LBS funny excuses and "Explanations"

[PhilipV]

That tool is famous for being difficult to get hold of. I was totally amazed that the bike shop got it so quickly. I actually also ordered one on eBay, thinking the bike shop would never come through. Then I had two, gave one to a mate.

You can have it 3d printed at any local 3d printimg place. Stl file is available on thingiverse.

Mine came from bike24.de or something like that.

[Traveler]

WOW just WOW...when the manual says hand tight AND it is only there to keep dust out

It is ok, he was holding the spanner in his hand.....

[Shebeen]

HAHA

Not really

We are a group of about 9 riding together and we all service our bikes now at my place. We bought the tools we need, and put in my Garage. Everyone has own bottle of sealant in the cubboard and we an ipad to teach us how to do certain things like bleeding brakes.

 

Then we look at the video and start doing what one should. That is when the stories come out.

You know last time when I took my bike in for service this is what I was told, or you know when I had to get new gear cable outers the told me bla bla

 

So we all learn together and we did not ALL have buy expensive tools each. So we have ONE high torque wrench, and ONE 27mm socket etc rather than one each.

Also one compressor etc.

Very cool set-up, sounds like fun

[PhilipV]

I helped out at a bike shop on Saturdays about 5years ago

 

I'm going to offer the flip side of the coin. The all-knowing customer.

 

 

So this guy comes in, doesn't want anything, just to browse and talk bikes. Lekker. So we end up talking about mtb tyres. He tells me that the best tyre for MTBing is the crossmark. The best. In the world.

I'm like "okay, they are great for long distance riding, but they really suck at cornering." "No" he replies, "you need to drop your tyre pressure to 1bar, the sidewall can handle it. "

in disbelief I ask him whether he isn't scared of rock strikes, or the tyre climbing off the rim in hard cornering?

"The trick is to not go too fast into a corner, and to be careful of rocky bits, then the crossmark is perfect. I can trust him, he has done many miles like that. "

I asked him how long he has been riding, "oh almost a year."

At that stage I excused myself from talking bikes with him, because fortunately for me another customer looked like he wanted to talk bike.

 

And once we had a guy looking for a weird headset for the frame he imported from China, and he couldn't understand how we didn't have that obscure headset. We had about 15 other, more common unicorns, but he wanted the unicorn, and we were useless for not stocking unicorn. Oh and he didn't want to order it, he wanted it now. We were the second shop he tried, as his preferred lbs didn't stock unicorn either. I never saw him again, so I have no idea if he found a unicorn headset that day.

 

Another character was Vinnige Fanie. Vinnige Fanie had very good taste in bikes, this was in the days when trailbikes had 120mm travel, 72deg headangles and 29ers was scarce.

Now vinnige Fanie kept reminding us how he was fastest on their club rides, but he forgot that the club rides consisted of middle aged doctors and housewives. Fanie also had a habit of showing up with pastries so we humored him and his bragging.

 

My last Saturday in the shop ended just before we rang up the till, 25 people walked in and kidnapped me for my bachelors. Those guys were alright.

[Dieter ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

I want to hear stories from bike shop owners now! What kind of MacGyver fixes they have seen, silly things people have asked, they must have some gems!

[NotSoBigBen]

'I do my own maintenance' the customer said ....

 

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[Pikey]

maybe because they didn't understand you?

https://youtu.be/cWBcWjo_Zhg

That was flipping hilarious had good laugh.

Awa' an raffle yer doughnut yer dunderheid ???????????? my mate’s old mans favorite saying .

[madbradd]

'I do my own maintenance' the customer said ....

 

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I've seen the same on a brand new bike from Makro. Kept wondering why she was hitting her foot with the tyre when cornering.

[intern]

The owner of my LBS told my friend, just starting out, after servicing his bike that 26ers are 30% slower than 29ers. 30% boss, that is is some serious gains there.

That is BOSS. Glad someone has finally quantified it.

[deanbean]

'I do my own maintenance' the customer said ....

 

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I've seen that a few times, a buddy was complaining about the reach on his bike, he felt like he was falling over the front, his fork was put on backwards .

Another bike shop in Somerset West, which has subsequently closed , put my Manitou backwards, which is easy if you employ schoolboys as mechies :cursing: