LBS - love them or hate them?

[Irulan]

a hot topic I am sure.

I love my local shops - I know many of the guys by name, I get great service, I shop locally ( not online) for most thing, they support my biking organization.... but I know not every one is so lucky.

[Blueberry]

I love mine too, but it took me a long time to get there. The shop's prior management was terrible. Still...I can't buy a lot from them because they just don't carry it. They know why - I think they're OK with it - especially since I make a point to buy everything I can there (and bring beer!).

CA

[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.

[SandyLS]

I'm still searching for the perfect shop. When I was bike shopping it was hard to find a shop that would listen to and take seriously an old out of shape lady. I left several shops empty handed when I was told by young sales people that I really did not need a bike with the upper level components I had researched and decided to spluge on buying. I've had my Bianchi for about four years now and we get along great together. I am learning to do minor adjustments myself because of repetedly being disappointed when I get my bike back from the shop. Even when I drive the 130 miles round trip to take the bike back to the shop she came from I feel she does not get the care she deserves. When I had the bar tape redone this spring it was not done with the same quality tape as the bike came with when she was new. Even shopping is a disappointment. I will often go in to look for a particular idem only to find the shop does not carry what ever. My son purchased a new Surly LHT this summer. When he took the bike out of the shop to do an initial test ride the handle bars came off in his hands because the shop had not tightened them down properly! I do like to support the LBS. It would be a shame if there was no place left to test ride a bike before we buy. I just wish I could find a good one like so many of you have.

[Tokie]

What does the option "bacon" mean? thanks! tokie

[redrhodie]

My LBS guys are great, I consider them really good friends. I love going there, hanging out, talking bikes and life. It's a tiny place that's been there since the dawn of time. Seriously, it was there before the streets were paved. The owner is in his 80s, and his father owned it before him. It feels like family to me.

[jaydee]

Not too sure what bacon means - so I haven't voted. I definitely don't love the LBS's that are around. We are spoilt here because we do have a lot of bike shops, but none of them have me as a loyal customer.

I wish I could go into one and feel that I was being treated honestly rather than simply as 'money'. I realize that this is partly my fault because I do not know a huge amount about bikes and probably ask some silly questions. But I would like to be told an honest answer rather than being sold something that isn't quite right.

I took my lovely Giant back to the shop I bought it from for it's first service and really doubt that any work at all was done as the brakes nor gears were adjusted. But I have no proof of that. Similarly, I have bought gear from one shop after being told that this is the latest/best/most suitable etc etc to find that another shop tells me I should have something different.

So I am still looking, and hoping that one day I will find a shop that I can walk into and not be made to feel an idiot.

[Irulan]

The Bacon thing is a joke. "Always vote for Bacon". It has no relevance to the rest of the poll, unless you love bacon.

[crazycanuck]

Hey Jaydee, you can always ask on the BNA forum about reputable bike shops in Canberra!

[SadieKate]

Bacon, bacon, bacon.

The shops here like everywhere are all over the spectrum and each have their specialty. Very, very happy with the new LBS we use for mtb stuff. Not so happy with the LBS we thought would be best for road bikes. It seems that if you aren't Chris Horner, you fall through the cracks.

Still try to do most of our own wrenching but we like to know if there is a good mechanic for when we're just overwhelmed with projects or just feeling too lazy to figure out how to bleed a 3rd brand of hydraulic brakes. I think my newest mtb is smarter than I am . . . but it shore works good.

[Miranda]

The Bacon thing is a joke. "Always vote for Bacon". It has no relevance to the rest of the poll, unless you love bacon.

Thx Irulan for the clarification.

Every forum I think has it's own term for this choice in polls. But, I REALLY thought on this it meant a couple things (considering my earlier post, and hate the lbs, if we use the title as a yes or no poll question)...

"Bacon" comes from the pig animal. Umm, couple ways to spin that in my lbs view...

Option #1
LBS = Pigs

Old saying... "If you can get the milk for free, why buy the cow?" (normally a man saying about a woman in terms of sex and marriage, or not). Or fair turn about of the sexes I've heard...
A woman may realize... "to get a little sauage, you don't need to buy a whole pig"... (care for the pigs filthy ways, feed it, listen to it groan, etc.... nope, just the meat benefit)

which "bacon" comes from a pig... so does sauage... and ummm, "sauage" refers to male genitalia... so THAT could define lbs too...

Option #2
LBS = ****s (I think you get the idea)