Greetings fellow listers...
As a 30+ year veteran of the bike biz, I thought I'd comment on the current thread about bike shops. I currently work at the largest non-profit bike shop in the country (www.communitycyclingcenter.org, if you want to know more), but in the past I've worked at just about every possible type of shop: high-end 'boutique' stores, tiny ma & pa shops, BMX specific shops, chain stores, even worked out of my own garage. In my younger, snottier days, I did the condescending, eye-rolling thing with great relish & aplomb...if your bike wasn't Campy & custom, then you were wasting my time. (Ah, youth; so wasted on the young!)- I get more satisfaction out of the job that I have now than I've ever gotten from any other. I spend a lot of time working on crappy (read: Magna, Vertical, Huffy, et al.) kid's bikes, but enough really cool rare & old bikes pass through here (either through donations, or owned by regular customers), to keep me from becoming too jaded. I also enjoy talking with the incredible variety of customers that frequent our store- bike messengers (real & wannabe), people on "tall bikes" (imagine riding around 5' in the air), hipsters on bargain-basement "fixies", the kids in our children's programs, die-hard Campy freaks like myself, as well as people who ride bikes simply because they can't afford any other means of transportation. I love the diversity & variety that comes with my job. If I had to work on cookie-cutter bikes from boring, "latest fad" corporate bike manufacturers all day long, I'd probably be doing something else for a living...Where am I going with this? The difference between a crappy shop & a good shop is a lot more subtle & complicated than things like inventory or prices or how many of the employees race...it's about love of the bike, and love of riding the bike. If the shop you go into gives you attitude & crappy, begrudging service, then look for another one. TIP: look for a shop where, even in the worst weather, there are no employee cars parked in the lot...that will tell you volumes about the people who work there. Forza!!
Larry Myers, Portland, Oregon, USA curmudgeon1957@yahoo.com
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