Trek SA Concept store Design Quarter

[Barry]

52 minutes ago, PhilipV said:

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. 

 

I find this to be part of the problem.  I am not painting all youngsters with the same brush. But the attitude seems to be i am better than you i work for Spez/Trek i know everything and the customer is stupid.  Lack of experience in the workshop and dealing with people.  

[Wynwurm]

Agree with a lot of the comments, but sometimes the customer must look at his/her own behavior as well....seems to me our complainer has some issues were ever he goes refer to Santa Cruz ect.....again just my opinion. 

[PhilipV]

7 minutes ago, Barry said:

I find this to be part of the problem.  I am not painting all youngsters with the same brush. But the attitude seems to be i am better than you i work for Spez/Trek i know everything and the customer is stupid.  Lack of experience in the workshop and dealing with people.  

But that is a managerial problem. Inexperienced staff need to be mentored and trained.

[thebob]

10 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 

Your bias aside, the customer dealt with Trek. Trek messed his bike up. There is no separation of dealers in the mind of the customer. Someone from Trek needs to put their hand up, own the problem and sort the customer out. Failing that, you won't lose one customer, you will lose many.

[Barry]

15 minutes ago, PhilipV said:

But that is a managerial problem. Inexperienced staff need to be mentored and trained.

Attitude comes from the brand. High end brand stores almost always have the what do you know we are Trek attitude.  Can't say i have had the same experience when going to a multi brand store to look at a Titan/Scott etc

[Forever chasing single track]

26 minutes ago, Wynwurm said:

Agree with a lot of the comments, but sometimes the customer must look at his/her own behavior as well....seems to me our complainer has some issues were ever he goes refer to Santa Cruz ect.....again just my opinion. 

Male version of a Karen if you ask me. Looks like this guy has a history of complaining and being persistent until he gets his way.

[Robbie Stewart]

On 11/16/2022 at 4:16 PM, Cyclingpilot said:

Not sure if this is the right forum...

I recently had a new bike Trek Top Fuel 9.8 AXS (total of 597 kms) serviced at the abovementioned shop.

The only reason I took the bike for a service, I had just ridden Wines2whales and currently live outside of SA. I didnt want to have an issue with the bike while I was out of country for three months (the country I live in has no bike shops).

Anyway, the workshop manager spoke a good story, but in the end messed my bike up worse than I gave it to them.

The bike was never serviced, the AXS messed up, the frame is chipped, I am guessing they dropped the bike as the rear derailleur is bent. The AXS battery cover was not returned, I only noticed this when I got back to my destination.

R4000.00 later, they replaced pivots, BB's, they wanted to replace fork seals too, I said no to that.

After receiving my bike back is this condition, I spoke to the shop owner, he denied everything and told me to bring the bike back... they had it for almost 1.5 days. I wasn't prepared to let them mess it up more... now I sit 7000 kms away with a ^&*0'ed up bike.

I messaged Trek USA, but I am guessing Trek SA is blocking anything from getting through as I suspect there is a link with the shop.

 

 

I didn't know Trek bikes are such rubbish that they need to have pivots and BB's replaced after not even 600km of riding.

My Spez Camber Comp still has its original BB after nearly 11 000 km's.

I think you are the victim of day-light robbery having paid R4000 for something that was not necessary. 

[Paul Ruinaard]

Okay so I had some fun here and a lot is tongue in cheek and I do go to the concept stores to look at the drool worthy bikes but when i look at the prices i have a bad WTF reaction. 

FWIW I was watching the insert on Cadence last night on DSTV  where they profiled Woodstock cycles. Now that's a bike shop. People like Mellow Velo who were always good and always had stock of everything or would get what i wanted and the like. Willing to charge like wounded buffaloes for the pleasure but he commanded a premium in my book cause he knew his sh&t and added value. 

The other guy who was my go to shop was Josh at Complete Cyclists who i am told sadly has burned down. Josh built more bikes for me than i knew and i think he was always entertained by whatever crazy project i dreamed up and wanted built. We geeked out on things jointly as he brought my visions to life.

There is something innately creative that fulfils a piece of my being and needs to bring life to a project and imagining the finished product, then procuring the bits and discussing the build and specs with the bike shops. Bikes are inherently simple and easy to fix but also complex with small things that make a difference - spoke tensions and nipples and rim widths etc.

As you can see i climbed pretty far down the rabbit hole of cycling and cycling lore over the 25 years or so since i got my first onramp drugs.  So far that when i moved hoods to Paarl i went and interviewed bike shops to see who would be my go to guys for my projects and the like and i see to have found a like minded bunch in the All Mountain dudes in Simondium who are now building a little hardtail runaround for me. i arrived there with a box of leftovers from various projects in my garage and they are effectively bringing a box of spares to life with some added bits, which will become a real living bike. I love doing this and i love their passion for the project and getting freehubs to work with hub bodies, building wheels out of rims and hubs and machining adapters for me. Thats craft.

The lifestyle/concept stores have their place and TBH i spend time with my nose pressed up against their exciting store windows but take my money elsewhere. Mixed feelings but they always seem so superior - and therefore I am not a major fan as they also have to support a rental and staff etc that is a minimum stake and pay the franchisors etc so its a different model.

Having said that i have a garage full of Specialized's but i was buying the brand starting in 2000 and i do think they have some wicked ideas. Also have had Treks and Cannondales along the way and some Santa Cruz and the like thrown in for good measure oh and some real craft things like Lynskey single speeds and Merlin Cielo (which i sold after a divorce and still regret).

My 2 cents worth - but its Friday so dont take any of these ramblings seriously 🙂

[Barry]

39 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Okay so I had some fun here and a lot is tongue in cheek and I do go to the concept stores to look at the drool worthy bikes but when i look at the prices i have a bad WTF reaction. 

FWIW I was watching the insert on Cadence last night on DSTV  where they profiled Woodstock cycles. Now that's a bike shop. People like Mellow Velo who were always good and always had stock of everything or would get what i wanted and the like. Willing to charge like wounded buffaloes for the pleasure but he commanded a premium in my book cause he knew his sh&t and added value. 

The other guy who was my go to shop was Josh at Complete Cyclists who i am told sadly has burned down. Josh built more bikes for me than i knew and i think he was always entertained by whatever crazy project i dreamed up and wanted built. We geeked out on things jointly as he brought my visions to life.

There is something innately creative that fulfils a piece of my being and needs to bring life to a project and imagining the finished product, then procuring the bits and discussing the build and specs with the bike shops. Bikes are inherently simple and easy to fix but also complex with small things that make a difference - spoke tensions and nipples and rim widths etc.

As you can see i climbed pretty far down the rabbit hole of cycling and cycling lore over the 25 years or so since i got my first onramp drugs.  So far that when i moved hoods to Paarl i went and interviewed bike shops to see who would be my go to guys for my projects and the like and i see to have found a like minded bunch in the All Mountain dudes in Simondium who are now building a little hardtail runaround for me. i arrived there with a box of leftovers from various projects in my garage and they are effectively bringing a box of spares to life with some added bits, which will become a real living bike. I love doing this and i love their passion for the project and getting freehubs to work with hub bodies, building wheels out of rims and hubs and machining adapters for me. Thats craft.

The lifestyle/concept stores have their place and TBH i spend time with my nose pressed up against their exciting store windows but take my money elsewhere. Mixed feelings but they always seem so superior - and therefore I am not a major fan as they also have to support a rental and staff etc that is a minimum stake and pay the franchisors etc so its a different model.

Having said that i have a garage full of Specialized's but i was buying the brand starting in 2000 and i do think they have some wicked ideas. Also have had Treks and Cannondales along the way and some Santa Cruz and the like thrown in for good measure oh and some real craft things like Lynskey single speeds and Merlin Cielo (which i sold after a divorce and still regret).

My 2 cents worth - but its Friday so dont take any of these ramblings seriously 🙂

Josh was Cyclestworkshop by Nicolas plants. Yes sadly his place burnt to the ground he lost everything very sad. But he is up and going again.

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Barry

[Furbz]

just think, this all could have been avoiding by using BSC....

[finallygotabike]

2 hours ago, thebob said:

Your bias aside, the customer dealt with Trek. Trek messed his bike up. There is no separation of dealers in the mind of the customer. Someone from Trek needs to put their hand up, own the problem and sort the customer out. Failing that, you won't lose one customer, you will lose many.

But they also requested him to return the bike to said store........

Without getting the bike back, what else are they supposed to do?

[Murrob]

53 minutes ago, Barry said:

Josh was Cyclestworkshop by Nicolas plants. Yes sadly his place burnt to the ground he lost everything very sad. But he is up and going again.

 

This is terrible, when I started cycling again a few years ago after a long hiatus I bought a bike from him. I remember it being a good easy experience. Still have the bike which my wife now uses. Hope he can recover from this.

[Murrob]

2 hours ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Okay so I had some fun here and a lot is tongue in cheek and I do go to the concept stores to look at the drool worthy bikes but when i look at the prices i have a bad WTF reaction. 

FWIW I was watching the insert on Cadence last night on DSTV  where they profiled Woodstock cycles. Now that's a bike shop. People like Mellow Velo who were always good and always had stock of everything or would get what i wanted and the like. Willing to charge like wounded buffaloes for the pleasure but he commanded a premium in my book cause he knew his sh&t and added value. 

The other guy who was my go to shop was Josh at Complete Cyclists who i am told sadly has burned down. Josh built more bikes for me than i knew and i think he was always entertained by whatever crazy project i dreamed up and wanted built. We geeked out on things jointly as he brought my visions to life.

There is something innately creative that fulfils a piece of my being and needs to bring life to a project and imagining the finished product, then procuring the bits and discussing the build and specs with the bike shops. Bikes are inherently simple and easy to fix but also complex with small things that make a difference - spoke tensions and nipples and rim widths etc.

As you can see i climbed pretty far down the rabbit hole of cycling and cycling lore over the 25 years or so since i got my first onramp drugs.  So far that when i moved hoods to Paarl i went and interviewed bike shops to see who would be my go to guys for my projects and the like and i see to have found a like minded bunch in the All Mountain dudes in Simondium who are now building a little hardtail runaround for me. i arrived there with a box of leftovers from various projects in my garage and they are effectively bringing a box of spares to life with some added bits, which will become a real living bike. I love doing this and i love their passion for the project and getting freehubs to work with hub bodies, building wheels out of rims and hubs and machining adapters for me. Thats craft.

The lifestyle/concept stores have their place and TBH i spend time with my nose pressed up against their exciting store windows but take my money elsewhere. Mixed feelings but they always seem so superior - and therefore I am not a major fan as they also have to support a rental and staff etc that is a minimum stake and pay the franchisors etc so its a different model.

Having said that i have a garage full of Specialized's but i was buying the brand starting in 2000 and i do think they have some wicked ideas. Also have had Treks and Cannondales along the way and some Santa Cruz and the like thrown in for good measure oh and some real craft things like Lynskey single speeds and Merlin Cielo (which i sold after a divorce and still regret).

My 2 cents worth - but its Friday so dont take any of these ramblings seriously 🙂

I also fairly recently moved down to Paarl from Gauteng. Gotta say I dramatically underestimated the process of finding new ‘guys’ for bikes and life in general. I’m a big believer in having a good relationship with anyone that I make use of, be it a tyre place for my cars, barber, lawyer, doctor. Really struggling with bike shops and have settled on Knipe Racing (long drive…) for servicing that I cannot do and online for the rest. I also got a vibe from Specialized Paarl that I did not enjoy, all other options have been disappointing or just not on a level that I feel I want make use of after a couple of attempts to go in and buy items and or make use of servicing.
 

As a general comment, there is a definite difference in service levels, be it the alarm people or a plumber. I even resorted to using solar guys from Durbanville who were fantastic, but we also needed to get to know each other a bit. I agree to an extent that it’s also how you behave that makes a difference, but also feel that staff need to be trained, your most difficult clients can also be your most profitable. But I cannot abide by this maybe I come today or tomorrow or maybe not at all thing, with multiple flow ups. So I feel you Paul! Also enjoyed dealing with Mellow Velo and Josh. 
 

Anyway, off to go find a tyre place for balance and rotate on a Friday…

[Headshot]

19 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.

 

 

A few years back my nearly new bike from the big S was chewing through rear hub bearings. The concept store mechanic claimed this was normal and most people had their hub bearings replaced every few months - at hundreds a pop.  I never went back and got a different hub  A few years later and its never had a new bearing. 

[DuncanDoughnuts]

17 hours ago, Steady Spin said:

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

And me with my Rainbow cassette and matching ti- oil slick brake caliber bolts. even the bolts on my cleats are Ti- rainbow ... just in case I happen to crash and someone sees the soles of my s-work carbon shoes. 

[droo]

14 minutes ago, DuncanDoughnuts said:

And me with my Rainbow cassette and matching ti- oil slick brake caliber bolts. even the bolts on my cleats are Ti- rainbow ... just in case I happen to crash and someone sees the soles of my s-work carbon shoes. 

I hope you used anti seize paste on those, otherwise you'll need new shoes when your cleats wear out...