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In their early years of grey market pricing and free world wide shipping, they were selling Shimano parts cheaper than we could buy them in Canada at wholesale.Quote:
Originally Posted by joetron
Whenever a dude-brah got rude and all worked up and told us he was just going to order the part from CRC at half the price, I would calmly say, go right ahead, and I'll just make a note on your profile to charge you full labour costs to install or adjust it in the future.
Yep. The amount of shit I got at shops and working for Shimano during that time has got my schadenfreude firing hard rn.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dee Hubbs
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invariaby they ^^ would order the rong partsQuote:
Originally Posted by Dee Hubbs
https://road.cc/content/news/what-he...podcast-304619
i havent listened to it yet but it sounds intriguing
definitely sucks, and definitely more complex of an issue than I realize.Quote:
Originally Posted by bagtagley
Whoosh ! Industry stuff way over my head, listen to the brits wanking about on the link
Finished overhauling my fork today. fox 34 step cast. Full rebuild on air shalft and damper, and replacement of the broken off rebound adjuster. Swapped a fit 4 damper in there last spring and every time I do lowers there's a lot of air in it so i've bled it twice this year.
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So, get that all back together, really bleed it good, and it still seems to have some air after a few actuations. Saw some small bubbles around the bottom seal of the new bladder, and the top cap assembly also seems suspect. So fuck I dunno I guess I just ride it like this for awhile and try again some other time. And look into servicing the top cap I guess too.
Then I go do a pretty casual mtb/gravel loop after work tonight on the hardtail. Hear a funny pop when I'm the farthest away in the dark and then some rattling and yeah that's a broken spoke on my fancy trek wheel. Cut ride short and go back to town on the pavement.
Also the chain keeps coming off my new all city super professional commuter bike because it has a shitty fsa crankset so I have to replace all thatt including the bottom bracket to make the bike actually rideable. qbp offered a replacement fsa chainring which yeah i don't think that's going to do it.
Last day of summer/fall around here today. Make the most of it and get a ride in.
That’s a quality rant! It’s been beautiful and I’m not ready for our depth hoar building purgatory we’re going into mid week. Well it was a great fall!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunion 2020
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Yeah cold and snow and rain in the forecast. Should make our last two weeks of cyclocross fun
Followup- fork seems fine, dropper works good after the rebuild, and I replaced the main pivot bearings while shit was apart. Getting the new dropper cable/housing in there was pretty annoying because that foam anti-rattle sleeve really doesn't like going around the st/dt junction and I had to fish a fresh housing through there from scratch.
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And got that spoke replaced. And had a nice time riding last night.
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Didn't know it was possible to race Cyclocross in dry/mild weather.
Shop guys: “Shops barely make any money on bikes”
Also shop guys: “I’ve always been able to buy a new bike every year and flip it for what I paid or more.”
I get that it’s hard to run a shop. And shop guys deserve all the deals they get. But nobody’s ordering a fleet of bikes in a zero sum game.
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About ten years ago, when I was considering opening a bike shop, I did a lot of research. The national average margin on new bike sales was about 36%. The average break even point for a small-ish bike shop was 34% so yes, bike sales are roughly a break even proposition until you get into the upper stratosphere of volume.Quote:
Originally Posted by jm2e
For small to average size shops; they sell bikes to pay the rent and repair bikes and sell accessories to (hopefully) make a profit.
I’ve got a freaking rant: I want to buy a new bike with all these sales but I moved this summer and it won’t be financially responsible for at least a couple more months! Worried everything I want will be gone by then.
I’m also in terrible riding shape largely due to said move and settling in at a new place and job so the second part of my rant is that I’m fat and slow and it feels bad. I wish I could exercise in my sleep.
Don't feel bad. I'm *old* and fat and slow. But I love riding my bike in the woods. So I suffer when appropriate... and shuttle when I can. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Abies
I don’t think the deals are going away. I’m guessing the used market just gets better from a buyer perspective as the reality of student loans and rent needing to be paid and interest rates making it hard to impossible for many to replace vehicles soaks in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Abies
There are a lot of COVID checks sitting in apartments, barely ridden.
You may be right, and I’m a frequent used buyer as a champagne tastes coors budget sort of rider. Unfortunately, those financial realities are present for me too, including some student loan payments I figured were going away. Not a sob story as my new job is great and better paying than what I came from, but still, the responsible thing to do is wait.Quote:
Originally Posted by Canada1
In the meantime I’m focusing some extra energy into fundraising/grant writing for a small local trail system which is obviously way more important than my desire for new gear. So maybe cue another rant that it shouldn’t be so hard to get grant money to develop trails! Lots of value for rural communities at a pretty low cost is being ignored by state agencies here in CA.
I'd say that unless you're *really* picky and want a specific make/model of bike, you should be fine waiting like a responsible individual. :D
Some guy on the local trail network's FB page put up a post gloating about he spent 10 mins telling off some guy he found doing unauthorized trailwork on the network this past weekend. What was the "unauthorized work" that the guy was doing?... clearing drains, sawing fallen trees off the trail, trimming trail corridors, and blowing the trails free of leaves and debris. All on his own time, with his own tools, using his own gas. JFC i fucking hate people some times.
You guys get the leaves and debris blown off your trails??Quote:
Originally Posted by californiagrown
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back in the day say 20 yrs ago Cannondale was the brand that gave the best deal to a nobody shop rat, also they would start discounting bikes heavily in the fall with prices dropping by the week so the road bike I orderedactualy dropped in price as i waited for it to get here from eastern USA , I don't think it still happens like thatQuote:
Originally Posted by jm2e
I think depending on how high up you are in the shop hierarchy will dictate how good of a deal you can get from the brand, if you are the shop bro dealing with the brand rep directly you are more likely to get a bigger discount cuz you are the guy ordering the bikes SO maybe not everybody gets the deal where they can buy/ flip and come out of it paying nothing more than their initial invetment and you gotta flip often
shop bro I know would buy some carbon wheels, swap them onto the bike, do a ridewrap, showcase some spanky upgrades on the bike, do 20 rides, put the original still virgin hoops back on the bike maybe take off the upgrades, flip the bike half way thru the season breaking even and BTW a season up here is only 7 months so he had to do it fast and maybe flip 2 bikes a season
yup the association owns maybe 6 of the largest Sthil back pack leaf blowers and 6 of the largest sthil trimmersQuote:
Originally Posted by skaredshtles
last year during the fall work bee 2 of us got dropped at the high point with spare fuel and a blower, walk down blowing leaves, its a 10K hike with a bunch of weight on your back/ feet
spring work bee is cutting weeds n grass with the string trimmer
I had a coworker who still had access to his former jobs QBP login and would build up a new bike every year, and then sell it at cost or a small profit once he had a new bike built up.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
I miss those discounts :(
Yep, pretty standard around here. Keeps the drains clear and reduces mucky spots over winter.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
what happened with covid is prices went UP so bro's that had been content hanging out wearing bike clothing and not working very hard for less money decided they needed to go back to real jobs that paid mo money , now they still got some of the shop connection but also got mo money to pay for real life, also done at 4pm so the tradesman hrs are better than the 6pm retail hrs unless you like that kind of thing
we own industrial grade tools, we pay trail builders and pay a club admin for dealing with that shit
this spring shop guy told me there was not enough margin selling bikes and it had been that way since 2018 altho they had done well in covidQuote:
Originally Posted by Roxtar
Maybe not a true rant because this tire lasted much longer than I expected. However, I was hoping to get a few more rides out of it. Still holds air just fine. I’m going to try some Barge Cement to reattach the knob. Might hold up.
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