[criddell]

One model that wasn't mentioned explicitly in the article but I think might work is let customers have their bikes purchased online be shipped to the shop for assembly. I ordered my last bicycle from BikesDirect and it was tricky to get it set up just right. A bike shop could probably do it in an hour. It took me five or six hours.

Even if assembly doesn't directly make a lot of profit, it's a great time to sell accessories and service plans.

[ams6110]

> A bike shop could probably do it in an hour. It took me five or six hours.

Yes but then you miss out on an almost "bonding" experience with the machine and feeling of intimately understanding it. That's why I do most of my own car repair, even though it takes me longer than a shop would take.

Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about the "Romantic" vs. "Classical" approach to such things.

[criddell]

> Yes but then you miss out on an almost "bonding" experience with the machine and feeling of intimately understanding it.

That's true. Thirty years ago I had more time than money and working on my stuff was very satisfying. These days I would rather go to the movies with my wife, help my kids with their homework, walk my dog, or take a nap. I'm doing better financially, but my time is scarce.

I've read Zen. I loved the motorcycle travelogue part and but was bored by his treatise on quality.

[analog31]

For me, being self sufficient for maintenance dramatically alters my cycling experience. Taking my bike to a mechanic would involve loading it into a car and driving it somewhere, waiting, and repeating the process when the work is done.

Naturally, it can take time to get parts, so if something is actually broken, then the bike is out of commission for a while. But a minor benefit of poor urban planning is that I've got space for a spare bike or two, or three, plus a bucket of spares that I've collected over the years from trashed bikes. ;-)

Also, doing the work at home means that there's less of an impediment to keeping the bike in good adjustment more or less continually, so parts don't come loose and start to deteriorate. Major repairs become less frequent. More or less weekly, I go down into the garage and check all of the bikes in the family fleet. The effort is practically trivial. I also involve the kids in this work, whenever possible.

With an eye towards doing my own maintenance, I choose my battles when I get a new (or more likely, used) bike. I prefer parts that are likely to be reliable, and that are straightforward to adjust without a proliferation of special tools.

[jdietrich]

Basic maintenance is an essential cycling skill. Bikes are lightweight machines by necessity, so they can't be over-engineered for reliability. Bikes will inevitably break down on a fairly regular basis.

Fortunately, they're also boneheadedly simple machines to fix. You can learn to change an inner tube, align a derailleur, adjust a brake caliper and true a wheel in about an hour. If you have those skills, you can do 90% of your own repairs. You'll have an infinitely better cycling experience, because you won't end up stranded at the side of the road because of something that could be fixed in two minutes.

[analog31]

Indeed, and it's also a necessary skill if people are going to buy bikes online. I think it's pretty likely that a bike receives its initial adjustment and testing after it's assembled by the recipient. And I've read about quality lapses such as bearings with little or no lubrication, and insufficiently tensioned wheels.

[rlonstein]

I think you mis-spelled "bodging" ;)

I've spent months, maybe years, of time fixing and maintaining cars, motorcycles, and bicycles. It's useful when something breaks on the side of the road or when you get an estimate for repair. There is the satisfaction of being self-sufficient and able to do it yourself. There's also the screaming frustration when you break something-- which happens when you're learning like over-torquing a bolt (tighten until it spins then back off a quarter, anyone?). cracking a housing, snapping the head off a stuck bolt, watching a unique and critical part improbably pick up speed on a flat work area as it rolls away from you drawn to the siren song of a sewer grate or a gap in the deck. I want to spend time with family, friends, on hobbies, or, you know, actually use my vehicle instead of recreationally bust my knuckles on it. I'm happy to read all the manuals and squint at exploded diagrams then pay someone else to do it while I go play.

[jandrese]

Once you've done that work once it will be much easier the next time. Affordable bikes don't have any sort of self adjustment, everything has to be done manually, so if you don't know how to make the adjustments you will be in the shop every few months getting it tuned back up. In my experience shifters are the worst for getting slightly out of whack as the chain wears out, and are the most fiddly when tuning. Brakes are the second worst as you're trying to balance the spring tension on the two sides exactly so it doesn't rub.

[rhinoceraptor]

I'd say wheel truing is the worst. It's tedious and you really want a dedicated wheel truing stand, and you may need spare nipples in case you round one off. Second to that is setting up tubeless tires, it's messy and you might need an air compressor to seat the bead.

Derailleurs are easy once you know how to set the limit screws and adjust the cable tension. Disc brakes are tricky, but again if you know the trick then it's pretty easy as well.

[jessaustin]

Occasionally I imagine that I understand how to set derailleur limit screws. Inevitably, that illusion shatters within a month. b^(

[Dangeranger]

The easiest way to get a derailleur limit setup is to de-cable the derailleur, and back both screws all the way out.

Then the derailleur spring will bring the chain all the way to the highest gear (smallest cassette cog), and since you backed the limit screw out, the chain will want to rub against the frame stays.

Use your fingers to push the derailleur up into a lower gear and then turn the limit screw for the outside limit one full turn. Repeat this until without using your hand to guide the derailleur the chain rests in the highest gear without needing any force, but also doesn't rub against the frame stay.

Then use your hand to push the derailleur all the way to the lowest gear (largest cassette cog) and try to get the chain to fall between the cassette and the wheel spokes. If it can fall over the inside of the gear and into the spokes then turn the limit screw for the inside limit one full turn. Repeat until the chain can reach the lowest gear without using excessive force, but cannot fall off the cog toward the spokes.

Add some lock tight to both limit screws so that you don't have to adjust them again, and you are done!

Now just reattach the rear derailleur cable and adjust the tension if you need to.

[rhinoceraptor]

Also, if you don't have a cable puller, an easy way to tension the RD cable is to put the chain on the second smallest cog, then tighten the cable bolt. Cable pullers are really worth the money, though. Especially for cantis.

[petre]

Quality brakes are usually easier to adjust. Like Avid V-brakes or Magura rim brakes for instance. Luckily I did not have to bleed them yet. Cantis are by far the worst, although I've never used Avid Shorties.

[adam]

I just experienced this with a bike I bought my wife on Amazon. Amazon offered free assembly at a bike shop about 5 miles from my house. The bike was shipped to the shop, I was notified it arrived, and 3 days later I got a notice it was ready for pickup. The shop was friendly about the exchange and we ended up buying several accessories while we were there.

[china]

This works when Amazon picks a bike shop to do the assembly but often times they use independent contractors that have absolutely no clue how to assemble bikes. I've seen forks put on backwards, handlebars upside-down, real nightmares.

[pro_zac]

This approach makes a lot of sense. Where people really need help is bike sizing and fitting. What size bike do I order? How do I adjust it to fit me? Bike manufacturers will list a height range for each frame size on their website. You will need to adjust things differently if you are on the upper or lower end of that range.

The other model I've seen work locally is demoing high end bikes. Specifically mountain bikes. The local shop has a weekly mountain bike ride where you can try out several bikes. This is probably worth the effort if they sell a couple extra bikes a week. The mountain bikes they demo range from $3-6k. This shop has bikes on the show floor, but could easily switch to demo only.