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!

[gasman]

That is a great story. Thanks for sharing one in praise of a LBS.

[cadence90]

If you had Zeros and they loaned you X2's, what did you do re: your cleats?
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[KJMUNC]

Originally Posted by cadence90

If you had Zeros and they loaned you X2's, what did you do re: your cleats?
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Edit that: i said X2 but they're just cromo zeros

[cadence90]

Originally Posted by KJMUNC

Edit that: i said X2 but they're just cromo zeros

Wow, excellent service then. Have fun riding your crmo0s!

[fogrider]

Great story! good to know that there are still folks there that do it for the love of the sport.

[rustychisel]

Alternate facts: the shop owner took one look at the POS you were riding and thought 'that'll never make it through the week'. His dastardly scheme was to loss lead you to his store when the inevitable occurred and you needed to purchase a new bike. He knew he had a pair of Speedplay pedals hanging around because he'd taken them off another POS 6 months ago and no-one wanted to buy them. Ever.

You've fallen for it; hook, line & sinker. There is nothing a desperate bike shop owner won't do these days to try and get a sale; they're shameless.




















Or not.



But in this day and age it's worth having alternate facts available.

[mcfarton]

Originally Posted by rustychisel

Alternate facts: the shop owner took one look at the POS you were riding and thought 'that'll never make it through the week'. His dastardly scheme was to loss lead you to his store when the inevitable occurred and you needed to purchase a new bike. He knew he had a pair of Speedplay pedals hanging around because he'd taken them off another POS 6 months ago and no-one wanted to buy them. Ever.

You've fallen for it; hook, line & sinker. There is nothing a desperate bike shop owner won't do these days to try and get a sale; they're shameless.




















Or not.



But in this day and age it's worth having alternate facts available.

Exactly, they also lend out all available sram components

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[Tickdoc]

Good on them to help you out, and now you can return the favor.

[Vamoots58]

Great Story!! It's amazing how few business owners seem to get how far a great customer service experience in terms of building their brand, reputation, and business!! Hats off to that shop!!!

[merlinmurph]

Sounds like a great shop, thanks for sharing.

[Gummee]

Originally Posted by mcfarton

Exactly, they also lend out all available sram components

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It isn't the LBS 'lending out' SRAM stuff. That comes from the factory. The LBS is just the middleman in the equation. AMHIK

M

[KJMUNC]

Funny as I asked why they had spare Speedplays laying around and he said they no longer stock them as they required a certain amount of inventory to be held, which was effectively 2yrs worth for this shop. Said he sells primarily Look and Shimano. I switched to Speedplay 15yrs ago so I haven't paid much attention to other pedals in the meantime and this is the first issue I've had with them other than swapping out cleats every few years.

[likebikes]

just make sure that they're ok with alcohol first.

an ex-career (lol) in the bike industry taught me that there were about as many sober folks in/around bikes as there were fans of the bottle.