I think you right Trail Rat I'll have to try the smaller shops.

I have had a few bad experiences with the bigger shops. I had Alpine bikes order me a main pivot bolt for mu Norco in October. I got a phone call in January saying they had it in. In that time I had had the bike stolen. I also wanted to order a new head badge. Went into the shop on the Sat told the guy behind the desk what I wanted he said that was fine and he'd get it ordered. Nothing for about 2 weeks so I called them. The guy said they couldn't order anything without it being paid for already. I had no mention of this in the shop. when I asked if I could do it over the phone he said no and bye.

I had my Aline in having a CK fitted and my 08 888. I usually deal with 2 guys but they were both off. so i had a new woman come and serve me (hadn't dealt with her before). I left a not with the bike to cut the steerer down so it fitted with 2 spacers under the crown. Get the bike back huge steerer sticking out the top. Noone had told the guy who done it and they couldn't sort it then I would have to bring it back later.

I'll try a small shop next time.

Yeah I've fitted 3 now myself. Hopefully straight.

I just thought I'd get it done properly cause it was a CK

And yes, i agree, if you are confident fitting the parts you have bought, then go ahead and fit them, but dont make some half arsed effort, fail, then take the product back claiming it doesnt work, or you are unable to fit it yourself, at the end of the day, bike shops with workshops are there for exactly that purpose, you pay them to use their tools, and make sure they do a GOOD job.

To be honest we dont have that trouble, theyll quite happily send us out under 10 tyres no problems, must just be lucky.

i remember that guy! what a wankstain, but yeah dave does do a good job there, and is tyhe uber mega beast wheelbuilder.

LBS need to change to survive as the internet / mail order businesses have cracked the traditional retail model 

for any LBS to take on these giants, is financial suicide as you are trying to pay the costs of trading a shop front against minimal or negative margins....when the LBS is paying more at trade price than the consumer is buying at from the internet, it simply makes no sense to try and compete in that channel any more


for LBS to move forward, they need to offer services that the internet and mail order companies cannot, due to their remote physical location to the shopper

- workshop services: fast, efficient and well priced

- personal service : expert advice, first free service on bike and wheel builds, attention to detail and good customer care - especially for new, inexperienced customers

- leveraging their existing brands and creating partnerships with new brands (some brands like Specialized and Trek do not want their bikes sold mail order as they cannot be PDI'd and the consumer cannot have a free service which captures any early issues)

-demo bike and demo products (for example WTB offer their Canadian and USA dealers a selection of their saddles that can be loaned to enable customers to make the correct purchase)

we get alot of people buying stuff off the 'net and bringing it in to be fitted...its not a problem as long as we are making money in the workshop

something i have noticed is that customers do not want to wait for 7-10 days for something to come into stock, when they can get it on-line with free postage the next day...they will often decline an offer to make a special order, and then come back in the next week to have the item bought on-line fitted

ACT's recent survey said 24% of LBS turnover is generated by workshop throughput, this will probably rise with the growth of the internet retailers

its almost impossible for a LBS to stock every latest item, and makes no sense from a stock point of view, better to concentrate on what makes money and look at other channels to generate the $$

So if LBSs focus 95% of their effort on building and fixing bikes, like they should have been doing anyway, they will survive and sh!t mechanics will become fewer.