on the counter and walked out. I should have learned. Later I had the owner build me a new wheel. It tacoed 4 miles later, dumping me in a busy intersection. They went out of business a few month later .

queerpunk

once i walked into my lbs and they offered me a job. that's how dumb they were.

best summer job i ever had.

i really don't like all this lbs-hating. everybody's had bad experiences, myself included (at one shop, i asked for a track cog, and this guy brought out this splined cog from a casette and insisted it would "work"). but hating on lbs's starts to sound pretty condescending and pretty holier-than-thou, and i don't think it's healthy.

in the fall i walked into the lbs in my little city. it's the sort of place where people take their ****-ass kmart bikes to get a flat changed. it's also the place where kids go to check out new bmx gear, and every now and then the owner will build some crazy chromed out chopper. i figured i'd buy tubes and every now and then try to find something i need and be disappointed. well turns out that the owner is super nice, knows track stuff really well, and knows a lot of the bikers, bike shops, and shop clerks and wrenches in the surrounding towns. and has since helped me out on a number of occasions.

go fig.

cardstock

I am not trying to be a jerk, just FYI. The smallest freewheel you can get is 14 tooth and if you have a fancy BMX specific rear hub you can get drivers as low as 9 teeth. And as far as I know normal 1/8" chains work on all of them.

BLACKMARKET

What i like to do is walk into the bike shop, and as soon as i walk in they mob me with "can we help you" (im really there just to browse at the livestrong shirts, and look at my next big purchase, a 06 pista). i say to them "I am looking to buy a pista concept, do you have them?"(im just $#%&ing with them). they surround me and ask me what size do i need, come over hear will get you fitted, we can order you one today, are you looking to train?, what bike do you own now?, etc. then after awhile i just say, thanks i will think more into it and stop back soon.. just a fun way to mess with a lbs.

and every time i buy something they try to upgrade me!!! i but a lock, and he tells me "2 minutes and bolt cutter will break through that" "ive got a better one over here"

wow

Lucky-Charms

Wow is right. I think your post pretty well explains at least half the bad attitudes by shops in this thread, I know I'd be in a pissy mood if I had to put up with someone like you wasting my time and money everyday.

Rikardi151

Too bad youre not in philly. I would've charged you 2 dollars.

Sh8ker

I have no problem going to across town to shop if the LBS is no good, even to buy something like a new blinking light. I live a couple blocks from a shop that will remain nameless but will refuse to enter because I don't think I should have to deal with four employees standing around ripping on my conversion because I can't afford one of the new bikes in their window. Don't get me wrong the owners are nice folks but they need to know that people aren't going to shop where they feel uncomfortable.

Aeroplane

The "Just riding along" excuse is so old and overused Surly has it in their warranty literature. That's probably why it set off the shop's bull**** detector.

I don't know of many "bike factory"s outside of the eastern hemisphere.

celephaiz

i think he's responisble for producing alphas, no? One more reason to buy one i guess.

jim-bob

Lame. No wonder your LBS hates you.

msneeri2@hotmai

I'm lucky enough to live in a city that has a good amount of shops that all have a little bit different approaches and offerings. The only bad experience i've ever had was with the first shop i ever walked into after moving here. It was Frankenstein, and the guy was a ****ing dip****. this is well documented. And of course,i never returned. i don't **** with him, i just don't go. The lbs isn't yer enemy, they are your friend that's occasionally dysfunctional. I find that i go to different shops when i need different things. Some have high-end, some have used or hard to find. Tracking down a part is kind of fun to me, as long as i have one working bicycle while another is in the stand.

bmxdan

yeah well i guess i didnt realize that cable was so special, i usually buy my cables at empire bmx and get the odyssey slick cables, 2.99 for 60 inches of cable, housing, 3 housing end cap things and a cable end. and they come in like 5 different colors.

i figured at most the same set up would cost 7 bucks at that shop, but seriously 1.99 a foot for housing? did those bike shops you worked at sell any cables already cut for around 4 bucks?

smurfy

You would think a "shop rat" would educate themselves on something they didn't know about. The LBS I worked at sold some recumbents, for example, and they really weren't my cup of tea but I tried to do some research and find out as much as I can about them. Same with fixed gear. Back around ten years ago I put together a fixie when almost NO ONE had even heard of them.

Some customer asked me about recumbents and I didn't know alot about them but I helped him as best as I could and I would see if another employee knew any more about them than I did. He really appreciated it.

Why do people want to be ignorant if they work at a shop unless they hate it and are just going through the motions?

BLACKMARKET

you dont know what your talking about. wasting time and money?? i was there for 10 minutes! and money? how did i waste there money???!

mihlbach

I'm not an LBS hater, by any means. I can tolerate a lot of crap, but I have had it with this one shop.
This evening I had another unbelievable experience..this is the same place where I got into the f'ed up conversation about the BMX chain.

So today, I phone them asking if they have a certain Park tool...a crank wrench, Park item number CCW-5. The sales guy tells me that its in stock. Great..so I head on over there, and I talk to one of the sales types. "Hey, I just called ahead asking about a crank wrench and you are supposed to have it in stock. Its a Park crank wrench". So the guy goes to the tool display case and hands me some sort of chain whip-like thing". I try my best to be nice, "thats not a crank tool". He tries to tell me that I am wrong, but he eventually realizes that I know more about it than he does. "No,I was asking about a wrench with a 14 mm socket on one side and an 8mm hex wrench on the other, you know so I can unbolt my crank arm from the spindle" So then he hands me a crank puller..a similar tool, but not what I needed.
So eventually the 1st lbs guy goes and gets another guy..one of the older more knowledgable types who I see there almost everytime I stop buy. The older guy comes over, and I tell him about how I called ahead and was told that the part number that I wanted was in stock. Then he asks me the number, and I say, "I didn't write it down". I try to describe the tool as precisly as I can, then he suddenly starts to get short with me for not knowing the part #. He eventually informs me that I can use any 8 mm allen wrench to unbolt the crank. "Obviously" I say, "but I need the socket wrench side". Then he says, "well, we don't carry that tool", and then he basically forgets about me. No apology for making me waste a trip to the bike shop..nothing. I guess the guy buying the fancy Felt deserved more attention than me.
Time to look for a new shop.

hyperRevue

Man, I like that hex side with that nice long handle.
But, I'm confused, what is the socket side for?

mihlbach

I have an old cup and cone BB on my fixed gear conversion, and the cranks (old Shimano 105s) are held onto the spindle with a 14mm nut instead of an 8mm hex bolt. Maybe the nut is a cup and cone thing, but obviously it requires a different type of spindle. My other bikes have cartigridge BBs and have the normal 8mm hex bolt.

hyperRevue

Ah, one of those.
But I believe you do still need a crank puller.

I know, not the point.
And, yes, that LBS sounds like total bull****.