Trek SA Concept store Design Quarter

[dave303e]

Just now, ChrisF said:

 

Standard TREK practice ....

 

My EX5 went back creaks in the first week ...

 

Also a TREK concept store 

It is standard practice in general. I had a KX250 brand new out of a Kawasaki dealer that was nowhere near greased as much as I wanted. Thankfully I am pedantic with things like this.

I hade Bike addict deliver a new bike a few months ago, I immediately went to strip and add grease only to be very pleasantly surprised. So it is not always the case, but it is always good practice to strip a brand new bike and top up the grease.

It is also a good time to check if your multitool can do almost all of the work so you don't end up on trail without a key tool. I had team mate who only realised mid race he didn't have the allen key to remove his front wheel on his new bike- Major stuff up...

[DuncanDoughnuts]

I only buy a bike from the bike shop ... It never goes back. 

I don't trust bike shop mechanics ... I was one once...... 

Learn to do it yourself .... it is rather therapeutic working on your bike. 

But am sorry to hear about your issue, sad that one has to worry every time you take your bike in for routine maintenance. 

 

[PhilipV]

3 hours ago, droo said:

U

That said, I've also seen new bikes need all kinds of work after being handed to stage race bike washes, or just being pressure washed to death by the owner cos they've seen it done on the Gram.

 

2 hours ago, MORNE said:

some of my riding buddies 'aggressively' disagree with me that you CAN over-wash a bike😅

I

I know a guy who would obsessively wash his bike after every ride, but then couldn't understand why I don't let a high-pressure hose near my bikes and washed my bike myself at W2W. 

Well about 6 weeks after W2W he discovered that the shaft on his rear shock was scratched, FUBAR. 

 

 

[Paul Ruinaard]

3 hours ago, droo said:

Unless you're doing a custom build or have bought a boutique brand it's unlikely that there's anything other than factory grease in the pivots anyway, which tends to be minimal - the bikes spend a fair bit of time in transit, and the heat in the containers can melt out the grease which stains the boxes...

Most shops won't strip and rebuild pivots on a new frame, and most of these things are semi knocked down so it's basically straighten the bars, pop the wheels on, both check and roll out.

People think I'm nuts when I tell them their almost new bike needs a pivot service because of a "BB creak".

That said, I've also seen new bikes need all kinds of work after being handed to stage race bike washes, or just being pressure washed to death by the owner cos they've seen it done on the Gram.

This is exactly what i suspected. Go to a fancy concept store and pay huge wedges of wonga for the "lifestyle" toy. Concepts store appeal to the market where the people measure worth by putting R 12k 12 speed Rainbow GX clusters on their bikes and drinking soy lattes in Assos bibs whilst wearing everything carbon and Garmin and Tarmac SL 7.  Even the branding is all designer - EXe 9.8 mish mash wakanda forever Turbo SL type stuff with the matrix thrown in on the supplements. 

But little do they know the guys behind the counter are all window dressing and more social media influencers than bike mechanics. The saps buy the brand and the lifestyle implied hook line and sinker. 

But eventually they find out that for their top dollar they don't get a pre delivery inspection and real service. For that you need to actually have some knowledge of how the bikes work and spent a bit of time with grease on your hands in the back rooms.

 

 

[Dappere]

Crazy, you an actually hear the bashing of the keyboard when reading Paul's message...

[PhilipV]

1 hour ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

This is exactly what i suspected. Go to a fancy concept store and pay huge wedges of wonga for the "lifestyle" toy. Concepts store appeal to the market where the people measure worth by putting R 12k 12 speed Rainbow GX clusters on their bikes and drinking soy lattes in Assos bibs whilst wearing everything carbon and Garmin and Tarmac SL 7.  Even the branding is all designer - EXe 9.8 mish mash wakanda forever Turbo SL type stuff with the matrix thrown in on the supplements. 

But little do they know the guys behind the counter are all window dressing and more social media influencers than bike mechanics. The saps buy the brand and the lifestyle implied hook line and sinker. 

But eventually they find out that for their top dollar they don't get a pre delivery inspection and real service. For that you need to actually have some knowledge of how the bikes work and spent a bit of time with grease on your hands in the back rooms.

 

 

 

[Gert Janse v Rensburg]

1 hour ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

This is exactly what i suspected. Go to a fancy concept store and pay huge wedges of wonga for the "lifestyle" toy. Concepts store appeal to the market where the people measure worth by putting R 12k 12 speed Rainbow GX clusters on their bikes and drinking soy lattes in Assos bibs whilst wearing everything carbon and Garmin and Tarmac SL 7.  Even the branding is all designer - EXe 9.8 mish mash wakanda forever Turbo SL type stuff with the matrix thrown in on the supplements. 

But little do they know the guys behind the counter are all window dressing and more social media influencers than bike mechanics. The saps buy the brand and the lifestyle implied hook line and sinker. 

But eventually they find out that for their top dollar they don't get a pre delivery inspection and real service. For that you need to actually have some knowledge of how the bikes work and spent a bit of time with grease on your hands in the back rooms.

 

 

Paul. 
I actually dont know how to say this.
But feel you are painting all these stores with the same brush. Which IMHO is a bit unfair.

My assumption is that at some stage you had a terrible experience at one or other Concept Store.

Be it TREK or Specialized. (those are the 2 most prominent ones)

**** happens all the time and store will drop the ball. Some stores more than others. Some stores are repeat offenders and dont learn from it.
Its how you pick up the balls and fix the problemor issue at hand. 
Maybe at some stage give one of the other stores a try and maybe, just maybe, they will blow you away with excilent service and sound advise.

[OVERDRIVE]

Sorry OP. Hope you come right, and when you go please head to MelloVello Broadacres. 

Mellow Velo

 

[Sandro]

Literally paid one of these stores 3k to wash my bike. Never and NEVER again.

[Paul Ruinaard]

24 minutes ago, OVERDRIVE said:

Sorry OP. Hope you come right, and when you go please head to MelloVello Broadacres. 

Mellow Velo

 

Mellow was my go to shop before I moved down to Paarl. Very good store 

[ChrisF]

3 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Mellow was my go to shop before I moved down to Paarl. Very good store 

 

Ouch....

 

Seriously bad experiences with the Trek store in Paarl ....

[Steady Spin]

4 hours ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

This is exactly what i suspected. Go to a fancy concept store and pay huge wedges of wonga for the "lifestyle" toy. Concepts store appeal to the market where the people measure worth by putting R 12k 12 speed Rainbow GX clusters on their bikes and drinking soy lattes in Assos bibs whilst wearing everything carbon and Garmin and Tarmac SL 7.  Even the branding is all designer - EXe 9.8 mish mash wakanda forever Turbo SL type stuff with the matrix thrown in on the supplements. 

But little do they know the guys behind the counter are all window dressing and more social media influencers than bike mechanics. The saps buy the brand and the lifestyle implied hook line and sinker. 

But eventually they find out that for their top dollar they don't get a pre delivery inspection and real service. For that you need to actually have some knowledge of how the bikes work and spent a bit of time with grease on your hands in the back rooms.

 

 

You just described me from the top of my POC helmet to the soles of my carbon shoes. 

[BaGearA]

1 hour ago, ChrisF said:

 

Ouch....

 

Seriously bad experiences with the Trek store in Paarl ....

There is NO Trek store in Paarl , there's 3 and only 3 at the time of writing this , all of them are in Gauteng

 

You had A bad experience with someone who retails the bikes and are painting the brand with that brush 

[ChrisF]

6 hours ago, BaGearA said:

There is NO Trek store in Paarl , there's 3 and only 3 at the time of writing this , all of them are in Gauteng

 

You had A bad experience with someone who retails the bikes and are painting the brand with that brush 

 

Thanks for the correction.

 

As this store in Paarl only sells TREK it is an easy mistake to make.  Even their website only shows TREK.

 

In fact .... it is one of the official distributor stores on the TREK website.

 

 

Then again, maybe the distinction here is "distributor store" vs "concept store".

[BaGearA]

1 hour ago, ChrisF said:

 

Then again, maybe the distinction here is "distributor store" vs "concept store".

 

[PhilipV]

10 hours ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Mellow was my go to shop before I moved down to Paarl. Very good store 

Well I can vouch for the Spez store in stellies. I live in Somerset West, but I will ride my bike to Stellenbosch to buy something there instead of the spez store in S-West. They guy there (Craig Boyes IIRC) remembered my shoe size a week later, and advised me to look at a lower end show rather when I told him what I planned to do. And a few years later he said that what he had on the floor was a down grade, and that I would be disappointed. (This was in covid time when stock was a nightmare.) I can't comment on the workshop, I swing my own spanners. 

Larney Concept stores attract the kind of customer who waltzes in waving his credit card saying "I have no clue, but here is my card, give me one of everything."

 I've only been to the Spez store in Paarl once, and the big F-off I had written on my forehead probably scared the kid off. 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by PhilipV