I wonder how Chris Boardman feels, having to stand next to that whiny drug cheat?

You can do everything you like all day long if you don’t have to make a profit.

I don’t think you understand how an organisation like ours works. We still need to make enough to cover costs, and to be able to invest in our future. So, the need to make money is just as important. The only difference is where the money goes; with CS I imagine a chunk of profits goes in dividends to shareholders of the parent company. Our ‘profits’ go into constantly improving what we do. Which is why we’re diffrent to CS. But if we can operate a successful customer service based model, i can’t see why CS can’t. That’s my point; lending customers a few basic, cheap and readily replaceable tols, doesn’t negatively impact on the ability to run a successful business, in fact quite the opposite.

Well, Nibbles caught them all napping! 😀

I’d imagine you’re not.

We’re actually extremely successful at what we do, and as it’s a non-profit social enterprise, we’re not comparable to CS or any other large corporate profit-making chain. We co-ordinate with other organisations here and abroad. We help people with disabilities gain mobility through cycling. We help young people becometrained in cycle maintainence etc. We work with TFL/The Mayor’s Office, the police and various cycling groups. We probably didrectly and indirectly asist as many if not more people withcycling, than CS does. And in my opinion, we do it in a more positie, ethical and sustainable manner. CS is just a bike shop chain. We’re a lot more than that.

One act from one member of staff doesn’t reflect the whole company.

Inmy own experience, and that of many others, it appears to be refelctive of CS as a whole, sadly.

The thread has given rise to a broader discussion around his issue. What is wrong with that?

Nothing. It’s a good discussion.

That’s more like it! Fantastic battle between Alonso and Vettel! Vettel clearly faster, but Alonso is so good at defending (rember him v Schemacher all those years ago). If only this were for the championship though.

I wish someone would gve Alonso a decent car. We need to see the top drivers fighting it out at the front on equal terms, not this two-horse procession.

Yep. They’re a hugely succesful, long established, multi million pound turnover business that employs hundreds and gets thousands of people on bikes, and has thousands of loyal, happy customers.

It’s a company that’s gone from a nice, friendly independent local bike shop, to a faceless, soulless corporate ‘money is everything’ chain which employs people on minimum wage with very little benefits (very high churn rate and poor consistency). Even Evans are better in terms of customer service. ‘Happy customers’? i could tell you hundreds of stories where this isn’t the case. Not to mention the number of **** ups ‘proper’ bikes shops have to sort out. Maybe they prefer the Starbucks type business model. It’s not one I wish to support.

Sorry, still does not compare.

The OP had issues with his drivetrain, not a loose bottle cage.

All he needed and asked for was a 4mm alen key. Not a chain tool. I don’t know why this is so difficult for some people; it’s simple good customer service. What is wrong twith that?

No your right its not comparible. But neithers yours.

Of course mine is! Any decent bike shop, with a proper comitment to customer service (customers; the people who keep the bike shop in business) would have a selection of basic tools available for customer use. Ours has. In fact we even have a space outside with a selection of basic tools, where customers can do their own quick repairs for free. And our customers return because of our good customer service. And thy tell their friends. Etc. But then, we’re very different to Cycle Surgery.

“I think about Muhammad Ali,” Hamilton told BBC Sport.
“He sat on the rope and let [Foreman] have the upper hand until he decided it was the right time to turn it around.”

😆

Thing is, Nico’s no dope.

Would you pull up outside Kwik fit and ask to borrow their tools to fix your car?

Why do people keep using pointless and irrelevant comparisons/scenarios? How about a better comparison, like you’ve just spent money at Kwkfix, and are about to leave, when you notice a numberplate screw is loose. Would it be such a big deal to ask to borrow a screwdriver for a few seconds? No. And this is the sort of situation the OP was in.

Maybe you’re using a different Segauro to me. Mine (26 clincher) are no good below 35 psi or so. Are there different types? Mine are difinitely a smal tread dirt road type tyre, rather than somethng that can cope with looser and wetter terrain. They are useless in the wet on roots and rocks etc!

Bencooper; that’s fantastic. Exactly the sort of thing we’re inttrerested in. I’ll pass on this info, thanks. I take back my previous comments, although my anti-brompton stance remains firm. 😉

No, you’re not a ‘normal’ bike shop. And all credit to you for that.

Seguaros don’t like low pressures, i’ve learned this. They’re more of a dirt road/rough tack type tyre. At 13st, you’ll want them around 35-40psi I’d say, or they’ll get too squirmy. The sidewalls aren’t that stiff, so they’ll move around too much if you run them too soft. They won’t grip any better at lower pressures.

This is a particularly nice Abelour, but I don’t think I’m that inebriated! What’s the deal with the twin wheel froent end?

Re the trike; the rganisation I work for uses adapted cycles for people of all physical abilities, so that sounds interesting. Do you have a website we could look at?

Nice. That tandem is like an MC Escher design, I can’t quite get my head round it! Don’t understand how that trike works either.

Many recylcing centres/dumps salavge good stuff for charities who then sell it on. So you going there and scavenging might impact on the charities work. And if the workers have it for themselves, then them’s the perks. Don’t moan about it.

When you’re not gilding turds, what else do you do? 😉

We’re talking about a customer who’s spent money in the shop though. Not a ‘non-customer’.

rebuilt another person’s Brompton

Ah, so you don’t love cycling then. 😉

In the old shop (before I had a normal shop as a neighbour)

The kind of shop that can custom-build you a bike from scratch, starting from raw tubes, but doesn’t fix punctures. Unless I like you.

So, you’re nothingl like Cycle Surgery then. Very different type of business. That’s fair enough. I really don’t see how anyone can defend CS here though, they just seem petty and mean. I’ve sadly witnessed ths too often to make me want to do business with them, or reccomend anyone else to them.

Ben’s ‘bikeshop’ isn’t a bikeshop as you’re visualizing it, I think.

Sow hat sort of ‘bike shop’ is it then? 😕

Cav has admitted it was his fault. Which it was. Case closed. Now we can enjoy a whine-free tour. 😀

Because I don’t think I’ve ever lent a tool to someone who has spent money in my shop.

Then you’d never get my business. I’d go somewhere else, who would lend me the tool. Are oyu one of those bike shops who woudn’t lend someone a set of tyrel levers and a pump, if they’d bought an inner tube from you to fix their puncture?

Why don’t you just get some cheap basic tools to lend customers? What’s wrong with that? Are ypu in the busness becasue you love and bleive in promoting cycling, or do you just want to make money.

I do feel sorry for edlong. 🙁

Saw the stage 1 tt in London a few years ago, and it was brilliant. Even my wfe enjoyed it, and she doesn’t like sports generally. Was great to be able to enjoy it over several hours, and see loads of acton. feel a bit sorry for those who’ve stood around in yorkshire for ages, just to see it all blur past in 30 seconds or so.

Can’t stand Cav. Glad he’s out. Tries to headbutt anther rider (as he’s done many times before), and comes unstuck. Good. Now hopefuly we’ll see some cleaner sprints. And not have to endure his whining arrogance throughout the tour. At least he’s done the decent thing this time, and admitted it was his fault.

He’s here ll week. Try the veal.

We sit 12 feet from out 108″ projector screen.

Do you get neck strain frm moving your heads around so much?

4mm ak wats the cost 50p, if a shop cant afford that to lend to a customer who has just blown £50 in their shop, then they dont deserve any customers

This is my view. Cycle Surgwry have turned from a really good little bike shop into a corporate chain interestedonly inprofit. Which is why I no longer use them, other than to use their customer pump at their Holloway road branch. I won’t spend money in there though, because of theur attitude. I understand their staff churn rate is very high; not surprising really.

My point is that I don’t keep cheap Allen keys hanging about the workshop.

I don’t know what sort of bike shop you rn, but if you don’t have a few cheap tools to lend customers who spend money in your shop, then youre not the sort of bike shop i’d do business with. We’re not talking about Snap On ratchet sets or Park Headset presses etc, were talking aobut a 50p alen key. If the Op came in and demanded to use the frame alignment jig or facing tool for free, then of course, you’d tell them to get lost. But an allen key? Thats just petty. A good bike shop has some ‘sacrificial’ tools to lend customers, it’s part of a good customer servicce based business model. Offer something the onlinmes can’t. And if you dont, then quite frankly, you deserve to fail.

They drop in value like Rolf Harris painting

Very good. Topical. Bit too soon though? 😆

Do you go into a restuarant asking how to cook their meals? Etc…

If you’re looking for a suitable analogy, then it would be like going inot a restuarant and asking for a glass of water. They’ve still had to pay for the lgass, but it ewould be extremely mean spirited of them to refuse you.

I know a branch of the same shop wouldn’t lend tools to customers for “insurance” reasons.

I’d be more offended by such blatant lying than just simple refusla to lend mr the tool.

DezB; I would return to that shop. to try on clothes/shoes etc, then buy online. They dsrve it for not appreciating why customer service is important.

Using cheapo £5 HDMI 1.4 spec cable

Ha ha! HDMI cables… 😆

Still might be better not to judge character eh?

I just find it very nimbyish. Hardly ‘judging character’. Th eop might be incredibly tolerant in many other rspects.

You don’t know what they are smoking and how their windows/flats are arranged or how the wind blows around their gardens.

But but but but… 🙄

Personally I find weed very pungent and acrid and not at all pleaseant even in small quantities

So what?

I’ve lived next to habitual weed smokers. Sat outside when they’re there hving a puff. It never bothered me at all. Even the skunk I could hardly smell. So I’m surprised that it’s such a big issue for the op, and am wondering if it’s more to do with the fact that they just don’t like their neighbours, and will use any stick to try and beat them with (online of corse). I thik i’t smore about the neighbours being ‘different’ that the op doens’t like.

as person who has tried to live healthily and helped others in the past to do so, it really has got to me.

They’re not your concenr. Worry about somthing else instead, or just chill out andrelax. Life’s too short.

So because your telly fits nicely in your front room, there is no need to produce anything bigger?

No sily; read:

“Anything much above 42: in an average sized living room is daft.”

If you live in an enormous mansion, then go buy a 150″ tv. Sticking a massive telly into an average sized living rom, as many people do, is daft.

I guess the free loan of tools to people to fix their own bikes ain’t a great business model?

If a shop wouldn’t lend me a simple, cheap tool for a couple of minutes so that I could get hme, i’d never shop there for anything. So I’d say the opposite rrealy. There’s something caled custoemr service, which is rather important in any business model.

Serious questions – are you riding more? Or are you riding more in more challenging terrain? One thing I have noticed is that people are riding stuff now on ‘regular’ bikes that 10 years ago would have been the sole realm of a ‘downhill’ bike. We’re also riding faster, because equipment is more forgiving and we can stop faster. To counter your above point, I’d suggest that all this wears kit out faster.

Riding the same terrain, but a blit slower these days, although I’m on ‘better’ bikes. And I know plenty of people who are riding the same challenging terrain on fs bikes, as they used to on fully rigid bikes with 1.75″ tyes etc. Fster? Maybe, but not by that much. Anyway; people are missing the pint. I have no issue with development of technology, just the actual quality of components. With a smaller market, stuff was made from better materials, and needed to last. R+D wasn’t beong driven by a marketing machine intent on making money, it was being done by people who simply wanted better kit. Whislt stuff like XT may be lighter and more ‘advanced’, it isn’t as well made. I’ve probabbly taken more bikes aprt than most peope on here, and the older stuff holds up better than the more recent kit. And for those of us that want simplicity nad reliability, current kit isn’t as good as the older stuff. But then, if you change your components faster than you change your pants, because themarketing tels you you have to have the latest thing,then you don’t need longevity in stuff.

So what is actually the real issue here? Because I really don’t beleive that he odd whiff of dope smoke wafting over your way now and then is actually the massive problem you make it out to be. Is it more that their not your ideal sort of neighbours? Just seems like a lot of fuss over very little if you ask me. Live and let live. If it’s really that big a deal for you (if you’re so sensitive, how on earth do you deal with bbqs, bonfres, other peoples’ cooking etc? ), shut your windows. Or, open your mind a bit, go round there for a free toke, and just chill. 8)

All this obsessing over the medium of delivery is getting silly.

It’s like wanting more and more megapixels on a digital camera, but forgetting about taking well composed photos of interesting things.

So true. And what’s thos obsession with huge tvs? Anything much above 42: in an average sized living room is daft. Our 32″ tv sits in the corner being relatively unobtrusive. Anthing much larger wold seriously impose on the whole room.