Grumpy Old Bike Shop Owners

[andrewk]

There is this myth that a lbs is a good thing that ought to helped to survive. My local lbs is dreadful, horrible owner, expensive prices, crappy overpriced bikes etc. This particular lbs does not deserve my custom and doesn't get it. 3 chain bike shops are also local, 2 of them are a dead loss but one has been very helpful and gives good service. I know that this is only until the enthusiastic and helpful staff move on but whilst they are there they will continue getting my custom.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
In town today, saw a bike in a sports shop window for £300, said to the missus probably be £150 on ebay, actually £155........................................
For the money saved I could just dump my bike at the local LBS and then get a new bike every two years, but probably alot of people are just buying new every year, off the internet.
My mate has several bikes like me even a triple tourer, a racer etc etc, he just bought a new £ 300 off the internet probably swayed by the price, when I asked him why he bought it he just looked at me blankly.

These are the customers to cater for the flipant ones, my thought is that If I owned a bike shop I would sell the bikes at rock bottom then bend over backwards to service and fit parts with a free colection service, everyone wants there bike repaired yesterday.
And even suck up all the bikes at the recycling tip so only newer bikes are in the loop to work on, twenty pounds not much to spend on a several hundred pound bike but a twenty five pound second hand bike, fat chance.
Sell bikes cheap and keep them happy with the repairs and parts, thats what the japanese did with motorcycles.

This is'nt what I want mind you.

[mrjemm]

Nobody would run, or even work in a bike shop without some interest, so they're clearly realising something we're not seeing. Or at least not accepting. There must be so many folk ruining it for them that all love for it disappears out the window.

[Brian73]

Rotherham has quite a few bike shops. Planet X are pretty good and replaced my recalled forks with a new set of expensive Columbus ones free of charge

JE James have been good recently and Fosters cycles are always friendly, all of these have free parking too. Even my local Halfords have been good this week, knocking a bit off a bottom bracket that wasn't in stock for a 'click and collect' which had to be ordered.

Anyhow, I'm sourcing a headset press from my club and going down the DIY route.

[Si]

Nobody would run, or even work in a bike shop without some interest, so they're clearly realising something we're not seeing. Or at least not accepting. There must be so many folk ruining it for them that all love for it disappears out the window.

Actually, although I'm sure that it's the case that the vast majority are cyclists, the chap that used to run my old LBS wasn't a cyclist, rather he was in the engineering biz and happened to buy a bike shop biz by accident. I have to say that it was very well run as he had a good understanding of both running a business and of customer care despite the fact that he didn't know one end of a SA3spd from the other. He realised what it took to get on in the biz and helped out the local racers and the local club a lot as well as running his own race/rally event. It was a very good shop, alas it became so successful that one of the big chains made him an offer that he couldn't refuse.

Compare that to the other LBS which was run by a keen cyclist and his son....he'd flog you any old tat whether it was the right thing for you or not. For instance, when I returned to cycling as an adult I went to them to buy a road bike....I'm 5ft 11 tall, they recommended me a 26 inch frame (which just happened to be the last one of the model hanging around in the shop). Thankfully that shop is long since gone.

[mjr]

You're in Suffolk, Nuke, the type of place with such businesses are Bury, Woodbridge, Needham Market and other very middle class places for a reason. Good food is expensive. Similarly independent cycle businesses will always be in middle class places. Spa, Harrogate. SJS, Taunton(?). Practical cycles ain't in Blackpool, I promise you that.

That's not true, as shown by one of those examples: SJS is actually St John St in Bridgwater, a very industrial town where the biggest surviving businesses are a supermarket depot and a nuclear power plant. It's one of two dark blue dots (10% most deprived) on the Somerset coast on the Indices of Deprivation 2010 Map. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ation-2010

Over on the east coast, King's Lynn is another blue blob on that map, yet currently has at least two lbses (Surf 55 and AMC), two small chain shops (Richardsons and Cranks), plus Halfords and various kit-only chains (Wilco, Motor-World, Argos, Wilkinsons and Sports Direct).

There may be some correlation, but I doubt it's as straightforwards as indies only being in middle-class places.

[mrjemm]

Ooops, got my Somerset towns wrong. Seemed quite posh when I visited though. I accept it's not an exclusive rule, but certainly a tendency. Kings Lynn ain't exactly a struggling spot either, is it? Unless we're talking gene pools of course...

2 large businesses don't make for a dump, do they? Hinckley Point is in a lovely area, as are other nuclear sites; Sizewell is just by Aldeburgh, Sellafield the W Cumbria coast (away from the grim bits of Barrow & beyond Whitehaven).

p.s Saw no map on link, but tis ok, get what you're saying.

[mjr]

The map is in the PDF in the first link of that page. Both Bridgwater and King's Lynn are sadly in the 10% most deprived. Struggling? Possibly but isn't everywhere? I don't think you can call either ancient port middle-class, though - especially not Bridgwater. Nuke plants aren't generally in middle-class idylls. Pretty but poor...

[mrjemm]

The map is in the PDF in the first link of that page. Both Bridgwater and King's Lynn are sadly in the 10% most deprived. Struggling? Possibly but isn't everywhere? I don't think you can call either ancient port middle-class, though - especially not Bridgwater. Nuke plants aren't generally in middle-class idylls. Pretty but poor...

Around Hinckley it aint poor, I can say that. And Aldeburgh, just near Sizewell is vay swanky, all London escapees around there.

Big difference between Bridgewater and Burnley, I'll tell you that. Sizewell too, but this is all a distraction and barely relevant; silly point-scoring, so let's get back to the topic, ey?

It's got me thinking about LBS' I know, and the folk running them. In the NW we're very lucky for them. E Anglia does better for ale though...

[Cyril Haearn]

The pithead bath is a supermarket now (Max Boyce)

My LBS is a book-shop now

[Grandad]

My LBS is a book-shop now

I think bookshops are also an endangered species

[peetee]

Where I live is a university town and the nearest LBS to the main campus has a notorious reputation for customer service. To be fair it has been a going concern for decades so clearly is doing something right. It must get more than it's fair share of budget restricted customers riding shoestring bikes which would cost a fortune to be repaired to a safe level so are just turned away. Not the sort of scenario that lends itself to positive feedback.
I run a business that puts customer satisfaction first. If I am asked to do a job I quote first and only proceed if they are happy with the price. If something additional pops up i just get on with it and don't charge more. It does happen now and again and I loose out but that's rare and the benefits to my reputation outweigh the occasional loss of profit.

[Airsporter1st]

I have voted with my feet on numerous occasions under similar circumstances as the OP describes. Many of the offending shops are long gone now.

Regardless of the policy, it doesn't hurt to acknowledge a potential customer with a smile, even if its just to say "I'll be with you in a moment".

[nez]

My LBS offered to get the TopPeak rep to look at a track pump which was only a couple of years old but stopped working. When the rep changed the bike shop owner fixed the pump himself and didn't charge me. Colchester Cycle Stores, St John's Street Colchester.

On another note my wife's Koga e-bike went wrong. The dealers spent weeks harassing Koga for parts (they kept sending the wrong ones) and put the bike back into good standing for a minimal charge. Blue door cycles, Gypsy Hill, London.

They are not all grumpy bike shop owners.

[Phil Fouracre]

Perhaps they turn into grumpy owners when they don't make any money?