why are the local bike shops closing down?

[marinyork]

margins on bikes are very low, and making a living selling low and medium priced bikes is a miserable business. Impulse buys like lights and tubes are very profitable, clothing even more so, and stuff like rack, panniers is good.

Repairs can pay the rent, although all bike shops undercharge for repairs. Brixton Cycles usually has four mechanics at work at any one time but the waiting list for repairs suggests (nay, demands) they should charge more. As for my bro..........words fail me. He should double his hourly rate.

The best bike shop round here for repairs by a country mile is like this. The incompetents up the road charge much more for their hourly rates and standard jobs. He's made better money out of me selling odd screws and m5 bolts I've needed than repairs.

He also turns people away for repairs (although I'm not sure whether the people being turned away realise he's both cheaper and better at repairing than any of the other local shops in sheffield).

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I'm amazed that bike shops do this. My brother whips out the big meter (he reckons that a store in Plymouth is one of his biggest profit sources), but even he has started to turn bikes away at busy periods. Why take responsibility for something that isn't put together properly, and, more to the point, if your workshop time is crowded out, why not concentrate on your own customers.

Because your own customers are inevitably getting turned away, you chronically undercharge them anyway as you've most likely no head for business or a sustainably profitable business model, and the punter with the warranty repair happily pays your entirely justified big meter rate because he is getting reimbursed by the interweb retailer. Easy money.

and the idea that all LBS's (ime Brixton Cycling excepted) put bikes together properly 100% of the time, or can fix things properly on good bikes100% of the time is not my lived experience. "It's Sora mate, it's all like that. Shite. You need to upgrade." (trans I don't know you and can't be arsed) "SRAM X0? Disaster, you should have gone XT" (trans, my mechanic hasn't got his head round SRAM rear mechs yet) and my all time recent favourite "You can't run a short stem on an XC bike it will wreck the handling" (trans. I've got no short stems in stock in that size)

This soul of cycling? It needs a whoop upside its head.

 

[marinyork]

Because your own customers are inevitably getting turned away, you chronically undercharge them anyway as you've most likely no head for business or a sustainably profitable business model, and the punter with the warranty repair happily pays your entirely justified big meter rate because he is getting reimbursed by the interweb retailer. Easy money.

This soul of cycling? It needs a whoop upside its head.

Or they may want it like that. Seems a bit reminiscent of some of your other threads recently. They may just want it like that contrary to fashion or the trivial matters of the much later births of yourself and myself. An idea much bigger than you or me or trivial concerns like making money and lots of it.

You could just as easily argue the 'soul' of cycling has been ripped out from the other point of view - too many people who don't care about it trying to get a job or good money out of it (as with many things in life and particular ones I care about).

 

[sbird]

Do many people realise that your LBS may give a discount on the production of a club card?

My local ones give 15%, add in the good service and it's a win-win over the internet.

Reading Cycle Campaign costs a massive £3 to join so it's a no brainer.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Or they may want it like that. Seems a bit reminiscent of some of your other threads recently. They may just want it like that contrary to fashion or the trivial matters of the much later births of yourself and myself. An idea much bigger than you or me or trivial concerns like making money and lots of it.

You could just as easily argue the 'soul' of cycling has been ripped out from the other point of view - too many people who don't care about it trying to get a job or good money out of it (as with many things in life and particular ones I care about).

They may indeed, in the same way as I may choose to take my trade elsewhere. (and they are all three younger than me!)

 

[marinyork]

They may indeed, in the same way as I may choose to take my trade elsewhere. (and they are all three younger than me!)

Those, yes. Mine is a lot older (depending on how you measure it) than me and thee. I like the thought that the idiosyncratic ways will continue, much like I like an idiosyncratic Yorkshire brewery for the same reason.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Those, yes. Mine is a lot older (depending on how you measure it) than me and thee. I like the thought that the idiosyncratic ways will continue, much like I like an idiosyncratic Yorkshire brewery for the same reason.

I'm a fan of idiosyncrasy myself but if your idiosyncrasy in business extends to following a business model which will put you out of business you won't be around for me to enjoy.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I agree with a lot of what you say, Greg, and I know you have your tongue in your cheek here (at least I think that's what the smiley signifies), but this attitude is one that I believe puts some people off taking up cycling. Would you say the same about car ownership - how many people even know how to open the bonnet of their car these days?

It's possible to enjoy cycling without a lot of technical knowledge, as I discovered when a guy I was riding with once said, 'What's all this about replacing chains anyway? They last for ever don't they?' It turned out he'd had the same chain on his crappy old mtb for 11 years and it was still going strong (I wouldn't like to guess how many miles he was doing a week though)! When he was finally persuaded to take the bike to be serviced he was most offended when they suggested it wasn't economical - most of us quietly thought they had a point. He's still very much enjoying riding it as far as I know.

My lbs have been very helpful and reasonable since I bought my road bike and I'm very happy with them - thank you Matt and George at Future Cycles in Lewes.

Somewhat. My local club includes, in the non sport sections - I don't ride with the fast boys and girl - a number of people who when faced with something as trivial as a puncture go into a sort of moral collapse. They stand staring at their bike in mute disbelief and are utterly incapable of fixing it. I can only assume they never, ever, ride alone when it makes sense. Couple of years back I came across a roadie on a carbon framed bit of expensive loveliness stranded on the roadside and phoning his missus to come get him because he couldn't pump his tyre up because his pump was a) shite and b) set up for car valves. Good job too as he had pinched the tube.


Most mtb-ers, and that's where I became a born again cyclist, and I suspect a good many frequent long-distance commuters, are self-reliant and well versed in the range of get-you-home repairs and bodges needed to see the journey to an end and avoid the long walk.

On another, related, point; I know of some really good LBS's and Future Cycles is on that list as it happens along with Corridori, Brixton Cycles, etc., but none of them are local to me. It must be me.

 

[defy-one]

Anyone now of a good lbs going west near earls court to shepherds bush and then uxbridge road to err uxbridge!

 

[mickle]

In some future perfect world we will all be able to braze our cracked frame at the side of the road with the tools we brought along in our panniers. But until that happy time we have to accept that some people just don't have the mechanical eptitude to fix a single fail. I don't believe that you have to be able to work on a bike before being permitted by the cycling police further upthread to ride a bicycle. Just as I don't need a qualification in electronics to use an iPhone, or be CORGI registered to boil an egg. Exclusivist snobbery.

But this is all off topic.The question is 'Should any retailer be permitted to sell bicycles which haven't been assembled to roadworthy condition/British Standard?'

To which the answer, in my view, is emphatically: no.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I take your point Greg, but it still isn't essential to know how to fix a bike or even mend a puncture. There are lots of other options - phone a friend/partner, get a train, call a taxi, leave the bike somewhere safe & collect it later, walk home! Similarly, some young people who don't remember the days before mobile phones wonder how we (particularly women for some reason) used to manage out driving alone and late at night - What if the car broke down? Well, we walked to a phone box or knocked on someone's door and asked for help (and cars broke down a lot in those days too). There are other kinds of resourcefulness beyond technical know-how?

Many things, many skills, that are life enhancing are not essential

 

[GrumpyGregry]

In some future perfect world we will all be able to braze our cracked frame at the side of the road with the tools we brought along in our panniers. But until that happy time we have to accept that some people just don't have the mechanical eptitude to fix a single fail. I don't believe that you have to be able to work on a bike before being permitted by the cycling police further upthread to ride a bicycle. Just as I don't need a qualification in electronics to use an iPhone, or be CORGI registered to boil an egg. Exclusivist snobbery.

But this is all off topic.The question is 'Should any retailer be permitted to sell bicycles which haven't been assembled to roadworthy condition/British Standard?'

To which the answer, in my view, is emphatically: no.

Brazing a frame? A ridiculous argument. My frames are all welded.

Why is cyclorama available from Amazon? Surely destroys the market for high street bookshops and discourages cyclists from going to their LBS to buy a copy...

 

[Herr-B]

I found a new LBS today in a part of town I don't often frequent, first thing I looked at was a jersey for £175 - I doubt my entire budget for tee shirts over my 38 years has been that much!!!

I'll look again there in a few months but it's not the place I'd go to first.

 

[mickle]

Why is cyclorama available from Amazon? Surely destroys the market for high street bookshops and discourages cyclists from going to their LBS to buy a copy...

OT alert.

Wellllll........ It's like this. We take care of distribution and sales to the cycle/sports trade and our partner company manages distribution to the book trade. Once it's out of our hands we cannot dictate what price people sell it for. And what has become apparent is that the book trade operates on ridiculously slim margins. Hence Amazon. Once you add on postage it comes close to the in-shop price. Not an enormous threat to walk-in spur-o'-the-moment bike shop sales but annoying nontheless.
Have you bought one yet?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

OT alert.

Wellllll........ It's like this. We take care of distribution and sales to the cycle/sports trade and our partner company manages distribution to the book trade. Once it's out of our hands we cannot dictate what price people sell it for. And what has become apparent is that the book trade operates on ridiculously slim margins. Hence Amazon. Once you add on postage it comes close to the in-shop price. Not an enormous threat to walk-in spur-o'-the-moment bike shop sales but annoying nontheless.
Have you bought one yet?

I was only rattling the cage in response to the accusation of elitist snobbery.

I bought two copies (off Amazon), one for me, one as a present, both a few weeks ago. It's a really excellent book.