Makes me think of a scene last night at the shop I work in. A 75-year old customer (friend of the owners, apparently) decides he wants to ride the entire RAGBRAI this year (7 day, ~450 mile supported social tour).
He goes into a bike shop in Florida (where he winters) and manages to leave with a $10,000 Specialized Venge S-works. A super-light, agressive, aerodynamic race bike. He has the bike disassembled and shipped to our shop for re-assembly, and we find: it has scars on the bars, and was obviously crashed. The carbon wheels are out of true, the front somewhat seriously so. We call the customer and he admits that he crashed twice already, because he's not used to clipless pedals, because he's not done much cycling. So, this bike shop in Florida *sold a 75-year old man with no serious bike experience a $10,000 race bike*. The whole shop was so angered by this, but we can't do anything besides assemble this wonderbike as well as we can (which involved removing the tubular tires from the rims to true them--the spoke nippes are inaccessible). The shop owners counseled him to wait until he returned so they could help him with the purchase, but he decided to do it this way. I don't know the whole picture, but what little I know upset me. Even if this customer wanted to drop a bunch on a new carbon bike, I doubt our shop would have sold him this one unless he specifically demanded it. But the guys in Florida apparently love the soft, expensive fleece from snowbirds. Regarding your friend, I'd determine whether a tri bike would best serve him, considering his ability and desired cycling activities. Tim On Fri, May 1, 2015 at 4:28 PM, WETH <[email protected]> wrote: > And is he a triathlete? > > On Friday, May 1, 2015 at 5:26:45 PM UTC-4, Pudge wrote: >> >> How good a friend is he? >> >> >> >> *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] >> *On Behalf Of *Amit Singh >> *Sent:* Friday, May 01, 2015 5:26 PM >> *To:* [email protected] >> *Subject:* [RBW] So your friend calls and says he wants to buy a bike >> >> >> >> He has a budget of $3,000 and wants to buy a "tri-bike" and wants your >> advice on what to get. >> >> >> >> What do you tell him? >> >> -- >> 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 [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> **************************************************** >> >> This email (and any attachments thereto) is intended only for use by the >> addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or >> confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this >> email, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or >> copying of this email (and any attachments thereto) is strictly prohibited. >> If you receive this email in error please immediately notify me at (212) >> 735-3000 and permanently delete the original email (and any copy of any >> email) and any printout thereof. >> >> Further information about the firm, a list of the Partners and their >> professional qualifications will be provided upon request. >> **************************************************** >> ============================================================================== >> >> > -- > 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 [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
