I’m 58 years old and in my life, I’ve been in a serious relationship with one woman and three bike shops. Let’s talk about the bike shops for now.
I’ve been with Jimmy from Bikeology for around 12 years now. Despite his best efforts, he’s never actually sold me a bike off the shelf, but he’s looked after all my bicycle projects for more than a decade. I really like Jimmy – we’ve shared some amazing cycling adventures and he’s a top-shelf mechanic who has a passion for bikes. I love going in to see him and talk bikes. After all these years I’m proud to call him a friend.
Lots of my cycling buddies seem to have their bikes in for service at other shops regularly, having things tweaked and re-tweaked. That doesn’t happen with Jimmy – he fixes stuff and it stays fixed. I can’t remember ever having to take my bike back to Jimmy because something wasn’t fixed properly.
I’ll admit now, that I’m a bit of a serial bike abuser. I like to ride my bike much more than I like to wash it. I’ll try and keep the drive train clean. I just want to ride my bike, not work on it. Sure, I can change the brake pads, but that’s about all I want to do. If my bike needs fixing, it goes to Jimmy, and I trust him to fix it.
I love bike shops. They’re a wonderland of hopes, dreams and desires. Most importantly they fix things. Your online retailer might be pretty good at selling consumables like tyres and tubes, but can they fix that creaking noise that only appears on a Thursday between 6:11 and 7:42 am? Your local bike shop can.
Local bike shops also have more leverage than you do. They see the product reps, talk to the distributors and spend a lot of money with them. If your new groupset has some unexpected quirk that you can’t iron out or fails in some unexpected way, a good bike shop will reach out to the product reps and distributors and help them to help you. The bike shop knows the part has been installed correctly and that you have a valid warranty claim – good luck getting that out of an online retailer.
I get almost everything cycling-related apart from tyres, chamois cream and nutrition from my local bike shop. Jimmy and I negotiate on big-ticket items. While Jimmy might sometimes not be able to match online prices I’m happy to pay a little more because it puts food on his table (he’s got the cutest kids) and keeps his doors open. I also know that for those big ticket items, it will be installed meticulously and if anything goes wrong with the product then Jimmy’s going to help put it right. For me, that peace of mind is worth occasionally paying a little extra for.
Imagine a world without bike shops. Who’s going to get a part for you, or fix your bike at the last minute so you can go on that big ride you’ve been planning all week? Nobody, that’s who. Over the years Jimmy has always been there for me when I’ve needed him, going above and beyond.
The truth is that sometime, somewhere we’re all going to need a bike shop. That’s why I don’t take them for granted. So please, find a bike shop that you like. Develop a relationship with them. Help keep them open, because one day I might need them.
In the meantime, you could always visit Jimmy at Bikeology.
PS. I didn’t tell him I was writing this post.
