complain to the shop.

we will never get better bike shops without spelling out to them why this stuff is just not on.

In my experience, chain stores are staffed by people (usually younger lads) looking for 'a job, preferably in the bike industry'. That attitude doesn't work in a bike shop. You have to care, otherwise you'll be bad at it, and hate it, and won't last. Bike shop work is a terrible 'McJob'.

But, in an independant LBS (like mine) the staff's prospects are so closely related to the success of the shop, that they (usually) show a bit more gumption. They have a sense of 'ownership' and loyalty to the shop/firm they're working for, and this translates into a much better customer experience. You're not just part of a big machine; you are the shop.

JE James is hardly a chain store. Sadly I have had too many bad experiences from them, generally from one rather surly member of staff whose face I can see right now but whose name I don't know. Some of them are great though, and it's conveniently on my way home from work so it will still get my custom. I just don't go there if I need to talk to someone 😆

not in this case. when i walked in there were 3 staff at the till. all 30 yrs plus. all looked at each other as if to say 'who's gonna serve this guy' then the oldest of the three 40 ish? was the one who fed me the BS line.

lad in road section was early twenties.

Well, there's no accounting for d*ckheads.

quite. its a shame though innit?

if their store backed up the stock levels/pricing of their website then that would be a bonus too.

There is a new alternative, the bike tree on abbeydale road.
They seem friendly enough and their large light shop is filling up with nice kit.

A lad who currently works for me, used to work for *insert name of nationwide chain of bike stores*. He still feels bitter about the separation of in-store and online, and how the staff weren't informed of online offers, and couldn't match online prices. This left him looking foolish in front of informed customers sereveral times, through no fault of his own. It's just that the online store was entirely independant in terms of stock, offers, and pricing.

bike tree is a LONG way from me matey.

Complete opposite excperience at my local LBS last week. Went in to buy on of those little plastic to tools to service the bearings in your spd pedals. The chap said he didn't have any to sell, but grabbed one from the workshop and said bring it back when you're done. And gave me instructions on the best way to do the job. Awesome service, and why I'm less and less inclined to buy everything online these days. Agreed big fail be the OP's LBS!

Massive?????? Rant!!!!!!

That was NOT a massive rant

the bike tree is a lot closer than 18bikes which was my prefered LBS from walkley! I suppose it depends which branch you are 'ranting' about.

ha ha well thats fair enough. i assume that living in a city means the L of LBS should put the shop within the city limits at least!

and its not like i could ride my road bike!

Reminds me of when I had to do a tour of every bike shop in Bristol to find a HTII cup installation tool. Most places the Saturday lad just stood there looking at me like I'd just asked for some poison gas to gas jews with.

That was after a mate said he'd lend me one and gave me a set of completely different tools to those I'd asked for, which I already had anyway.

the (pre installed) bb was ultimately so tight that my cheapo stamped crc bb tool bent in half and jumped off! luckily a pal helped me out.

why are bike builds always so epic?

Heh, building my planet X uncle john in commuter guise took me 3 months. At the outset it was a case of swap kit over from bike A to bike B. In fact it was a case of nothing fits, bodge, replace or bend everything to fit.

Ace now mind and I managed to make a v neat job of bending my mudguards round the BB7's. Just have to figure out how to get the rack round the back one now.

thats pretty much it. just a simple frame swap has taken about 7 days and £100 + in bits. boob.

need to book 3 weeks in advance for my bike to get suspension bearings changed (and I am supplying the bearings…)

Think for a minute… why would you providing your own parts mean a shop would be more keen to work on your bike? When you book your car in for a service do you say you'll be bringing in the parts for them to fit?

I assume PP was talking about this tool:

I've not seen the other one, but agree the BBT9 is a bad idea as it encourages over tightening.

The end cap in my Dura Ace cranks is seized solid, has anyone actually got any decent methods for removal!?

njee20 – Labour isn't cheap you know.

njee

Fair point – but they were saying that time before I even mentioned I had the bearings. And it was the exactly same delay at the end of last year to get my forks/rear shock sent off to spesh to be serviced. And this is from a privately owned LBS which gives a STW discount. Not exactly a big job.

Then there was the LBS in another direction who lost my rear shock from another bike when it was sent off as a warrantee fault, said it was in the post, and after 3 months found me another and gave me the wrong fitting kit.

Some shops do seem to care – but are organisationally crap. Some others seem not to care at all. Wish I lived near a decent one.

Big coincidence, my mate had to take his Trek back to JE James as the preload screw was way too tight on his XT cranks. When we eventually got it undone, and removed the BB, it became clear that the BB had been cross threaded on insertion too!
I begrudge going in there for stuff, but its my nearest shop and is useful for consumables. Most unhelpful staff around in my experience.