Bike Shops Colorado Springs

Quoted message said:

I know of Colorado Cyclists in the Springs but anyone recommend another
good LBS? Looking to buy new shoes and pedals

Have you tried Criterium?

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

BP said:

I know of Colorado Cyclists in the Springs but anyone recommend another
good LBS? Looking to buy new shoes and pedals

Is Colorado Cyclist still considered an LBS?

http://www.coloradocyclist.com/retail/

I've had pretty good luck with them ... when MY down-the-road LBS
wants 2.5x what everybody else does for silly low-margin accessories
(not blaming them here, but....)

Neil Brooks said:

BP said:

I know of Colorado Cyclists in the Springs but anyone recommend another
good LBS? Looking to buy new shoes and pedals

Is Colorado Cyclist still considered an LBS?

http://www.coloradocyclist.com/retail/

I've had pretty good luck with them ... when MY down-the-road LBS
wants 2.5x what everybody else does for silly low-margin accessories
(not blaming them here, but....)

We all have differing experiences, I guess. I had a terrible time with
Colorado Cyclist. They shipped a defective item and then refused to
stand behind it. They are the only company in the industry with whom I
refuse to do business.

gds said:

Neil Brooks said:

On Mon, 08 May 2006 02:37:13 GMT, "BP" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I know of Colorado Cyclists in the Springs but anyone recommend
another good LBS? Looking to buy new shoes and pedals

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Is Colorado Cyclist still considered an LBS?

http://www.coloradocyclist.com/retail/

I've had pretty good luck with them ... when MY down-the-road LBS
wants 2.5x what everybody else does for silly low-margin accessories
(not blaming them here, but....)

Quoted message said:

We all have differing experiences, I guess. I had a terrible time with
Colorado Cyclist. They shipped a defective item and then refused to
stand behind it. They are the only company in the industry with whom I
refuse to do business.

Not to mention, of course, that the OP already knows about 'em. (See first
paragraph.)

gds said:

Neil Brooks said:

BP said:

I know of Colorado Cyclists in the Springs but anyone recommend another
good LBS? Looking to buy new shoes and pedals

Is Colorado Cyclist still considered an LBS?

http://www.coloradocyclist.com/retail/

I've had pretty good luck with them ... when MY down-the-road LBS
wants 2.5x what everybody else does for silly low-margin accessories
(not blaming them here, but....)

We all have differing experiences, I guess. I had a terrible time with
Colorado Cyclist. They shipped a defective item and then refused to
stand behind it. They are the only company in the industry with whom I
refuse to do business.

No, no, no. I just think you're overlooking an incredibly important
factor: this is retail. Just keep lowering and lowering and lowering
your expectations, and eventually, they'll be met ;-)

Sorry you got jacked over by them. I haven't found many stores where
this hasn't happened, in some fairly egregious way, at least once 🙁

How close are you to Peter Chisholm and Vecchios:

http://www.vecchios.com/

bfd said:

How close are you to Peter Chisholm and Vecchios:

http://www.vecchios.com/

Hour and a half.

Further, since the OP wants to buy shoes and pedals, unless he already
knows what size he fits and type of pedal he wants, he would be better
off dealing with a LBS. Yes, he might pay more than mail order, which
is not always true, but more importantly, he will get to try on
different shoes and pedals. A good LBS should be able to let him try a
few and "trade-in" if he doesn't like it. All worth the extra $$$ that
he might end up paying!

Neil Brooks said:

gds said:

Neil Brooks said:

On Mon, 08 May 2006 02:37:13 GMT, "BP" <[email hidden]> wrote:

>I know of Colorado Cyclists in the Springs but anyone recommend another
>good LBS? Looking to buy new shoes and pedals

Is Colorado Cyclist still considered an LBS?

http://www.coloradocyclist.com/retail/

I've had pretty good luck with them ... when MY down-the-road LBS
wants 2.5x what everybody else does for silly low-margin accessories
(not blaming them here, but....)

We all have differing experiences, I guess. I had a terrible time with
Colorado Cyclist. They shipped a defective item and then refused to
stand behind it. They are the only company in the industry with whom I
refuse to do business.

No, no, no. I just think you're overlooking an incredibly important
factor: this is retail. Just keep lowering and lowering and lowering
your expectations, and eventually, they'll be met ;-)

Sorry you got jacked over by them. I haven't found many stores where
this hasn't happened, in some fairly egregious way, at least once 🙁

That is an interesting comment. My expereince has been that most of the
larger mail order houses are actually pretty good- as long as they have
what you want in stock. Iuse them a lot for "commodity" items like
tires and tubes.

But for most other things I use a LBS. While these vary in service I've
always been able to find a good one. I wonder about the savings form
discounters when I get loads of "free" service from my LBS where I
bought my last bike. They never charge labor for any work they do. I
know I paid a premium for the bike but I feel that I have made it back
with free labor over the past several months. Of course, a good friend
who does all of his own mechanical work (including the original build)
is a proponent of buying parts a cheap as possible as he will never
take advantage of shop labor. So it optimizes differently for
differeent folks.

But back to CC. They are the only bike industry company I have ever
dealt with (for over 40 years) that did not stand behind a defective
item. They blamed me for causing the defect. Inerestingly I then
shipped the item to the manufacturer who agreed it was defective and
replaced it. So, I came out OK; the manufacturer kept a good long time
customer, and CC will never get another penny of the failry large bike
related expenditures I make each year.

gds said:

Neil Brooks said:

gds said:

Neil Brooks wrote:
> On Mon, 08 May 2006 02:37:13 GMT, "BP" <[email hidden]> wrote:
>
> >I know of Colorado Cyclists in the Springs but anyone recommend another
> >good LBS? Looking to buy new shoes and pedals
>
> Is Colorado Cyclist still considered an LBS?
>
> http://www.coloradocyclist.com/retail/
>
> I've had pretty good luck with them ... when MY down-the-road LBS
> wants 2.5x what everybody else does for silly low-margin accessories
> (not blaming them here, but....)

We all have differing experiences, I guess. I had a terrible time with
Colorado Cyclist. They shipped a defective item and then refused to
stand behind it. They are the only company in the industry with whom I
refuse to do business.

No, no, no. I just think you're overlooking an incredibly important
factor: this is retail. Just keep lowering and lowering and lowering
your expectations, and eventually, they'll be met ;-)

Sorry you got jacked over by them. I haven't found many stores where
this hasn't happened, in some fairly egregious way, at least once 🙁

That is an interesting comment. My expereince has been that most of the
larger mail order houses are actually pretty good- as long as they have
what you want in stock. Iuse them a lot for "commodity" items like
tires and tubes.

Eh, ... in retrospect ... I think you're probably right. I may have
had one or two rather "outstanding" poor experiences with many of them
and have placed too much emphasis on those.

Quoted message said:

But for most other things I use a LBS. While these vary in service I've
always been able to find a good one. I wonder about the savings form
discounters when I get loads of "free" service from my LBS where I
bought my last bike. They never charge labor for any work they do. I
know I paid a premium for the bike but I feel that I have made it back
with free labor over the past several months. Of course, a good friend
who does all of his own mechanical work (including the original build)
is a proponent of buying parts a cheap as possible as he will never
take advantage of shop labor. So it optimizes differently for
differeent folks.

I tend to support that notion pretty strongly, but:

1) I agree with your friend, too. I'm fairly self-sufficient by now
for labor. If you're not, then supporting the LBS probably pays for
itself over and over ... and should;

2) I have some sort of "sanity threshhold" for how much extra (vs.
chain or mail-order) I'll give the LBS for a particular item. If tube
X is $3.50 at Performance, and my LBS wants six bucks for the exact
same ... and won't come off that price ... I drive the extra mile or
two and buy a few of them.

I understand the difference in margins, buying power, overhead, etc.,
etc., but ....

Quoted message said:

But back to CC. They are the only bike industry company I have ever
dealt with (for over 40 years) that did not stand behind a defective
item. They blamed me for causing the defect. Inerestingly I then
shipped the item to the manufacturer who agreed it was defective and
replaced it. So, I came out OK; the manufacturer kept a good long time
customer, and CC will never get another penny of the failry large bike
related expenditures I make each year.

Well that's [censored]. Did you reach out to the owner/manager, or only the
standard customer service channels??

Sorni said:

Not to mention, of course, that the OP already knows about 'em. (See first
paragraph.)

Apologies to the OP.

Missed it entirely....

[email hidden] wrote:

<huge snip>

Quoted message said:

Well that's [censored]. Did you reach out to the owner/manager, or only the
standard customer service channels??

I had a number of exchanges with their customer (dis)service. They just
kept repeating a mantra to the effect that "they" determined it wasn't
defective or that I had caused the defect (interesting
combination-seems mutually exclusive to me) and I just gave up.

In the big scheme of things it wasn't a great deal of money-- but I
certainly won't trust them in the future.

I happen to be in (an owner of) a customer service business. We look
very hard at any issue that customers bring to us. Our experience is
that even in gray areas it usually pays to fix a situation to the
customer's satisfaction. That way you tend to have a future customer.
So, absent situations where we believe the customer is simply trying to
defraud us we work hard to make them happy. And I find that almost all
business' with which I deal operate along the same lines. Even
impersonal giant retailers like WalMart will take exchange faulty
items. I have no idea where CC comes from and at this point no desire
to find out.

gds said:

I happen to be in (an owner of) a customer service business. We look
very hard at any issue that customers bring to us. Our experience is
that even in gray areas it usually pays to fix a situation to the
customer's satisfaction. That way you tend to have a future customer.

Similarly (only a bit OT because we have retailers on this board for whom
this may be of interest), in my last job, I wore too many hats. One thing
that I advocated was reviewing our five years of refund and replacement
data and correlating the action that our company took with 1) the
propensity for each customer to continue purchasing (over the subsequent
year), and 2) the amount that they spent, in aggregate, and per order.

What we found: a customer who HAD a refund or replacement for ANY reason
was *slightly* less likely to buy again in the subsequent year, but spent
*significantly* more money per purchase, and in aggregate. It validated
the business model of our then-current (liberal) approach to customer
satisfaction. Customers would call--poised for a fight--and not get one.
Instead, they got professional, courteous, responsive, and receptive people
motivated (and empowered) to solve the problem.

In other words: customers DO understand that stuff happens. They
differentiate the good from the bad and the ugly by how the company
responds.

A bit more blather: our data was so granular, and I was such a database
geek, that we were able to optimize the correct response *guideline* (not
in concrete) for each particular "refund or replacement reason" in order to
maximize the lifetime value of each customer....

Mmmmmm. Data.

Quoted message said:

So, absent situations where we believe the customer is simply trying to
defraud us we work hard to make them happy. And I find that almost all
business' with which I deal operate along the same lines. Even
impersonal giant retailers like WalMart will take exchange faulty
items. I have no idea where CC comes from and at this point no desire
to find out.