In praise of the LBS

[KJMUNC]

Had a great experience with a not-so-local bike shop today that I felt like sharing. Context: I travel for work every week and typically throw my bike in the back so I can get in some miles as work allows. I also keep a small complement of tools to manage all but the biggest maintenance issues. However, today I was out for an early AM ride around Fort Worth (I typically ride from 5am-7am) and my Speedplay Zero seized up and came off the crank about a mile from my hotel. I pretty quickly realized that the bearings were shot, so I one-legged it back and decided to find a LBS to take the pedal to, as I have 2 more days here and need to get more miles this week.

Enter Fort Worth Cycling and Fitness. I've been in before to buy a couple of small things....I took my seized pedal in and one of the mech's responded with "sweet....I haven't rebuilt one of these in a while...can you wait?" He proceeded to strip and down and find that some of the roller bearings had somehow fallen out (these are >10yrs old) so he wasn't able to fix it on the spot. He did offer to regrease it and see if we could at least make it serviceable until I get home and swap it for another pair. He replaced the set-screw hardware as the old stuff was corroded beyond saving and got it to a place that was still crunchy, but manageable.

At this point the LBS owner came over and said "you can't ride that.....here are some loaners, just drop them off when you're done" and handed me a pair of Speedplay X2 pedals.

I was pretty stunned...I'm not a regular customer, nor did he ever ask for any ID/deposit.....nada. On top of it all, I asked how much to cover the effort and they both told me "we didn't fix anything.....no charge."

I'll gladly go back and take them some beer when I return the loaner pedals on Friday. Just wanted to share a great experience with a legit LBS, as anymore they are few and far in between. If you're ever in Fort Worth and need a shop check them out!