Listers,
The worst thing about current bike shops and the sales staff is that you go into these antispetic stores and the sales people have clean hands! I've been working off and on in bike shops for over fifteen years, and when I started, a salesman was expected to be, at the very least, a competent mechanic and a good rider. These days, the guys have no clue what to do mechanically with a bike if they even ride one. Which begs the question: 'why buy from them'?
The stories of Avenia 'down-selling' people bikes is indicative of the attitude at the time which was to make a relationship for life with the customer. These days, with crazy high buy-ins and the like, the onus is on the shop to move product, and that's it. I think what we find attractive in older bikes is that they were built for that lifetime relationship rather than purely for the balance sheet.
'nuff said, back to the bickering.
-Harry Schwartzman
Brooklyn, New York