I've overhead similar pitches more than once. Common variants include "Once you get used to the riding position, it's really quite comfortable" and "This gearing is fine once you get into shape". I think it's selling what's on the floor regardless of customer need. It seems the young, fit shop employees like to sell their favorite bike or the one they'd like to have. At their age & fitness, they can't appreciate the learning curve of someone over 50 who may not have been on a bike in 30 years.
dougP On Thursday, June 26, 2014 8:49:53 AM UTC-7, Anne Paulson wrote: > > On my recent Sierra to the Sea tour, I stopped off at a bike shop that > catered to the more racey crowd. It appeared to sell only carbon fiber > bikes. And I think maybe the employees were not always keeping their > customer's actual needs in mind. > > As I was waiting for a riding companion to get his issue dealt with, I > listened to a young, fit employee who was apparently selling one of those > carbon bikes to an older guy, maybe in his 50s. The customer was a tall > fellow with a substantial beer keg of a belly, and judging by the > conversation he was a new rider. > > The employee was earnestly telling him that he really needed to use padded > bike shorts, and they had to be tight. The employee further explained that > the only bike shorts that were truly appropriate were bib shorts, and the > bib shorts should be so tight that it would be uncomfortable to stand > upright in them, but that would be all right because with the low > handlebars and the low riding position, the bibs would work. The bike shop > guy's attitude about the bibs was about the same as my and your attitude > about, say, carrying a patch kit when riding: they were utterly necessary. > > It was unclear to me how the rider would be able to ride those low > handlebars, given his round belly. > > I didn't say a word. > > -- > -- Anne Paulson > > It isn't a contest. Enjoy the ride. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
