lbs vs Internet

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do yo
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spen
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable an
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bi
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find th
cheapest price possible

For me, I generally prefer to go to the lbs, but if the pric
differential is particularly great (£30 - £50 ) then I will generall
buy from the internet

Having moved to a new area in the past 18months, it has taken a littl
while to build up a rapport with my "new" lbs, but I think that it i
worthwhile because they are very friendly and generally offer ver
good advice


-

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?

I buy inexpensive things from the lbs. Anything where I'd need advice on the
purchase / need them to fit I'd get from them too. Oh, and anything I'd need to
try on (i.e. gloves). Anything else I'd get from t'internet (at the cheapest
price possible of course). I also use the internet to research prices - I'll be
able to tell if the lbs is taking the mick with its prices.

Mark.

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:11:34 GMT, in
, davebee
wrote:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?

I no longer have a LBS other than Halfords. I consider Halfords no
different to a mail order company. So I give a LOT of custom to mail
order folks - Mainly Wiggle, but also recently Gearshift
--
I remember when the internet was only in black & white.
It only had a few pages but at least they all worked.
Email: Put only the word "richard" before the @ sign.

In article , Mark Thompson
(change warm for hot) wrote:
I buy inexpensive things from the lbs. Anything where I'd need
advice on the purchase / need them to fit I'd get from them too.
Oh, and anything I'd need to try on (i.e. gloves). Anything else
I'd get from t'internet (at the cheapest price possible of course).

Cheapskate.

--
A T (Sandy) Morton
on the Bicycle Island
In the Global Village
http://www.sandymillport.fsnet.co.uk

davebee wrote:
When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?

I bought my (custom) bike from the LBS who was very good. He let me use his
workshop to build the wheels and put it all together. I try to buy as much
as I can from him as he's nice, helpful, supports the local CTC and I want
my local town to have a good bike shop.

I don't really need his advice as I used to be trade and have now caught up
with my 10 years away from bikes.

However as he is only open 5 days a week, 9:30 while 5, 4:30 on Saturday,
closed all day Weds, I tend to spend a lot at Wiggle as they are pretty
straight, are honest about their stock availability and have picies of
nearly everything and I can decide what I want at 1 in the morning if I
want.

SJC are good for spares and bit and bobs from the heap o bits as they are a
real bike shop.



--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK


Love this:
Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/

davebee wrote:
When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?

I stopped regularly using my LBS when my LBS closed down. A much bigger
choice of equipment with lower prices can be found from online and mail
order dealers (if you know where to look and shop around). You can get
good advice from shops if you're lucky but you end up learning more from
doing indepth research yourself and, yes, making some mistakes along the
way. I used to just accept what the LBS would recommend and a lot of the
time it worked out ok, but my bikes and accessories are better suited to
my needs now I'm more aware of the wider options. This has made my
cycling far more useful and enjoyable. The research aspect has turned
into an almost separate hobby in itself for me, which I know is bonkers!

Same kind of thing with maintenance and building. Doing it yourself
forces you to learn and you can end up doing a better job because more
time and thought can be spent on the jobs.

On the rare occasions I do venture into bike shops they invariably don't
have what I want. They could order stuff for me but that's defeating the
main point of using a shop: being able to see and feel items before buying
and getting the goods instantly. Of course it would be a great shame for
more bike shops to disappear (because of course not everyone wants to or
can DIY or shop online and the existance of bike shops encourages cycling)
but I personally can't afford to donate money to them as if they were
charities.

~PB

I do my own and seldom use the LBSs now as they are not good.
I've always done all my own stuff, wheel-building etc, out of necessity as
my job did not permit me the time to take a bike to LBS.
SJSC are very good but expensive.
Sowersbys and other companies I've found excellent.
There's a huge German mail-order company called Roseversand also.

"davebee" wrote in message
...
When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?

My lbs is quite competitive with quite a bit of stuff and I don't mind
paying a tad more, within reason, as I enjoy being able to look at and play
with stuff before purchase.
However, in some cases it makes sense to buy from webstores so I source from
both.

Pete

In article ,
says...

"davebee" wrote in message
...
When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?


My LBS is a bag of dog poo, so I only go there for emergencies. If I
can buy an item cheaper on the web then I do (Globally). I have a
Halfords nearby but they have never sold anything I want to buy, and
probably never will. When I bought my Ti frame I wanted personal
service, so I went to my NLBS 130 miles away. The NLBS provided
excellent service which I could not have got online. The NLBS has now
become a regular place for me to purchase from by post, even though they
have no online facility.

If I had a 'good' LBS that was within 10% of online prices then I would
shop there, until then I will give my money to the Wiggles and Ribbles
of the world.


Regards,


--
Mark (MSA)
This post is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling
of contents may have occurred during transmission

davebee writes:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?

For me, I generally prefer to go to the lbs, but if the price
differential is particularly great (£30 - £50 ) then I will generally
buy from the internet.

My favourite LBS - which I was planning to drop into tomorrow more for
the crack than to actually buy anything particular - apparently today
has a sign on the door saying 'Closed due to unforseen
circumstances'. I really, really hope the two guys who run it are all
right - they're both really nice straightforward guys. But it's making
me think hard about my spending patterns. My partner and I have
between us spend at least £2,500 there this year... but we've spent
another couple of thousand at the Edinburgh Bike Co-op (which I also
really like but doesn't need our money so badly), and at least several
hundred more on line. If we'd spend more of that at the LBS, would
they have been on a solider footing?

Here's hoping they're both OK and the problem is transient...

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

-- mens vacua in medio vacuo --