Small Business Saturday....

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

Tomorrow is "Small Business Saturday" and whilst the big internet bike shops have their place, and buying a specialist part online is sometimes the only option - we'd all be a lot worse off if we lost our local bike shops.

So even if its costs a small amount more, remember that without your local shop.... no one who is new to the world of cycling would be able to get the support they need with their first "proper" bike purchase, or the back up they need until they have the expertise to look after it. No one would get their first Saturday job and get started in this industry, no one would get their first sponsorship deal, and we'd have no where to go and talk rubbish over a coffee with people who really understand.

So please everyone, support your local bike shop, even if you don't need it, others do, and if its gone, we'll all be worse off.

I'll be off to spend some money in mine tomorrow, even though I don't need it, because I know that without my local shop I'd not have met most of the people who are important to me now, or had the life I've had.

 

[Electrifying Cycles]

Although I imagine like us some will be stating offers on this date so you may even save money

 

[DavePat]

Well not all LBS are anything to write home about, they can talk rubbish though and not necessarily over a cup of coffee.
My friend has an AVE CH Tour with the Transz X front hub. Beginning of the summer she had a LBS change the tyres to some a bit more grippy on trails than the standard road tyres. Reasonable charge but she had to take it straight back as the tyres were catching on the mudguards.
Over the summer it’s not been delivering the power smoothly and looking at threads on the forum there is a 2nd calibration needing done if your remove the wheels, this involves a 10kg weight on the right pedal. Tried to help her with this but still getting wrong readings so she decided LBS with experience of electric bikes was the best option.
She took the bike to a different LBS who also hire ebikes, seems they were not familiar with roller brakes like the one on the Nexus rear hub, they thought there was a serious issue as it would not back pedal??? So they sent it to another LBS with more experience to look at this and check the 2 sensors and recalibrate. This other LBS just happened to be the one who fitted the new tyres in the first place and left her with the problem.
Charged her 55 quid in the end, if I had room in the garage I would have had a go myself but she thought the pros would get the job sorted quickly, took them a week between the 2 shops to do the job.
The internet won’t fix your bike? It’s a good resource though to help fix your own as is this forum.

 

[falmouthtony]

Sadly my experience of LBS's hasn't been this idyllic alternative to the internet.

I took my back wheel to three separate relatively local bike shops over several weeks to resolve an issue of spokes breaking. All were pleasant enough. All were self opinionated enough to be confident of resolving my issue.
None did. New spokes kept breaking (including a new rim and wheel build)
In the end I sent it to a specialist wheel builder 250 miles away who did a cracking job at very low cost and 1500 cycling miles later no further spoke issues !

Then .... I wanted a specific Cube E-bike. My local large well respected city centre bike shop, who again were very pleasant, advised me at the time, that they didn't have in stock the variant and size I wanted, didn't know when they'd receive their next Cube order which had been placed (demand for the Bosch engined bikes was exceeding supply I was told), and furthermore, thy were not able to tell me if one of the bikes, when they did arrive, would be in my size. 'They got what they were given'.
After many phone calls I finally located the specific model and size I needed from a bike shop in the W. Midlands. As a bonus I received a substantial discount without requesting same, and free delivery. PITA if stuff goes wrong and I'd have much preferred to support a local business. However, thanks to the internet I got what I wanted.

Then ... a week or two back .. the remote lockout on my Rockshox Recon air shocks started to stiffen up and not release properly. No big deal but cable was fine so assumed it was something that cold be quickly sorted by a LBS.
Not so. Given that the cable wasn't at fault it would seem some dismantling of the shock would be needed. The response of two LBS's was the same:
Send it back under warranty, or find a specialist. (Difficult in the wilds of Cornwall). Think I'll put up with not locking the fork out.

So, as you'll gather KTM, nice enough people that they are, I have no faith whatsoever in my local bike shops, and every reason to be grateful for the internet.

 

[Cyclezee]

I agree entirely with Tony about the wheel builder, I am happy to drive 36 miles to the same guy, he doesn't have flash high street retail business premises, just provides an expert service at a reasonable price.

 

[Jimod]

OK, in defence of local bike shops:
Almost 4 years ago I got my first ebike, a Kudos Tourer. When I tried it I wasn't comfortable setting up the V brakes. I took it to a LBS, a small one man outfit and asked him about it. He adjusted them and showed me how to do it. "No charge" he said. I've since bought a couple of things there. Some months later the twist grip gear changer stopped working properly. Kudos sent me a new one, so I took it down to the shop. He was busy and told me to bring it in after the weekend. Since I was out anyway I went for a cycle and ended up in Grangemouth at another bike shop. I asked in there and it was changed for me there and then.
After a while I decided I'd change the twist changer for a trigger changer and bought one on Amazon. Back down to Grangemouth and it was fitted for £10.

I've since, bought other things in the Grangemouth shop, including a normal bike.

I bought my wife a Woosh bike and when it came I wasn't happy with the front brake. Down to Grangemouth again and he adjusted the brakes and checked the bike over, then he asked me for £6.00

I've been there a lot since for servicing and repairs.

My back wheel developed a squeak and I went down to Grangemouth. He wasn't keen since it's electric which was fair enough. So I took it to a small Ebike shop in Linlithgow, another one man outfit. This chap took the wheel off and diagnosed the fault. He then said I'd be best to speak to Kudos about it but if I / Kudos wanted, he'd have a go at repairing it. He put the wheel back and and wouldn't take anything for it.

Just to balance things out though, there's a few bike shops in the Falkirk area and there's one in particular I wouldn't buy anything from.

I like to support my local small bike shops.

 

[JamesW]

I often find my LBS will be better than the prices I can find on the internet - if he's not too busy to serve me! I too prefer to support my LBS and they do a wheel true there which is better than I can be bothered to learn how to do.
I'd much rather spend £5 extra at the LBS than online on some stuff, just because when I have an issue I then have instant support!