Re: Dear LBS

Hi
I have had the same experience as Andy.  Hi-end shops sell mostly carbon fiber race bikes.  Touring appropriate chainwheels (48, 36,24) and clusters and brakes, 1" headsets, square taper bottom brackets are not stocked at these shops.  I purchased parts from Rivendell and had a shop install them.  I have found a great shop  -- Black Mountain Cycles in Point Reyes Station, CA -- that has no carbon fiber bikes, but has a good stock of touring parts and bikes appropriate for touring, commuting, dirt tracks, etc.
Also great riding around Pt. Reyes.
Ted Herman
Petaluma, CA


On Feb 17, 2011, at 6:40 PM, Andy Goodell wrote:

> I needed new brakes. My old cantilever brakes just weren't cutting it
> anymore, and my commute and rides in general too often see large hills
> ending in high traffic areas, so I couldn't put this off any longer. I
> looked around online to see what I might want to buy, and thought I should
> check a few local shops first. If they've got the parts at a reasonable
> cost, I'd just buy them locally instead of waiting for shipping.
> 
> Unfortunately of the many brakes out there, wide cantilevers was just
> something not in stock around here. Ithaca is pretty big on cyclocross, and
> I even saw one of the bikes on the stand with exactly the type of brakes I
> wanted to buy. But when I asked for them, there were none to be bought.
> Neither store I went to stocked what I was looking for. Now, I know not
> every store can stock everything, but you'd think that not stocking an
> decent variety of brakes would be a good idea. I ended up going home and
> buying them online.
> 
> It made me think that this is really a chicken and egg problem. If they
> generally had the parts I needed, I wouldn't rely on buying parts online as
> much. But since I've been let down nearly every time I went to buy locally,
> it's become normal to just buy the parts online for cheaper.
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