Local Bike Shops

A subject that often arises is supporting your local bike shop, now I'm as guilty as anyone else of using the online stores for buying bike bits on the cheap, and I probably will do in the future too if the right deal presents itself.

But what you don't get from your online dealer is the kind of service I have recently received from my local bike shop TS Bikes.  In the last two weeks I have had the misfortune to need to visit my LBS, once to sort a rather buckled wheel due to a spoke gone, this was repaired on the spot and even though I supplied the spoke cutting his profits in the job I still got 25% off the job (he does discount Beeston CC members 10% standard).  £8 to replace a spoke and true the wheel all within 20 mins, you can't beat that service.

Today I needed to visit again, a ticking noise from the BB area, now given my distinct lack of knowledge of all things mechanical I was expecting a new BB to be required, I had checked for play on the cranks etc but found nothing.  A quick glance and a good tighten of the crank bolts and the ticking was gone, all for free!  Can you get this service from an online cycle dealer??? 

Yes I know they cant be expected to repair the bike when it goes wrong, but if we buy all of our stuff from them then our LBS's are in real danger of going out of business, look how Tesco are killing our village shops. 

And without our LBS we won't get these good deals and free tweaks and advice, my return for a free solution to my ticking was to buy some nutrition powder which I would have bought from Tesco for £1 cheaper, but that pound is far better spent at the bike shop for those invaluable nuggets of advice you get when your in there chatting to them.  So whilst I may not buy everything from my LBS I will make an effort to keep him in business with regular trips.  Next time your LBS does you a favour, return it and buy something from him, invest what he has just saved you ;)