******WARNING THIS IS A LONG RANT! MAKE A SANDWHICH, GRAB SOME SNACKS. CONSIDER READING THIS POST LIKE READING WAR AND PEACE**********


Sometimes I wish I had a web cam in the shop so you ladies (and mr silver) could see the things an LBS go through on a daily basis. I'm sure we aren't special, and it's prolly the same with all shops. Certainly it may explain why sometime when you walk into your lbs the folks behind the counter may seem a bit beaten down.
This is how my day started yesterday.
I roll into the shop at 9:45 am and realize that running hubby has the keys to the shop, as I had to give mine to the fire dept dude the other day. RH is on his way back from a shop ride 60 miles away. I make an SOS call to my friend michelle who works with us. She has a key, but since she knows I get in early enough, she usually rolls in right at 10.
Of course there are people waiting for us at the door. (yes this is a good problem, but why on the one day that you are running late. Any other day and no one would be there).
Michelle rolls in right near ten. I explain to the folks that I just need to open the register and un-cable the bikes. (extra security measure we do every night). They are nice and understanding. Michelle and I are running loopy, and then running hubby pulls up. I hate being harried like that, so maybe I was still in a bit of a fluff. But we got everything and everyone taken care of and were settling in.
And then Mr. caveman walks in the door wheeling a new steed, fresh off the wal mart sales floor. I step forward to greet him and see what we can assist him with. (you will see soon why I refer to him as a caveman. And NO this is not standard practice with our customers. We love our customers! 99.9% of the time)
Caveman: Yeah I called earlier. I need to get this tuned up.
Me: Ok. well looks like she is brand new?
CM: Yes. I just bought it at wal mart but it doesnt shift right and I want to make sure that it's put together right.
Me: (impressed that even if he bought it at wallys he at least wants to make sure it's safe) Ok. No problem. We will go through the shifting, the brakes, make sure the stem is tight, as well as the bottom bracket/cranks (gesturing with my hands all of the things we will do) And we will also true the wheels, as it's rare that a new bike comes out of the box with wheels that are true.

*** this is when I notice the wheels... Some nimnut at schwinn decided that it would look "cool" to make a 26" wheel with an aero road wheel type dish to it. And of course it's a shraeder wheel, but it needs long stem tubes. This is something that I have yet to be able to find through any of my distributors.***

me: Hmm. I see that this bike has wheels that will require an extended valve stem (I gesture towards the valve stem and point out the wheel dish) . I want to warn you that when you eventually need to change the tubes on this bike you most likely won't be able to find tubes for it. I don't know why Schwinn did this, and I see it all the time. It's very frustrating but I have tried to find tubes to fit these bikes with the extended valves but they just don't seem to exist. Or at least I can't find them.

*** At this point our service manager is listening in and suggests that he had heard that you could get valve extenders from autozone. He's not sure if they are the right diameter, but he had heard that somewhere. ***

caveman: Ok, then answer this question for me. Can you just change the tubes. Why don't you put some of those slime tubes in...

me: (thinking ok, maybe he didn't understand me??) Well that is the problem sir. We cannot get tubes with an extended valve stem. (thinking HOW can I explain myself better). So we can't do it. See that road bike right there (gesture to a tri bike with an aerowheel) that bike requires long stem tubes, and they make them for those type of bikes. But those are a different valve, and they are a different size. They just don't seem to make them for your size wheel. But what we can do since your tubes are new is to add slime to them.

*** according to michelle, by the look on his face somewhere in my attempt to get CM to understand me he just tuned out and gave me this "stupid girl you don't know what your talking about" look. ****
CM: (with a scoul on his face). NO. I asked you to answer my QUESTION. And you are not answering my QUESTION. (yes he sounded annoyed and almost had a mocking tone).

This is when our service manager (a man btw) steps in because he likely senses my head is ready to explode...

mgr: Sir what Denise is trying to tell you is that we cannot change your tubes because they do not make replacement tubes with the long valve- or at least none of our ten distributors have them. So we can add slime to these tubes, and you could go to autozone and look into the schraeder valve extenders, but we don't have tubes for this type wheel.
He then reaches back and grabs a tube to show the guy how only a nub would be poking through the rim and we wouldn't be able to air it up.

CM: (in a nice calm "man to man" tone) Oh, ok. Well thanks for answering my question (shoots me a look). Ok, so I will go look for those extenders. In the meantime just put a new slime tube in anyway.

mgr: But I won't be able to pump up the tires, and we need to be able to test ride your bike to make sure the shifting is right.

CM: Ok. Well you said you can add slime to these so just do that.

Mr caveman then turns to the manager and thanks HIM for his help, give's michelle his info and waltzes out without so much as a glance in my direction.

My manager looks at me with a sly grin, wanting to laugh but knowing I write his paycheck. I look at him and Michelle and proclaim "THAT is the prime example of a man who thinks women don't know what the hell they are talking about. And most certainly wouldn't take mechanical advice from a woman".
He shrugged and replied "Yeah, I told him the same thing you did. I was even careful to explain it EXACTLY as you did. Because you explained it just fine, and it made perfect sense. But I wanted to see if he either really was not understanding us, or was just a caveman who thinks women are clueless".

Why is it that men of a certain age (I'm trying not to generalize here, but this has happened to me more than once) have such backward thinking?
I will be the first one to admit that I really don't know all that much about the workings in the shop. But you can't be in the business and not pick up at least SOME knowledge! I once had a guy ask me for a chain and when I asked him what speed the bike was he told me "it doesn't matter, a chain is a chain"...
I had the same thing with a rear derailluer once. The guy yelled at me to JUST give him one! It didn't matter what kind it was. When I rang it up I explained our return policy. He came back the next day with it in pieces and tried to tell running hubby that I sold it to him and didn't know what I was talking about. I of course had explained it to everyone in the shop in case it came back. He said "No she didn't sir. I was in the back. I heard the whole thing. You insisted that this would work and it didn't matter. I'm sorry but this is broken now, and I'm not going to take it back".

And yes, they all appeared to have come from roughly the same generation.

Anyway, sorry for my rant. Sometimes it's just more than I can take, so I need my TE friends shoulders!

Oh- and my next customer... Two older ladies that didn't know what they wanted, but they didn't want anything I had to offer because it was too fancy with those gears and cords (brake cables) and things. But the coaster brake cruisers were too "big and heavy looking" And when showing them a bike one asked "is this aluminum or metal".....

and after that. A regular that buys more from ebay than from us. He brought in some xtr front D that he thought he "scored" until running hubby explained to him the clamp size was too small, as it was a very old xtr and wouldn't work on his bike. We had one that would work in stock, but he said "no thats ok. I'll go home and see what I can find online. Now what size do I need again?"

and next up... a guy buying a comfort bike who is 6' and really needed the large. But it was black and the medium is red. And he wanted the red one. So he wanted to know what we could do to make it work (now where did I put that frame stretcher?)

And later that day...
A guy who wanted us to price out upgrading his road bike. He wanted prices on ultegra and DA, and "the better sram groups".
We know this one well... So we gave him general prices for the groupsets.
He wanted us to not only price out every componet in the group individually but to also write down the model numbers....
Yeah, so he can go home and find it all online.
We explained to him that the model numbers weren't needed because we would make sure that we ordered the correct ones for him when he decided which gruppo he wanted to go with.

And last but not least...

It's a taco, nooooo it's a wheel off a wal mart bike!

A guy with a wheel so bad it actually really did resemble a taco. He claimed that he just took the bike off a curb ( I was JRA). He didn't understand why we couldn't fix it. It was also a disc wheel with a cassette, so not a cheap replacement. He left in a huff and said "I bet that lawnmower shop down the road can fix it"... (evergreen bike and lawn. Yes, that is our closest competition)

So yeah, there you go. That was my saturday. I really do LOVE what I do! And when I can get someone on a bike I'm tickled beyond belief. Esp the riders new to the sport. I love to see their excitement.
I have so many great customers that I cherish because they are so special to me. I consider so many of them friends.
But sometimes there are just those days.... The days when you want to go home and have a stiff drink. Yesterday was THAT kind of a day!
We ALL have them! Even those of us with our "dream" jobs.


wheww. You MADE it!! Iron reader that you are! You deserve a medal!