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Bike shops

jodysbike

wheel man
Oct 11, 2001
390
0
Dune
Please don?t name any shops in this post. The ideal is you respond sp that I can complete my project and shop owners that see this can apply this to better their service.

What is your primary riding style? ex- Downhill, free ride, cross country, street etc.

Wow much do you spend in a year for used, new shop items, and new mail order items?

What are the most important factors in a shop for you?

How important is it that the shop is owned by a rider vs. non rider?

What is the worst ordeal you have ever had? No shop names please!!!

What was the best shopping ordeal you ever had?

What would you want in a shop just starting out?
 

ioscope

Turbo Monkey
Jul 3, 2004
2,002
0
Vashon, WA
Freeride
$1500
Nice folks, cheap spokes
Very important
Bike not fixed (well) on return
Every time I get a little bit of the good customer surprise discount
Community awareness
 

Skookum

bikey's is cool
Jul 26, 2002
10,184
0
in a bear cave
jodysbike said:
Please dont name any shops in this post. The ideal is you respond sp that I can comlete my project and shop owners that see this can apply this to better thier service.

What is your primary riding style?: ex- Downhill, freeride, croos country, street etc.

Wow much do you spend in a year for used, new shop items, and new mail order items?

What are the most important factors in a shop for you?

How important is it that the shop is owned by a rider vs non rider?

Wha is the worst ordeal you have ever had? No shop names please!!!

What was the best shopping ordeal you ever had?

What would you want in a shop just starting out?
XC

2 grand average

Service, no attitude, straight talk

not important but experience in service a must

incompetance on a mechanical level (shop closed down now anyways)

competitive price, quality service
 

oly

skin cooker for the hive
Dec 6, 2001
5,118
6
Witness relocation housing
jodysbike said:
What is your primary riding style?: ex- Downhill, freeride, croos country, street etc.

Wow much do you spend in a year for used, new shop items, and new mail order items?

What are the most important factors in a shop for you?

How important is it that the shop is owned by a rider vs non rider?

Wha is the worst ordeal you have ever had? No shop names please!!!

What was the best shopping ordeal you ever had?

What would you want in a shop just starting out?
Trail rider.

Way too much, never added it up, but 2g may be conservative.

I dont really support shops much because I have other channels for parts, and I do my own service, But when i do go to a shop, i Like to see current Mags, Vids, and for it to have a cool atmosphere to just browse around.

I'd like to see a shop have direct intrest in bikes on some level other than just $$. Although a shop owned by a crochety old roadie who doesnt know a thing about modern trends can just be as bad as someone who doesnt ride at all......

Probably the worst ordeal was years ago when i lived in portland. I took my bike in that had a really bad creaking BB/Crank. At the time i knew nothing of bikes. So i took it to a local shop and spend 40 of my hard earned $$ for them to fix the problem. I got the bike back and the noise was still there. So i took it back, and the guy gave me a hard time and basically told me I had to replace everything to get rid of that noise. Ok, fine, But dont tell me a 40 doallar tune up will fix it the first time. I think that was one of the deciding moments that made me want to work on my own bikes.

Best? Hm, nothing comes to mind. Maybe any trip to canada. A place Like John Henrys shop that has a coffee shop in it, some couches and a table full of new mags, oh and vids playing. (shop name added in should be OK??) Even though I never really bought anything substantial there, it was alwasy a cool place to go hang, check out all the new crazy stuff. it wasnt ever a high pressure sales enviroment either.

See above. I think a new shop could do well to be more than just a place to buy stuff. Its hard enough to compete with mailorder and the internet. Give riders a reason to want to come and be there. In turn they will want to support you in some way, even if they still get their deals elswhere. AJ's shop is a good example of this feel. They do cruiser rides, and have more of a skate shop hangout feel.
 

Five

Turbo Monkey
Mar 8, 2003
1,506
0
West Seattle, WA
jodysbike said:
Please dont name any shops in this post. The ideal is you respond sp that I can comlete my project and shop owners that see this can apply this to better thier service.

What is your primary riding style?: ex- Downhill, freeride, croos country, street etc.

Wow much do you spend in a year for used, new shop items, and new mail order items?

What are the most important factors in a shop for you?

How important is it that the shop is owned by a rider vs non rider?

Wha is the worst ordeal you have ever had? No shop names please!!!

What was the best shopping ordeal you ever had?

What would you want in a shop just starting out?
Mainly DH

Don't know how much I spend - guessing $1.5k to $2k

That they have what I want in stock

Doesn't matter if it's rider or non rider owned

Worst ordeal is I needed a BB tool for a Truvativ BB - they use a different system. Went to a shop gave them the ParkTool # of the BB tool I needed and they insisted that I was wrong and I needed a regular splined BB tool. I told them no and brought them to one of their bikes that had a Truvativ BB and showed them that the regular splined BB tool wouldn't work and they still insisted that I was wrong. So, I left.

Best ordeal - went to another shop looking for the Truvativ BB tool - told them what kind of BB I had and they pulled out the tool I needed.

Cool atmosphere
 

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
Please dont name any shops in this post. The ideal is you respond sp that I can comlete my project and shop owners that see this can apply this to better thier service.

What is your primary riding style?: ex- Downhill, freeride, croos country, street etc.

Road and XC

Wow much do you spend in a year for used, new shop items, and new mail order items?

Several thousand between 4 bikes and other bike related stuff.

What are the most important factors in a shop for you?

The word Peak should be missing from the shops name.

How important is it that the shop is owned by a rider vs non rider?

Not important at all.

Wha is the worst ordeal you have ever had? No shop names please!!!

Bad service to the extreme.

What was the best shopping ordeal you ever had?

Good service on a regular basis.

What would you want in a shop just starting out?

Lots of free stuff, unlimited use of shop resources including long distance telephone, tools free advice as to what I should pay for stuff on eBay, free service and repairs for all the crap I buy on aBay.
 

SR

Monkey
Dec 8, 2001
336
0
Olympia WA
What is your primary riding style?: ex- Downhill, freeride, croos country, street etc.
freeride and bmx

Wow much do you spend in a year for used, new shop items, and new mail order items?
a few hundred max. I sell old/current parts and use that money to go towards upgrades. I buy almost everything on the used market and only use shops for smaller parts or maintanance items. Service and repairs I usually take care of myself or head over to Oly's :)

What are the most important factors in a shop for you?
I agree with Damon on this one, atmosphere. A good place to go and hang out for a bit. A bit of BS-ing, catch a quick vid, browse a few mags, talk about "secret" or fun spots to session with other riders in the shop, yada yada yada

How important is it that the shop is owned by a rider vs non rider?
meh, not that important. It can be a positive but I know there are some a-hole rider/owners. It's more important that the owner caters to the rider's/customer's needs

Wha is the worst ordeal you have ever had? No shop names please!!!
couldn't classify one experience as the WORST, but overall poor customer service (i.e. veeerrry slow service on repairs/ordering. Trying to talk you out of what you came into their shop to buy and purchasing something completely different instead, or in short, not listening to the customer. Treating customers like crap, maybe some shop employees just have poor communication skills but I hate being "talked down to" when I'm at a shop.)

What was the best shopping ordeal you ever had?
providng a helping hand when something small breaks, meaning use of tools, air, patch kit to get a quick fix. I will always remember those experiences and frequent those shops when I'm in need of parts.

What would you want in a shop just starting out?
friendly service and communication beyond the standard bike shop small talk
 

ummbikes

Don't mess with the Santas
Apr 16, 2002
1,794
0
Napavine, Warshington
jodysbike said:
Please don?t name any shops in this post. The ideal is you respond sp that I can complete my project and shop owners that see this can apply this to better their service.
jodysbike said:
What is your primary riding style? ex- Downhill, free ride, cross country, street etc.
Trail/XC.

jodysbike said:
Wow much do you spend in a year for used, new shop items, and new mail order items?
Couple hundred bucks.

jodysbike said:
What are the most important factors in a shop for you?
In stock items, easy stuff like Avid brake pads, decent tire selection, derailuers, maybe a case with a bit of Chris King stuff to tempt me.

jodysbike said:
How important is it that the shop is owned by a rider vs. non rider?
Makes no difference.

jodysbike said:
What is the worst ordeal you have ever had? No shop names please!!!
Paying a hundred bucks for a tune up and having my rear derailuer fall apart at the start of my first ride after picking up the bike. In a way it was good because I began learning to fix stuff on my own.

jodysbike said:
What was the best shopping ordeal you ever had?
Buying some pads and stuff at a world famous Vancouver bike shop that may have already been mentioned in this thread. Seeing the stuff that I saw in videos and magazines on the shelf was nice. Spent more than I should have.

jodysbike said:
What would you want in a shop just starting out?
A couch, and some videos playing the toob, case with some cool bike parts in it, a few nice bikes, a few cheapie bikes, somebody who can help me pick out a new bike for my six year old, someone who won't gawk at my 12 year old daughter, and most importantly someone who will not look down their nose at my gut when I'm trying to decide between going out to lunch or dropping my lunch funds on a $100 seat post. I could give crap about how 'core some bike shop dude is.
 

oly

skin cooker for the hive
Dec 6, 2001
5,118
6
Witness relocation housing
ummbikes said:
Paying a hundred bucks for a tune up and having my rear derailuer fall apart at the start of my first ride after picking up the bike. In a way it was good because I began learning to fix stuff on my own.
I think i was there that day? Wedekin - Porter?