already had the crank puller....and yes, that place is bull****, everytime I go in there.

the first time i walked into my LBS with my beater they never said a negative word about it. never tried to get me to upgrade anything. theyre a pretty small bike shop. i like them. but as far as selection goes...they suck in that department and they have to special order stuff. theyre really nice guys though and have installed stuff for free and even gave me a discount on some parts.

It sounds like they're working on commission, so by trying to help out what they thought was a serious customer with a large purchase, they probably gave up a small purchase or two. You've obviously never worked in retail. And you're why those of us who do or did, really hate customers.

To reveive a dead thread: I went into a little shop nearby that I had never been in before. Filled to the rafters with old frames. 80s road bikes, cruisers, mtbs, bmx, everything but track bikes (i looked, but they may have been burried somewhere), in the back there was a pile of frames at least 8' high. I bought a used seatpost for my beater to replace the stubby one the P.O. had put on. After paying the old guy working there started telling me how to replace the seat post. I laughed and told him that I had built the bike from a bare frame, and I could handle replacing the seatpost. He looked me up and down, laughed and continued explaining that I had to loosen the bolt to get the old seatpost out. What the hell? Dude thinks he's the only guy in long beach who knows how to fix bikes?

There's an LBS in town that WAS my LBS, but they're off the list due to superb jackassedness. Everytime I go in and get the owner, the guy tries to sell me extra crap. While I'm waiting to talk to him he tries to sell other customers crap they don't need. I mentioned this to a few people around town and to my surprise everyone knows this ****** and stays away.

I was poised to purchase a Bianchi San Jose and spend the extra cash to get it setup San Jos8 Sheldon-Brown style, but that shop is the only one in town that sells Bianchi. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

a 14t freewheel does require a special sized hub however, one unlikely to be laced to a 700c rim

Never, ever say "I was just riding along". Everybody that I ever wrenched with calls them JRA Stories (Just Riding Along). You, however innocently, include yourself with guys such as the one who bought himself a Specialized Rockhopper on Tuesday and came back to the shop first thing Saturday morning with a completely taco-ed front wheel and a bent fork blade. True Story.

He was Just Riding Along, too, and not jumping curbs and catching air in Central Park. No sirree, on his Mom's Honor, just riding along.

As for the guys with the 15 vs 16 tooth cog: go back there and tell 'em you need a chain for each cog size, 13-22. Anyone that stupidly ignorant of basic bicycle stuff deserves to be f*cked with. Tell them that cogs over 20 teeth need a 3/16" pitch chain. And that silver links are only for the fixed side of the hub, and black sideplates are for the free side. And gold sideplates can be used in months with an 'R' in them, but only during leap year. Work in steel vs alloy cogs, too. After that, you can ask them to adjust the parking brake....they might even fall for that one.

laughing at shop employees/owners when they're trying to be helpful is a good way to get ****ty service.

latecomer on this thread but another +1 to boston and cambridge bikes. every now and then i'm at boston just bc i'm bored at work. good peoples. cambridge is usually a bit more busy but the guys there are friendly if you're level headed. most of the parts for my most recent build were bought there. community is another nice one, but doesn't carry a lot of the stuff i need. the guy at back bay actually offered me a job, oh god. i'm debating whether i should take it, i wouldn't mind the exp but they are hardcore into selling up, and thats not how i roll. plus its not that great of a shop, but a good last resort if you need accessories and ****.

I wasn't laughing at him, just trying to be friendly. as it was, the ******bag sold me the wrong size seatpost, so i guess i would have gotten ****ty service either way.

no so much a complaint with the LBS, but Quality distribution , ****ers have been late on getting me a front wheel 2 out of 2 times i've ordered from them through my lbs, and i never hear that its not coming until the day the order is set to arive! ****ers

i had a double case of stupid lbs earlier today. i went down to my preferred lbs today to get a headset pressed in, and the kid who was there didn't want to do it because it was a caged bearing and because the one that was in there was a caged bearing ... apparently not as easy sealed bearing ones . i decided to suck it up and try to go to the roadie lbs by my house. i called first and made sure i could bring it in and get it done while i waited. when i showed up 10 minutes later the kid at the desk basically told me that they were too swamped to do it and that he didn't know who i talked to.

got me thinking about pressing it myself with a quick clamp or bolt, nuts & washers.

there's a place on 5th ave in brooklyn (park slope) that really chapps my ass. i think it's called r & a cycles. last time i went in there, all i needed was a quick tightning on my headset. $8 later, an overtightend headset, wtf?

I went into one of the crappier LBSs in town the other day, looking at a nice 5 speed with cruiser bars that I could convert. I asked the guy if it was for sale, he said 'Yeah, someone just traded it in yesterday'. What he didn't know was that I'd been eyeing it up for two weeks. And whenever I'm in there and some parent buys their kid a new bike he's always saying stuff like 'I've got one of those myself' or 'that's a real nice bike, last you a lifetime'. Moron.

Luckily there's one of the best bike shops within 50 miles right in town, so I pretty much stick to that one.