Why the LBS rules.
 

DP18 w/formula hub, 6 miles on it $45.


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Why can't I find deals like that? A bike shop I went to tried to sell me $17 MKS toe clips for $80! He said they're dropping the price from $100!

Dude, $80 is a crazy deal!@#!@

It was funny because I had those same clips and said, "I have those same clips on right now and the cost me $17 at a different bike shop." He said, "They must have been messed up the price then." My buddy and I looked up those clips on ebay and sure enough they were $17.

Hipster tax.

I'm lucky to have some cool LBS's.

It's either that or good old fashioned incompetence.

the bike shop selling standard MKS toe clips for a hundred (reduced to eighty!) is one of the reasons why the general population does not bike. there is a mentality that bicycles and parts are expensive and that its somehow cheaper just to own an automobile. so frick that bike shop for being the purveyors of elitism.

meanwhile, most of the bike shops here locally (in honolulu) suck as well. catered to the weekend warriors with deep pockets, most bike shops overcharge. there is one shop here -mccully bike- that remains a pillar of local bike shop excellence with fair prices and good service. I wish all local bike shops would be cycling enthusiasts watering holes but such is not the case. sadly.

Good deal. That's right up there with my $75 Aerospoke! :D

LBS have either been super awesome to me or ****ing lame jerks.

this one by my house i have been into about 6 times for small parts and tools, headset installation, and its always like pulling teeth to get help, and they charge what seems like as much as they can for little items. there is LBS that want to be super cool with everyone and be helpful because they love bikes and riders, and then there are the snobbish 2 grand road bike LBS that dont give a **** about you unless you are buying a top dollar road or mountain bikes.

unfortunately, the 2 by me are owned by the same people and are of the later variety.

i dunno, it really does seem like i only encounter one or the other and nothing in between.

there is a reason people buy online, they don't have to deal with pricks that think you owe them something.

That's correct

They pretty much wrench on my bikes for free now :D

i pretty much wrench on my bikes for free.

actually dealing with LBS jerks has forced me into buying many tools for myself and learning how to wrench bikes on my own. in a way, its a blessing. thanks LBS jerks!

I do too, but sometimes I just need that expert touch

the only time i ever need the expert touch is when i don't have the expert tool.

there's nothing they can do that i can't. they might be able to do something better, but that doesn't mean that they will. i figure no one cares as much about my bike as i do.

yeah, I'd like a trueing stand though(better than my fork and brake) and a couple other tools. A few times I messed up my wheels and I trued them as best I could then had the guy really complete it.

My local shop is cool, and they always hook me up with some sweet deals...but then again I might be a little opinionated because I work there. Basically, if you come off as a ****sucker, we're gonna try to dick you out of every penny you have, but if your a chill guy we are more than willing to bend over backwards for you.

Scrod, how the eff do you get an aerospoke for $75? Mine just cost me $250 and that was used.

-Connor

This...

I sometime walk couple of blocks over to the bike co-op to use their truing stand, I love that place, such a friendly people. Hot as hell in the summer though...

Haha...a regular customer came into the shop where I'm a tech and literally said "Hey Scrod, I'll give you this thing for 100 bucks and a tune up". I talked him down to $75. It's a barely used (as in ridden on three times) black front.
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I volunteer at one, it's really great. But I can't always be there to do my own work :-/

LBS is great for take-offs, tires and tubes, and the pro-tool jobs, like fork threading.

Paying full retail on most QBP catalog parts? Ehhhhh....not so much.

coops are the best.

Thats another thing, I love my local co-op and I try to volunteer there atleast a couple times a year, but nobody at my shop has ever done anything like that and they all hate the local co-op. I can see how some people get the idea that the people who work at bike shops are dicks.

I'm also nice to all the little bmx kids, 1) because i've been in their shoes and I know that shops are always dicks to bmx riders, and 2) they are the future, one day their gonna need big boy bikes and I'm gonna be the guy they come to