Peter: As sad as that state of affairs may seem, it's pretty typical of what to expect in Southern California. I wonder how many sales are lost because people decide they don't want to ride a twitchy bike all hunched over. They just want to ride something fun (maybe more fun than a beach cruiser), the bike shop says "they don't make 'em anymore", & the entry level customer gives up & tries another sport with an easier entry point.
The closest shop to me is part of a multi-store Trek chain. They know me because I wheel my Atlantis in & park it on its kickstand. A couple of the wrenches really like the bike (no, they don't get to work on it). A while back on of my kids who lives out of state was interested in a particular Trek model & asked me to take a look. I told the sales guy I was just looking for my kid & wasn't going to buy the bike from him. He knows me & I picked a slow day to visit. This model came with the option of a compact double or a road triple, and the sales guy actually started to spout off what must be the party line about the simplicity of a compact double over the complexity of a triple, then espousing the benefits of a 10 speed cog system. It was painful to hear. I finally stopped him & said "George, you know me, you know my bike. How can you expect me to take this seriously?". He caught himself, said something about "not sure how this all works out, actually". To his credit, he asked "So what would you do?". I told him it seemed the most rational thing on this bike (sub $1,000 aluminum) was probably the road triple option with a wide range MTB cassette but please only 9 speeds. This sort of killed it with changing RDs & shifters. BTW, the kid found a 2-3 year old comparable model with 9 speed & road triple on the local CL. But what happens to the entry level customer who just walks into a shop cold, looking for something fun & sporty but not necessarily BORAF ready? They want to bolt on a rack, toss on a bag & do day trips, supported tours, fun rides. They're not racing or touring the world, they just want to ride. dougP On Saturday, May 18, 2013 4:24:48 PM UTC-7, PeterG wrote: > > My wife had to go out of town for the week. Bored, I decided that I would > spend the day riding my Hillborne and then visit a few local bike shops and > see what's selling out there these days. I haven't really been to many bike > shops in the last couple of years (Rivendell has been my "go-to" place for > most all my cycling needs lately). I ended up visiting three shops here in > Reno, NV. I felt like I was in a weird sort of parallel universe. All of > the stores had their racks filled with carbon race bikes with the > handlebars wayyyy below the seats. When I asked to see bikes where i could > get my handlebars at or above the seat I was told at each store that they > don't make them that way... unless I was interested in a beach cruiser type > bike (single speed). It was explained to me that people want to go fast on > road bikes, so they need to be hunched down to prevent wind drag. When I > asked about seeing steel frame bikes, all of the salesmen told me that > steel bikes haven't been made in years.. .....WOW! At the last stop I made, > a young kid that worked there (maybe 19 years old) whispered to me that > there was a local shop that did indeed sell two steel bikes, gunnars and > surly's....but he couldn't remember the name of the store. Not sure if that > is true or not, but I give the kid credit for at least trying (his boss > tried to sell me a cervelo race bike two sizes too small for $7900 for > weekend solo riding). Is Reno an anomaly or is this happening everywhere? -- 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?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
