bicycle shops hate us !!!

My local bike shops have become used to me...

Here comes that nut job with the funny looking looking C-clamp. :D

They haven't caught me with my numerical monkey wrench yet.

Jim
 
finally permision to buy another motor and build a back up bike ,,, why haden't i thought of this before?
as for the spandex mob they are as thick as theives by me . first a little back story,my property backs up to the local bike trail, great in some ways a pain in the ass in others. so some weekends there will be hords of yuppie weekend warriors out behind the house. I usted to try and be nice ,lett them fill up on water or use the can but man most of them are asses. they seem to think that there some kind of ultra fit alpha males struting around in nutt crunching shorts. one guy and his wife told me that they felt that pedestrians should be banned from the trail for saftey "so they don't get hit"?another was *****in that a father was teaching his kid to ride with training wheels on the trail and weaving back and forth in the trail, real class
at least the mbers in town all seem to be cool ,one guy does ride the trail and will get caught but theres always one right.
 
I hesitated to tell my local bike shop that I have a MB, but let it out and I got no reaction. 2 axle nuts for a buck, and on I went. Glad it went down that way, there are a lot of cyclers who don't like the arrival of MBs in Baltimore.
 
i went to three local bike stores today, since it's going to rain here for a coupla days, i figure i'd work on my bike.

i ended up buying one brake cable, no housing.

the first bike store, i asked for white cable housings. no deal, they only have black. every bike in that store was cheap beach cruisers. it was like a target, but just bikes.

the next store's been there for 60 years. they have some more beach cruisers, and a few hi end bikes.

no white cable housing, no good chain breaker, and no phil wood grease in the little green tube.

the third bike store, had more spandex then a cindarella concert, a bunch of fixster hipsters standing around, and no brake cables, a tiawan chain breaker, no grease, and not much for bikes anyway.

there were plenty of sneers to go around, though.

if i could find a good bike store, willing to order the big parts i need, stock the little ones, and not be so hypocritical and condescending, i sure would be happy...
 
the spokes are stronger than the solder. they'll flex, and break it (the solder.) that's why bikes use spokes, because they flex. they have to, otherwise, you're riding a shopping cart. spoked wheels are a form of suspension. they absorb and repel. if welding your spokes together worked, we'd all be riding centerline drag wheels. don't listen to "bike techs." they're the equivalent of a 7-11 clerk.

if they really knew the physical make-up of bicycle technology, they'd be applying it to some esoteric hybrid/solar/battery/perpetual motion machine.

hmmm... perpetual motion? that gives me an idea...
 
bicycle shops vs Motorcycle Shops

Finding a bicycle shop that has all the parts with the right prices is very difficult to find. I go to 3 bicycle shops regularly in my area. There are other 2 shops but they have very limited parts. The first shop I go to is the one that's most accessible, then the 2nd shop has these hard to find parts, but are not very friendly and accommodating, the 3rd shop is open on Sundays, but their prices is a litlle bit higher than the other shops. But for most of the parts, I buy online. I have only brought my MB once only to one bike shop when I had my headset replaced to install a suspension fork. The technician had no reaction at all, as if there was no engine, and just continued to work on the headset replacement. He did commented that I have some very good parts on my bike, that are not easy to find. I told him that I bought most of it online.

Ok, that's bicycle shops, what about motorcycle shops? I have gone to about 4 or 5 motorcycle shops and only one of them entertained me. All the others just ignored me as if I was an invisible entity as if as I was talking to the wind. But this 1 motorcycle shop that did entertain me, was pretty amazed on how the MB was built. He even tried to give me a brand new carburetor to try and install it. He said that if it fits, I can have it. Too bad I could'nt make it fit with the manifold. So that's 3 bicycle shops, about 3 to 4 online shops, and 1 motorcycle shop, and ofcourse there's ACE Hardware... :)

We should have a reputable Bike shop as a sponsor to this site, so that it can cater to all our needs. :)
 
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lol yeah - the local hardware store is constantly flabbergasted at my incessant requests for the oddest things...

Fortunately I work there :D


The only motorcycle shop around here I cant even describe due to the censorship protocols on this fine forum - needless to say they are clueless (even bout motorcycles o_O), expensive yet shabby, lousy selection, and somewhat hostile - without even knowing I was a motorbicyclist.

Epic fail, I wont be returning there obviously :p
 
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When I first got started into motored bicycling, I was buying
the more expensive reliable engine set-ups. They also offered a
variety of different bicycle wheels. When I noticed trouble about
installing Shimano HG70 cassettes on them. I notified and called
up about the trouble. Their responce was did you take it to a
bicycle shop to have it installed. After they tried to install one
of the cassette at their shop, they did verify that they had the
same problem installing it. They offered for me to send the wheel
back and they would fix it. But with shipping charges both ways,
I could buy another one for that price. I don't think it is just bicycle
shops that hates us. They lost a very good customer.
 
bairdco said:
i went to three local bike stores today, since it's going to rain here for a coupla days, i figure i'd work on my bike.

i ended up buying one brake cable, no housing.

the first bike store, i asked for white cable housings.
if i could find a good bike store, willing to order the big parts i need, stock the little ones, and not be so hypocritical and condescending, i sure would be happy...
Click to expand...


I have a couple of white cable housings (clutch cables from the really cheap kits).
PM me your address and they are yours.
 
bikeguy joe may have hit on somthing ,perhaps it's time to start a new kind of shop just for mber's
with the laws in IL. changing with the new year the iron may be hot! I've had my eye on an old gas station near me (and i need a job). the problem as always is start up cash...also there seem to be plenty of people selling pre builts so I'm not sure of the market. wildfire mb's in decatur Il. is the only builder I've seen with any prebuilds under a grand (that were any good). so perhaps a shop that caters to hard to find mb'er parts and custom stuff ,but that lends itself to working out of some garage somewere not a storefront location? can someone afford to stock a store and sell prebuilds and make money? are u also a regular bike shop or not? this is someting I would love to do for a living but not sure it would make any head way.
 
A few years back I went into the oldest (and snotty-est) bike shop here in FC and got the question from an employee "Why would you put an engine on a perfectly good bike ?". Bare in mind that I am standing in front of this young man with two prosthetic legs on wearing a pair of shorts...................DUH !!!
 
BarelyAWake said:
One of the interesting things they did with their MBs was to solder their spokes wherever they cross, saying that it stiffens the wheel considerably. I haven't tried this and if it weren't for the fact they're bike techs I would have scoffed and walked away... I'm prolly still not going to do it - but it's interesting anyway.

QUOTE]

on this note, a million years back when i used to race BMX, i remember seeing people with their spokes ziptied together. it'd probably stiffen things up a little, but it'd just be one more thing (or 36 more things) to break off and end up in your chain.
Click to expand...
 
About a week ago, when I was first installing my kit I walked into a bike shop that looked promising. Mainly because there was a MB outside. However, upon entering none of the staff would even talk to me about it, calling it a "death trap". The only person who would talk at all was the guy that owned the MB and all he said was to make sure my allignment was good.

I think people see us as lazy, converting our emissions free bikes into polluting, gas using motorized bikes.
I see it as a fuel efficient way to replace a car, if only sometimes.

I can't wait till some guy in a Hummer tries to give me heck. It will happen eventually.
 
I just dropped off my rear tire to my schwinn stingray MB at my local bike shop, because the bearings in the hub came out because the bearing cone(what holds bearings in hub) broke while I was riding it making the bike wobble like it had a flat tire. I had to push my bike home about 3 miles. Anyway, the guy at the bike shop complimented me on my bike (I told him what it was and that the second sprocket on the wheel is for the engine chain). He seemed cool about it, and told me that it should be done in a week, because they have to order a part for it. I was happy that the bike shop could help me, I thought that they would say no to fixing it.
 
some are cool with people that got MB some are not this one guy I was talking too was saying that it's dangerous and the frame cant handle the speed yet they sell e-bikes for 2 grand and are speed limited to 32kph and weigh a lot I'd rather spend the money on a china kit and change the bolts it would cost me maybe 500 to build with a road bike I've gone 50 and some times 60kph and nothing also better mpg 50 to 60 km range vs 100 to 150
 
Future Bicycle shop... :)

Bikeguy Joe said:
Have you guys ever thought of becoming your own bike shops?
Click to expand...

This has crossed my mind a lot of times, hoping I can make this into a reality. My nephew is a professional cyclist, and we are planning to put up a bicycle shop in the near future.
 
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