it’s not rude, I mean you are buying from them, that’s all they need to know.
The good thing about small businesses is they are willing to bend things like what you are asking for, and you won’t be the first person to ask.
Never hurts to ask, so go nuts.
Not at all, they are still going to make money off of your purchase
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I guess that if u explain that money is tight and u already have wheels, then i don’t think that your LBS will think that u are rude.
No…just plain no. No reason to feel obligated to buy what you don’t want. Heck, I’d ask the supermarket to sell me 2 eggs on a Sunday morning if I didn’t already know what the answer would be…
they’d rather do that than have you buy it online.
have a look around in the classifieds, ebay etc first to see if the discount they offer is less than what you could just sell the parts for. plenty of people sell oem bits off new bikes if they upgrade or use preferred saddles etc.
We sell bikes without wheels all the time at my shop. It is an easy way to get the cost of a second (or third or fourth or…) down to a more manageable price.
Im looking into getting a tri specifig bike, maybe a talon or a dual, possbily even a plasma. I can get all of these bikes from small local businesses. Here is the thing, my $$$ flow is sort of limited (im a teacher for christ sake) and I already own a good set of race wheels.
My question is, is it rude to ask small local businesses about how much they will sell a bike to me…minus the (cheap)training wheels, cassette and tires?
thanks.
It’s ok to do that in my opinion, but don’t expect the savings to be all that great. The bike shop will maybe offer to knock off the amount of $$ that they could get them for at wholesale prices.
We sell bikes without wheels all the time at my shop. It is an easy way to get the cost of a second (or third or fourth or…) down to a more manageable price.
sorry to go a little off topic, but how much does dropping wheels drop the price? Lets use a Felt S32 or 22 as an example. I’m just looking for ball park figures. I’m on the edge of being able to afford a tri bike, and something like this might be able to push me over.
Depends on the wheels… figure $150-$250 for a typical set of stock wheels.
No. I don’t think so. I have bought bikes with out wheels before and asked then to take off the price of the wheels. I usually have several extra wheel-sets kicking around and I really don’t need another set.
Not rude at all. I did it, and the guys (not the owner) were good enough to tell me that it would be more cost effective to buy it as is, and sell the stuff you don’t want on ebay, or the classified forum here. That is what I did, and after the sales, saved about another $150.
I’d also throw out that you maybe better off paying for the wheelset and ebay’n them. Depending of course what the wheelset is…
i.e. LBS say’s they’ll give you a $150 break without Mavic Elites… You maybe able to eaby Mavic Elites (New) for $200-225+ without issue on ebay.
I don’t think it’s a problem at all. The worse they could say is no.
No it’s not rude to ask that. But it is rude to complain about your salary. Please, tell me, why do teachers always complain about their salary…as if they are the lowest paid people on earth??? You make more than people at McDonalds and they probably work harder than you do. If you don’t like your pay, go get your doctorate for the love of god!!!
But, no…the way bike prices are…make someone make you a deal. The bike market is thriving right now and you can either save or pay. Buy a frameset and fix it up yourself. Go to: all3sports.com , pick out a frame, call Alex, tell him your situation, and he will hook you up with a better deal than your local bike shop. Then, he will ship it to you free and cut your taxes to: 0.