I'd have to disagree. My experience has been that most LBS's are very good. They may not stock everything you want, but if you are willing to wait you'll get it. The staff are friendly, especially if you as a customer are friendly to them (no-one likes to deal with customers with a bad attitude). If you need something done, they can do it pretty well. If you have a specific request, they can usually take care of it.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

You know exactly what we're saying yo....

And, I bet that you agree. Tell me that you haven't been to a "bad" bike shop? That's probably why you have a good bike shop, - because you're offering an alternative: and it's a beautiful thing.

Yep, - bet your shop is better, - heck, it sounds a lot a better just cause you serve espresso. :-)

Seriously, most bike shops suck, - it's you who is the rarity.

In the town where I live, competition is fierce. In order to stay alive you've got to compete and sell lots of bikes, and sell lots of cheap bikes to unknowledgable buyers, and hire unskilled labor for peanuts, and when the unskilled become overworked and acquire skills, they go on to bigger and better things, - which is out of the bike business. They don't think long term, and building a customer base, because they're worried about this month's rent, not next month. And, they certainly can't afford to cater to racers and knowledgable riders.

Respect isn't really the issue. The shop charges me a certain amount of money and I either pay it or I don't. They either do good work or they don't. I start off respecting everyone first, it's only when they behave in a certain way that causes me to either keep and increase that respect, or not. Unfortunately, with most bike shops, - it's the latter.

Nice post. Unfortunately, as resourceful as slowtwitch is, there isn't much Canadian store info here.

Toenail,

of course I've been to a bad bike shop... everyone has. But I don't agree that most suck. Some are certainly better than others, but it has been my experience that most IBS' are not that bad. If you have experienced otherwise (which you obviously have) I am sorry. As a customer and an athlete you deserve a competent professional resource that is local and accessible.

My offer to you or anyone on this board to visit my shop had nothing to do with me wanting you to buy from me. As I said before, I don't care if you buy anything or not. Rather, I want you to come in and see what a good shop has to offer, to see that there are shops out there that are staffed by knowledgable professionals. We carry a large range of brands, but don't push any certain one... we suggest the "best" option for each particular client and let you make the decision. Or, if all you want to do is walk around and look at all the new carbon bits while sipping an espresso, or come in to watch one of our 1000+ race videos, or talk to any of our staff about riding, racing, or anything else, we welcome that as well. We have customers that come in several times a week but haven't bought a thing in months. We don't care, they are cool people and fun to talk to.

Perhaps I am a little jaded, or misled. I hope I am not. I hope that my shop is not the rarity, but maybe you are right. I suppose that in the end an IBS is, in reality, a retail store. And with that come certain misnomers and stereotypes. True, many shops cannot afford to hire pro help, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? I have been in the industry for 10+ years now, but at one point I didn't know a derailluer from a headset. In fact, I got into the cycling industry because I got a job at a ski shop that carried bikes in the summer. The snow went away and I still had a job, so I had to learn about bikes! Now I am the head mechanic at a pro shop and wrench for several local teams and pros. I guess maybe I have a little more patience for the guy that is just starting out because that guy was once me.

In any event, I hope you find a good shop that you can trust with your bike... and let's face it, there is a lot of trust and respect involved. There is somebody working on your bike. If he/she screws up, there could be very damaging results, to you and your bike!

Anyway... enough rambling. Go ride a bike.

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DING DING!! Artmus speaks the truth!
100 miles a day is the only power meter you need.

Again, shouldn't the ramblings about "how good my bike shop is" be on the Classifieds? OR, perhaps Dan can create a new forum for shop owners to tell each other how good they are.

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http://theworldthroumyeyes.tumblr.com/

I'm not the owner, and if you don't like reading the posts.... don't.

It's about me touting our shop, it's me trying to tell people that a better alternative does exist if they are unhappy with the quality of their LBS. Have I tried to sell anything?

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DING DING!! Artmus speaks the truth!
100 miles a day is the only power meter you need.

Having only purchase road bikes until recently, I used to buy on appearance. Now I buy on fit. That doesn't mean I subscribe to the philosophy of fit and fitter being everything. When I got a tri bike, I used the dealer locater and found a FIST fitter. And while I think it was better than my past experiences, in the end, I feel like I got FISTed a little. But my belief is that "TRAINING" is more important than anything else, so I will adapt to the bike/fit and will train my ass off. Speaking of which, time to run...

while i have a lot of respect for tom and his business (and if i lived in the detroit area, i'd certainly go to bikesport michigan), he makes some assumptions that aren't true for a lot of us.

1. there are decent bike shops in the area. for me this is true, there is one half-way decent bike shop in my area. they only sell trek and trek-owned brands (klein, gary fisher, etc.), but they (i guess i should say "we" because i have worked there over summers between grad school semesters) have 1 fantastic mechanic and a bunch of very good ones. there is another shop (they have 2 stores) in my area that is absolute trash. they know very little about road bikes, overcharge for everything ($9 tubes, $7 per foot of cable housing, etc.), and do poor mechanical service. so, i ended up at the one i work and shop at by default; the other one sucked.

2. the decent shops are interested in the triathlon market and know something about it. this is not true for me nor is it true for a lot of people who don't live in california, boulder, minneapolis, detroit, and a handful of other metropolitan areas. it's hard enough to find a shop outside of large cities that has employees who know something about road bikes, let alone tri bikes.

3. the shop has an employee who knows a lot about tri-bike fitting. the people at the shop where i have worked know a LOT about road bikes and a few of them are very excellent road bike fitters. but they don't know anything about tri-bike fitting and i end up doing the tri-bike fittings. how do i do them? well, i have spent a ton of time reading stuff dan has posted here on slowtwitch and the stuff tom has on his bikesport page, doing lots of trial and error, videotaping myself on my bike, comparing angles, power output, comfort, etc. it has taken a decent amount of trial and error, but i think i have a pretty good fit now. i agree with what has already been written: fit is about getting in the ballpark. so, i think i can get people in the ballpark, but i'm far from an expert fitter. if i were buying a $5000 time trial bike (which we don't sell), i wouldn't want to be fit by me.

4. we can afford to buy new bikes at retail prices. yes, i know that there are many people on this forum who have plenty of money (and i like them because i buy their used stuff), but there are many who are deciding between a used felt s32 and a used QR kilo, not between a new p3c and a new bmc time machine. i personally can't afford to spend retail for even a cheap tri-bike. but i can find some pretty nice frames on ebay to build up with parts from other bikes and get a "new" bike for $400 or $500.

i agree with tom that fit is very important. but for some of us, flying to michigan or california to get fit isn't an option. for such people, or for people who can't afford the cost of a professional fitting, if they're willing to spend some time with trial and error, taking some video, looking at angles made by the parts of their body, etc., they can end up with a decent fit.