LBS - love them or hate them?

[bike4ever]

I love my LBS - oh, wait, it's my shop that I manage.

[Biciclista]

we do our best to treat the guys at our LBS as well as we can. It makes me sad when some don't work out (a brilliant mechanic with abysmal social skills, for example) but it's important to me that they know who I am when i walk into the store!

[badgercat]

I've found a couple lovely LBSs since I moved here in August, but I can't always afford to buy clothes/accessories/what have you from them.

Love the LBS for actually purchasing bikes, and going to talk bikes, and clothes when they have sweet sales and I can afford it, and supplies that I need pronto (like tubes) but... I do a lot of other shopping (particularly clothes) online, especially at reioutlet.com.

I voted bacon. I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself.

[sundial]

My LBS guys take good care of me.

[Miranda]

I know we have some good shop owners on here that are very helpful, so let me preface this with "sorry, nothing personal to YOU... ya sister saints". Please shield your saintly eyes...

OK, my vote was bacon. I've been @#$%^&* more times than I can count... dang, didn't even get kissed out of the deal.

My bike is sitting in it's room right now as we speak with a mechanical problem caused by the lbs for something that should not have been that difficult. I've commuted back twice, don't see the point in going again.

I just started buying some tools for myself. I own a mechanical book now. I am going to learn some DIY if it kills me.

On an up note from this tainted seething rant...

Hey, I guess I can THANK my lbs for that one...way to be an inspiration.