"NYC XYZ" wrote in message
ups.com...

Edward Dolan wrote:


Good Grief! You guys should have available to you the kind of bike shops
that exist here in the Upper Midwest. They will bend over backwards to
get
you whatever you need - and damn the profit! They only aim to please,
knowing that you will come back to them when you want to make a big
purchase. This is sometimes called Minnesota nice, but Hells Bells, it is
just plain common sense.

Yeah, you betcha.

Nice is one thing, but I've met nice and incompetent folks at the bike
shop (them Midwest Heartlanders were "nice" where I got my SWB, but
they weren't helpful with that defective rear air shock, and I did a
good 85% of the leg-work myself).

I guess a good honest bike mechanic is hard to find, just like with
cars. Luckily, for most things on a bike I can do myself, though at
three times the pace.

Folks will spend a fortune to get their damn cars repaired, but they do not
like to spend much money to get their bikes repaired. I decided from the
beginning that I was going to fix my own bikes.

The trouble with bike shop mechanics is that they have to charge quite a bit
in order to break even. The local bike shop here in town was always rather
reluctant to embark on any major repairs because he knew no one wanted to
spend much money for a bicycle repair.

If you are doing your own repairs then you know it is possible to spend all
day and half the night on some tricky little problem. The beauty of the
bicycle however is that it was just about the last invention of mankind that
the average Joe Blow can figure out on his own just by looking at it.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota