The mention of Sideways Cycles reminded me of a time when I popped in for a set of pedals and left with a complete Inbred build. I was clearly so excited that I forgot the pedals! I've also been into a few bike shops and left only with a sense of disappointment 😉
No willy waving required; just tales of wandering into a shop to buy something inconsequential and arriving home with an object likely to test the bounds of matrimony 🙂
My F-i-L went to buy a helmet and came home with a tandem.
He's an inspiration to us all 😀
That's EXACTLY the kind of thing I was thinking. Audacious move buying a Tandem. Risking disapproval on all sorts of levels 🙂
Our eldest. 😉
Went in for a new chainring and bought my first full suspension bike. Still bought the chainring
Our eldest
You impregnated your missus in a bike shop?
Respect.
Was it Stif?
Edit: OP also said no willy waving.
Years ago I went into a (motor)bike shop for a couple of odds and sods, and left on a brand new ZZR600. It was back in the pre-kids days when I actually had money. I was a salesmans wet dream back then 😳
binners - Member
I was a salesmans wet dream back then
We all come from somewhere.
Not me but I was present. We went into the shop at Grizedale (North Face Trailhead) for some gloves or other frippery prior to a circuit of said centre. She bought a full suss Kona because "there was room in the car". (Not that I admit to saying those words). Her riding came on in leaps and bounds that weekend (pun intended).
went to see a mate laying joists..
bought a house
I went to buy a new saddle and ended up buying a whole bike (a nice hardtail Trek)
That reminds me Nick of going to buy some furniture and coming back with a puppy. I think we did buy some furniture as well. The puppy then ate that.
still doing that isn't he?
I went back to a car showroom once because I'd left my sunglasses behind. I'd convinced myself that I wasn't destined to get the car and left when we couldn't reach an agreement on price.
I went back later in the week to pick them up - and drove home in the car.
@nick he's slowed down a bit now. Generally only eats things with some calorific value. Although he munched his way through some volterol the other day. Old habits die hard 😉
Clearly I need a reason to visit a bike shop! I've got the idea of a cyclocross bike for commuting firmly lodged in my head - need to run out of lube or degreaser ASAP
A couple o' months ago I called into my LBS to buy a small packable windproof, and somehow came out with a Salsa Vaya frameset and a pile of components for the build.
Popped in for a bite valve the day before holiday.
Came home with a da9000 equipped carbon road bike with matching pedals! It was last years model and a 'bargain'!
a 'bargain'!
They always are 😉
Went in for a puncture repair kit to fix my air bed. Came out with an ex demo hardly used bargain specialized enduro.
You've clearly never been into a music shop to buy plectrums.
All eclipsed by the internet age though!
joshvegas - MemberYou've clearly never been into a music shop to buy plectrums.
"Hey, do you have a trem arm that'll fit this cheap floyd rose copy?"
"No but we do have a 7 STRING BC RICH VIRGIN!"
Literally 1 minute later, I'm in the street going WTF am I going to do with this? And how am I going to pay my rent? Busking Korn songs?
My other half went into a bike shop to buy tyres and came out with a bike. The problem was that 4 of us had driven to the shop (or more accurately popped in on the way home from elsewhere) in a C1 and we had to work out how to get the bike home in it 😀
bish - Member
Went in for a puncture repair kit to fix [s]my air bed[/s] Inflatable Ingrid.
😉
I have a couple that spring immediately to mind, both with the previous Mrs Slack, who seemed to like buying things just as much as me...
First was a camping holiday about 20 years ago on the continent and popped into a bike shop in Switzerland to rent a couple of mtb's for a day or two. We walked out with one rental and one brand new Stumpjumper, for her.
The other was a few years later, with said Stumpjumper in tow on a three week RV and biking tour of British Columbia. Popped into a Realtors in Kimberley in the SE Kootenays to ask for directions to Somewhere or other and walked out having bought a house on the ski hill. Lovely it was 8)
One mate went into a LBS for a set of bearings for a rear wheel and came out with a Whyte 29er full suss. Its crap, I would have just got the bearings.
Another went to the same shop for a crash hat and bought a Giant road bike.
I can venture in there as long as the wallet is at home.
On a personal note, the current Mrs Thrusty and myself, spur of the moment shopping. Went to a place to cost getting our alloy wheels refurbished, then went passed the Volvo dealers and bought a £22K XC60. Was only £300 to fix the wheels......
Went climbing in the Peaks, it rained, went to estate agents and bought a house.....tent was a bit leaky 😀
I once went for a few pints in Manchester and ended up in Brussels.
Please keep posting these.
Makes me feel way better about my relatively small purchases now.
Best one I did was walk into a Blacks closing down sale, and walked out with £300 worth of rucksacs, stoves and clothing.
Didn't actually want anything.
Actually come to think of it, outdoor shops seem to get me worse than bike shops.
£300 tent (because it was cheap), climbing rack (~£1k)(because all the bits were on offer).
I don't want to think about this anymore.....
Mrs went to a VW dealer for 2 front tyres for her 3 yr old car came back telling me she had ordered a Mk7 Golf!!! and still changed the tyres on the car @ £300 which she exchanged 5 weeks later...... I,m still fuming!
went in for sunday coffee saw this thing with fat tyres on it ending up buying a salsa beargrease with xx1 which i have always hated, do not think i paid for the coffee saying that its the best bike i have ever owned and its never been on a beach yet or snow
Went for pizza, ended up buying a Blur 4x in the shop nect door while I waited
Halfords for a head light bulb = £300 GT cruiser BMX. Nice bike 🙂
Excitedly rushed home to build it up and then took the nastiest gouge out of my shin messing up a bunny hop and sliding it down the pedal pins...
My bargain road bike pales into insignificance compared to my Mrs who popped out for some shoes and bought a nearly new car, registered but delivery mileage only. 'Bargain'!
Got a text from stif saying my (free) replacement decals had arrived.
Ensuing conversation resulted in me buying a custom built SC Chameleon.
Still haven't fitted the decals, 8 months later
Sort of on track..
Mate at LBS lent me the demo XC 29r for a race, might have dinged it and put some heel rub on it. Bit of chin scratching and some thumping of the 0% finance machine and I rode it home
Off topic... a group of us once went to a pub in the small Hertfordshire village of Wheathampstead for a Sunday roast. Six hours later we were drinking champagne by the bottle in Tiger Tiger in Leicester Square.
At university in High Wycombe in the late nineties, went into town on a Friday night for some drinks. Ended up at Glastonbury.
I only had a shirt and jeans on, barely a penny in my pocket, no tent, nothing.
Only saw a couple of bands too.
Praise the Dub tent and Krishna food hand outs. 😀
Hmmmm. Went to buy inner tubes, bought Trek Remedy. Not my finest hour.
🙂
This is something I still feel shame about to this day even though it happened around 10 years ago....
I went in to complain about the length of time it was taking to source a warranty replacement frame (at that point it was 6 weeks and still no news) and had it in mind to say I wouldn't leave until I had a delivery date from the manufacturer etc.
I ended up going in to the shop, not even mentioning the warranty, and instead bought a new bike of the same brand.
I put it down to being in a fragile state of mind from having not been out on my bike for 6 weeks.
Joined a gym. Ended up with a wife.
My favourite is taking a famously frugal mate to a disability bike exhibition at Dalby about 8 years ago. He ended up ordering a £3500 Hase recumbent (with Rohloff!). This in itself is not the story. He then recieves the HASE and realise it doesn't fit in a VW Golf motability car. So he has to trade up to a big Volvo estate to fit it in. That was a good day helping others spend their money.
Went out for a pint at my local.. Married the new barmaid..
On the night out theme I once drove to a leaving do at rugby (with the intention of driving home again) and ended up dropped off at my mum and dads at 7am in a taxi having blitzed 320 quid. Felt sick checking the bank the next day!
My F-I-L is the biggest impulse buyer I know. When I first got into mountain biking he brought home a Norco 6.3 for me because some lad was selling it at work. The problem was im 6'4" and this was a xs frame ( he doesn't sweat over minor details). Another time he bought a Cannondale SL1 from work he'd never seen, and then he was surprised when the lad dropped it off and it was a mountain bike, it was an XL and it was for himself (he's 5'8"). Most recently though he knew I'd been toying with the idea of swapping my car for a van so one day rung up with 'I've bought you a van, make sure you're in when it gets delivered'. Turns out he's just been working on a job and there was one for sale outside a hire place so he bought it. I was speechless.
Went to chat at lbs about forth coming races and left with a fat bike, whoops.
Our eldest.
Should have stuck to our LBS - 4 Play Cycles.....
Popped into my LBS to drop off the Xmas beers, came out with a TCR 😳
Visit local LBS to get bearings for my Giant NRS after a week in the Alps. Came out with a Reign/Fox 36 combo..had fun trying to explain that one 🙄
When I was about 10 I remember my parents taking us all out for a meal at a local pub before we went to the airport to go on holiday. My Dad knew the landlord well and he mentioned he was thinking of retiring.
By the time we got home from Spain two weeks later, my Dad had agreed to sell his share of his small business to his partner and about six months later we moved into the pub.
For some reason it's only just dawned on me that my condition is hereditary.
I must remember to use that next time.
I went round to a pal's house for a coffee and found his friend there, very unhappy because his house sale had just fallen through. I was looking around for a house (was living in Paris at that time and feeling rich) so after a few questions I offered to buy his house, and did so a few weeks later!
Sold it two years later for a nice profit so that was a worthwhile cup of coffee.
Went on a charity walk up Ben Nevis for Cystic Fibrosis, came back with a wife with cerebral palsy.
Not just me then... i felt I might be in good company, but
Joined a gym. Ended up with a wife.
They clearly do Gym's 'differently' is HtS part of the world!
I went with a mate to pick up his new KTM Superduke.
I walked out with a KTM 390 brand new !
Looking round all the local shops for a 5 arm chainring to replace a worn one....
...well it's fair to say I got a new chainring. And the rest of a bike :-/
The day after my littlest child was born I was sent to Mothercare to buy nappies, baby clothes and maternity wear (he was a month early so we weren't packed). I accidentally went to Alpine Bikes and bought a nice Genesis CX bike. Luckily she'd had a C-section so couldn't catch me.
Went into lbs to buy new chain for my Soul. Put £50 deposit on a bargain road bike (it was a bargain darling, honest)
went looking for some nasal hair clippers, ended up buying the company.
Went out for a pint of milk, came back with Jet, Lightning and Ulrika.
Camping in Beddgelert and needed some rock-pegs 'cos the wind was a little too strong and the ground a little too hard.
Ended up going back to the campsite with rock-pegs and a new (bigger) tent.
My dad popped to the local garage for some windscreen wipers. Came home with a mini!
My dad was always good for impetuous purchases.
Popped into a chandlers to buy some fishing line. Came back with a 16ft wooden dinghy and Seagull outboard. Forgot the fishing line though.
Went to the pub for a pint, came back with a series I Land Rover.
Went to get petrol. Came back with a puke yellow ex GPO Comma van.
Went to the pub for a pint, came back with a goat.
Goat ate shed and most of garden. 3 weeks later, took goat back to pub, came back with 3 geese.
You could say there was a common theme.
Many years ago, went looking at cars for my OH - she'd just started learning and we wanted a small hatch; bought a new Yamaha FZ600.
Not quite the same but a friend works for a guy who owns a big country house. The house needed some major structural repairs when he moved in but the stone only comes from one quarry in the country and they tried to fleece him.
He asked to speak to the quarry owner and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He bought the quarry, took all the stone he needed and sold the quarry on 6 months later for what he paid for it, effectively getting all the stone for free.
Took my company car in for a service, came out with a brand new A5 3.0l.
and a divorce about 6 months later.
Had to sell the car.
I miss that car.
Interesting thread and quite the opposite ime
I tend to go in full of good intentions to buy something exotic and come out empty handed
Shops eh
A bit like thegreatape. Was sent from hospital to buy newborn daughter something 'nice', i'm not sure she appreciated the RS4 Avant but I did. I did manage to remember to buy her something though so my wife was only mildly irritated*
* A lovely merino onesie which when i complained at the price got that withering look from MrsNZCol...
I once went out to buy new shoes. Saw a copy of Metro on the tube seat, read the property section and ended up going home having bought a flat.
I couldn't afford the shoes after that!
My Dad went out to a DIY shop to buy some doors for the new upstairs extension
He came back with a very nice BBQ and some steaks to cook on it.
My mother (whom I had never heard swear before) took objection to this with a major league WTF??
My Dad's response was they were out of stock of the doors (to this day I have no idea whether he was telling the truth or not.
My wife and I were looking at new cars and went to look at a Skoda Yeti to assess it for size and if it would fit our needs. We came away having bought an Octavia Scout..... that was £5k above the budget my missus had originally laid out.
1 - Took BMW GS1200 in for service and came away with brand new model.
2 - Me and Mrs Hound in local estate agents looking for a buy-to-let. Ended up with 2
3 - on Holiday in the lakes, went in Wheelbase for a mooch and ended up with cannondale super-six evo high mod ... well it was on the sale rail...
... and so it goes on. Hopeless case.
Went to glentress with mates. Coincidence there was a demo day on. Bike got puncture. Decided to demo bike instead of putting in a tube...... ended up with a santa cruz nomad