rip off local cycle shop?

[fullupandslowingdown]

I was staying at a penpal's house helping them move long distance (I got a free rail ticket and B&B for my time) and I spotted a few maintenance issues on her bicycle. Fixed her gears but had to go out and buy a new inner tube (valve ripped...) The LBS I found charged me masses, about £6 I think. If time wasn't an issued I'd have wandered around further and found a cheaper place.
Thing is, what we members here call a LBS, is narrower than the gen pop's idea. Any ole crook can set up selling low quality bikes at headline catching prices, making enough dough, and selling bits at rip off prices is the icing on the cake. This type of operator (kissing cousins of the conservatory and window fly by night cowboys) sullies the general reputation of LBS. By and large, my experience of genuine LBS is they have the knowledge accumulated by years of experience possibly passed down the generations. If we completely desert the LBS, we'll be stuck with the chains like Halfords and eventually bike maintenance will become a swap out affair, with reduced choices, and all the more expensive too.

[fastpedaller]

I went into my local bike (and motor spares) shop, and I got the impression they wouldn't be a LBS in the traditional sense, unlike the other one in town which has a real enthusiast doing repairs. Anyway I went there because I also needed a car part, which I duly bought, and asked if I could scrounge an old inner tube (about 50mm diameter) to pressure test a steel tube I'd welded. They kindly gave me an 'old' tube (and I presume an earlier customer had paid for a new one). When I got home and pumped it, it had a minute hole which could have easily been patched
I did feel bad when I took the scissors to it to enable me to do my experiment

[Harpsta22]

You’ll also find Halfords website price is different (cheaper) than their in-store price.

[simonhill]

Maybe you should blame RRP (recommended retail price), which is set by the manufacturer or wholesaler.

Many small shops charge RRP as their default price.

[mercalia]

You’ll also find Halfords website price is different (cheaper) than their in-store price.

not sure thats true as you can order online then pay in store.

[Tangled Metal]

The old LBS version of postcode lottery. Where I live there's two LBS within 5 to 15 minutes walking distance. One charges a lot for parts, labour is cheap and quality of work is somewhere between not dangerous to mediocre.

The other LBS is closer and had a very good rep decades ago. Now however I have used their services twice and my partner once. My partner's bike was gearing adjust and reinstall a rack. Gears weren't right and the lower attachment bolts on the rack were loose. I can't remember what my two bits of work were but included a new cassette and chain. The gearing was very badly adjusted. Another time the gearing was right but first ride on it something happened and the gearing became out like something had slipped. Overall their work was what I'd call dangerous.

The second LBS has been owned and run by the same couple for many decades. They were in their sixties I'd say. They were a Raleigh main dealer for the area back when it was a great brand. He was one of the people given a limited edition gold bike on Raleigh's centenary. One of only 100 people. So I don't know why we got such bad work.

If I need any work on our bikes we travel 45 minute to wheelbase in Staveley where their bike mechanics are very good, honest and not expensive.

As a result of LBS experience I do not understand the high status applied to the LBS by some into cycling. They're a business that is all. Do you support all those little food stores or go to a supermarket? Most use supermarket as they're usually cheaper and occasionally pop into stu butcher's or a greengrocer if they're passing. The convenience of the supermarket is a big plus.

[TrevA]

I have a friend who owns and runs a small electrical business in our local town. They are part of the Euronics group, but they say they are being eaten alive by the big retailers whose prices they just can’t match. They stay in business by offering exceptional levels of customer service - free delivery, at a time to suit you, free installation and free disposal of old appliances.

The problem nowadays is that some people use their LBS as a showroom, seeing a product in the flesh (even trying it on, in the case of shoes and clothes), then ordering cheaper online. Mercian closed their shop because they couldn’t even buy things wholesale for the price that some internet shops are charging.

[richardfm]

You’ll also find Halfords website price is different (cheaper) than their in-store price.

not sure thats true as you can order online then pay in store.

It is often true, but if you show the person on the till the website price then they will use that, and then take your 10% Cycling UK discount off

[richardfm]

If you had been riding and it failed, that LBS being there , being open and having the cable you wanted would have been a godsend.
PS my LBS gives me a 10% discount as a Cycle UK member on all parts.

Any shop being open would have been a godsend, but in most towns that's far more likely to be a Halfords than an independent*. And Halfords also give CUK members a 10% discount, though you have to jump through hoops to get it.
I'll sometimes pay an extra £3 for something simply when it's more convenient, rejecting something in one shop to go to another is likely to take more than £3's worth of my time, though next time round I might go to the other first.

*Yes I know some of you will have examples of where that's not the case.

I hardly think printing out a voucher and showing it to the person on the till is jumping through hoops

[Eyebrox]

I work in a local bike shop. Always surprises me when people I have never met before call in to ask my views on a bike for sale on Gumtree or EBay. They come in brandishing a phone with pictures and spec details, wanting to know about the quality of parts and seeking an opinion on the price. I put in my tuppence worth and be as helpful as I can with the limited information in front of me in the hope that some day they will be a customer. Maybe they will buy a pump or book a service then eventually do a deal on a new bike. Who knows? But there are not many small independents making any more than a basic living.

[francovendee]

I think independent shops of any kind, bike shops included are having a difficult time. Like more and more people I look on-line first.
The trick for a successful business is to combine both on-line and a shop, SJS springs to mind. Wide range of parts, good advice but not the cheapest. I look there first every time.
I gave up using my nearest shop after they told me the gear changer needed to be replaced when It just needed a new cable. That was years ago and I've done all my own repairs since.
For people who don't or can't fix their own bike using a bike shop must mean riding a bike isn't a cheap hobby.

[Oldjohnw]

Dunno what I'd do without my LBS. I am mechanically ignorant.

[Tangled Metal]

Even using a bike shop for work on your bike can be a reasonably cheap hobby. It's having the right bike shop that doesn't sell you unnecessary work and over charge you for it. Then choosing what you need them to do not selecting a grade of maintenance package that's not needed.

We do the basics but we go to a bike shop 45 minute drive away for work we define as being needed and that we feel the shop mechanics would do a lot better. The more difficult or critical stuff I guess. Occasionally they identify another issue. They always call to explain and get authorisation. There's a trust been built up.

That shop is no longer a one off shop but has other stores. It's got a good rep locally. That isn't a good guide btw. The LBS near me which has given us very dodgy work on our bikes was always locally recommended. You have to suck it and see I guess with each new shop you try.

[Oldjohnw]

Agreed. Crucial is that concept of'mutual trust'. That's what makes it work.

And I long for the end of supermarkets and the return of local shops +probably plus internet. It will happen.

[Marcus Aurelius]

I do not understand the high status applied to the LBS by some into cycling.

‘Cycling’ can be excruciatingly ‘tribal’ at times. There is often a fair bit of ‘sheeple thinking / acting’ associated with it. There seems to be a ‘core’ of cliched stuff, which is taken as Gospel, and doesn’t always / ever hold up to proper scrutiny. “THE LBS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET PROPER SERVICE / PARTS / BIKES” is one of my favourites. There are several others, but the LBS, always being the best answer to everything, is one of the ones that I find doesn’t hold water particularly well.