That looks like ‘proper’ fun.

Love the vid –

“Shit can’t stop”
“You’ll be ok, just roll”

Sage advice Sir 😆

DS

Are you Mark Thatcher?

I would have thought that in this climate particularly, any customer is a target customer.

And as for

I still stand by what I said about making you wait, if you push me to drop my prices, I’ll make you wait for collection regardless of whether it’s in stock or not.

Probably one of the most stupid statements I’ve ever heard and guaranteed to lose a customer. I take it you are not in a retail Don Simon?

If small retailers are going to survive they have to offer something more than other sources, they certainly won’t or can’t win on price.

EDIT :

High maintenance low margin, go somewhere else mate.

You must be quite something ‘Mr I’m so good I can afford to pick and choose my customers’

Well, if you’re gonna go loud, you may as well GO LOUD !

I like it 😉

There are good bike shops and like yourself many have a presence on here. I wouldn’t get too upset about it, grumpy customers are a fact of life in retailing.

ps. I’d have put my sunglasses on if you’d given a warning about those wheels on your homepage 😯

The difference is most people don’t have the skills to tune their bikes properly. It’s skills you pay for.

Which is exactly what is lacking in most shops. That and the realisation of customer needs, the majority of who would struggle to get their heads round paying £50+ per hour or even a ‘job cost’ unless the work in question is explained in a way which makes the customer appreciate what they are actually getting for their money.

I’ll give a recent example of good customer service:

Charlie (Bikemonger) was able to help me with a problem on a rear hub which involved a bit of head scratching to-ing and fro-ing of sprockets/lockrings on which he can’t have made any money. I also got advice, based on his direct experience, re chains and bars. As a result of that, I waited over a month until he had the bars I wanted in stock when I could have bought them cheaper and had them straight away from other sources. The additional money I would have wasted buying the wrong chain easily paid for the extra I spent on the bars. That is simple business – I’m happy, he’s happy and that one experience will ensure I go back to him for future requirements.

Sideways Tim does exactly the same thing IME.

The difference is that good shops have the knowledge AND the ‘nous’ to maintain their customer base as they realise they can never compete with the big online retailers purely on price.

Pity both the above are so bloody far away from Durham 🙁

There-in lies the OP’s answer 😆

It’s been attack after attack virtually from the word go – they are all terrified of Cavendish!

What would your answer have been then Emma ??

I was going to suggest the ‘stuff them in a bag’ answer but by the sounds of it you’d only been made to get them out and iron them after she had decided it was time for your friends to leave.

TJ _ I’ve run my own business in the past so am well aware of all the running costs. Running an LBS or ‘service centre’ is not something you would do if your primary objective was to get rich and I suspect even the very good owners do no more than make a reasonable living. There just isn’t the market.

The fact is that the OP’s LBS has now lost a customer which = no income or potential profit in the future on parts OR fitting/servicing, all over a bodged job.

Palmer77 – if I had to tell the LBS that I wanted the specific Shimano pin fitted (which comes with the chain) I definitely wouldn’t be using them again. Why don’t you use as split pin anyway, much easier 😉

handing over your bike to someone who is not obsessive about detail

Expecting a headset to be fitted the right way round is hardly being obsessive. I would also be interested to know where the chain broke.

In answer to your question re demise – there are many reasons but parts availability and cost savings/choice via the internet must be right up there eg. you could have bought the tools you needed to do headset and b/b for much less than the hourly rate. Having said that, I really miss not having a decent LBS and would be willing to pay extra for having the facility.

TJ – as you well know, comparing the cost and overheads of bike shop and garage is not valid as the capital equipment/premises/training/operating costs are hugely different. There is no way a bike shop can justify £50 an hour for labour alone as mentioned by Atlaz above. That’s if it was just labour of course and didn’t include stuff like hose shortening/bleeding, chasing threads etc.

The only time I have seen my ‘mate’ at work gag was when he took a shoe off of a cyclist with a suspected # ankle. Hard to describe but it surpassed ‘cheesey’ and went straight to ‘ammonia’. Absolutely vile.

However if he ever dumps me, you’re next on the list

I’ll have my Botanics mens anti-ageing moisturiser with SPF15 and ginko at the ready!

Bunnyhop

P.S I sleep with a chap from off STW every night

The same one?

Email in profile on the off chance 😉

Gunmetal hubs, black rims, black seatpost/stem and white saddle would be the biz.

Edit: with the white hoses of course

I’ll have to wait until 2215 on C4+1 to get the start now. Cheers Drac 😉

Bikes clean, have stinking cold/cough so night ride is out………

,,,,,,,,,,,,,goes off in search of decent film…………………….

Probably snapped the bolt rushing to get it in the post 😕

Lamb Inn again tomorrow Mr Smith ?[/url]

Diva Fever WTF!!!

Jeezus – it’s not even safe with the sound off …..and Karin, it’s not your tele !

Bottom end of their range, but very much top end of mine.

You say that now……………………..wait until you start needing to upgrade the parts 😆

It’s obviously an Italian ‘thing’ as ITM appear to do the same.

Surely they couldn’t all have ponged and they don’t look the types to have a ‘blazing saddles’ moment after a gallon of Guinness and a dodgy doner the night before.

What stem/mfr is it? Link?

Fit runners who stopped for refreshment after 6 miles cycling ?!!

Where did you see that ? Stems are + or -ve from the horizontal.

and it looked a long way out from the building. When he first jumped I thought “that’s a well hidden parachute” 😯

Dr Nick did something just go woosh over your head? or mine?

I’ve just read it 3 times and can only surmise that he is suffering from sleep deprivation or, due to his new found inability to spell, that his a/c has been hacked.

I think Gravitysucks needs longer shorts if he has to ‘tuck himself back in’…. 😯

Here’s an update on an old theme

Feel free but only if it includes your sis-in-law and bed scenes not involving parents 😉

My sister in law used to fetch her Dads Cigs and light them in his mouth for him.
Fast forward 20yrs. He now lays in a bed all day every day.

So your sis-in-law’s Father was a lazy bugger 20 years ago and still is by the sounds of it – or is there a relevant point to your riveting family anecdote?

Karma m8

At least his wife must have a sense of humour if it was done ‘too scale’ !!

Dazza

Call me nosey but I’m interested as to how/why a ‘total noob’ has a Scott Scale for sale at £1300 ??

That’s crap news 🙁

It stinks, we need more of these units not less and the care will be handed over to the private sector or “care in the communit

……………….from where my lot will get them, who in turn will pass them to A&E, who will have nowhere to place them for treatment, so they get put back into the community from where my lot will get them, who in turn ……………….. ……………….

Edit

Perhaps next Dave and Nick can get on with finding a cure for known causes of crime ……… we’ll save a fortune when we no longer need to spend all that money on the police.

True Ernie but have you considered how many of them, not to mention locksmiths and prison officers would then be claiming unemployment benefit? You really haven’t thought it through like D @ N have you!

So let me get this right – your MIL is good enough to look after your child while you go to work and in your opinion has the blatant audacity to have a fag before you arrive in her house so as not to smoke in front of your child and you are complaining! I’m amazed that your missus (oddly not mentioned in any of this) managed to survive being brought up by such an uncaring Mother and isn’t a nicotine ridden wreck.

As you hate and find smokers so disgusting, you have no option but to find, and presumably pay, for someone else to look after your daughter.

CRC have the MP90’s in white for £35 – I nearly bought a pair but after clicking on the 360deg view I think I’ll pass as I’m definitely a few decades too old for them 😳

HERE

….she could have my full wad.