I almost punched this bike repair man

young grease monkey said:

One time i got a flat and went into a the closest shop, the employee was very helpful and let me use his tools and stand, that was till the manager came in and absolutely flipped ****! This is in Oak Park, IL, the home town of the guy that coined the phrase global warming... The prius is the official car of this town basically. He called the little 2 stroke dirty and disgusting and what not, so i bought a tube and what not then went to the friendly hardware store I frequent to use their tools. The other shop I go to for parts, its a super high end shop that is very nice to me since ive known the guys there a while. they give great advice and know everything about bikes and hubs and what not, but they dont want to hear about my motorizing and what not. I had them build a front wheel for me, didn't tell them it was for my 99cc predator bike. He gave me advice about forks and what not and frame geometry even when he knew it was for the MB.

Click to expand...

Yep people tend to hate and or shun what they dont understand....

Look what happened to Jesus....


Very thankful to have a bike shop in my area that doesn't have a problem with motorized bikes, the fella is scared of them and wont work on them as far as an engine goes, but h3 has help a couple fellas with the as far as wheels and such, he wants to refer the mengi e stuff to me but I dont live in town and dont have time to mess with any of it right now so basically Im the only person in my area that can keep a motorized bike running good and reliable, the other fellas dont keep a bike going for long at all, Im sure none know about this forum accept for one new member here that I know of that lives in my area.

I only have one bike shop within any reasonable distance. 20 years or so ago I had a good opinion of them. I remember the kid who ran it. But he seems to be gone now. Sold the place, maybe.

The last time I went in I walked up to the little counter that looks over the shop area. There was one guy I recognized. I think he's the proprietor now. He and another guy were working on bikes on stands. They did not look up. They acted as though I wasn't there at all.

Now I'm a patient type. Maybe they had something difficult on their hands and honestly needed to get it buttoned down before taking their hands, their eyes and their minds off of it. So I waited. I don't remember just how long. But it wasn't forever. Likely less than one minute.

I was just on the verge of hollering, "GOOD MORNING, FELLOWS!!" when the proprietor looked up and came on over. I would have hollered it, too. They had taken long enough to justify that.

He got the part I needed and I bought it. He wasn't unfriendly, but he wasn't really excited about the sale, either. And during this time I was thinking that it seemed to me I'd been treated similarly in this place before.

That's about the time it all became clear. They could tell by the looks of me that I wasn't their target customer and that I wasn't the type who would be in constantly buying this or that. So they treated me accordingly.

So my attitude toward them now is sorta half-and-half. I kinda wish them the best of luck. But I kinda think, "Screw 'em".

They can't do anything for me that I can't do myself. And they don't have any parts that I can't get elsewhere.

I doubt if I'll ever go back.

mapbike said:

Yep people tend to hate and or shun what they dont understand....

Look what happened to Jesus....

Click to expand...

Jesus Christ rode a motorized bike?

That's sad but true. A lot of people in the service industry, like bicycles, hobbies, auto parts, etc., are just there because of their personal interests and have little or no sales training. I was in the auto parts business for 30 years and was trained by the owner, who was obviously bottom line oriented. The most important thing he made me understand was to have no negative impact on a customer. Never say "no, we don't carry that". Always stay positive and say something like "I'm sure I can help you". After trying to find the item, you can let them down easy with a recommendation. They always remember you as the one who helped them. I don't see that attitude often anymore.