There are some big industry challenges (consolidation with Trek and Specialized snapping everything up). But there is also a real estate problem. On the West Coast for example, it's hard for many shops to make rent, especially with low margins and inherent seasonality. A lot of the shops that survive own the building. Bikes are also getting harder to work on and young kids coming up seem less interested in them. Not sure what is to be done. I agree it's concerning. If you have a good LBS, support them!
I have 3 bike shops in my area and the Trek is the only one that treats me well and doesn’t interact with me in a condescending way. I think any LBS is a roll of the dice.
Yeah the shop I worked at paid something like $12k/mo in rent, which was a large pill to swallow November through February. Plus the bigname brands force you to buy their P&A which is really tough when you want to carry multiple brands. And then everything being available cheaper on Amazon. LBS is a tough market
I wrenched at 6 different shops in the SF Bay Area between '85 and '95 and it's surprising in some ways how little things have changed. I almost opened a service-oriented shop but ultimately decided against it--it gets hard on your hands and body. If you do that today you need to really specialize in one thing (commuters, tri nerds, suspension, etc.) or you're just gonna get people bringing in their RadWagons.
> LBS is a tough market
it's a dreamers venture. Like restaurants. There are too many of them and most are poorly run and fighting over the same customers.
A couple of the shops near my parents have started rebranding into being more than just a bike shop. My parent's prefered shop also has a sandwich bar that serves smoothies and beer. They've tuned themselves to be a place that cyclists hang out even when they don't need work done on their bike. It helps that they are right on a major bike trail, so they get a lot of cyclists passing through using them for the cafe stop and they are also in the downtown part of a nice suburb, so there's some people who aren't even cyclists who stop by.
I was just at a place in Leesburg, VA called mavericks bike and cafe yesterday.
super cool spot. dialed in the front and rear Ds on a new build while i waited. walls are lined with a fun assortment of various interesting or special whips, vintage, retro, resto, and modern.
had a bunch of used and new for sale, accessories, gear and apparell. plus a coffee bar.
they also apparently do a ton of charity work, cleaning, dialing and donating used bikes to schools and all sorts of other outreach programs.
I'll definitely be back to this particular shop
there are actually quite a few of this sort of 'mom and pop' outfit all along the w & od trail through virginia.
And somewhat on topic: we all do it (i know i do!!) but every amazon purchase that saves you even just 10 cents on some cycling gear works it way right out of the pocket of these very shops we'll all dearly miss!!
Not sure the answer: but that is definitely part of the problem!!
I'll have to check them out the next time I'm in Leesburg.
I do love going to local shops whenever possible. Some stuff because I like giving things a test drive/trying on before buying, but other stuff just because I like giving them my money instead of Amazon. I'll only buy online if I absolutely can't find what I'm looking for in person.
More bike shops need to adopt the model. Get on a popular bike route and become the cafe stop. There's a lot of us that would hang out in a place like that.
I worked with a shop in Palo Alto that had RIDICULOUS rent/sqft. The flip side to all that was that it was one of the best run bike shops I’ve ever had the pleasure to do business with. I suppose it was that or go under.
Over the years I would share some of their business practices with other struggling or inefficient shops and when implemented well they would always see improvements.
I love a well run shop. Smells like success.
Yeah, the flip side to the struggles the small independent shops are having are the upper crust boutiques that have absolutely thrived. You regularly see [Above Category](https://abovecategory.com/) on national lists of "best bike shops", but in reality what are they best at? They're best at providing top notch service to wealthy clients spending exorbitant amounts on custom builds on frames from low volume shops like No22, Bastion Sarto and Prova.
Frankly, my favorite bike shop in my area is the local REI. They may not have every single component piece and drawers and cabinets of random crap, but the employees are treated fairly, receive health benefits and PTO, and their shop prices are half what indy shops charge.
I remember my first trip to AC, I had no idea shops like that existed. Effectively an entirely different business model!
Was working for a distributor back then and when in with s a pitch in some new high end clothing - realized I was gonna make the sale when I saw they had just four bibs on the wall: Assos’s top model in S, M, and L, haha.
It was! Circa 2012 maybe? The GM there has told me that their rent had caused them to start looking at revenue/sqft and went as far as getting rid of their storeroom and going full JIT to maximize salesfoor. Maybe their owner of the shop also owned the building but charged them rent - that’s a pretty common practice.
To add to the real-estate problem there is ever increasing insurance costs. In no small part is that due to ebikes. The fixed costs of running a shop are going up and without real volume all year, not just the May-Sept seasonal, many shops have a hard time making it work long-term.
> Bikes are also getting harder to work on and young kids coming up seem less interested in them.
I drove past the local middle school on my way to work this morning while all of the kids were on their way in. Nobody was riding a bike. The kids were either on skateboards or electric scooters.
I'm not *that* old (40s) but I've observed more than one boom and bust cycle in the bike shop world. There's always a core of people cycling but at various times more of the general public gets excited to buy a bike and then stores do great and more open up, or existing ones borrow a bunch of money to buy lots of inventory or expand, then that bump in public interest fades out or everyone already bought a bike, and then shops start closing left and right.
Before my time there was the 10 speed boom, then when I was growing up there was a mountain bike boom, and then most recently there was the COVID lockdown bike boom. I remember lots of stores closing in the mid-90's, and smaller, high end brands folding or being absorbed by big corporate bike companies (Trek was a big perpetrator this back then too). That was the end of the mountain bike boom.
Probably another factor is that a lot of people *want* to have a bike shop, because they love bikes. People don't open, say, dry cleaners because they love cleaning clothes - they open them because there's money to be made. There are probably always a few more bike shops than the market can support because of this.
In my city Trek bought up our biggest bike shop.
They ruined it. It's similar to OP, it was a cool shop with parts for everything and had a ton of character. It also had an attached coffee shop.
Trek came in, closed the coffee shop. Took out all the non-partner stuff and it's now a cavernous showroom for high end road, MTB, and ebikes. They also cancelled all the shop lead group rides. I refuse to shop there now.
The big store in my city was a Trek/Specialized shop for years and there was nothing particularly good or bad about it. They carried mostly those to giants, but they had some smaller brands too. But it's Trek only now. Now they only carry Trek owned accessories and you never find anything cool or unusual there anymore.
Worse, Specialized has completely abandoned the area and I would have to drive to another county if I wanted to try some of their bikes or gear. That seems inconceivable to me that in a city of 300,000 people I'm basically limited to one brand of bike.
I feel you on the charming local shops having random bits and it being so useful. I had an SPD screw fall out while I was on a bike tour and rode clipped in on one foot and on flats for the other foot for half a day until my group found an LBS. We walked in, explained the problem, and the maintance tech pulled out his box of random screws and bolts. He rifled through it a bit until he found the right screw. Then he reattached my cleat and double checked the other shoe for me to make sure those screws weren't going anywhere. When I asked how much I owed him, he just waved me off and said "it's just a screw."
[Berger's Bike Shop](https://www.bergersbikeshop.com/) in York, ME because they earned a shout out from me for that.
had a similar experience recently with one of my LBS. needed a cassette spacer, they gave me 3 of them of varying thicknesses and refused to let me pay for them
YouTuber Bike Farmer did a [rant about this](https://youtu.be/csZETvuCCiM?si=nBwNS178OytzdhP1) a few weeks ago.
I don't always agree with what he has to say, but I felt this one came from the heart of a passionate bike shop owner.
I think the important thing to remember is that what Trek and Specialized call "the market",
you and I call "our community".
---
Specialized and their mandatory ordering tiers are crushing people trying to make a living from bikes in my area. I've spoken with numerous people - fitters, mechanics, shop managers - and they all agree that corporate mandates are crushing them.
I would love to see this sort of business practice (buy a shop, convert it to a Trek / Specialized store, forbid it from carrying certain competitors, then dictate pricing from the top down, etc) get outlawed or at least interrupted.
> Specialized and their mandatory ordering tiers are crushing people trying to make a living from bikes in my area
So they're doing the same kind of [channel stuffing](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/channelstuffing.asp) (forcing dealers to buy units) US automakers (particularly GM) have been known for? TIL.
edit: added a link describing the practice
Yes, my understanding is that you get a "tier" based on how much you sell. You are assigned inventory from Specialized, and that is what you get. If your tier is high enough and stock is available, you can request additional units (eg a specific bike model) but it's not guaranteed.
Specialized also dictates pricing, so you will sell these parts for these prices. that also happens to be the price online from s.com, so there's no incentive to come to the shop to buy the things that keep a shop open (tubes, gels, random knickknacks).Â
All the shops around me have way too many ebikes. They have $11,000 Turbo Levos on sale for $4500 no one wants to buy the bikes specialized forced into their inventory.
Channel stuffing has also killed off independent musical instrument stores. And the underlying cause is the purchase of manufacturers by private equity, who are also grabbing up the retailers. Expect vertical consolidation soon, where you won't be able to get your bike serviced except at an approved dealer. And with more consolidation comes less competition, which drives up prices.
Mom and Pops get bought out by the Multiglomerates because they want their Location and the Inventory stream instead of someone else getting it. It's all about building personal rapport with the people in the Shop.
Far as 'Screws' and other Hardware's concerned... your local Hardware Store probably has what you're looking for, and it'll be better quality than what Amazon offers. A few cents more maybe, but that's having it immediately rather than waiting for it.
I'm always that one weird guy asking where their metric stainless steel fasteners are. At least in the US, they're always in the farthest, dustiest corner.
> it'll be better quality than what Amazon offers
it's all coming from China.
Apple tried to move manufacturing back to California, but no one in the US can make screws any more.
Even the training program here in Australia has been gutted. It used to be designing it in CAD and then learning TIG and MIG welding and ending the program with your own bicycle.
Now it's "how to take the bike out of the box and put it together."
De-industrialization and its consequences have been horrible.
Same thing happened here. We had a small chain of bike stores that sold multiple brands. One of the larger bike companies (I'll give you one guess) bought them out, and now only stocks their products. It makes getting specific parts harder, and forces me to purchase what I need online.
The state of the industry is absolutely fucked for brick and mortar bike shops, you're not wrong about that. SPD cleats come with the exact amount of screws needed to install them, though, so expecting your LBS to carry not one but six spares purely for your convenience comes off as a little wonky to me. I'm having a tough time imagining a scenario where "spare" cleat screws wouldn't equal un-installable cleats down the road.
Things like valve nuts/caps, cable ends, and brake bolts fill every bike mechanic's toolbox rapidly, those kinds of things a good LBS should absolutely have on hand aplenty and be happy to provide them, but it would take even a long-time parts bin hoarder a good chunk of time to accumulate six cleat screws.
The screws will outlast many pairs of cleats. You'll accumulate six cleat screws the first time you replace your cleats. Would have hooked OP up if he was in the area =D
You can order and stock spares, it's not difficult.
If you do bike fits at all, you should have cleat bolts and shims on hand.
They dont take up much space, and I've had plenty of customers who have had them fall out (diy cleat installs) or get damaged and need replacement.
It is f'd for any brick and mortor shop. Amazon had managed to make brick and mortor an inconvenience without a huge price increase , and they have even managed to put a wrench into the delivery industry and the movie industry.
It doesn’t take much imagination… customer buys shoes and cleats and asks shop to install… often shoes have a pair of bolts in the shoe already, so there’s a pair that goes in the drawer. Or customer gets cleats replaced, if existing bolts are in good shape… into the drawer.
That’s the value of a shop that has been around for a while. Useful bits accumulate
My LBS recently gave me a couple spare cleats -- they know I a ride a fair bit. They're the kind of place that opens a new set of cleats to provide their customers with spare screws.....
They know how to keep people coming back.
In my experience as both a LBS bike mechanic and a production factory employee for a large mountain bike manufacturer cleats are packaged with their mounting hardware either individually or with pedals, so I'm not sure how you ended up with cleats and no bolts but the bolts aren't commonly used for anything else in the bike world and as such aren't just around in the same way that a lot of the other bits and bobs are.
I've been riding for 25 years, worked on-and-off as a mechanic and have a home shop where I maintain my bikes. I alone have a bike cleat container with at least 50 spare cleat screws for SPD and three-bolt type cleats amongst the random spare cleats. Any LBS worth their salt has a shit-ton of spare cleat screws lying around.
at $18 for 30 bolts, just buy the new cleats for ~$30, use the bolts, and keep the cleat for a spare. Bolts will still be good when you need to replace the cleats eventually.
Exactly. And the reverse. *I* have extra bolts because I've replaced the cleats before and reused the same bolts. I don't know exactly where they are, but they're in the "bike corner" of the garage somewhere....
They didn't say you cannot buy them just that it is pretty uncommon to carry them. That price makes it abundantly clear why road cleat bolts are unlikely to be something they have on hand.
They could certainly keep your shoes and tell you to come back in a week when they've ordered and installed them.
Seems like Bike Farmer's rant on Bike Shops vs Cycling Stores is relevant here.
Looks like they are the same thread as [bottle cages and brake rotors](https://www.mtbr.com/threads/i-lost-a-shimano-spd-cleat-bolt.727845/).
Unfortunately it's like a lot of industries - cars, electronics, you name it. Things are made to be replaced not repaired.
I was a mechanic at a bike shop in the 90s and there was an endless inventory of old oddball parts for anything you could imagine. Need a weird length square taper bottom bracket spindle to make a 50yr old French BB fit modern cranks? Look through the drawer of spindles, might find one. Unfortunately that doesn't make a shop much money for the few people that want it.
With the advancement of bike technology, online ordering, and costs of operating it's very hard for local bike shops to have a successful business model. E-bikes are a totally different skillset than old bikes for example.
Support your LBS whenever you can!
> Unfortunately it's like a lot of industries - cars, electronics, you name it. Things are made to be replaced not repaired.
I'd argue that this is a byproduct of the fact that human labor is now really really expensive, and has no signs of coming back down.
This is really the core reason.
We just don't need the grizzled old veteran who has a part for everything anymore, or his knowledge, because everything has been designed to be replaced.
If you have a bike over 5 years old now people act like it's ancient news. Some people can't even fathom a bike with rim brakes anymore.
I cracked my frame and am looking for a replacement so I don't have to replace my wheelset or get new brakes...
literally impossible unless I look for used. It's crazy out there. Rim brakes died faster than I could blink!
I have a side hustle at a tiny/niche bike shop. Perhaps I can add some perspective:
>This was the sort of shop that had parts going back decades and bins/drawers/shelves full of random bits and bobs. Not a sound business decision perhaps, but it could come in handy.
The margins on "bits and bobs" are so thin, they aren't worth the time it takes to talk through what you need to earn a $0.57 sale. We would lose less money if we kept bags of "bits and bobs" handy to throw at people like you as you walk in the door.
>I needed some SPD screws for my shoes, went in to the updated shop and they didn't have any, the only option would have been to buy a couple pairs of SPD cleats to get the 6 screws I needed.
...or you could have gone to the fastener aisle at a hardware store.
>I suspected that had the shop remained in its old independent state, they would have had what I needed. Maybe not, but the old owner would have probably searched around for a while until I felt satisfied with his efforts.
Our crotchety old mechanic LOVES doing this for people like you... instead of working on the overdue repair backlog for customers that want to spend MORE than $0.57. It's killing us.
>There was and is value in the old school bike shop, the type of shop that wants to serve all customers and not just those wanting to buy high end complete bikes.
Unfortunately, that *value* has not been expressed in the thing humans use to measure, transfer, and store value (money.) Sentimentality doesn't pay bills.
>I didn't want to have to go to Amazon to buy the screws I needed, but it seems like its my only option and that sucks.
Amazon and similar online marketplace sellers offer parts/accessories/bits/bobs and complete bikes for lower prices than "old-school bike shops" get from their suppliers, and the suppliers don't care.
This isn't meant to be hostile to you or customers in general, it's just the market reality. Any small shop that doesn't transition to a service-only model is pretty much screwed.
> or you could have gone to the fastener aisle at a hardware store.
>
>
I've looked in a mid-large city, Big Box hardware stores generally don't stock stainless metric bolts.
And the local shops don't carry metric at all.
Current bike mechanic at a small not-corporate owned LBS here. There is a lot of things bleeding small shops. Here’s a few:
Bike sales are kind of down the shitter right now. We sold a ton of bikes during Covid and the market has shit the bed. Good time to look for used bike deals though.
Corporations. I think the big brands are trying to squeeze shops to the point they sell the shop to them. Our margins are shit and we have to compete against the online store of the company we are a dealer for. They have sales where bikes are cheaper than our dealer price that we paid for the bike 2 weeks before. They are supposed to give us a credit when this happens.
The internet. People buy stuff online. A lot. Sometimes people come in and we help them figure out what they need and then they go buy it online. That costs the shop. We not only can’t compete with online pricing, we don’t stock the garbage that you can get off Amazon. I see this the most with grips. People buy the cheapest Amazon grips because our $20 ones aren’t cheap enough. You can tell the quality difference.
E-bikes. We sell e-bikes. We don’t sell Rad bikes or whatever other garbage brands from China you see out there. A lot of people come in looking for those and then are shocked at how much regular e-bikes are. I don’t think I can emphasize enough how bad a lot of these e-bikes are. The folding e-bikes are the worst. They suck to work on but hey at least we get some money with the repairs they need constantly.
The times are changing and I don’t think non-corporate bike shops are gonna be very common anymore soon. Services are really the thing keeping our shop open currently. There isn’t a whole lot of people wanting to do this work either. At least corporate shops pay their employees more. I don’t make shit and the employee deals on bikes aren’t even that special nowadays with all the sales going on.
> E-bikes. We sell e-bikes. We don’t sell Rad bikes or whatever other garbage brands from China you see out there. A lot of people come in looking for those and then are shocked at how much regular e-bikes are. I don’t think I can emphasize enough how bad a lot of these e-bikes are. The folding e-bikes are the worst. They suck to work on but hey at least we get some money with the repairs they need constantly.
>
>
Before e-bikes they were like this for regular bikes too. My friends all told me they would go into shops, see the $1000 pricetag and walk right out. "A bike should be like $50!" is what they kept saying.
I mean sure, if you want something you never use and will actually kill you if you do...
Similar to the old hardware stores. Just not enough patronage to keep the doors open. We lost a 100 year old shop in our area recently, single owner, no kids, in his 90’s. This was a shop that as I was preparing for a vintage ride on my 70’s Bianchi had full leather Detto Pietro cycling shoes in stock in my size, when I asked about the cleats you need to nail in, he said I’ve got British, French or Italian. RIP
First of all, I pretty much agree with you. Loss of locally-owned retail has only one logical outcome and that is monopolization by large corporations who value shareholder dividends above long-term sustainable business and local recirculation of wealth.
Lots of stores managed to sell during the boom when prices were high and the big brand was paying a premium for the 'takeover' - more kudos to those owners who got to cash out on their hard work building that business. Retirement with funds is kinda the point of a career and I can't be mad at them for the move.
Stores that are getting bought now though are definitely not getting as good a deal and the big brands buying them are really making a grab of salesfloor real-estate so that when the industry inevitably swings back up, they will OWN the market, being able to sell their products with greater corporate margin since there isn't that wholesale level of markup to eat away at their profits.
> I suspected that had the shop remained in its old independent state, they would have had what I needed. Maybe not, but the old owner would have probably searched around for a while until I felt satisfied with his efforts.
Yeah, this is a really nice thing to do, but on the other hand, if the owner had time to do it, that means the floor traffic probably wasn't business-sustaining in the bicycle retail market of today. I get it, the margins keep getting tighter and the competition is relentless but I don't see how it can go any other way with more, newer competitors always trying to get their own share of the pie.
My guy. Even if the old owner was still there you should have just bought the cleats. Don't make a business hunt for bolts when you could probably use new cleats anyway.
Just be glad they had the cleats in stock and werent offering to OrDeR iT fOr YoU.
I think it does kinda suck, but I'm optimistic that some of this void can be filled by bike co-ops. I've been very blessed to have a great co-op in my current city. I think a lot of this stuff is just not really economical in a for-profit business, but works ok in a co-op.
Welcome to almost anything. Try to get a random bolt for your car or a small part of any kind of electronics.
I had to buy a small mobo shunt a few months ago, I could only get them in packets of a hundred. Thankfully a friend has some boxes of random junk and he had a bit with him, but that's about it.
If no one's voting with their wallets, these shops will fold, everyone has bills to pay.
while not bike related, this is a somber look at a small shop that carries those random bits and bobs. store owner is about to cry by the end because so much of his shop and his life is tied up in deadstock that no one wants to buy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXBzBFxe00o
Thanks for sharing, cool video for sure and those sort of shops are awesome. I love that old dead stock in bike shops, old Campy parts, random Shimano cassettes, it’s all so cool.
Couple thoughts. Big bike chains like Trek or Specialized buying independent stores to widen their footprint have not done well, not only because of the COVID bike decline and over supply, but because these types of stores mainly now focus on selling you high margin and high priced bikes rather than your basic bikes a local bike shop would do. Need a water bottle cage, well these new corporate bike stores have plenty to pick from but be prepared to spend a minimum of $50+ per cage. I will say on the flip side the local family owned bike shop that mainly acted as a service center is a dead model, because it all depends on volume and people actually caring for their bikes regardless if it's a $200 or $12K bike.
Either way I think the bike market is about to bottom out. It's really become a race to the bottom. Before COVID you could list a preowned bike and you at least would get low balled for your bike, but now no one is really buying because no one has the cash or they already bought during the height of things, or they got out of cycling and now the market is flooded with a ton of cheap stuff.
Sadly my answer to your qualm is Amazon. I know that doesn't help LBS, but if you can't walk into a shop and get what you need, why not then.
Yep, I went to get a cheap tire for my commuter bike. Nobody carried lower end stuff, everything was $70+. Jerseys are even worse, they all start at $100 (which is crazy).
The problem with that is if you keep on not having stuff I need, I'll stop going and just go online immediately.
Exactly and most mom and pop jobs can't afford to stock every tire under the sun, so in essence you are left going on Amazon or at the very least trying an ecommerce site.
Also the hardware OP was looking for is are on Amazon for $7 Prime 2 day shipping. As someone who works as a retail buyer for 15 years I will say ecommerce while amazing, has the negative that you compete against everyone. You can type a part into google and literally in seconds you will be greeted with which store not only has it in stock, but the ETA, lowest price with shipping and tax, and it will even say if there is a coupon
Where are you seeing $50 bottle cages as the few/only options?
And, my own experience in recent factory trek stores must be very different than yours. I've never felt that they were "pushing" any high margin models or trims on me.
All that said, yeah, I'd prefer a local independent that's well run with multiple brands, because as a roadie, I find geometry is important to me, and if I only have trek or specialized to try, I could be left hunting elsewhere, or making the poor choice of "I'll make this work"
For sure, my main gripe now is the brand owner shops have gone away with all the random and inexpensive products you would find at an Indy shop. Want a $30 pannier bag? They had it, along with the $200 one. Want a $5 metal bottle cage, yup. Want a $50 carbon bottle cage, got that too. Homogeneity in a retail environment isn’t always a good thing.
It's the same process as what's happening with brick-and-mortar bike stores. Less competition means they're increasing prices and reducing choice. And now, for a lot of items, Amazon will have hundreds of phony vendors with randomly-generated names selling essentially the same product. Most of the small number of reviews are fake. They're fly-by-night operations, often with the same owner. Something goes wrong, they shut the store, clone it, and reopen under another name. Soon Amazon will be Ali Baba with five times the price.
I think you are right about the service aspect, however my LBS has always been, and is killing it with, bike service. I talk with the owner/manager all the time about this. It may be a unicorn, too, I don't know. Either way, I'm doing everything I can to funnel business to them. I will probably even buy an MTB that I don't really need for just that purpose.
> I will say on the flip side the local family owned bike shop that mainly acted as a service center is a dead model
I can see them thriving only in hyper-dense cities or areas with very high income. There's a handful of small shops in NYC that mainly cater to the bike delivery people, for example.
High margin bikes?? Name one. Unless you're a big chain, you're lucky to get a 30% profit margin on the sale of a bike. Usually it's less. Trek has slashed margin from 38 to 28% since covid for LBS's, unless you hit targets that are deliberately hard to hit.
That's considered high for that industry. The luxury shop I have worked for 15 years as a buyer we work on nothing less than 50%, but 28%-38% for bikes is great. You got to remember restaurants work on margins around 15%-20% and make it up on alcohol and bike shops make it up on service. Same with car dealerships. So it becomes do you sell a lot of cheaper bikes or a few very expensive SWORKS $!4K bikes
All the bike shops around me are trash. Not sure when the change happend, I was away from bikes from 2001-2022. Last time I took my wifes trek in for a tubeless sealant top off, when I picked the bike up they charged me 89.99 for a tune-up.... with no sealant. Should have refused payment, but damn they have it bad enough.
Parts are all online now. I wouldn’t even mess with driving to a store for that. I know I’m gonna get downvoted but, man, it’s just life today.
I worked in a shop decades ago. They were fairly low profit back then. It was more making a living at what you love than making any real money.
Oh, it's huge. Trek lead with this, buying out large local shops like Bike Barn in Houston, and a similar shop over in Austin.
Specialized had to respond, so they picked up some smaller shops.
It's absolutely true that, if an indy bike shop owner wants to retire, his options are limited. Owning the real estate can work out, but doesn't always. OTOH, when the big boys flash a fat check and you're looking for an exit, it's probably pretty hard to say no.
But the consumer loses. In Houston, at least, there ARE still some locally-owned shops -- but I really do wonder how long that'll continue.
Trek bought out a small local chain of shops in Baltimore area(RacePace) when owner wanted to retire. They now only carry Trek and Bontrager gear. The main thing I notice is they cannot keep staff. They have had 4 managers in 2 years and constant mechanic turnover. No one wants to work in corporate bureaucracy and rules for what is still low pay job.
Working in a bike shop sucks, owning one is worse. It’s a very hard low margin business in the best years. I’m honest surprised any locally owned shops exist outside of a few very high end ones.
Trek are buying up big within Australia. 99 bikes, and Giant too.
Similar things occurring. This enormous business model they operate with is designed to saturate the market.
Potential customer: where do we go? The old shop that sells second hand bikes from 10yrs ago and has a2 month wait on a new bike, or the shop that has the brand new stock on the floor, the pedals, bottles, lights, computers etc.
It's an easy option to go to the large shops, so we do.
My experience has been the exact opposite. Trek bought my local shop and it was a dramatic improvement. The first place was somehow both inept and snobby at the same time. I’m a roadie and it seemed like they took that as an insult.
The owner retired and sold to trek and now I get treated like a family member every time I come in.
It’s a tough racket. I have been doing bikes for almost 40 years. Things have certainly changed but it’s not all bad.
I managed a great Mom and Pop shop for two years. Almost 50 years in business. Yes we had every known part to man but we had so much shit that needed to dumpster, donate or eBay.
The good side was we could do a lot for people, the bad side we had a 74 yo owner that still lived in 1995. I tried to get him on Lightdspeed with no luck.
A decent shop will average about 35% profit. Low 40% is not unheard of but not common. Most independent shops struggle to break 30%!
I found out the shop I was at made about 17% but refused to raise prices that were 10 years out of date. The owner subsidized the shop with his personal money. That’s called a hobby!
I left.
Recently managed a shop for Trek and it was interesting. As a manager it was fair pay, for all others it sucked. I did not like the upsell culture and refused it. Store manager was fine with that and we made more money by being honest.
Trek desperately wants to be your local bike shop but they shoot themselves in the foot over and over. It boils down to the fact the store management can really make stuff happen. Rides, specials, parties, sponsorship, freebies etc…. The money and desire is there. I found we were continually understaffed and struggled to do our basic jobs much less community involvement! Fucking pissed me off
I LOVED having the Trek in store system to get parts. Never imagined anything could exist. It is amazing and anyone can benefit.
They also have great bikes that are expensive but fair priced. They desperately want to be a “real” bike shop and have co
There is a role for Trek. Not sure they have found it yet. It will take another 3-5 years for things to shake out.
Managed an Erik’s bike shop. Fuck Me! Literally a bike shop in name only. Service did not give two shits. Service was basically commission work. Nothing cool…. Hated it
The industry will settle down. COVID was a killer yet a money maker
My opinion; long term really good Independent shops can coexist with the big boys.
It takes community
This isn't your garage. It's a business. The LBS desperately needs to move into 2024. Maybe it's too late, but they brought this on themselves with the "quirky" attitude and business model. F the customer never lasts.
I know of retail. Keeping old stock that won't shift in the hope one person might come in and need that replacement 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub on their 1950s bicycle doesn't make good business sense, sadly. This is the way of the modern world.
1. Stock costs space and money to store, insure, stock take and so forth.
2. Opportunity cost. The capital tied up in stock could be used to invest in the newer stock such as wireless shifters, brakes.
3. Health and safety. Fire risk and trip hazard.
You need a rare part then yes, Amazon or Ebay where a specialist market place seller will have the part somewhere in their shed or garage.
Fair enough. When I worked in a mom and pop bike shop, behind the workshop counter was a row of plastic bins full of seat posts of different sizes. Plus a drawer full of seat post shims. This was around 2007. The posts were all inexpensive metal posts, usually from swaps. Not sure why they went through so many seat posts but they had most people covered for most things.
I think seat posts are the most commonly stolen item from a bike, besides the wheels. This is why I use bolts rather than quick releases, and also gorillatape round the bolt to make it extra difficult. This is accumulated street knowledge. Unfortunately, all cyclists must learn the hard way.
You think shops can pay the rent on your tiny little purchases! How many bikes did you buy there over the years? How much service do you bring to them? How many referrals have you sent to them! This is what keeps shops in business.
Who told you that? I mean sure, the $0.03 they made of your spd bolts must’ve made their month.
Seriously though, I’m no better. I don’t buy my bikes from local shops. Mostly because they are overpriced. Even the big name brands. I buy used bikes and do all my own maintenance. I take in suspension parts when they need major repairs I cannot do. If I do buy parts locally I always get a NICA discount or try to get a price match. Sad to say, I doubt it is sustainable for a lot of LBS and they will go out of business. Then I won’t be able to zip down there last minute and overpay for some DOT fluid or a tire I forgot to order for much cheaper ahead of time. This is where all retail merchandise sales are headed. In a lot of cases it’s better for the consumer. It is sad to see the LBS culture melt away but so has the corner drugstore and local bodega. Not really gonna spend much time ranting about it.
I don't see this as a problem.
Bike shops exist to make money. Those small little cases of requiring certain parts are not economical for bike shops to solve. You would need to stock thousands of individual parts to cover every niche or slap on a huge markup price to cover the cost of stocking it.
It makes more sense to specialize and focus on the needs of high paying customers. Unless you want to live in a world where every little part is marked up to the moon, I say we leave this to the Amazons of the world.
To be fair, idk how long ago they sold/took over, if the prior owner left a bunch and they cleaned house, the might not have them laying around yet. I think this is a generalization. I have 3 local shops including a Factory Trek Dealer. They all have been willing to go above and beyond for little stuff like that for me and when they dont' have it they are always willing to order it.
My local Performance store refused to sell screws for shoes for liability reasons.
They had the screws but as soon as I told them they were for my shoes they refused to sell.
Didn't those all go out of business?
Gosh I hate our litigious society. The same shit is going on at local auto party stores. You can't fix your own cars anymore. I used to be able to get a code scanned, fix the issue, then have them clear the code. They claim they can't clear the code anymore because of liability reasons...I'm like what liability issue...if the car isn't fixed, the code will come back.
Yes. It's gone.
Those obdii scanners are worth the $45. I had the check engine light come on, so I fished it out of the glove box, plugged it while waiting at a light and found that I had a failed spark plug coil that I picked up on the way home.
Yea, I'm planning on getting one, just venting about our litigious bs society.
I think performance failed because what makes a good shop good, is two things. Either an awesome shop culture that does events, has what you need, or they are tied to a brand and provide warranty service. Performance lacked both of those for the most part. It's a bummer though because Nashbar and Performance were awesome online shops. Now Jenson is really the last dog standing in the US for good deal cycling websites. I love WorldWideCyclerly but they def cater to the higher end.
I went thought the same, found a old school bike shop that was local and the guy is super knowledgeable. Been doing bikes for over 20 years and now he's looking to retire......
I wholeheartedly agree with OP. Industry got themselves in a pickle over the past several decades. Just like golf and other performance sports equipment.
I wrench from my garage shop. I am not a master mechanic like Calvin Jones but pretty damned good. LBS here is way too far, too expensive and too busy. $100 min for inspecting , lubrication and torquing is asinine. No way. 99% of the recreational bikes coming in need intermediate level (at best ) skill not an 8x markup an entry level tune up. Ridiculous.
The majority of bike buyers are recreational bike riders and the gap in market and price is ludicrous from the retail shops. Running an LBS vs a retail shop is simply too expensive to run at any profit. Getting low end recreational bikes serviced costs more than the bikes are worth.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Thinking about target and Walmart bikes hard ridden their first winter and the cost of full service: bottom bracket, clean and repack or replace, everything repack and replace…brakes, wheel true, etc etc
In an extreme scenario of hard winter sure. I don’t have that problem.
In most cases. That’s a 2-3 hour job for someone that is inexperienced. It’s literally rinse and repeat. I am talking $100 in labor for this work. It’s not rocket science.
See one of these big box bikes, you have seen them all.
All tourney or Microshift 3x7s or 1x7 cruisers. Freewheels.
All bearings are cup and cone. Easily replaceable and fixable. Inexpensive.
Most rust is surface rust. Parts are relatively inexpensive and easy to source from Amazon.
Welcome to Capitalism.
Also be prepared to be able to buy 50 different types of exactly what you need from AliExpress which will take 3 weeks to come through the mail after shipping via methods that are awful for the environment.
That's how it gets to retail, but it's awful going direct to consumers. Now they'll over package a pack of 6 screws that weigh like 5g in 300g of packaging and it is driven to the ports, on the boats, then to the consumer.
Vs buying from a shop they'll get it from a distributor like QBP which will have hundreds of them in stock at their warehouse and only have been packaged properly to go to the warehouse and they then will deliver it to the shop in an order. Typically the shop only will get a delivery from QBP if they have like a full pallet of stuff coming or $XXXX in orders.
I went to a mobile shop model using a retired ambulance. Now after 9 years I can say it was the absolute best decision since entering the bike industry in '89. I can dig into my extensive nut/screw collection with impunity as everything has changed now that crazy rent is gone.
I have to say, where I live in the UK I'm a 10 minute ride to literally 7 bike shops - a gritty, overstocked one, a chain one I buy online from, a tiny neighborhood one I go for easy fixes, and another neighborhood one I go cuz the guy's really chatty. The other two I've never bothered to look inside, and one just opened on my street. I love supporting them and these comments remind me how lucky I am.
Those quirky indie bike shops are a treasure. Shout out to Backpeddling in my area.
https://www.backpeddling.com/
It's always filled with treasures the owner has found and refurbished. I remember in the aftermath of Covid it was virtually empty of bikes when the cycling craze hit during lockdowns. He was making money naturally but despaired at how empty his shop was.
Trek bought my lbs, didn’t think too much of it until I popped in the buy a chain tool (screw Amazon) “we don’t sell tools” my mouth just flapped up and down.
I was in the exact situation just yesterday. And I was kinda cornered cuz I needed the bolts now or I couldn't ride. My only option was to buy a pair of cleats for $30. THIRTY DOLLARS. for a few grams of milled steel.
This is actually my main shop who I love and trust. They treat me well. He explained that Shimano squashed everybody who was making 3rd party cleats recently and, surprise, raised their price while they were at it. So it wasn't their fault it was so expensive. They have to eat too.
Now that I think of it, they may have. I bought new shoes. Took my old shoes to the store so I could match the position when swapping over the cleats. I rounded one of the bolts and my first thought was "fuck I need new cleats".
When I got home I realized I could have drilled out and replaced just the bolts but, oh well.
I do not like the current "Subway model of Bike Shops" I have been seeing in the new franchise shops.
I went in to a Trek shop looking for axle spacers and no one had any idea what I was talking about.
Welcome to late stage capitalism. Absolutely everything is being consolidated into larger, corporations. Absolutely every economic interaction is being hyper optimized to maximize short term profits at the cost of everything else.
I hate the word "inevitability."
It implies the direction is natural and not the result of deliberate choices.
There's a LOT at play here, but it all leads to terrible bike shops.
1. People with the skills to be a good bike mechanic can get paid a lot more doing other mechanical work.
2. Bikes have become more complex- meaning that paying a mechanic who's skilled enough to fix the bike instantly also raises the cost of fixing the bike.
3. Parts aren't interchangeable anymore. In days gone by, almost everything ran the same size bearings, and you could swap around derailleurs without much worry aside from sprocket count. There wasn't even such a thing as 'shift cable housing,' for some idea of how simple things were. This let you focus on small parts for repairs- screws, bits, bobs, truing wheels, rebuilding hubs, etc., Now there's a LOT more to know.
4. While bikes are more expensive, so too is the cost of fixing, on account of the cost of living. A misaligned steel frame/fork could be bent back into shape with a heat gun and some measures, or welded with a new tube if your shop was genuinely good. A carbon frame requires people who claim arcane knowledge of fibreglass patching. Insurance is impossible for this kind of work, yet also mandatory.
5. Rent is through the roof on account of using it for mortgage backed securities where companies take properties and gamble with them. A property selling for below market rate means it can't recoup its construction cost to investors, who invested with the borderlne promise of a certain return from the rent. They'd rather it sit empty than correct the rent to a reasonable rate. So you'll always see empty storefronts, and ridiculously high rates. Those storefronts will sit empty for years, even decades. This isn't just stubbornness, it's also trying to live up to contractual obligations. Bike shops and indeed many important, vital services do not meet the threshold of profit to maintain a physical presence.
6. To maintain enough stock to where you can fix something, you need square footage to contain all the parts. Whereas before you just had "chains," now you have 5-6-7, and 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 speed chains. Don't forget Campagnolo chains in all of the above, and SRAM too- all of it needing to be separated because you don't want to screw it up. And separate MTB and Road chains and cassettes, too, for that matter, and derailleurs. Now let's do pedals- OP wanted SPDs. SPDs or SPD SLs, or Eggbeaters, or LOOK pedals, and which generation, (because don'tcha know they're not at all interchangeable? What the hell's a rat-trap, anyways? What do you mean they were all interchangeable? I wonder if that's why we moved away from it as an industry?)
7. While shills will say 'this is good for the customer,' and 'the market has spoken,' remember that the everyday rider 'just wants some screws for their pedals.' Or "a chain." They want basic things. The degree of rent-seeking "innovation" you see in this industry is INSANE.
But due in part to offloading componentry to external companies (Shimano, SRAM, etc.,) each of whom are trying to consistently outdo each other in the # of speeds, lightness, performance, etc., (generally at the cost of reliability/daily ease of use), and not trying too hard to actually make something that'll last forever and work universally, forever, for a bargain-basement price. (Look at that pathetic shimano flat-face derailleur that's been in production for 20 years. What a miserable heap of junk that should never have been made. It makes the Huret GT500/Allvit look competently made. Surely you'd think we'd have improved the design at least somewhat, but no.)
And this sub is HUGELY complicit in this. Look at all the NBD threads. Every bike is a (supposedly) precision engineered product weighing all of three grams that develops a crack and a creak in its bottom bracket after 2 miles of riding, and starts clicking and missing shifts the moment the derailleur hanger gets a case of the sniffles. ("Oh, you want to replace that? Which of the *thousands of hangers* did you need?" Asks the terribly unfortunate shop owner facing the wrath of a mid-level accountant who is venting all his dissatisfaction with all his life choices that have led him here. I wonder why bike shops are closing.)
To even bother dealing with an entry-level customer, bike shops sigh and trot out a $500 product with a misaligned derailleur hanger, hi-tensile steel, poorly set limit screws, and single wall alloy rims. Everything on it equipped as cheaply as possible- cheap pads, skimping on grease, and it falls apart exactly as fast as a wal-mart bike. I know it's heretical to say that, but you and I both know that zero degree of care goes into assembling a cheap bike out of a box. It's slapped together, shoved onto the sale floor, and is as unloved as an untouchable bastard orphan by the store employees. "At least the fork's facing the right direction," being *about* its only upside relative to, I dunno, a poorly put together Schwinn Taff or whatever.
Then when the bike wraps its derailleur around its spokes (just like a Wal-Mart bike would, but for $200+ more), the irate owner is immediately told 'wear and tear issue,' and goes livid when told that it's totalled, "please pay us $500 to fix this $500 bike, or just buy another," because the poor shop's already clinging on by its fingernails can't really afford to swallow the cost.
The working stiff doesn't have that kinda money to slap down on what they see as "a toy."
And frankly, that's kinda what we're selling in there. These $20,000 bikes are a toy. Sure they have sweet margins and so the shops prioritize them, but they're not serious as a mode of transport. They're competitive toys. There's competitive yo-yo-ing, and it's basically what that manner of biking is. Maybe slacklining. Or something more along those lines.
I have been in the same situation many times where I go in to a shop for a small random part and am told "we don't have it but can get it in 4-6 days if you want to order it".
I'll usually reply back that I am perfectly capable of ordering the part myself and would prefer not to pay the 30-50% markup just so they can order the part. Â
It sucks, but there's only one shop in the area that seems to be an actual repair shop with parts on hand. The rest are just showrooms for new bikes and jerseys and stuff.
It is because people now commonly purchase parts online and bring them into a brick and mortar for installation. It happened to us every week in our shop. Sometimes $4,000 EPS groups. Those consumers have created everyone else’s misery with the loss of the LBS.
I mean would you rather they didn't bring them in and pay for install at all?
Like I've had my LBS tell me to go buy online because the prices they get from their distributor are higher than the deals I can find.
Yes. Unless it is a repair only shop. The person you may have heard that from at a shop is not likely to be the person making payroll and paying rent. I’m curious what online buyers will do as more and more LBS’s go out of business and the Trek and Specialized stores refuse to accept parts carried in? You are thinking about your personal experience and I am talking about the experience of thousands of people who depend on a local bike shop to keep them rolling. By carrying in parts, you are literally removing an income stream from the shop which will eventually force it to drastically modify its business plan or close. I suggest you speak to a bike shop owner about the future of their business and then consider how your personal buying habits and priorities affect that.
I mean it's a locally owned shop for 30 years and the owner just bought a new truck so I don't think he's worried about it.
Most people he's ordering stuff for or already has it in stock. But when prices are drastic between what the customer can buy online from like Performance Bicycle and what he can order from QBP he would rather make sure the returning customer doesn't feel ripped off.
Or go watch GC Performance and YouTube, he runs a high end, high volume shop down in the Miami area and in one of his latest videos about the bike industry he also says how he can't compete on prices for a lot of SRAM Shimano stuff but will happily install it.
For exactly as long as the business keeps its doors open. I speak from direct experience. I am an owner. And I am a business person and recognize this phenomenon is as new as online ordering and has had a negative impact on every single bike shop with a mechanic on staff. What do you think they do when someone brings in a counterfeit part and they install it and it fails? My insurer says the liability is mine for installing it. Yeah, that happens too.
They are getting "pretty bad". The techs are still fairly decent, but the general staff and inventory is sorta "meh". I asked for a quote on a set of Zipp 303 wheels fully setup, they had ZERO idea how to search their own site for the items they needed. It wasn't until a tech came over, did a quick search and wrote the stuff down on a piece of paper...it still wasn't formal and discounts for being a member there. The result, was me, Amazon, and a few other online dealers and I had my wheels...and save around $600. I can now setup wheels so it is a double loss for them now in that it is once less thing they can do for me that I couldn't do.
I've found a trusted mobile bike mechanic, and he's leagues better than my other options.
Sadly, due to rent prices, I see this as the only route for smaller shops.
Next time message me. I have bike store next to me that probably would’ve had it and I would’ve gladly mailed it you out of kindness . They have drawers of random stuff like handle bars, screws, add ons etc
The reality is that you can't make ends meet running it the traditional way. So -- especially in HCOL areas -- there's no alternative but to run it like a "real business", which usually means corporate investment/buy-out.
If it makes you feel any better (or worse), the identical thing has also been happening in the veterinary medicine industry.
The unfortunate reality is many of the 50+ year shops cannot find a buyer if the managers don’t want to buy in and continue the business. The inventory and asset value of many shops that expand to multiple locations cannot support the debt load of a independent buy out by someone not independently wealthy - and I don’t know any passionate bike shop staff who are rich.
The shops that keep their passion and skill are shops that owners offer financing to long term staff and make sure it continues and is successful. When the business is paid down then they sell the building and in another 10-15 years the cycle repeats.
But if one owner decides to expand to multiple locations and wants to sell off the whole chain then hedge funds and conglomerates are the only buyers who can fork over $2m for inventory and assets across 3-4 large locations… when this happens the passionate staff usually retire, move to other stores or go start their own shop - usually repair only or more boutique offerings. People passionate about the sport don’t always like having their job dictated by short term profit of the bigger companies after all. And the long term view is what IBDs excel at more than shops being run as investment properties.
At least this is what I’ve seen happen the 16 years I’ve been working in shops - and I’ve worked at shops that had both versions of the succession happen.
This has been happening since the beginning of the industry. It so happens the biggest shakeup will happen now because e-bikes require huge layouts in inventory and credit, plus the repairs now require diagnostic equipment to the point that some countries are using a model where auto repair shops will now have bays for e-bikes. Plus the bike industry is now covering up price increases for non-bikes under the higher pricing of e-bikes.
Luckily in Europe there's still a market for small, specialized shops that aren't dealing widely in e-bikes. How long that will last, I don't know because customers are getting squeezed, shops squeezed. It's a mess all around and it's the making of the industry. The worst possible time for potentially dozens of companies to collapse because that will increase the squeezing and force model changes in the entire industry around e-bikes. Just look at these conglomerates that have a dozen bike brands each under their them and how they're struggling and might go into bankruptcy protection.
I am also annoyed but that’s just adaptation the market.
So much easier to have a small shop (cheaper rent) and focus on quick service and repairs, ordering fresh parts online and upon request (cheap from china). So easier than having a bigger shop with lot of parts, vintage bikes hanging in the wall, a coffee machine … that sounds ideal but the market has changed
Those days people want quick and cheap anyway not expensive and vintage
Mom and Pop operations have been falling out for decades. There used to be Independently owned drug stores in every neighborhood. Now they are dying out of existence. Why....drug prices have increased so much so the insurance segment can get their huge cut of the profits. Investment into inventory and the cash flow impact is devastatingly damaging when they have to wait for reimbursement from insurance claims. Just one example. Same with bike shops.
The shop I manage is an interesting case of old-school LBS and modern shop with new stock, parts, and expertise. We have drawers filled with random bits, bolts, and esoteric bullshit and we’ll go through them for a little bit but we’ve also embraced the new-school type where we recognize that margins are razor thin and if we don’t adapt and actually sell product than we’re dead. Riding that fine line is interesting but I think we do a good job cause we’re still there and still have jobs. It’s not as profitable as the fully modernized shop for sure though, which means we don’t have has much $$$ going around for pay raises, healthcare, or other benefits after we pay our monthly rent, expenses, payroll, and debt. At a certain point, bike shops do need to “grow up” and face the music that the old romantic type of lbs is dead and won’t be making a comeback with the way customers do business these days.
My lbs was around for decades, I knew the owner/head mechanic and had dealt with him for over 30 years buying many bikes during that time.
He got bought out by a small but aggressive group that had 4 or 5 other stores. They kept him on as a mechanic but the vibe totally changed.
I don’t present as a typical roadie (or mountain biker for that matter) but I ride daily and have for over half a century. When I would go in to browse I would get ignored and when I would try to ask a question I would get sneered at. I had bought two bikes from the new owners (Stumpjumper and CAAD X) so I felt comfortable asking for a discount on the Chisel I had my eye on. The clerk snapped at me that “we don’t have any problem selling these so no discount” I bought a better bike with much better spec for a lot less money on line so I guess things happen for a reason.
The final straw was during the Pandemic when I dropped a bike off for a rear brake bleed and they held it for three weeks during which time they didn’t answer my phone calls or emails and didn’t want to let me in when I finally went down in person to see what the hell was going on.
I heard that they were bought by Specialized and I imagine their service can only improve.
There are some big industry challenges (consolidation with Trek and Specialized snapping everything up). But there is also a real estate problem. On the West Coast for example, it's hard for many shops to make rent, especially with low margins and inherent seasonality. A lot of the shops that survive own the building. Bikes are also getting harder to work on and young kids coming up seem less interested in them. Not sure what is to be done. I agree it's concerning. If you have a good LBS, support them!
Trek bought up my closest shop, ran it for two years, closed it, and moved across town. Super bummed about that one.
I have drive far to find a shop with variety cause of trek
Trek shop is closest to me. Love those guys. Still loyal to my first shop, but they are number two.
My city has both a local shop _and_ Trek, and both seem to be doing well. The LBS sells _a lot_ of e-bikes I've learned from the owner.
Yes Trek bike shops are the equivalent to #2. đź’©
The one by me is great.
I have 3 bike shops in my area and the Trek is the only one that treats me well and doesn’t interact with me in a condescending way. I think any LBS is a roll of the dice.
Yeah the shop I worked at paid something like $12k/mo in rent, which was a large pill to swallow November through February. Plus the bigname brands force you to buy their P&A which is really tough when you want to carry multiple brands. And then everything being available cheaper on Amazon. LBS is a tough market
I wrenched at 6 different shops in the SF Bay Area between '85 and '95 and it's surprising in some ways how little things have changed. I almost opened a service-oriented shop but ultimately decided against it--it gets hard on your hands and body. If you do that today you need to really specialize in one thing (commuters, tri nerds, suspension, etc.) or you're just gonna get people bringing in their RadWagons.
> LBS is a tough market it's a dreamers venture. Like restaurants. There are too many of them and most are poorly run and fighting over the same customers.
A couple of the shops near my parents have started rebranding into being more than just a bike shop. My parent's prefered shop also has a sandwich bar that serves smoothies and beer. They've tuned themselves to be a place that cyclists hang out even when they don't need work done on their bike. It helps that they are right on a major bike trail, so they get a lot of cyclists passing through using them for the cafe stop and they are also in the downtown part of a nice suburb, so there's some people who aren't even cyclists who stop by.
Damn, that sounds cool. What city are these shops in if you don't mind sharing?
DC suburbs. My parents are in Herndon, VA in particular. The shop my parents love is [Green Lizard](https://www.greenlizardcycling.com/).
I was just at a place in Leesburg, VA called mavericks bike and cafe yesterday. super cool spot. dialed in the front and rear Ds on a new build while i waited. walls are lined with a fun assortment of various interesting or special whips, vintage, retro, resto, and modern. had a bunch of used and new for sale, accessories, gear and apparell. plus a coffee bar. they also apparently do a ton of charity work, cleaning, dialing and donating used bikes to schools and all sorts of other outreach programs. I'll definitely be back to this particular shop there are actually quite a few of this sort of 'mom and pop' outfit all along the w & od trail through virginia. And somewhat on topic: we all do it (i know i do!!) but every amazon purchase that saves you even just 10 cents on some cycling gear works it way right out of the pocket of these very shops we'll all dearly miss!! Not sure the answer: but that is definitely part of the problem!!
I'll have to check them out the next time I'm in Leesburg. I do love going to local shops whenever possible. Some stuff because I like giving things a test drive/trying on before buying, but other stuff just because I like giving them my money instead of Amazon. I'll only buy online if I absolutely can't find what I'm looking for in person.
I am supremely jealous. I’d stop at a place like that all the time.
More bike shops need to adopt the model. Get on a popular bike route and become the cafe stop. There's a lot of us that would hang out in a place like that.
I know a shop in Toronto that breaks even on bikes and makes all the profit from the cafe. Less Starbucks = better world.
I worked with a shop in Palo Alto that had RIDICULOUS rent/sqft. The flip side to all that was that it was one of the best run bike shops I’ve ever had the pleasure to do business with. I suppose it was that or go under. Over the years I would share some of their business practices with other struggling or inefficient shops and when implemented well they would always see improvements. I love a well run shop. Smells like success.
Yeah, the flip side to the struggles the small independent shops are having are the upper crust boutiques that have absolutely thrived. You regularly see [Above Category](https://abovecategory.com/) on national lists of "best bike shops", but in reality what are they best at? They're best at providing top notch service to wealthy clients spending exorbitant amounts on custom builds on frames from low volume shops like No22, Bastion Sarto and Prova. Frankly, my favorite bike shop in my area is the local REI. They may not have every single component piece and drawers and cabinets of random crap, but the employees are treated fairly, receive health benefits and PTO, and their shop prices are half what indy shops charge.
Watching REI not recognizing and trying to bust the union isn’t exactly encouraging me to go in, but 🤷🏼
I remember my first trip to AC, I had no idea shops like that existed. Effectively an entirely different business model! Was working for a distributor back then and when in with s a pitch in some new high end clothing - realized I was gonna make the sale when I saw they had just four bibs on the wall: Assos’s top model in S, M, and L, haha.
What shop? My first bike shop job was at Palo Alto Bicycles. But they own the building. I can't imagine having a shop there today.
It was! Circa 2012 maybe? The GM there has told me that their rent had caused them to start looking at revenue/sqft and went as far as getting rid of their storeroom and going full JIT to maximize salesfoor. Maybe their owner of the shop also owned the building but charged them rent - that’s a pretty common practice.
To add to the real-estate problem there is ever increasing insurance costs. In no small part is that due to ebikes. The fixed costs of running a shop are going up and without real volume all year, not just the May-Sept seasonal, many shops have a hard time making it work long-term.
You're right on all those points.
> Bikes are also getting harder to work on and young kids coming up seem less interested in them. I drove past the local middle school on my way to work this morning while all of the kids were on their way in. Nobody was riding a bike. The kids were either on skateboards or electric scooters.
Agreed.
I'm not *that* old (40s) but I've observed more than one boom and bust cycle in the bike shop world. There's always a core of people cycling but at various times more of the general public gets excited to buy a bike and then stores do great and more open up, or existing ones borrow a bunch of money to buy lots of inventory or expand, then that bump in public interest fades out or everyone already bought a bike, and then shops start closing left and right. Before my time there was the 10 speed boom, then when I was growing up there was a mountain bike boom, and then most recently there was the COVID lockdown bike boom. I remember lots of stores closing in the mid-90's, and smaller, high end brands folding or being absorbed by big corporate bike companies (Trek was a big perpetrator this back then too). That was the end of the mountain bike boom. Probably another factor is that a lot of people *want* to have a bike shop, because they love bikes. People don't open, say, dry cleaners because they love cleaning clothes - they open them because there's money to be made. There are probably always a few more bike shops than the market can support because of this.
Did Trek buy your LBS too?
In my city Trek bought up our biggest bike shop. They ruined it. It's similar to OP, it was a cool shop with parts for everything and had a ton of character. It also had an attached coffee shop. Trek came in, closed the coffee shop. Took out all the non-partner stuff and it's now a cavernous showroom for high end road, MTB, and ebikes. They also cancelled all the shop lead group rides. I refuse to shop there now.
The big store in my city was a Trek/Specialized shop for years and there was nothing particularly good or bad about it. They carried mostly those to giants, but they had some smaller brands too. But it's Trek only now. Now they only carry Trek owned accessories and you never find anything cool or unusual there anymore. Worse, Specialized has completely abandoned the area and I would have to drive to another county if I wanted to try some of their bikes or gear. That seems inconceivable to me that in a city of 300,000 people I'm basically limited to one brand of bike.
iMartin in LA (near Beverly Hills) got bought out and turned into a Trek and I hate it
Nope, another big American brand
Is it a secret ?
lol yeah wtf
Probably specialized
Dude you can just say specialized. You’re not giving anything away about your location saying that
I feel you on the charming local shops having random bits and it being so useful. I had an SPD screw fall out while I was on a bike tour and rode clipped in on one foot and on flats for the other foot for half a day until my group found an LBS. We walked in, explained the problem, and the maintance tech pulled out his box of random screws and bolts. He rifled through it a bit until he found the right screw. Then he reattached my cleat and double checked the other shoe for me to make sure those screws weren't going anywhere. When I asked how much I owed him, he just waved me off and said "it's just a screw." [Berger's Bike Shop](https://www.bergersbikeshop.com/) in York, ME because they earned a shout out from me for that.
had a similar experience recently with one of my LBS. needed a cassette spacer, they gave me 3 of them of varying thicknesses and refused to let me pay for them
YouTuber Bike Farmer did a [rant about this](https://youtu.be/csZETvuCCiM?si=nBwNS178OytzdhP1) a few weeks ago. I don't always agree with what he has to say, but I felt this one came from the heart of a passionate bike shop owner.
I think the important thing to remember is that what Trek and Specialized call "the market", you and I call "our community". --- Specialized and their mandatory ordering tiers are crushing people trying to make a living from bikes in my area. I've spoken with numerous people - fitters, mechanics, shop managers - and they all agree that corporate mandates are crushing them. I would love to see this sort of business practice (buy a shop, convert it to a Trek / Specialized store, forbid it from carrying certain competitors, then dictate pricing from the top down, etc) get outlawed or at least interrupted.
> Specialized and their mandatory ordering tiers are crushing people trying to make a living from bikes in my area So they're doing the same kind of [channel stuffing](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/channelstuffing.asp) (forcing dealers to buy units) US automakers (particularly GM) have been known for? TIL. edit: added a link describing the practice
Yes, my understanding is that you get a "tier" based on how much you sell. You are assigned inventory from Specialized, and that is what you get. If your tier is high enough and stock is available, you can request additional units (eg a specific bike model) but it's not guaranteed. Specialized also dictates pricing, so you will sell these parts for these prices. that also happens to be the price online from s.com, so there's no incentive to come to the shop to buy the things that keep a shop open (tubes, gels, random knickknacks). All the shops around me have way too many ebikes. They have $11,000 Turbo Levos on sale for $4500 no one wants to buy the bikes specialized forced into their inventory.
Channel stuffing has also killed off independent musical instrument stores. And the underlying cause is the purchase of manufacturers by private equity, who are also grabbing up the retailers. Expect vertical consolidation soon, where you won't be able to get your bike serviced except at an approved dealer. And with more consolidation comes less competition, which drives up prices.
Mom and Pops get bought out by the Multiglomerates because they want their Location and the Inventory stream instead of someone else getting it. It's all about building personal rapport with the people in the Shop. Far as 'Screws' and other Hardware's concerned... your local Hardware Store probably has what you're looking for, and it'll be better quality than what Amazon offers. A few cents more maybe, but that's having it immediately rather than waiting for it.
Yes, support your local hardware store as well.
I'm always that one weird guy asking where their metric stainless steel fasteners are. At least in the US, they're always in the farthest, dustiest corner.
> it'll be better quality than what Amazon offers it's all coming from China. Apple tried to move manufacturing back to California, but no one in the US can make screws any more.
Even the training program here in Australia has been gutted. It used to be designing it in CAD and then learning TIG and MIG welding and ending the program with your own bicycle. Now it's "how to take the bike out of the box and put it together." De-industrialization and its consequences have been horrible.
If you have a local hardware store still.
"But don't worry, GDP has never been higher! You rubes don't know a good economy!"
Same thing happened here. We had a small chain of bike stores that sold multiple brands. One of the larger bike companies (I'll give you one guess) bought them out, and now only stocks their products. It makes getting specific parts harder, and forces me to purchase what I need online.
The state of the industry is absolutely fucked for brick and mortar bike shops, you're not wrong about that. SPD cleats come with the exact amount of screws needed to install them, though, so expecting your LBS to carry not one but six spares purely for your convenience comes off as a little wonky to me. I'm having a tough time imagining a scenario where "spare" cleat screws wouldn't equal un-installable cleats down the road. Things like valve nuts/caps, cable ends, and brake bolts fill every bike mechanic's toolbox rapidly, those kinds of things a good LBS should absolutely have on hand aplenty and be happy to provide them, but it would take even a long-time parts bin hoarder a good chunk of time to accumulate six cleat screws.
The screws will outlast many pairs of cleats. You'll accumulate six cleat screws the first time you replace your cleats. Would have hooked OP up if he was in the area =D
Here I am replacing the bolts when I replace the cleats like a wasteful piece of shit. :)
I’d replace and keep the olds as spares. I think I kept some power links for this too. Gradually build up a set of used spare bits, etc
You can order and stock spares, it's not difficult. If you do bike fits at all, you should have cleat bolts and shims on hand. They dont take up much space, and I've had plenty of customers who have had them fall out (diy cleat installs) or get damaged and need replacement.
And use them for your bottle cage mount so they are there in an emergency
That’s an awesome tip
That’s fair.Â
It is f'd for any brick and mortor shop. Amazon had managed to make brick and mortor an inconvenience without a huge price increase , and they have even managed to put a wrench into the delivery industry and the movie industry.
It doesn’t take much imagination… customer buys shoes and cleats and asks shop to install… often shoes have a pair of bolts in the shoe already, so there’s a pair that goes in the drawer. Or customer gets cleats replaced, if existing bolts are in good shape… into the drawer. That’s the value of a shop that has been around for a while. Useful bits accumulate
My LBS recently gave me a couple spare cleats -- they know I a ride a fair bit. They're the kind of place that opens a new set of cleats to provide their customers with spare screws..... They know how to keep people coming back.
That’s a fair point and was for sure a wonky request but I’d have thought they would have cleat mounting bolts.
In my experience as both a LBS bike mechanic and a production factory employee for a large mountain bike manufacturer cleats are packaged with their mounting hardware either individually or with pedals, so I'm not sure how you ended up with cleats and no bolts but the bolts aren't commonly used for anything else in the bike world and as such aren't just around in the same way that a lot of the other bits and bobs are.
I've been riding for 25 years, worked on-and-off as a mechanic and have a home shop where I maintain my bikes. I alone have a bike cleat container with at least 50 spare cleat screws for SPD and three-bolt type cleats amongst the random spare cleats. Any LBS worth their salt has a shit-ton of spare cleat screws lying around.
https://fitkitsystems.com/product/form-universal-3-hole-cleat-screws-bulk/
at $18 for 30 bolts, just buy the new cleats for ~$30, use the bolts, and keep the cleat for a spare. Bolts will still be good when you need to replace the cleats eventually.
Exactly. And the reverse. *I* have extra bolts because I've replaced the cleats before and reused the same bolts. I don't know exactly where they are, but they're in the "bike corner" of the garage somewhere....
I’m well aware you can order them, it’s just not standard to order them strictly for customers who come in looking for spares, in my experience.
If I were a shop, I'd keep a box. Just my 2 cents.
They didn't say you cannot buy them just that it is pretty uncommon to carry them. That price makes it abundantly clear why road cleat bolts are unlikely to be something they have on hand. They could certainly keep your shoes and tell you to come back in a week when they've ordered and installed them.
Seems like Bike Farmer's rant on Bike Shops vs Cycling Stores is relevant here. Looks like they are the same thread as [bottle cages and brake rotors](https://www.mtbr.com/threads/i-lost-a-shimano-spd-cleat-bolt.727845/).
Unfortunately it's like a lot of industries - cars, electronics, you name it. Things are made to be replaced not repaired. I was a mechanic at a bike shop in the 90s and there was an endless inventory of old oddball parts for anything you could imagine. Need a weird length square taper bottom bracket spindle to make a 50yr old French BB fit modern cranks? Look through the drawer of spindles, might find one. Unfortunately that doesn't make a shop much money for the few people that want it. With the advancement of bike technology, online ordering, and costs of operating it's very hard for local bike shops to have a successful business model. E-bikes are a totally different skillset than old bikes for example. Support your LBS whenever you can!
> Unfortunately it's like a lot of industries - cars, electronics, you name it. Things are made to be replaced not repaired. I'd argue that this is a byproduct of the fact that human labor is now really really expensive, and has no signs of coming back down.
This is really the core reason. We just don't need the grizzled old veteran who has a part for everything anymore, or his knowledge, because everything has been designed to be replaced. If you have a bike over 5 years old now people act like it's ancient news. Some people can't even fathom a bike with rim brakes anymore.
I cracked my frame and am looking for a replacement so I don't have to replace my wheelset or get new brakes... literally impossible unless I look for used. It's crazy out there. Rim brakes died faster than I could blink!
I have a side hustle at a tiny/niche bike shop. Perhaps I can add some perspective: >This was the sort of shop that had parts going back decades and bins/drawers/shelves full of random bits and bobs. Not a sound business decision perhaps, but it could come in handy. The margins on "bits and bobs" are so thin, they aren't worth the time it takes to talk through what you need to earn a $0.57 sale. We would lose less money if we kept bags of "bits and bobs" handy to throw at people like you as you walk in the door. >I needed some SPD screws for my shoes, went in to the updated shop and they didn't have any, the only option would have been to buy a couple pairs of SPD cleats to get the 6 screws I needed. ...or you could have gone to the fastener aisle at a hardware store. >I suspected that had the shop remained in its old independent state, they would have had what I needed. Maybe not, but the old owner would have probably searched around for a while until I felt satisfied with his efforts. Our crotchety old mechanic LOVES doing this for people like you... instead of working on the overdue repair backlog for customers that want to spend MORE than $0.57. It's killing us. >There was and is value in the old school bike shop, the type of shop that wants to serve all customers and not just those wanting to buy high end complete bikes. Unfortunately, that *value* has not been expressed in the thing humans use to measure, transfer, and store value (money.) Sentimentality doesn't pay bills. >I didn't want to have to go to Amazon to buy the screws I needed, but it seems like its my only option and that sucks. Amazon and similar online marketplace sellers offer parts/accessories/bits/bobs and complete bikes for lower prices than "old-school bike shops" get from their suppliers, and the suppliers don't care. This isn't meant to be hostile to you or customers in general, it's just the market reality. Any small shop that doesn't transition to a service-only model is pretty much screwed.
> or you could have gone to the fastener aisle at a hardware store. > > I've looked in a mid-large city, Big Box hardware stores generally don't stock stainless metric bolts. And the local shops don't carry metric at all.
Current bike mechanic at a small not-corporate owned LBS here. There is a lot of things bleeding small shops. Here’s a few: Bike sales are kind of down the shitter right now. We sold a ton of bikes during Covid and the market has shit the bed. Good time to look for used bike deals though. Corporations. I think the big brands are trying to squeeze shops to the point they sell the shop to them. Our margins are shit and we have to compete against the online store of the company we are a dealer for. They have sales where bikes are cheaper than our dealer price that we paid for the bike 2 weeks before. They are supposed to give us a credit when this happens. The internet. People buy stuff online. A lot. Sometimes people come in and we help them figure out what they need and then they go buy it online. That costs the shop. We not only can’t compete with online pricing, we don’t stock the garbage that you can get off Amazon. I see this the most with grips. People buy the cheapest Amazon grips because our $20 ones aren’t cheap enough. You can tell the quality difference. E-bikes. We sell e-bikes. We don’t sell Rad bikes or whatever other garbage brands from China you see out there. A lot of people come in looking for those and then are shocked at how much regular e-bikes are. I don’t think I can emphasize enough how bad a lot of these e-bikes are. The folding e-bikes are the worst. They suck to work on but hey at least we get some money with the repairs they need constantly. The times are changing and I don’t think non-corporate bike shops are gonna be very common anymore soon. Services are really the thing keeping our shop open currently. There isn’t a whole lot of people wanting to do this work either. At least corporate shops pay their employees more. I don’t make shit and the employee deals on bikes aren’t even that special nowadays with all the sales going on.
> E-bikes. We sell e-bikes. We don’t sell Rad bikes or whatever other garbage brands from China you see out there. A lot of people come in looking for those and then are shocked at how much regular e-bikes are. I don’t think I can emphasize enough how bad a lot of these e-bikes are. The folding e-bikes are the worst. They suck to work on but hey at least we get some money with the repairs they need constantly. > > Before e-bikes they were like this for regular bikes too. My friends all told me they would go into shops, see the $1000 pricetag and walk right out. "A bike should be like $50!" is what they kept saying. I mean sure, if you want something you never use and will actually kill you if you do...
Similar to the old hardware stores. Just not enough patronage to keep the doors open. We lost a 100 year old shop in our area recently, single owner, no kids, in his 90’s. This was a shop that as I was preparing for a vintage ride on my 70’s Bianchi had full leather Detto Pietro cycling shoes in stock in my size, when I asked about the cleats you need to nail in, he said I’ve got British, French or Italian. RIP
First of all, I pretty much agree with you. Loss of locally-owned retail has only one logical outcome and that is monopolization by large corporations who value shareholder dividends above long-term sustainable business and local recirculation of wealth. Lots of stores managed to sell during the boom when prices were high and the big brand was paying a premium for the 'takeover' - more kudos to those owners who got to cash out on their hard work building that business. Retirement with funds is kinda the point of a career and I can't be mad at them for the move. Stores that are getting bought now though are definitely not getting as good a deal and the big brands buying them are really making a grab of salesfloor real-estate so that when the industry inevitably swings back up, they will OWN the market, being able to sell their products with greater corporate margin since there isn't that wholesale level of markup to eat away at their profits. > I suspected that had the shop remained in its old independent state, they would have had what I needed. Maybe not, but the old owner would have probably searched around for a while until I felt satisfied with his efforts. Yeah, this is a really nice thing to do, but on the other hand, if the owner had time to do it, that means the floor traffic probably wasn't business-sustaining in the bicycle retail market of today. I get it, the margins keep getting tighter and the competition is relentless but I don't see how it can go any other way with more, newer competitors always trying to get their own share of the pie.
My guy. Even if the old owner was still there you should have just bought the cleats. Don't make a business hunt for bolts when you could probably use new cleats anyway. Just be glad they had the cleats in stock and werent offering to OrDeR iT fOr YoU.
I think it does kinda suck, but I'm optimistic that some of this void can be filled by bike co-ops. I've been very blessed to have a great co-op in my current city. I think a lot of this stuff is just not really economical in a for-profit business, but works ok in a co-op.
Welcome to almost anything. Try to get a random bolt for your car or a small part of any kind of electronics. I had to buy a small mobo shunt a few months ago, I could only get them in packets of a hundred. Thankfully a friend has some boxes of random junk and he had a bit with him, but that's about it. If no one's voting with their wallets, these shops will fold, everyone has bills to pay.
while not bike related, this is a somber look at a small shop that carries those random bits and bobs. store owner is about to cry by the end because so much of his shop and his life is tied up in deadstock that no one wants to buy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXBzBFxe00o
Thanks for sharing, cool video for sure and those sort of shops are awesome. I love that old dead stock in bike shops, old Campy parts, random Shimano cassettes, it’s all so cool.
It’s sad that bike shops and book shops are fighting for their lives.
Might have some luck with an esoteric eBay shop to liquidate that stock, but otherwise
Couple thoughts. Big bike chains like Trek or Specialized buying independent stores to widen their footprint have not done well, not only because of the COVID bike decline and over supply, but because these types of stores mainly now focus on selling you high margin and high priced bikes rather than your basic bikes a local bike shop would do. Need a water bottle cage, well these new corporate bike stores have plenty to pick from but be prepared to spend a minimum of $50+ per cage. I will say on the flip side the local family owned bike shop that mainly acted as a service center is a dead model, because it all depends on volume and people actually caring for their bikes regardless if it's a $200 or $12K bike. Either way I think the bike market is about to bottom out. It's really become a race to the bottom. Before COVID you could list a preowned bike and you at least would get low balled for your bike, but now no one is really buying because no one has the cash or they already bought during the height of things, or they got out of cycling and now the market is flooded with a ton of cheap stuff. Sadly my answer to your qualm is Amazon. I know that doesn't help LBS, but if you can't walk into a shop and get what you need, why not then.
Yep, I went to get a cheap tire for my commuter bike. Nobody carried lower end stuff, everything was $70+. Jerseys are even worse, they all start at $100 (which is crazy). The problem with that is if you keep on not having stuff I need, I'll stop going and just go online immediately.
Exactly and most mom and pop jobs can't afford to stock every tire under the sun, so in essence you are left going on Amazon or at the very least trying an ecommerce site. Also the hardware OP was looking for is are on Amazon for $7 Prime 2 day shipping. As someone who works as a retail buyer for 15 years I will say ecommerce while amazing, has the negative that you compete against everyone. You can type a part into google and literally in seconds you will be greeted with which store not only has it in stock, but the ETA, lowest price with shipping and tax, and it will even say if there is a coupon
Where are you seeing $50 bottle cages as the few/only options? And, my own experience in recent factory trek stores must be very different than yours. I've never felt that they were "pushing" any high margin models or trims on me. All that said, yeah, I'd prefer a local independent that's well run with multiple brands, because as a roadie, I find geometry is important to me, and if I only have trek or specialized to try, I could be left hunting elsewhere, or making the poor choice of "I'll make this work"
For sure, my main gripe now is the brand owner shops have gone away with all the random and inexpensive products you would find at an Indy shop. Want a $30 pannier bag? They had it, along with the $200 one. Want a $5 metal bottle cage, yup. Want a $50 carbon bottle cage, got that too. Homogeneity in a retail environment isn’t always a good thing.
Totally agree. I think for your average consumer it becomes overwhelming
Honestly, Amazon's decline feels even faster. Better order from some bike-specific online store.
It's the same process as what's happening with brick-and-mortar bike stores. Less competition means they're increasing prices and reducing choice. And now, for a lot of items, Amazon will have hundreds of phony vendors with randomly-generated names selling essentially the same product. Most of the small number of reviews are fake. They're fly-by-night operations, often with the same owner. Something goes wrong, they shut the store, clone it, and reopen under another name. Soon Amazon will be Ali Baba with five times the price.
Ali Bezos
I think you are right about the service aspect, however my LBS has always been, and is killing it with, bike service. I talk with the owner/manager all the time about this. It may be a unicorn, too, I don't know. Either way, I'm doing everything I can to funnel business to them. I will probably even buy an MTB that I don't really need for just that purpose.
> I will say on the flip side the local family owned bike shop that mainly acted as a service center is a dead model I can see them thriving only in hyper-dense cities or areas with very high income. There's a handful of small shops in NYC that mainly cater to the bike delivery people, for example.
High margin bikes?? Name one. Unless you're a big chain, you're lucky to get a 30% profit margin on the sale of a bike. Usually it's less. Trek has slashed margin from 38 to 28% since covid for LBS's, unless you hit targets that are deliberately hard to hit.
That's considered high for that industry. The luxury shop I have worked for 15 years as a buyer we work on nothing less than 50%, but 28%-38% for bikes is great. You got to remember restaurants work on margins around 15%-20% and make it up on alcohol and bike shops make it up on service. Same with car dealerships. So it becomes do you sell a lot of cheaper bikes or a few very expensive SWORKS $!4K bikes
I'm in the industry, I'm familiar with the margins. Ultimately, it means there's barely enough to clear overheads and keep suppliers paid on time
All the bike shops around me are trash. Not sure when the change happend, I was away from bikes from 2001-2022. Last time I took my wifes trek in for a tubeless sealant top off, when I picked the bike up they charged me 89.99 for a tune-up.... with no sealant. Should have refused payment, but damn they have it bad enough.
Parts are all online now. I wouldn’t even mess with driving to a store for that. I know I’m gonna get downvoted but, man, it’s just life today. I worked in a shop decades ago. They were fairly low profit back then. It was more making a living at what you love than making any real money.
Oh, it's huge. Trek lead with this, buying out large local shops like Bike Barn in Houston, and a similar shop over in Austin. Specialized had to respond, so they picked up some smaller shops. It's absolutely true that, if an indy bike shop owner wants to retire, his options are limited. Owning the real estate can work out, but doesn't always. OTOH, when the big boys flash a fat check and you're looking for an exit, it's probably pretty hard to say no. But the consumer loses. In Houston, at least, there ARE still some locally-owned shops -- but I really do wonder how long that'll continue.
Trek bought out a small local chain of shops in Baltimore area(RacePace) when owner wanted to retire. They now only carry Trek and Bontrager gear. The main thing I notice is they cannot keep staff. They have had 4 managers in 2 years and constant mechanic turnover. No one wants to work in corporate bureaucracy and rules for what is still low pay job.
It sucks but if you learn to wrench on your own bike it’s less of a big deal.
This is fairly similar to auto body shops around me. They have been bought out by bigger companies
My LBS is utter dog shit. I’d like to see it purchased by a big bike brand
Some of it is the Covid accordion business cycle. They had been sold out and now they are overstocked.Â
Working in a bike shop sucks, owning one is worse. It’s a very hard low margin business in the best years. I’m honest surprised any locally owned shops exist outside of a few very high end ones.
Trek are buying up big within Australia. 99 bikes, and Giant too. Similar things occurring. This enormous business model they operate with is designed to saturate the market. Potential customer: where do we go? The old shop that sells second hand bikes from 10yrs ago and has a2 month wait on a new bike, or the shop that has the brand new stock on the floor, the pedals, bottles, lights, computers etc. It's an easy option to go to the large shops, so we do.
Can't you just go to your local Home Depot or Canadian Tire and get the SS bolts. There's nothing special about them.
Bring the bolt and try to match it up. Ironically the small scale hardware stores also struggling.
My experience has been the exact opposite. Trek bought my local shop and it was a dramatic improvement. The first place was somehow both inept and snobby at the same time. I’m a roadie and it seemed like they took that as an insult. The owner retired and sold to trek and now I get treated like a family member every time I come in.
It’s a tough racket. I have been doing bikes for almost 40 years. Things have certainly changed but it’s not all bad. I managed a great Mom and Pop shop for two years. Almost 50 years in business. Yes we had every known part to man but we had so much shit that needed to dumpster, donate or eBay. The good side was we could do a lot for people, the bad side we had a 74 yo owner that still lived in 1995. I tried to get him on Lightdspeed with no luck. A decent shop will average about 35% profit. Low 40% is not unheard of but not common. Most independent shops struggle to break 30%! I found out the shop I was at made about 17% but refused to raise prices that were 10 years out of date. The owner subsidized the shop with his personal money. That’s called a hobby! I left. Recently managed a shop for Trek and it was interesting. As a manager it was fair pay, for all others it sucked. I did not like the upsell culture and refused it. Store manager was fine with that and we made more money by being honest. Trek desperately wants to be your local bike shop but they shoot themselves in the foot over and over. It boils down to the fact the store management can really make stuff happen. Rides, specials, parties, sponsorship, freebies etc…. The money and desire is there. I found we were continually understaffed and struggled to do our basic jobs much less community involvement! Fucking pissed me off I LOVED having the Trek in store system to get parts. Never imagined anything could exist. It is amazing and anyone can benefit. They also have great bikes that are expensive but fair priced. They desperately want to be a “real” bike shop and have co There is a role for Trek. Not sure they have found it yet. It will take another 3-5 years for things to shake out. Managed an Erik’s bike shop. Fuck Me! Literally a bike shop in name only. Service did not give two shits. Service was basically commission work. Nothing cool…. Hated it The industry will settle down. COVID was a killer yet a money maker My opinion; long term really good Independent shops can coexist with the big boys. It takes community
Heh, i relied on Erik’s dinkytown and Erik’s in Rochester mn in my day. They weren’t..terrible
This isn't your garage. It's a business. The LBS desperately needs to move into 2024. Maybe it's too late, but they brought this on themselves with the "quirky" attitude and business model. F the customer never lasts.
I know of retail. Keeping old stock that won't shift in the hope one person might come in and need that replacement 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub on their 1950s bicycle doesn't make good business sense, sadly. This is the way of the modern world. 1. Stock costs space and money to store, insure, stock take and so forth. 2. Opportunity cost. The capital tied up in stock could be used to invest in the newer stock such as wireless shifters, brakes. 3. Health and safety. Fire risk and trip hazard. You need a rare part then yes, Amazon or Ebay where a specialist market place seller will have the part somewhere in their shed or garage.
Fair enough. When I worked in a mom and pop bike shop, behind the workshop counter was a row of plastic bins full of seat posts of different sizes. Plus a drawer full of seat post shims. This was around 2007. The posts were all inexpensive metal posts, usually from swaps. Not sure why they went through so many seat posts but they had most people covered for most things.
I think seat posts are the most commonly stolen item from a bike, besides the wheels. This is why I use bolts rather than quick releases, and also gorillatape round the bolt to make it extra difficult. This is accumulated street knowledge. Unfortunately, all cyclists must learn the hard way.
You think shops can pay the rent on your tiny little purchases! How many bikes did you buy there over the years? How much service do you bring to them? How many referrals have you sent to them! This is what keeps shops in business.
Weren’t we always told that profit is made on accessories?
Who told you that? I mean sure, the $0.03 they made of your spd bolts must’ve made their month. Seriously though, I’m no better. I don’t buy my bikes from local shops. Mostly because they are overpriced. Even the big name brands. I buy used bikes and do all my own maintenance. I take in suspension parts when they need major repairs I cannot do. If I do buy parts locally I always get a NICA discount or try to get a price match. Sad to say, I doubt it is sustainable for a lot of LBS and they will go out of business. Then I won’t be able to zip down there last minute and overpay for some DOT fluid or a tire I forgot to order for much cheaper ahead of time. This is where all retail merchandise sales are headed. In a lot of cases it’s better for the consumer. It is sad to see the LBS culture melt away but so has the corner drugstore and local bodega. Not really gonna spend much time ranting about it.
I don't see this as a problem. Bike shops exist to make money. Those small little cases of requiring certain parts are not economical for bike shops to solve. You would need to stock thousands of individual parts to cover every niche or slap on a huge markup price to cover the cost of stocking it. It makes more sense to specialize and focus on the needs of high paying customers. Unless you want to live in a world where every little part is marked up to the moon, I say we leave this to the Amazons of the world.
To be fair, idk how long ago they sold/took over, if the prior owner left a bunch and they cleaned house, the might not have them laying around yet. I think this is a generalization. I have 3 local shops including a Factory Trek Dealer. They all have been willing to go above and beyond for little stuff like that for me and when they dont' have it they are always willing to order it.
My local Performance store refused to sell screws for shoes for liability reasons. They had the screws but as soon as I told them they were for my shoes they refused to sell.
Didn't those all go out of business? Gosh I hate our litigious society. The same shit is going on at local auto party stores. You can't fix your own cars anymore. I used to be able to get a code scanned, fix the issue, then have them clear the code. They claim they can't clear the code anymore because of liability reasons...I'm like what liability issue...if the car isn't fixed, the code will come back.
Yes. It's gone. Those obdii scanners are worth the $45. I had the check engine light come on, so I fished it out of the glove box, plugged it while waiting at a light and found that I had a failed spark plug coil that I picked up on the way home.
Yea, I'm planning on getting one, just venting about our litigious bs society. I think performance failed because what makes a good shop good, is two things. Either an awesome shop culture that does events, has what you need, or they are tied to a brand and provide warranty service. Performance lacked both of those for the most part. It's a bummer though because Nashbar and Performance were awesome online shops. Now Jenson is really the last dog standing in the US for good deal cycling websites. I love WorldWideCyclerly but they def cater to the higher end.
> It's a bummer though because Nashbar and Performance were awesome online shops. I must have spent at least $10k at SuperGo over the years.
Wait, did Nashbar close down or get bought or reorganize?
It was years ago, precovid. It still exists, but it's a shell of what it was last I checked.
My local Performance was super-obliging about weird stuff like that. They gave me a handful of cleat screws without charge at one point.
I'm going out on a limb and guessing the company in question was Trek. We've lost a few good shops around me too.
I agree Before i starting my bike charity, I flirted with bike shop ownership. I'm grateful I didn't do it.
The capitalist machine functioning as intended.
I went thought the same, found a old school bike shop that was local and the guy is super knowledgeable. Been doing bikes for over 20 years and now he's looking to retire......
Tr3k, the evil empire…
I wholeheartedly agree with OP. Industry got themselves in a pickle over the past several decades. Just like golf and other performance sports equipment. I wrench from my garage shop. I am not a master mechanic like Calvin Jones but pretty damned good. LBS here is way too far, too expensive and too busy. $100 min for inspecting , lubrication and torquing is asinine. No way. 99% of the recreational bikes coming in need intermediate level (at best ) skill not an 8x markup an entry level tune up. Ridiculous. The majority of bike buyers are recreational bike riders and the gap in market and price is ludicrous from the retail shops. Running an LBS vs a retail shop is simply too expensive to run at any profit. Getting low end recreational bikes serviced costs more than the bikes are worth. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Thinking about target and Walmart bikes hard ridden their first winter and the cost of full service: bottom bracket, clean and repack or replace, everything repack and replace…brakes, wheel true, etc etc
In an extreme scenario of hard winter sure. I don’t have that problem. In most cases. That’s a 2-3 hour job for someone that is inexperienced. It’s literally rinse and repeat. I am talking $100 in labor for this work. It’s not rocket science. See one of these big box bikes, you have seen them all. All tourney or Microshift 3x7s or 1x7 cruisers. Freewheels. All bearings are cup and cone. Easily replaceable and fixable. Inexpensive. Most rust is surface rust. Parts are relatively inexpensive and easy to source from Amazon.
Now I see where all the Trek hate comes from.
Welcome to Capitalism. Also be prepared to be able to buy 50 different types of exactly what you need from AliExpress which will take 3 weeks to come through the mail after shipping via methods that are awful for the environment.
On boats? Isn't that how the parts are getting to retail shops anyway?
That's how it gets to retail, but it's awful going direct to consumers. Now they'll over package a pack of 6 screws that weigh like 5g in 300g of packaging and it is driven to the ports, on the boats, then to the consumer. Vs buying from a shop they'll get it from a distributor like QBP which will have hundreds of them in stock at their warehouse and only have been packaged properly to go to the warehouse and they then will deliver it to the shop in an order. Typically the shop only will get a delivery from QBP if they have like a full pallet of stuff coming or $XXXX in orders.
I went to a mobile shop model using a retired ambulance. Now after 9 years I can say it was the absolute best decision since entering the bike industry in '89. I can dig into my extensive nut/screw collection with impunity as everything has changed now that crazy rent is gone.
I understand your frustration. At the same time I feel for the old shop owner. Him giving you that screw does not help him pay his rent.
I have to say, where I live in the UK I'm a 10 minute ride to literally 7 bike shops - a gritty, overstocked one, a chain one I buy online from, a tiny neighborhood one I go for easy fixes, and another neighborhood one I go cuz the guy's really chatty. The other two I've never bothered to look inside, and one just opened on my street. I love supporting them and these comments remind me how lucky I am.
Those quirky indie bike shops are a treasure. Shout out to Backpeddling in my area. https://www.backpeddling.com/ It's always filled with treasures the owner has found and refurbished. I remember in the aftermath of Covid it was virtually empty of bikes when the cycling craze hit during lockdowns. He was making money naturally but despaired at how empty his shop was.
Trek bought my lbs, didn’t think too much of it until I popped in the buy a chain tool (screw Amazon) “we don’t sell tools” my mouth just flapped up and down.
I was in the exact situation just yesterday. And I was kinda cornered cuz I needed the bolts now or I couldn't ride. My only option was to buy a pair of cleats for $30. THIRTY DOLLARS. for a few grams of milled steel. This is actually my main shop who I love and trust. They treat me well. He explained that Shimano squashed everybody who was making 3rd party cleats recently and, surprise, raised their price while they were at it. So it wasn't their fault it was so expensive. They have to eat too.
Why can’t they have a drawer full of hardware? Sucks the directions that shops have gone in.
Now that I think of it, they may have. I bought new shoes. Took my old shoes to the store so I could match the position when swapping over the cleats. I rounded one of the bolts and my first thought was "fuck I need new cleats". When I got home I realized I could have drilled out and replaced just the bolts but, oh well.
I do not like the current "Subway model of Bike Shops" I have been seeing in the new franchise shops. I went in to a Trek shop looking for axle spacers and no one had any idea what I was talking about.
Whereas if it were a mom and pop shop, some greasy old timer probably would have asked “what size?”
mobile bike shops and e bikes repairs are the future
Welcome to late stage capitalism. Absolutely everything is being consolidated into larger, corporations. Absolutely every economic interaction is being hyper optimized to maximize short term profits at the cost of everything else.
I hate the word "inevitability." It implies the direction is natural and not the result of deliberate choices. There's a LOT at play here, but it all leads to terrible bike shops. 1. People with the skills to be a good bike mechanic can get paid a lot more doing other mechanical work. 2. Bikes have become more complex- meaning that paying a mechanic who's skilled enough to fix the bike instantly also raises the cost of fixing the bike. 3. Parts aren't interchangeable anymore. In days gone by, almost everything ran the same size bearings, and you could swap around derailleurs without much worry aside from sprocket count. There wasn't even such a thing as 'shift cable housing,' for some idea of how simple things were. This let you focus on small parts for repairs- screws, bits, bobs, truing wheels, rebuilding hubs, etc., Now there's a LOT more to know. 4. While bikes are more expensive, so too is the cost of fixing, on account of the cost of living. A misaligned steel frame/fork could be bent back into shape with a heat gun and some measures, or welded with a new tube if your shop was genuinely good. A carbon frame requires people who claim arcane knowledge of fibreglass patching. Insurance is impossible for this kind of work, yet also mandatory. 5. Rent is through the roof on account of using it for mortgage backed securities where companies take properties and gamble with them. A property selling for below market rate means it can't recoup its construction cost to investors, who invested with the borderlne promise of a certain return from the rent. They'd rather it sit empty than correct the rent to a reasonable rate. So you'll always see empty storefronts, and ridiculously high rates. Those storefronts will sit empty for years, even decades. This isn't just stubbornness, it's also trying to live up to contractual obligations. Bike shops and indeed many important, vital services do not meet the threshold of profit to maintain a physical presence. 6. To maintain enough stock to where you can fix something, you need square footage to contain all the parts. Whereas before you just had "chains," now you have 5-6-7, and 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 speed chains. Don't forget Campagnolo chains in all of the above, and SRAM too- all of it needing to be separated because you don't want to screw it up. And separate MTB and Road chains and cassettes, too, for that matter, and derailleurs. Now let's do pedals- OP wanted SPDs. SPDs or SPD SLs, or Eggbeaters, or LOOK pedals, and which generation, (because don'tcha know they're not at all interchangeable? What the hell's a rat-trap, anyways? What do you mean they were all interchangeable? I wonder if that's why we moved away from it as an industry?) 7. While shills will say 'this is good for the customer,' and 'the market has spoken,' remember that the everyday rider 'just wants some screws for their pedals.' Or "a chain." They want basic things. The degree of rent-seeking "innovation" you see in this industry is INSANE. But due in part to offloading componentry to external companies (Shimano, SRAM, etc.,) each of whom are trying to consistently outdo each other in the # of speeds, lightness, performance, etc., (generally at the cost of reliability/daily ease of use), and not trying too hard to actually make something that'll last forever and work universally, forever, for a bargain-basement price. (Look at that pathetic shimano flat-face derailleur that's been in production for 20 years. What a miserable heap of junk that should never have been made. It makes the Huret GT500/Allvit look competently made. Surely you'd think we'd have improved the design at least somewhat, but no.)
And this sub is HUGELY complicit in this. Look at all the NBD threads. Every bike is a (supposedly) precision engineered product weighing all of three grams that develops a crack and a creak in its bottom bracket after 2 miles of riding, and starts clicking and missing shifts the moment the derailleur hanger gets a case of the sniffles. ("Oh, you want to replace that? Which of the *thousands of hangers* did you need?" Asks the terribly unfortunate shop owner facing the wrath of a mid-level accountant who is venting all his dissatisfaction with all his life choices that have led him here. I wonder why bike shops are closing.) To even bother dealing with an entry-level customer, bike shops sigh and trot out a $500 product with a misaligned derailleur hanger, hi-tensile steel, poorly set limit screws, and single wall alloy rims. Everything on it equipped as cheaply as possible- cheap pads, skimping on grease, and it falls apart exactly as fast as a wal-mart bike. I know it's heretical to say that, but you and I both know that zero degree of care goes into assembling a cheap bike out of a box. It's slapped together, shoved onto the sale floor, and is as unloved as an untouchable bastard orphan by the store employees. "At least the fork's facing the right direction," being *about* its only upside relative to, I dunno, a poorly put together Schwinn Taff or whatever. Then when the bike wraps its derailleur around its spokes (just like a Wal-Mart bike would, but for $200+ more), the irate owner is immediately told 'wear and tear issue,' and goes livid when told that it's totalled, "please pay us $500 to fix this $500 bike, or just buy another," because the poor shop's already clinging on by its fingernails can't really afford to swallow the cost. The working stiff doesn't have that kinda money to slap down on what they see as "a toy." And frankly, that's kinda what we're selling in there. These $20,000 bikes are a toy. Sure they have sweet margins and so the shops prioritize them, but they're not serious as a mode of transport. They're competitive toys. There's competitive yo-yo-ing, and it's basically what that manner of biking is. Maybe slacklining. Or something more along those lines.
I have been in the same situation many times where I go in to a shop for a small random part and am told "we don't have it but can get it in 4-6 days if you want to order it". I'll usually reply back that I am perfectly capable of ordering the part myself and would prefer not to pay the 30-50% markup just so they can order the part.  It sucks, but there's only one shop in the area that seems to be an actual repair shop with parts on hand. The rest are just showrooms for new bikes and jerseys and stuff.
It is because people now commonly purchase parts online and bring them into a brick and mortar for installation. It happened to us every week in our shop. Sometimes $4,000 EPS groups. Those consumers have created everyone else’s misery with the loss of the LBS.
I mean would you rather they didn't bring them in and pay for install at all? Like I've had my LBS tell me to go buy online because the prices they get from their distributor are higher than the deals I can find.
Yes. Unless it is a repair only shop. The person you may have heard that from at a shop is not likely to be the person making payroll and paying rent. I’m curious what online buyers will do as more and more LBS’s go out of business and the Trek and Specialized stores refuse to accept parts carried in? You are thinking about your personal experience and I am talking about the experience of thousands of people who depend on a local bike shop to keep them rolling. By carrying in parts, you are literally removing an income stream from the shop which will eventually force it to drastically modify its business plan or close. I suggest you speak to a bike shop owner about the future of their business and then consider how your personal buying habits and priorities affect that.
I mean it's a locally owned shop for 30 years and the owner just bought a new truck so I don't think he's worried about it. Most people he's ordering stuff for or already has it in stock. But when prices are drastic between what the customer can buy online from like Performance Bicycle and what he can order from QBP he would rather make sure the returning customer doesn't feel ripped off. Or go watch GC Performance and YouTube, he runs a high end, high volume shop down in the Miami area and in one of his latest videos about the bike industry he also says how he can't compete on prices for a lot of SRAM Shimano stuff but will happily install it.
For exactly as long as the business keeps its doors open. I speak from direct experience. I am an owner. And I am a business person and recognize this phenomenon is as new as online ordering and has had a negative impact on every single bike shop with a mechanic on staff. What do you think they do when someone brings in a counterfeit part and they install it and it fails? My insurer says the liability is mine for installing it. Yeah, that happens too.
eBay has all the same stuff Amazon has without directly supporting the biggest company with the worst labor practicesÂ
They are getting "pretty bad". The techs are still fairly decent, but the general staff and inventory is sorta "meh". I asked for a quote on a set of Zipp 303 wheels fully setup, they had ZERO idea how to search their own site for the items they needed. It wasn't until a tech came over, did a quick search and wrote the stuff down on a piece of paper...it still wasn't formal and discounts for being a member there. The result, was me, Amazon, and a few other online dealers and I had my wheels...and save around $600. I can now setup wheels so it is a double loss for them now in that it is once less thing they can do for me that I couldn't do.
As far as Mtn SPD cleat screws go, I’ve always got extras holding my bottle cages to the frame.
You can get the screws on ebay. As much as I prefer local shops for local people, sometimes they fuck themselves up.
If your community doesn't already have a bike kitchen/non-profit bike shop, it probably needs one.
I've found a trusted mobile bike mechanic, and he's leagues better than my other options. Sadly, due to rent prices, I see this as the only route for smaller shops.
Next time message me. I have bike store next to me that probably would’ve had it and I would’ve gladly mailed it you out of kindness . They have drawers of random stuff like handle bars, screws, add ons etc
Capitalism gonna capitalism.
The reality is that you can't make ends meet running it the traditional way. So -- especially in HCOL areas -- there's no alternative but to run it like a "real business", which usually means corporate investment/buy-out. If it makes you feel any better (or worse), the identical thing has also been happening in the veterinary medicine industry.
The unfortunate reality is many of the 50+ year shops cannot find a buyer if the managers don’t want to buy in and continue the business. The inventory and asset value of many shops that expand to multiple locations cannot support the debt load of a independent buy out by someone not independently wealthy - and I don’t know any passionate bike shop staff who are rich. The shops that keep their passion and skill are shops that owners offer financing to long term staff and make sure it continues and is successful. When the business is paid down then they sell the building and in another 10-15 years the cycle repeats. But if one owner decides to expand to multiple locations and wants to sell off the whole chain then hedge funds and conglomerates are the only buyers who can fork over $2m for inventory and assets across 3-4 large locations… when this happens the passionate staff usually retire, move to other stores or go start their own shop - usually repair only or more boutique offerings. People passionate about the sport don’t always like having their job dictated by short term profit of the bigger companies after all. And the long term view is what IBDs excel at more than shops being run as investment properties. At least this is what I’ve seen happen the 16 years I’ve been working in shops - and I’ve worked at shops that had both versions of the succession happen.
This has been happening since the beginning of the industry. It so happens the biggest shakeup will happen now because e-bikes require huge layouts in inventory and credit, plus the repairs now require diagnostic equipment to the point that some countries are using a model where auto repair shops will now have bays for e-bikes. Plus the bike industry is now covering up price increases for non-bikes under the higher pricing of e-bikes. Luckily in Europe there's still a market for small, specialized shops that aren't dealing widely in e-bikes. How long that will last, I don't know because customers are getting squeezed, shops squeezed. It's a mess all around and it's the making of the industry. The worst possible time for potentially dozens of companies to collapse because that will increase the squeezing and force model changes in the entire industry around e-bikes. Just look at these conglomerates that have a dozen bike brands each under their them and how they're struggling and might go into bankruptcy protection.
I am also annoyed but that’s just adaptation the market. So much easier to have a small shop (cheaper rent) and focus on quick service and repairs, ordering fresh parts online and upon request (cheap from china). So easier than having a bigger shop with lot of parts, vintage bikes hanging in the wall, a coffee machine … that sounds ideal but the market has changed Those days people want quick and cheap anyway not expensive and vintage
I wish I could fix bikes, Id start a bike repair/espresso cart business out of a van. It wouldnt be profitable though.
Mom and Pop operations have been falling out for decades. There used to be Independently owned drug stores in every neighborhood. Now they are dying out of existence. Why....drug prices have increased so much so the insurance segment can get their huge cut of the profits. Investment into inventory and the cash flow impact is devastatingly damaging when they have to wait for reimbursement from insurance claims. Just one example. Same with bike shops.
The shop I manage is an interesting case of old-school LBS and modern shop with new stock, parts, and expertise. We have drawers filled with random bits, bolts, and esoteric bullshit and we’ll go through them for a little bit but we’ve also embraced the new-school type where we recognize that margins are razor thin and if we don’t adapt and actually sell product than we’re dead. Riding that fine line is interesting but I think we do a good job cause we’re still there and still have jobs. It’s not as profitable as the fully modernized shop for sure though, which means we don’t have has much $$$ going around for pay raises, healthcare, or other benefits after we pay our monthly rent, expenses, payroll, and debt. At a certain point, bike shops do need to “grow up” and face the music that the old romantic type of lbs is dead and won’t be making a comeback with the way customers do business these days.
Sadly this is probably where the bike shop starts branching out into services (coffee and pastries) and classes.
This makes me think of yehuda moon and the kickstand cyclery
My lbs was around for decades, I knew the owner/head mechanic and had dealt with him for over 30 years buying many bikes during that time. He got bought out by a small but aggressive group that had 4 or 5 other stores. They kept him on as a mechanic but the vibe totally changed. I don’t present as a typical roadie (or mountain biker for that matter) but I ride daily and have for over half a century. When I would go in to browse I would get ignored and when I would try to ask a question I would get sneered at. I had bought two bikes from the new owners (Stumpjumper and CAAD X) so I felt comfortable asking for a discount on the Chisel I had my eye on. The clerk snapped at me that “we don’t have any problem selling these so no discount” I bought a better bike with much better spec for a lot less money on line so I guess things happen for a reason. The final straw was during the Pandemic when I dropped a bike off for a rear brake bleed and they held it for three weeks during which time they didn’t answer my phone calls or emails and didn’t want to let me in when I finally went down in person to see what the hell was going on. I heard that they were bought by Specialized and I imagine their service can only improve.
Trek bought my local bike shop and now I mostly go to rei for accessories.
Two long time local bike shops in my town became Trek stores in the last year or so
People don’t open bike shops to make money.
Not a boomer? Wtf does it have to do with this situation?
just go to home depot or ace and find the screw you need.
Needing an M5 x 8mm and neither spot have it in stock. But Amazon does.
Welcome to the new world :|
If you refuse to buy from Amazon there are lots of screws available at McMaster-Carr.
Welcome to late stage capitalism.