Hey!
So Today I was hired at my favorite LBS.. I haven't technically started yet, but I will soon. As you can imagine this is very exciting, so I was looking for some suggestions and comments from the infamous BFSSFG.

The store recently changed owners, and the new guys are both fixie fanatics (one was a messenger for a while), as am I, obviously. They're looking to make the store into the premier fixie shop in town, an honor no LBS hold as of yet. I've got a very close friend working there currently who helped me get hired.. I'll be working part time in sales, and maybe some repairs, and of course I get employee purchases and wholesale pricing.. sweet.

So what do you guys think? Any suggestions on how to conduct myself? And reading material I should get to learn about the market? Any fixie products that are a must to carry?

Discuss among yourselves.. and me

Congrats, but be prepared to just sign your paychecks right back to them. That discount gets addicting...

don't get frustrated when people expect their $100 dollar wal-mart or 1980's huffy/no-name bike to do everything and anything. most people don't want nice bikes, they just want to get from A to B, and for under 20 dollars. get cool with that.

be comfortable with what you don't know, and ask questions. i had no idea how much i didn't know going into being a mechanic. most of the world doesn't ride fixies, and you'll need to learn as much as you can about that "other" stuff. i think doing service writing (checking in bikes to be repaired) is one of the hardest things to do. always take your time.

Get ready to have all your friends begging for discounts...

El twe! I still need some tricomps

Learn everything you can about bikes other than fixed conversions so you aren't the first one to get cut in the off season. If you really want to become valuable, start nerding out about recumbents, tandems, indexed shifting, friction shifting, recreational mountain bikes, hybrids, shock oil, different full suspension pivot systems, ad nauseum. You need to know pretty much everything that makes this more like a job and less like a hobby.

as a bike shop employee, you have (and will no doubt gain more) lots of knowledge about highly detailed stuff on the market. most of your customers don't need that and they don't want you to tell them all that - what they want is for you to translate all the stuff they know into what they need to hear. a lot of times, i found, that looks like finding the right bike to suit their needs - combining honesty, knowledge, and figuring out where they're at. not what you'd do if you were in their shoes.

people can get frustrating, but it's not that big of a deal.

figure out how you'd like your LBS to treat you, and do that for as many customers as you can - particularly the rad ones.

come through with what you say you can do for people.

have fun.

I think you are gonna work your ass off once summer comes. You will have a blast, and if it is anything like the bike shop I work at, copious amount of alcohol will be consumed. Enjoy.

If somebody shows you a 1/8 campy fix gear cog, please do not answer with this question ...."this is comming from what type of cassette, 9 or 10?" Because if you do, better go and ask the store manager to fire you and don't let you in that store ever! hehehehe.... Just teasing ok? but i have done that 3 times already here in the area... and yes somebody asking for stuff more than shimano (CAMPY) probably knows better than you about the subject... as somebody said... if you dont know, dont come with cheap answers because you can get big troubles. Sometimes is better to tell I dont know or let me find out than a quick answer...

Many people wants junk as bikes because they dont know any better so tell them yes and yes and more yes and u'll do fine... many of the guys in this forums we barely go to a LBS because LBS dont have the stuff we are looking for... u have a good chance to meet cute chicks dude... hehehe thats the ultimate reason because you should be proud of working in a lbs hehehe...

UM

i worked at my lbs for the entire summer, i learned so much. i was lucky enough to have a co worker with all of the knowledge in the world about bikes. he use to race mtb. my boss was cool so i got everything at wholesale and just had to pay shipping charges. maybe youll be that lucky. just dont let putting 250000 trek 4500's together turn you off to it all. oh, and the factories dont true wheels for anything! that gets annoying.

+ monster

I'll never ever be able to justify paying retail for anything ever again
and that is why I am buying massive amounts of bike components now instead of later

Hi, i work at a bike shop. I see you are going to be on the sales floor. Well be prepared to know all the mundane ,what is easy to "us" answers to bicycling. The bike buying customers (for the most part)are really pretty much noobs to cycling compared to the real enthusiest. I don't know an exact ratio. I guess it depends in your local area also. I'm in the burbs. I do know you should study up on the manufacturers gear that you are selling. The more you know about whats in stock and how the purchasing/sales system works, will keep you going good. When you get to the repairs,as stated before, be ready for the really cheapo gearing systems out there that you will spend too much time effing with. If your shop does make it as fixie central, koodos!
P.S.- hot chics = sweet MILF in my area!

Dont assume you know more than the customer just cause you work at a bike shop. Half of the people ive come into contact with in bike shops over the years seem to think theyre a ****ing expert on everything. Pretty annoying when you realize they know jack all.
Be openminded basically

Yo, all you bike mechanics- there's a private forum for bike mechanics and/or people who work at a shop- you do have to contact a mod to get in.

https://bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=206

yes yes i had a lbs worker tell me that two frames of obviously differing geometry and material were "basically the same"

i had to tell him steel cross =/ alu track

Congrats, you're now livin the dream. Best advice I can give, is treat every customer like they have one hundred percent of your attention and try and deal with all of their concerns and questions in a way that non-bike obsessive types would understand.

slowest.forum.ever.

I wish more people who qualify knew about this forum so there could be some real talk amongst more than five people..

Don't act like an elitest, thats my LBS's problem. But all he does is sell 4300's to college kids. I sent my gf in for a part that I had told her exactly what it was and the name and she told him and he asked her why and was an ass to her and made her feel like shiznet.

DON"T BE AN ASS HOLE
bike shop guys have an incredible tendency to be elitists and it makes me never want to go back

Hey, thanks for the suggestions, all of you!

Being young and new, I doubt I'll be an elitist, but it is good to remember that most people don't want to hear all the arguments for and against such and such technology, simply whether or not it would work.

As for dealing with department store bikes, my store doesn't even repair them, much less sell them.. so if people complain about the prices, I think I'll know how to handle it.

i recommend getting a bunch of external lock nuts for track hubs (the black brittle things on formula hubs that press against the inside of the dropout and snap when you look at them funny).

i've had to scour dc for these things several times, sure would be nice if my lbs had em!

Your shop refuses to repair department store bikes? Thats lame and a terrible business decision. The money in bike shops is in service. If you're too important to work on cheap bikes you're not going to make much money. Which means layoffs.

I'm not quite sure where the OP lives, but a shop dedicated to mostly fixed gears really won't/can't survive unless you are in a large city with a lot of fixed gear riders. (boston, nyc, chicago, sf, etc.) And even then, most bike shops still sell hybrids and the like.

This was their policy for a while, and I think it still is, now with the new managers. I think it was implemented so that the shop could stand by all their work.. you just never know with cheap bikes, plus identical parts would be tough and meaningless to find and stock. I like the policy because it keeps the 'purist' status of the store, which probably loses business, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. And maybe you misunderstood, we have a sign that says "We do not perform repairs on these brands: Magna, Pacific, Huffy, etc.." Really ****ty bikes.

BostonFixed- you're right, an exclusive fixie shop would probably fail unless it's in SF or maybe NY, but that's not what I meant. As of now, very few shops around town (Ann Arbor, MI) even carry parts for fixies, and their staff has little experience. So we're hoping to have a good stock of fixies and parts, in addition to all the other stuff we carry: mtbs, roads, hybrids, cross, fitness equipment. Plus our manager is a great framebuilder (he does everything, including Ti, but not CF), and we have arguably the best wheelbuilder/mechanic in town. He got certified.. somewhere.

Can you get us some good deals on bike stuff?

it was said above, but please please please don't talk down to people.

i refuse to step foot in one of the stores here because a guy wouldn't help me with tire levers.

tire levers! i asked if he had any. he pointed to the cheapo pyramid ones. i told him that those snap too easily on tight-fitting tires that i had and did they have any other brands.

instead of answering my question, he proceeds to tell me that i didn't really need levers, i should just push harder.

while he was in mid-sentence i looked him in the eye, said "thanks" and never went back. it wasn't the first time i got an unnecessary "how-to" instead of an answer.


it may take more time to feel out the customer's depth of knowledge but it's really worth it.