lbs vs Internet

Quoted message said:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you prefer to give your custom to
your lbs who in my experience will spend a little bit of time chatting to you about the products
suitable and also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit extra; or do you
prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the cheapest price possible?

I buy inexpensive things from the lbs. Anything where I'd need advice on the purchase / need them to
fit I'd get from them too. Oh, and anything I'd need to try on (i.e. gloves). Anything else I'd get
from t'internet (at the cheapest price possible of course). I also use the internet to research
prices - I'll be able to tell if the lbs is taking the mick with its prices.

Mark.

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:11:34 GMT, in
<[email hidden]>, davebee

Quoted message said:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you prefer to give your custom to
your lbs who in my experience will spend a little bit of time chatting to you about the products
suitable and also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit extra; or do you
prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the cheapest price possible?

I no longer have a LBS other than Halfords. I consider Halfords no different to a mail order
company. So I give a LOT of custom to mail order folks - Mainly Wiggle, but also recently Gearshift
--
I remember when the internet was only in black & white. It only had a few pages but at least they
all worked. Email: Put only the word "richard" before the @ sign.

In article <[email hidden]>, Mark Thompson

(change warm for hot) said:

I buy inexpensive things from the lbs. Anything where I'd need advice on the purchase / need them
to fit I'd get from them too. Oh, and anything I'd need to try on (i.e. gloves). Anything else I'd
get from t'internet (at the cheapest price possible of course).

Cheapskate.

--
A T (Sandy) Morton on the Bicycle Island In the Global Village sandymillport.fsnet.co.uksandymillport.fsnet.co.ukOpen ↗

davebee said:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you prefer to give your custom to
your lbs who in my experience will spend a little bit of time chatting to you about the products
suitable and also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit extra; or do you
prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the cheapest price possible?

I bought my (custom) bike from the LBS who was very good. He let me use his workshop to build the
wheels and put it all together. I try to buy as much as I can from him as he's nice, helpful,
supports the local CTC and I want my local town to have a good bike shop.

I don't really need his advice as I used to be trade and have now caught up with my 10 years away
from bikes.

However as he is only open 5 days a week, 9:30 while 5, 4:30 on Saturday, closed all day Weds, I
tend to spend a lot at Wiggle as they are pretty straight, are honest about their stock availability
and have picies of nearly everything and I can decide what I want at 1 in the morning if I want.

SJC are good for spares and bit and bobs from the heap o bits as they are a real bike shop.

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

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davebee said:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you prefer to give your custom to
your lbs who in my experience will spend a little bit of time chatting to you about the products
suitable and also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit extra; or do you
prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the cheapest price possible?

I stopped regularly using my LBS when my LBS closed down. A much bigger choice of equipment with
lower prices can be found from online and mail order dealers (if you know where to look and shop
around). You can get good advice from shops if you're lucky but you end up learning more from doing
indepth research yourself and, yes, making some mistakes along the way. I used to just accept what
the LBS would recommend and a lot of the time it worked out ok, but my bikes and accessories are
better suited to my needs now I'm more aware of the wider options. This has made my cycling far more
useful and enjoyable. The research aspect has turned into an almost separate hobby in itself for me,
which I know is bonkers!

Same kind of thing with maintenance and building. Doing it yourself forces you to learn and you can
end up doing a better job because more time and thought can be spent on the jobs.

On the rare occasions I do venture into bike shops they invariably don't have what I want. They
could order stuff for me but that's defeating the main point of using a shop: being able to see and
feel items before buying and getting the goods instantly. Of course it would be a great shame for
more bike shops to disappear (because of course not everyone wants to or can DIY or shop online and
the existance of bike shops encourages cycling) but I personally can't afford to donate money to
them as if they were charities.

~PB

I do my own and seldom use the LBSs now as they are not good. I've always done all my own stuff, wheel-
building etc, out of necessity as my job did not permit me the time to take a bike to LBS. SJSC are
very good but expensive. Sowersbys and other companies I've found excellent. There's a huge German
mail-order company called Roseversand also.

"davebee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you prefer to give your custom to
your lbs who in my experience will spend a little bit of time chatting to you about the products
suitable and also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit extra; or do you
prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the cheapest price possible?

My lbs is quite competitive with quite a bit of stuff and I don't mind paying a tad more, within
reason, as I enjoy being able to look at and play with stuff before purchase. However, in some cases
it makes sense to buy from webstores so I source from both.

Pete

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

"davebee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you prefer to give your custom to
your lbs who in my experience will spend a little bit of time chatting to you about the products
suitable and also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit extra; or do you
prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the cheapest price possible?

My LBS is a bag of dog poo, so I only go there for emergencies. If I can buy an item cheaper on
the web then I do (Globally). I have a Halfords nearby but they have never sold anything I want to
buy, and probably never will. When I bought my Ti frame I wanted personal service, so I went to my
NLBS 130 miles away. The NLBS provided excellent service which I could not have got online. The
NLBS has now become a regular place for me to purchase from by post, even though they have no
online facility.

If I had a 'good' LBS that was within 10% of online prices then I would shop there, until then I
will give my money to the Wiggles and Ribbles of the world.

Regards,

--
Mark (MSA) This post is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling of contents may
have occurred during transmission

davebee said:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you prefer to give your custom to
your lbs who in my experience will spend a little bit of time chatting to you about the products
suitable and also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit extra; or do you
prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the cheapest price possible?

For me, I generally prefer to go to the lbs, but if the price differential is particularly great
(>£30 - £50 ) then I will generally buy from the internet.

My favourite LBS - which I was planning to drop into tomorrow more for the crack than to actually
buy anything particular - apparently today has a sign on the door saying 'Closed due to unforseen
circumstances'. I really, really hope the two guys who run it are all right - they're both really
nice straightforward guys. But it's making me think hard about my spending patterns. My partner and
I have between us spend at least £2,500 there this year... but we've spent another couple of
thousand at the Edinburgh Bike Co-op (which I also really like but doesn't need our money so badly),
and at least several hundred more on line. If we'd spend more of that at the LBS, would they have
been on a solider footing?

Here's hoping they're both OK and the problem is transient...

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗

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