"support your LBS" that phrase gets thrown around so much. Maybe if they supported me, I'd reciprocate. I'm tired of bike shops. Let me preface this by saying that I know there are plenty of good shops out there and I have no problem with that but the vast majority of bike shops suck. They are too busy trying to sell bikes when they should be promoting a culture. promote the culture of cycling and the bikes will sell themselves. I spent the past 12 years living in NYC until moving to Tampa Fl in Nov 2013. I could understand why shops in NYC didn't stock inventory of parts, real estate is crazy and there is no room for them to keep it. But for the 3rd and final time here in tampa I went into a large sq footage store where not only did they not have pretty run of the mill parts and accessories, they didn't even understand basic equipment on a modern bicycle. Then they have the nerve to try to make me out to be the bad guy for telling them that I will buy it online instead of them ordering it. This just in bike shops, when you order something it sits until all the special orders you made get sent. When I buy something off ebay or an online store, it gets shipped sameday. Oh, and another thing just in. All of you LBS could maintain an inventory and sell online and make it a viable part of your business instead of yelling at people in your shops and trying to shame me into buying from you.
pretty pathetic that I couldn't buy any of the following in 3 shops in Tampa today:
1 Tapered headset for a MTB
2 Hydraulic disc brakes
3 tubeless MTB accesories
Luckily for thses shops, there are suckers born every minute. Rich dummies will continue to over pay for piece of crap bikes. some knucklehead tried to sell me a hardtail 29er with alivio components, mechanical disc brakes and a Suntour fork for $1000 today. I get it, you have to sell but come on man.
Stop trying to make consumers feel bad for not supporting you. I don't always shop on price alone, I shop on the big picture. But when your employees don't know the basic and are misleading about things, of course I'm going to buy on line.
RANT OVER
pretty pathetic that I couldn't buy any of the following in 3 shops in Tampa today:
1 Tapered headset for a MTB
2 Hydraulic disc brakes
3 tubeless MTB accesories
Luckily for thses shops, there are suckers born every minute. Rich dummies will continue to over pay for piece of crap bikes. some knucklehead tried to sell me a hardtail 29er with alivio components, mechanical disc brakes and a Suntour fork for $1000 today. I get it, you have to sell but come on man.
Stop trying to make consumers feel bad for not supporting you. I don't always shop on price alone, I shop on the big picture. But when your employees don't know the basic and are misleading about things, of course I'm going to buy on line.
RANT OVER