Wow, I'm so lucky to have such good bike shops around my home town. When I'm at school... I'm on my own. And this was reinforced to me today from a visit to my LBS here in nowhereville. I've never been fond of this shop from seeing work they've done with the HPVC team (we'll never use them again because I'm in charge now, but that's another discussion) but I figured that I'm only looking for parts and I'd give them a chance.
So I go in looking for cassette and rim tape. My new wheels are finally here! I brought a wheel along for sizing. so it begins. I explain what I want. Dude (owner, super eclectic guy. what a character) looks at me and says, "where did you get these made? They're pretty nice". I explained about PSIMET and how I was able to get my choice of parts based on my riding style and what would work for me. His response, "oh, you shoulda brought that to me. I love doing wheels" (no dummie, I'm used to a much higher caliber of shop, but I'm being open minded here... don't ruin it) So I ask him what he would have done different for a rider like me. "Well I don't know what those hubs or rims are, I'd probably go with something name brand like Mavic (only he pronounced it Mah-vick)" I'm thinking, "DUDE! Those are White Industries hubs, well known for having 5 oversized bearings and a titanium freehub body, as well as being CNC turned on the lathe and made in the US. Those are nicer than what Mavic uses...". I'll give it to him on the rim though, it's a Pacenti SL23, so it's not labeled and it's not well known. He's losing some credibility at this point.
So he takes me to the service area to see what options there are. He hates velox tape. Gives me this load of bull about burrs on the rim holes and centrifugal force and punctured tires. blah blah blah. He gives me these plastic-y rim strip liner things. They're pretty light. they come on a bunch of OE wheels, okay I'll give them a try because I've seen wheels at my shop do just fine with them and they're convenient. (and they're cheap, I may buy legit Velox tape when I get home anyway) While we're looking at widths of rim tape, I mentioned that they were wide rims and I wanted a wide strip because these things are plastic and slide around a touch in the rim. He looks at me and says, "are you doing CX? i'd never ride a rim this wide because I'm a weight weenie (smiles triumphantly)". I then had to explain about wide rims and tire profile and supporting the sidewall during turns and the aerodynamics of a smooth transition from tire to rim blah blah blah, oh btw, the rim is only 450g. That's on par with some carbon clinchers without the difficulty of carbon brake tracks. He then shuts up.
So we walk to the parts shelf to look for a cassette. All they have is el-cheap-o 7-speed MTB cassettes and a bunch of freewheels. Not going to cut it. He then gives me this story about how cassettes never sell and so no sane shop would ever keep them in stock, especially not these new fangled 10 or 11 speed ones yadda yadda. I was like oh whatever. Mind you, the shop I worked at, as well as the other two around my hometown all have shelves full of cassettes because cassette and chain changes are common. lots of riders, lots of mileage, lots of snooty rich buyers who want to replace their ultegra with the same quality ultegra or upgrade their 105, whatever. I'm not used to this. I must've made a face or something because as we go to the counter to pay, he launches into this whole schpeal about how he's doing so well for his business and how he was ranked 98/170 (never did tell me out of what, but I suspect he meant the state) and he's the best place around. I was like, yeah whatever dude; all three of the shops I'm used to are top 1000 in the country and just their service departments have more traffic than your entire shop...
So here comes the last straw. We get to shooting the bull a little. Basic stuff like what we do in our spare time and how we got into bicycles etc etc. He tells me that he used to be a contractor; he's build 100 houses, 4 shops, two bridges, and a dam, so he clearly has the engineer in him and he had to open a bike shop to keep tinkering. I'm thinking, "excuse me?!?!". No engineer or engineering student that I've met appreciates when someone has decided that they are of the same status as us because they have trade experience. Not that I'm putting down trade experience because yes, it's important and yes, you can put me to shame in terms of speed and completeness. but the difference is anyone can get to where you are and everything you do is based on previous attempts and blindly following the science that I have to know and manipulate. Getting to where I am and even further to where my superiors are takes tons more learning and thinking and time. You didn't design those houses or bridges or dam. You just followed the blueprints and plans laid out by some civil engineer and surveyor (also likely a civil engineer). I see this all the time in machinists and pipefitters at work also. They're good guys with tons of valuable knowledge/experience but when they try to put down the engineers because we don't think their work on the last job was nearly as 'good enough' as they thought it was, yanks my chain.
I will not be spending more money there. done.
One local shop that I love was started and is owned by a legitimate engineer. He graduated from Case. He spent time in industry, he loved bicycles, and had kids, so he decided it was time to stay local. He sons are now both in or graduated from the ME program at ONU. I love that family and I spend time in their shop whenever I can. They've been good to the HPVC team and are fantastic triathletes and track runners.
anyone else have any interesting LBS stories?
