Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
About £6,000 if parked on the road.
What's the stupidest thing you've heard about bikes - by someone who should really know better?
- Thread starter thatguyfromebay
- Start date
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About £6,000 if parked on the road.
That's nothing.
I went into a bike shop on holiday a few years ago, saw a track pump I liked, guy tells me the price. So I go back to our apartment for the cash and when I return he had doubled the price!
That's inflation, he told me 🤷♂️
Tom B
Guru
- Location
- Lancashire
In a "bike shop"
"You can't get replacement bearings you need a new hub"
(At a large national retailer) On the same quest for bearings..
"we haven't got loose balls, these caged bearings will fit"
[no they won't I'll take the balls out and use them loose]
"You can't do that..... they won't come out"
[They did]
"Hi have you got any puncture patches"
- "no.... we just do innertubes"
Not bike related
Years when I was young and daft and when my employer was paying car bills, i took my Corsa to National Tyres for new tyres. They gave me the old pony about it needing two dampers, I doubt it did but had them fitted anyway.
About 8 months and 12k later it went in (to a different national tyres) for two more tyres, they told me it needed two new dampers. I confirmed all their work was warrantied and let them get in with it while I nipped home. I collected it later that day and paid for the tyres presenting them with the bill/warranty for the dampers. Their chins nearly hit the floor and they ranted about I should have told them. We used National Tyres as we used the vouchers in the paper. I went again a few months later and was asked to leave.
"You can't get replacement bearings you need a new hub"
(At a large national retailer) On the same quest for bearings..
"we haven't got loose balls, these caged bearings will fit"
[no they won't I'll take the balls out and use them loose]
"You can't do that..... they won't come out"
[They did]
"Hi have you got any puncture patches"
- "no.... we just do innertubes"
Not bike related
Years when I was young and daft and when my employer was paying car bills, i took my Corsa to National Tyres for new tyres. They gave me the old pony about it needing two dampers, I doubt it did but had them fitted anyway.
About 8 months and 12k later it went in (to a different national tyres) for two more tyres, they told me it needed two new dampers. I confirmed all their work was warrantied and let them get in with it while I nipped home. I collected it later that day and paid for the tyres presenting them with the bill/warranty for the dampers. Their chins nearly hit the floor and they ranted about I should have told them. We used National Tyres as we used the vouchers in the paper. I went again a few months later and was asked to leave.
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I got back into ham radio recently after a long time away. Tuned into the local chat and old bloke after old bloke were going on about how they haven't ridden a bike in 50 years, and they were proud of it, one by one they took the mic to outdo the other. Then they started going on about saddles are too thin and that's the reason they haven't ridden a bike in 50+ years. One of them doesn't have a car and all he ever bleats on about is his lack of independence and can't get to the shops 3 miles away and has to rely on friends or the bus. 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
You can’t ride it in the rain, you’ll get wet.
HMS_Dave
Grand Old Lady
On the subject of the inevitable tax and insurances, I have also seen bike related "MOT" comments too. That potentially is the least silly comment of them all but not by much. Failed brakes on a bicycle is likely to result in the rider going head first into a hedge, failed brakes on a car though....
thatguyfromebay
Active Member
Clean bikes are fastest
As we say in my neck of the woods, tanks ain't afraid of mud!
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
This is the loss of a sale you told him. The sound of money walking out the door.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Estimated 4 million cars in use with no MOT, plus historic vehicles that never need one, and cars under 3 years that dont need one irrespective of how badly they're treated. Therefore the "Bicycle MOT" dog doesn't bark for me,
thatguyfromebay
Active Member
Was that in the UK? That leaves what, three to five days a year? Must be a majestic sight, all the cyclists taking to the streets at once like a monarch butterfly flock.
Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
My car failed it's MOT at my local Lex Auto Centre on work that they had carried out during the previous service!
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
Was it the short lived Cycle 2000 in Lancaster sometime in the late 90s?
I went in for some headset bearings and the guy brought me a complete headset. I told him i didn't need a complete headset, just some replacement bearings. He told me you can't buy 'just' the bearings and would have to buy the complete headset, at £22. I went to another, more reliable bike shop and bought a pack of headset bearings for 60p.
CanucksTraveller
Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
- Location
- Hertfordshire
Trying to keep to the theme of ""by someone who should really know better":
A man who works in one of the LBS near me will without fail give you an unrequested sermon on basically any bike brand that he doesn't stock, even if you've only gone in for an inner tube. "What ya ride mate?" he'll ask, as you inwardly cringe... again.
(I sigh). "A Trek, a Giant, and a Genesis at the moment".
Then the sermon starts, telling you how rubbish they are except for the Giant, all mass market crud made in the same factory, Bontrager sold his soul, blah blah. He has a huge downer on Trek and Specialized in particular - I don't own a Specialized but he rants regardless. 30 minutes on each brand is not unknown. At the same time he sells Giant, Kona, and Pendleton. You know, those well known, hand built, individually curated masterpieces of the cycle builder's art.
There's obviously truth in the mass production thing but it's the way he's brand-selective and it's also how he says it. Like he's found the secrets of the cycling illuminati and he's doing you a big favour by letting naive old you in on his knowledge. He's very "hush hush" nose-tappy as he tells you his secrets. Irritating little git doesn't get my custom now.
A man who works in one of the LBS near me will without fail give you an unrequested sermon on basically any bike brand that he doesn't stock, even if you've only gone in for an inner tube. "What ya ride mate?" he'll ask, as you inwardly cringe... again.
(I sigh). "A Trek, a Giant, and a Genesis at the moment".
Then the sermon starts, telling you how rubbish they are except for the Giant, all mass market crud made in the same factory, Bontrager sold his soul, blah blah. He has a huge downer on Trek and Specialized in particular - I don't own a Specialized but he rants regardless. 30 minutes on each brand is not unknown. At the same time he sells Giant, Kona, and Pendleton. You know, those well known, hand built, individually curated masterpieces of the cycle builder's art.
There's obviously truth in the mass production thing but it's the way he's brand-selective and it's also how he says it. Like he's found the secrets of the cycling illuminati and he's doing you a big favour by letting naive old you in on his knowledge. He's very "hush hush" nose-tappy as he tells you his secrets. Irritating little git doesn't get my custom now.
byegad
Legendary Member
- Location
- NE England
I have insurance, cost me £20 for a year. Which is more than the last four drivers who hit my car, while it was parked every bleeding time, paid for theirs as they weren't f***ing insured.
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