love2fly

All maybe except Pieterlab above. He seems to like to know what group he was seeded in and finished in....

I think e-bikes might be like someone said of me about their Land Rover Discovery a few years ago "Be far away from it when the service plan and/or warranty expires"..... There will definitely be a need for grey ebike services but I think a lot of stuff will be proprietary to the brand and difficult to get. I suspect "repacking" batteries might be difficult? Aren't they Li-on and spontaneously combust when come into contact with oxygen?

Ah yes, now I understand. 😃 I was riding Cradle a while back. Lady on Giant ebike said hers was getting replaced by CL as when it got wet during washing and in recent rainy ride it had problems. I would have thought an ebike should be able to handle water.....especially when being washed! I'm so glad I am not on an ebike yet.....I wonder what will happen when people who've financed their ebikes over 2000 month deals and when en their battery needs replacing or the motor fails and is out of warranty....

Why post here? Really?

After seeing the state of the cranks and how the Shimano lettering has been scuffed off I think the OP is wasting everyone's time. PS Maybe the cycling museum the cranks came from will be glad to get their parts back....

And the interest on 1M will be about 15k per month depending on where you've borrowed that money. If you have the cash it still costs you the 10% Opportunity Cost ie the interest you would have earned.

Trek, Specialized etc won't supply you with batteries and parts......so you'll be Ltd to the likes of Bafang. Ebikes are s significant source of business for the bike brands. Expect them to be VERY possessive.

Nah, I give it horns but keep my eyes open - I'm too poor to afford new wheels and too old to crash (too often)

In my view the way the seller and his wife acted (very poorly I might add), is character based and they will always act this way i.e. a mistake you can correct but character you can't. Give them a sh11ty review and lets make sure they don't trade here again! Maybe that will motivate them to refund and sell the item under its accurate representation and compensate the buyer. This sort of thing really annoys me. If my wife was a cyclist and I sold on her behalf, I would be WELL aware of the condition of said item, they appear to be covering for eachother? What goes around, comes around and I sincerely hope that this dishonest seller experiences that!

Maybe for a different thread. I've ridden Crossmark 2 rear, Ardent Race front for 3 years at 1.1bar front: 1.6bar rear. The only punctures I've had were thorns. Of the +- 4 over the years, 2 sealed themselves and 2 needed a plug. Mostly single track with a few gnarly descents which have sharp rocks. In my 4 or 5 years of MTB I've (luckily) never had a snakebite, burp or damaged sidewall.

I've tried bleeding my previous generation Srams and after battling I now use my LBS who knows what he's doing

He's got the coolest mechanic.....

Ninos tyres are quite different to what most of us ride and like someone mentioned here in a previous thread - he rides a lightweight version, I forget the model - ss do most of the field and you can't paint the entire Maxxis range with the same brush. Nino has come out and said the flat was entirely his fault.

I found it seriously entertaining due to how competitive it was. Sometimes the track is more technical and sometimes not. I for one don't want to see it get too similar to motorcycle Trials/foot ups and prefer to watch it as an athletic contest.

Are you referring to this, the latest short track or the previous? You have to ride the same bike on Sunday..

Try riding with a rear flat on an MTB. Try doing that on a climb most of us would walk. Then pull back something like 38 sec in one lap....not to mention keeping your **** together all the while you're going backwards and trying not to get involved changing the rear wheel....I think Nino's comeback was incredible! Yip, nobody went with Nino when he came past.

This is already a potential pitfall in that you have 2 partners each likely wanting a fair slice of the income vs paying a techie......In the time I was in the industry selling to bike shops, I lost 7 customers in a year and that was pre-Covid. The odd bike shop opened to replace one which closed but it's rare that one guy can make a go of it where another couldn't. There are very few bike shops who can boast that they are operating at a high capacity and only one near me comes to mind yet I can think of 10 that are nowhere close. I would urge you to find another industry or venture where the prospect is compelling. Opportunity no longer knocks - It's running at full speed in the opposite direction so you have to work hard, smart and have a unique selling proposition to get Mr Customer to part with his money!

In my experience in most retail rental relationships, the only happy partner is the landlord. Retail rentals are just too expensive. The ideal would be a small "mini factory" but then you don't get enough passing trade........

An interesting side note about staff. I know one Techie who trained from nothing at my LBS, although I mostly dealt with the owner. After a year or so I see he's moved to another LBS - A family member of mine had him change his chainring from a 32 to something bigger for a gravel race. Lo and behold, when said trained Techie fitted the chainring (and new chain so as to keep things in a bit of a set), he kept chain same length so it would complain when in 50 tooth gear....Speaks volumes about on-the-job training and that both LBS were happy with his services. I agree with the previous poster, as soon as you have people working for you, life becomes helluva comlicated. They bring their personal problems, theft, performance etc. In our one family business we have had to deal with theft and then large scale mutiny trying to disrupt staff and encourage them to all leave and go to a competitor, but when someone needs a staff loan or advice or a lift to work for a week due to no transport..../Eish, life has become so complicated! 🙂

Order online & arrive a few hours later depends where you are. Cycling suppliers are mostly based in the WC and that means 24-48 hours to Gauteng. Suppliers generally charge customers for courier. My one principle charged courier (and marked it up) no matter how large your order so now you need a R200 part but get billed R150 for courier - Can you imagine the customers reaction when you bill him adding in courier plus your markup for courier because if you don't mark up every expense you pay you lose money?

Yeah, I've been waiting for them to set the course alight but not yet. His mate looks like he's recovering from a big prang with lots of facial injuries. Nine-Times Nino - I was done and dusted when he flatted, wow, that is the greatest comeback I have ever seen. Who comes on that strong to get back a minute or more on Pidcock! I am in awe!

Cycles United is a VERY different thing as they got together to bring in NORCO and cut out the middleman importer. I was once in one of the stores and heard how much the owner had to put in to fund another bike order from the US..........eye-watering. They each buy independently so there is generally no getting together to build volumes. At least one significant member has left the collective but that's another discussion.

The issue with several smaller bike shops buying collectively is when you need that "emergency" part for a customers bike and add a few other items to make it a worthwhile order - now you have to co-ordinate with your 5 mates and THEN, you have to disseminate the parts to eachother. Too much hassle. In theory things may seem simple but to apply them in practice complications arise.

Yip, people seem to think car dealers make the standard "retail" 30% + on a vehicle and that because you "know someone" or your wife also owns a car, you should get fleet discount. These days business is so tight, all dealers squeeze their margins and it is very difficult to get a better price...Plus, car dealerships generally belong to a couple of large groups such as Unitrans etc.... Remember the days of the Rand Show? and their special pricing? Now every day is a "Rand Show" day... Re bike shops banding together to buy....Nice idea but difficult to put into practice. The one large importer I worked for won't supply you unless you have a retail storefront not to mention minimum first order!

As someone with cycle industry experience working for some of the bigger importers in SA, Restaurant experience as well as some Hardware and my wife is in the Beauty industry: To the comment above about appreciative customers thanking you for getting a new item in: Yes, there are some appreciative customers but there are also some that are downright nasty and expect you move heaven and earth but don't want to pay. People by and large don't understand that retailers have a family behind them that need a roof over their head and food on the table as well as education for children and medical aid etc etc. They think we as retailers are making exorbitant profits and that we have room to discount everything by many%. The retail landscape in SA has changed significantly over the last years, mostly due to global recession and recently COVID which has seen many people either lose their employment or have the incomes cut. The conundrum is that as a smaller bike shop the importers don't care who you are and many won't supply you unless you buy significant volumes, so if you make a deal with a large LBS to buy from them, you are outpricing yourself as customers want it for nothing. I would hazard a guess that were you to inspect the books of a LARGE LBS (even that one that is a national "chain"), you would see that they are not making bucket loads of cash because of high expenses and inefficiency's due to mismanagement. I would suggest you rather work in another industry or open a different business and do the bike servive/shop thing as a hobby. That way you will have an income AND be happy.