Re: Dear LBS

Hello Andy,

On the brakes you seek. All bikes are supplied with brakes and even  
cheap ones rarely wear out. Upgrades are just that.  Most stores will  
tell you they almost never sell brakes of any type in quality and  
there are hundreds readily available.  We do but usually they are  
sold as part of a  in full bike component kit when we built from the  
frame up; something we do a lot of.  We can often get precisely what  
a customer needs overnight at no extra charge so keeping a large  
selection just raises the cost of everything you sell.  Now  
derailleurs; they are disposable as they fail often, wear out all the  
time and are exposed in crashes and manufacturers and models and  
types are relatively scarce.



I don't want to sound unkind but it seems to me that the local bike  
shop you describe 5 miles away has made a much larger commitment to  
you by investing hard earned dollars in products you value than you  
have to them.  I'm sure many people on this list would love to have   
shop within five miles that supported touring equipment.

Now I do a national business as rare items need  broad church to  
support their interest but my local customers usually drive over an  
hour to my store; others fly in from around the country.  Having  
stated this I stock some very rare and often odd  hard to find items  
that make it worth a visit I like to think. Then again when we we  
located in a large city we shipped routine parts like tires and tubes  
across town to customers with next day delivery cheaply by post.  The  
customer saved time, parking and fuel and got a ride in in the  
afternoon rather than fight traffic and waste time looking for  
parking in town and saved money to boot. Better for us, better for them.

Having been active in cycling since the early 1970s, a bike club  
president for several years and a shop owner/employee for almost all  
of that time most people on this list would be surprised to know that  
we have have half as many bike shops in the USA today than we had 15  
years ago. We might have had four times as many as today in the early  
1970s.  Even with todays internet cycling tends to be an urban  
phenomena for most of the USA as this is where the bike shops are.   
Despite there limitations local bicycle shops are where people get  
into cycling, where the event promotion is supported and where cycle  
clubs evolve from.  When the local shops are gone so goes the sport;  
the sponsorship, the bulk of the organized rides, events and races,  
the innovation, the advocacy, the product selection and the things  
that we now treasure about cycling.

<<It made me think that this is really a chicken and egg problem. >>   
You are right. Now if you are a serious legitimate customer and you  
see the product right there in the store on a bike, I'd get those  
brakes for you quickly and affordably and start a relationship. You  
as a customer would be expected to pay an agreed upon price for an  
agreed upon delivery. Every shop in America has shelves full of  
expensive specialty items ordered for people that were never paid for  
of picked up. Over the last several years the number of otherwise  
good people that kindly request a shop to order a few hundred dollars  
worth of hardware for inspection that after arrival spin around and  
ordered the same item by mail order/internet to save sales tax of a  
few dollars is common. Stores go out of business if they get caught  
up in this to often and it raises the cost of everything they sell.  
Chicken or Egg again?

Sometimes it's hard to believe what goes on.  I have a fellow that  
shopped with me regularly and wanted to look at a certain touring  
bag.  I made sure I got one in (it was popular and in short supply)  
in the color he wanted and held it for a couple of weeks missing a  
sale to someone else that wanted the last one.  He drove an hour to  
my shop looked at it an told me it was exactly what he wanted but  
said he needed some time to afford it. He poked around the store for  
2-3 hours. Two weeks later I see him on a club ride with the same  
bag. He had purchased it from the factory and after tax and shipping  
saved almost exactly four dollars. Now he could have saved shipping  
by picking it up when he was in the shop and I ship most local  
purchases for free but this fellow drove two full hours in a car that  
uses gas and thought he saved four dollars  after begging me to get  
this bag in just for him.  I was able to easily sell the bag and many  
more like it but what do you next time? Nice guy, I like him but he  
has to go on the list of the people I can't bother to talk to about  
anything technical or product related because he is to expensive; I  
can't afford him.  Anyway folks just a little perspective from the  
other side of the counter.

<<Message: 4
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:06:04 -0500
From: Andy Goodell <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Dear LBS


That's really surprising. I thought cantis were pretty common, since  
all the
cyclocross and many commuters on touring/cx bikes have them (maybe  
this area
just has a lot more of that?). Really this is just one example, but this
happens nearly every time I go to the shops. Even when I went looking  
for
just brake shoes several months back, the selection was extremely  
poor, and
just no name generic things that were not suitable for riding in winter.

There is one shop that tends to have these parts, but unfortunately  
they are
5 miles up the biggest hill from here. For some parts, it's worth the  
trip
up there (for example when I got a dynamo hub system on a new wheel),  
but
generally that's just too far of a trip for me on weeknights. I know  
5 miles
sounds like nothing, but I rarely have my car on this side of town, and
going to the shop makes my commute home 14+ miles in the dark.

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 1:57 PM, John Wood <[email protected]> wrote:


> Hi Andy,
> When your looking for a niche product, most LBS will not have it in  
> stock.
> Just not
> a good business decision to devote limited space to something that  
> you're
> only going
> to sell once every year or 2.  Can't remember the last time we had a
> customer walk in
> off the street looking for cantilever brakes.
>
> John
>
> On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 7:40 PM, Andy Goodell  
> <[email protected]>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.
>>
> >>

Yours in Cycling,

Gilbert Anderson

North Road Bicycle Imports
PO Box 840
166 Court Square
Yanceyville, NC 27379
USA

Our newest direct local Yanceyville Area phone is 336-421-4054
Toll Free Research Triangle Area, NC area 919-828-8999
Toll free Nationwide 800-321-5511

email: [email protected]

www.northroadbicycle.com