I’m not in the business of slagging off bike shops, it really goes against the grain and especially as they helped me out for no charge, even though I offered so I’m just going to write what I experienced and you can make up your own mind.
The bike shops I use or interact with tend to be owned or staffed by people I consider friends but after getting to know them (principally Cheltenham Cycles and Garage bikes) I’m 100% sure they treat a new comer into their stores in exactly the same way as they would me, they are those kind of people, bike enthusiasts first, just trying to make a living out of something they love. So of course with this experience in mind I kind of think all bike shops are the same. Sadly they are not.

The Olympics, Brad winning the Tour and the likes of Rapha have made cycling very fashionable and I don’t want to come across as a moaning old git but this wave of popularity has brought with it what I call “lifestyle” cyclists, those who love the look, the “rules” the latest Italian bike exotica who wouldn’t be seen dead on a bike with dirt on it and would be apoplectic if their shirts didn’t match their jersey and cap. To cater for these cyclists new shops have opened up, they usually are bright, have showrooms a clothes designer wouldn’t turn their nose up at and minimal displays of high price bikes as too many bikes would mean there wasn’t room for the fancy coffee machine and Panini bar they also have.

So it was into such a shop I popped into (around the back with the artificial grass, tables, chairs and outside café area) with a rear cassette that had come loose with the hope they could just tighten up the lock ring for me. I’d gotten there via a very muddy canal towpath so yes the tyres on my mountain bike had got mud on them and no, I hadn’t cleaned it off before hand as well, the shop is 2 minutes from the canal path and I was quite prepared to do the repair myself if I could borrow the correct tool. The one guy when I made my request basically turned away and called a young lad out, I’d already removed the wheel at this point and wobbled the cassette at him. “just needs tightening” I said and off he popped for what seemed like an eternity to the workshop. He returned with rags, a cassette tool and a chain whip (not sure what he was going to do with the whip as you don’t need it to tighten a cassette) he then tried in vane to wash off some mud from the tyre with a trickle of water from an outside tap, then wrapped the tyre in rags so he wouldn’t have to touch it. Next he wound the chain whip around the cassette (again unnecessarily) and tried to tighten the lock ring. Now fair enough, maybe he was new and nervous but two other older guys from the shop were milling around and not one spoke, there was no “where are you heading, where are you from” etc which you’d normally expect, this banter usually results in the warm feeling that is translated into sales, I know, I used to have my own shop, but there was nothing. “this cassette needs a spacer” says the young lad. “er, no it’s just loose, it’s not needed a spacer in the last couple of 1000 miles I’ve done on it”I reply. He then proceeds to try and get the cassette off, now it’s a Hope alloy freehub with a steel cassette on it, it’s not coming off without a nylon hammer and some swearing. I have to educate him on this and he says in his experience they always just pull off easily, I don’t ask him about the length of his experience but he does look about 12 (is that ageist?) He then sighs and just tightens the cassette.

I look into the shop past the muffins and espresso cups on the counter to the rows of castelli clothing and Starley road bikes on pedestals. I’d love to go in and look but I think they’d shout at me as I also have canal mud on my legs and my shorts are DHB and my jersey from On One. I feel like I need a pre operating theatre scrub and decontamination session before I can cross the threshold.

Job done I take back the now unwrapped from rags (which are now being held at arms length) wheel and ask how much I owe for the job, fairs fair they have helped me out and I didn’t have the tool to do it myself so I’m fully prepared to give them cash. “nothing” says the lad, I make sure by offering again and am told no once more. I think about buying an energy bar form the shop but It’d probably cost them more to scrub the floor clean after I’d gone than they would make on the purchase.I replace my wheel and shout thanks as I free wheel away, I get no response.

As I pedalled away I feel like a second class citizen for some reason, maybe because My face doesn’t fit, I know it takes time to build up a rapport with a shop but these guys just didn’t seem to want “my sort” in their shop.

Now you can see my dilemma, they helped me out, for free so I’m not naming because that would be unfair. The whole experience left me cold though.

Long live the traditional bike shop, I’d rather have an instant coffee or a mug with a teabag in it in a shop that you can’t get into because of the range of stuff they have in it than a bike boutique any day

That is a proper wall of text!

maybe they’re beardist?

i’m just glad the bike shop i frequent isn’t like that at all 🙂

They helped you out for free, even though you’re not their target clientele, what’s to moan about?
So yes, it’s unfair.

😯 sounds like a fun place to work too. Good job you didn’t go in with a SS or fixie. They would have had you tied up and held hostage. Was the shop called “Fritzells Cycles”??

So the shop fixed your bike for free but weren’t nice enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Is that it?

FFS.

I get it – you’re not after someone to put an arm round your shoulder and ask for your life story, but an acknowledgment of your essential humanity wouldn’t go amiss. Still, you can vote with your feet easy enough. 🙂

Yeah I think it’s really unfair that the poor bikeshop is being slagged off when they fixed your bike for free.

Nothing to complain about there. Posh bike shops are just different and let’s face it muddy bikes are less nice to fix than clean ones.

They sorted you out, the shop yoof learned something everyone but an ungrateful bloke would be happy.

Places like this exist because someone sees pound signs with all the new cyclists around, Give it a year and it will probably close once the owner realizes its not easy to make a living in the industry.

I think you may have an inferiority complex, lay down on this couch while I ask you a few questions.

How was your relationship with your mother?

🙂

It’s unfortunate that some people working in retail fail to understand ‘people skills’.

Perhaps they’re only interested in roadies with deep pockets?

😯

I’m guessing you never had to count the words left to write on an assignment. I struggle to write 200 words on the lliad and you write 3,000 on tightening a lock ring.

Places like this exist because someone sees pound signs with all the new cyclists around….

You read the bit where they did the work for free?

Maybe just a bad day in the shop? Negativity spreads like wildfire sometimes. I’d head back with a pack of Jaffa cakes as a thanks and give them a second chance. Everyone has bad days at some point.

You read the bit where they did the work for free?

Yes but it was a generalized comment about the type of person who opens such a shop, possibly investing lots of money(possibly Daddys)and catering for well heeled city types who see cycling as a fashion statement.Seen the same thing in the yachting industry and have a saying “how do you make a million in yachting? Start off with two”

You’ve admitted your bias against this sort of shop, it you are being paranoid in

I feel like a second class citizen for some reason, maybe because My face doesn’t fit,

They helped you out, weren’t chatty, move on. I really don’t see the justification for a thread.

I really don’t see the justification for a thread.

I thought it was quite obvious. Meme ii

The sales assistants at my local spesh concept store make me feel as welcome as a white lesbian music teacher at a Birmingham comprehensive.

But the boys downstairs in the workshop are top blokes.

Get back to Hebden Bridge you smelly hippy. 😆

No seriously, cool story bro.

You should have walked round the shop and tried something on..
balance would have been restored.

I’d have turned the hose on you full pelt. Filthy hippy.

So the shop fixed your bike for free but weren’t nice enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Is that it?

FFS.

Yep, Jim sums it up for there for me

Maybe do another selfie whilst riding your bike to cheer yourself up? 😉

They repaired your bike for free but you didn’t get a warm a fuzzy feeling inside?

Perhaps you smell? I dunno.

Pointless thread imo. Some shops are good, some aren’t. Nowt more to say really.

You’ve opened my eyes – I’m never going to buy Rapha again, and I’m gonna burn all the Rapha I own, will I fit in then?

You got a free job done on your bike, and you moan about it on the internet??? You don’t feel good enough to go in the shop? Frankly – this says more about you than the shop I reckon.

…Give it a year and it will probably close once the owner realizes its not easy to make a living in the industry.

No, I can imagine it must be almost impossible.

You can’t even please some whiney cyclists by fixing their bikes for nothing 🙄

Take in some goodies, it will make you feel better and in my experience they like free stuff like the rest of us. If they are miserable after that then it’s a lost cause and you know it’s not the place for you.

I think they were very unfair.. You should have stormed back in and demanded that they take a good hard look at all your danger panda photos

This post says far more about your issues than the shop that did work for you for nothing! I’d love to read their view of what happened – especially as it would probably be a couple of sentences saying “someone came in to get his cassette tightened. We did it for nothing but he didn’t seem very appreciative…”

What’s unfair is making me waste my time reading that pile of nonsense which had less points of merit than a speech by Piers Morgan.

Learn to get to the point.

Learn to get over yourself

Learn that not all bike shops are the same

Learn that a nice guy fixed your wheel for free, yes really for free. Gratis, bugger all etc

Never been in a bike shop like that.In my LBS i have my own mug.Not that i go in there much these days 😉 😉

They probably recognised you 🙂

I agree with RD’s sentiments. I work for a trade supplier in the bike business and a lot of my time is spent on the phone taking orders or dealing with inquiries from bike shops. There’s some proper miserable buggers out there in customer-facing positions. It doesn’t take much effort to f/take a bit of interest in a new customer and if it were my shop then there’d be a metaphorical boot up the arse for anyone acting in the way that RD was treated.

I get where you are coming from RD . Personally I’d have rather paid some tea drinking blokes with oil on their hands . But when you are stuck like that, here isn’t a choice, just have been good if they had a little ” soul” . They’d possibly sell more bikes too, or am I just old school too ?
Good enough of them to sort if though .

Id be more worried about the standard of the mechanics (and the fact they were prepared to have a bash at some kit they didn’t understand) than how pally they were.

Drop in again when you are cleaned up. Take them some biscuits and say thanks for the help the other day. Rise above the pettiness and maybe some of your affableness with influence them to be a better than they are(In your perception).

I’m guessing you never had to count the words left to write on an assignment. I struggle to write 200 words on the lliad and you write 3,000 on tightening a lock ring.

That made me smile for some reason.