Re: Dear LBS

I guess I am lucky. When I moved to this neighbourhood in Alicante in June 2008, I discovered a small bicycle shop within 10 minutes walk from our house. It so happened that we needed a cheap bike for our teenage daughter, just something to get to school, the fitness center etc. (she has no interest in cycling as a sport, it is pure transportation in the 1-3 km range). So we bought it there. Then, when I decided to get into cycling more seriously in the autumn of 2009, I bought my mountain bike there, and last year, in April, my KTM road bike. Later in the year, we also got a mountain bike for my wife from them, a low-end model of a good brand. All in all I have spent around 3000 EUR on those 4 bikes during a period of 2.5 years, so I have given them a fair amount of business (I have of co
 urse also spent money with them on various odds and ends). A lot of other people in the area have evidently done the same, because last year they moved to a bigger location 100 metres down t
 he street :-)

My latest purchase from them was going to be the new 105 shifters and cables to put on my road bike--the new 105 has the cables routed under the tape, like Campagnolo, thus enabling the use of a handlebar bag. I checked with the shop and they checked the price with the Spanish distributor, and it turned out to be 100 Euro more than I would pay at my favourite UK online shop. And the difference is not the local shop's markup--the profit is with the distributor. So the guy in the shop suggested that I just buy the stuff online and they would put it on for me, charging me just for the new tape and the labour. All in all I saved around 80 Euro and the shop lost no profit.

I will continue to shop at this place. I like to get good service and be known by my first name. For me, the LBS coexists happily with the online world (I do buy stuff from Wiggle etc. also).

Nathan Wajsman
[email protected]

Alicante, Spain
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YNWA