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I've wondered for a while if there was a model for a LBS that involved a cooperative approach with LBSs ganging together with a 'mothership' warehouse and slimmed down bricks and mortar shops.
It's been tried, I forget the name of the scheme, but it was basically a buying group for bike shops. The basic problem is organising bike shops to work together is like herding cats 😉
It does work in Germany, though.
Cycling straddles utility and aspirational hobby. Lbs is caught in that weird place.
Towns with big utility cycling eg Peterboro, Cambridge, London etc seem to have little lbs hidden away that tick over equivalent backstreet garages where people want their bike back on the road, want convenience and aren't arsed about brands. That model seems equivalent to the car garage independent vs main dealer, lbs vs Halfords. whether it's rewarding or accessible to new entrants I don't know.
Otherwise the aspirational hobby end seems like the horse has bolted. customers more informed, big online retailers shagging you on price and choice and often monopolising availability. Ubiquity of couriers. Free returns. It's really hard to spend your money in the lbs when buying online is cheaper and easier. Even high end servicing is going online. Box up your forks, send em off, comes back in a few days. At the minute it's shit to be an lbs but great selfishly to be a customer. It is. To wring our hands and say I would use my lbs but... Is just lying to ourselves.
However the what next might be shit for customers too, maybe even other parts of the industry. big venture capitalists aren't getting into wiggle and chain reaction for a laugh.
My LBS' charge 2-3 times as much as online for the same parts and rarely have them in stock so I have to wait as long as for it to get here from one of the German lot. Happy to pay for fitting or even pay more if the 2-3 times as much includes fitting, however when I asked for a crankset swap, I was told they could fit me in 6 weeks as "It's holidays time and we're understaffed". I went to Decathlon who did it while I waited as "It's only a 15 minute job"
I don't know the answer for small bike shops but here in Luxembourg it feels very much like everything is expensive and the service levels are shit. I know one place that offers great service and use him as much as possible but he's a one-man operation.
Is it commonplace these days for high street LBSs to diversify into things like maintenance courses; skills courses for different age groups over different terrain; small scale cafe etc.?
Maybe another partial solution for them is to specialise in custom-spec builds, rather than off-the-peg?
Just seeing this thread again has reminded me I need to book my Wazoo in for its 6-month checkup (£20 for two checkups over the year, in any Halfords branch) and see if they can do me a deal on fitting a new crown race to my Carbon fatty Fork if I buy a new FSA 11N headset through them for ~£15! 😆
However the what next might be shit for customers too, maybe even other parts of the industry. big venture capitalists aren't getting into wiggle and chain reaction for a laugh.
That's what has been worrying me, the VC's come in and rip all the profit out leaving a mess behind when they sod off to the next cash-cow. The online giants could well have killed off most of the LBS's by then and we're left with a mess of poor online prices and no local skill base to call upon. It's why I've tried to buy from my LBS as much as practicable this last year, which has been tough! Simple things like a specific (and commonly used version) tyre meant it had to be ordered in, also meant I had to pay full retail.
Currently gearing up to buy a load of winter kit that needs replacing and, despite the LBS giving me discount regularly (I never ask for it, drop hints if it's a bike purchase...) it's a sizeable chunk cheaper to get it all online. As in 30-35%!
@tomhoward, that was me 6 months ago, trying to index my gears, Friday Morning......... The next day I was cycling the TPT Sat & the other half Sunday. I decided that the inner gear cable was goosed, stretched, been on the bike all winter and I could see the outer sheath fracked and inner rusted hindering shifting,
I chucked the bike in the car and drove 10 miles to the LBS, I explained the above, leave it with me he said, if I can't fit it in to day it'll be tmrw........ WTF........ I explained again.
He told me to pick up at 5:30. I drove back home, 2 miles from home he rang me to say it was ready so I turned round and went back, paid £40. I bought X2 inner tubes as I thought it would save fixing punctures and knew some of the other riders wouldn't be carrying any. 700c wheels with 28mm Vittoria tyres on, he handed me two tubes 28-35 or 30-35 I can't remember, so I challenged this and he said it would be fine. It wasn't, the tube kept blowing the tyres off the rim.
I got back home, had a brew cleaned the bike, had another brew then I decided to take it down the road, that's when the whole thing fell apart literally, not only did he just change the inner cable and left the delaminated outer on but for some unknown reason he took 6 links out of my chain, bike in car and straight to the shop, he denied this whilst stood there in the shop with the missing links on the floor beside the work stand. Being a tad obsessed with oiling chains I knew there were 112 links in the chain, how come then there were now 106 and 6 were on his floor.
I think I paid fair money for a rush job on a Friday baring in mind I needed it for the next morning, I had no cable inner or outer and no decent cable cutters. he imparted his wisdom and told me I shouldn't use the top 4 gears on the rear cassette whilst in the big ring up front, why he thought he needed to confirm this by shortening my chain I have no idea.
I'll never shop there again, I doubt that will make much difference but plenty of other folk have told me similar horror stories. The sad thing is there's a Pro rider always in and out of there and has been pictured doing so on the telly...... So he's got it made really,
I did meet this rider with other Pro,s he was riding wit whilst out riding a few months ago, I proceeded to tell him what a .... This chap was and he agreed. Then he told me who to take my bike to if I wanted it perfect, turns out he was right.
It's not a shop, he does it from home in his garage.
[b]Yeah it was 530 on a Friday night and I needed it for Saturday, and the mechanic was having to stay late to clear a backlog[/b], but it's not like it's rocket science! I even bought the cable from the shop! Shysters!
I think he was politely telling you that he's incredibly busy working late to sort out other non-rocket science jobs that other non-rocket scientists want doing, and to go away.
atlaz - Member
My LBS' charge 2-3 times as much as online for the same parts and rarely have them in stock so I have to wait as long as for it to get here from one of the German lot.
so what RRP is 3x the online price?
Are we talking clearance items here?
*feels somewhat prophetic...*
Oh, and PMJ, read my post again 😉