[throwaway9191a]

> their competitiveness isn't just about their cycling stats, but buying from the cheapest source.

Well, yea. Competitive cyclists want to buy that $1000 power meter, or those $2500 ENVE wheels as cheap as possible. How many add-on products can you sell somebody who just needs a bike for commuting? Of course service is the biggest business there.

Isn't it cheaper to work with existing customers than to find new customers? All the shops near me cater to their existing customers by selling beer. All the group rides end at the bike shop and 50 people buy a pint before going home (granted this was in the past.... I have no idea how these places are still in business this year).

> I pump his tyre for him and ask if he'd like a replacement inner tube. "Not at your shop prices," he says.

That guy sucks and it must be so frustrating to deal with. I always walk out with several GUs or drink mixes when I stop by a shop. I'm sure that doesn't keep the lights on, but I try.

[cainxinth]

My local bike shop is something of a throwback. They don’t sell $2500 wheels, in fact, I don’t think they sell a whole bike that costs that much.

They sell a lot of kids bikes and a few medium-end hybrids and road bikes to the parents. Like you said, though, most of their revenue comes from service.

Before the pandemic, I was worried about them going under like a lot of wonderful brick and mortar, mom and pops have. I would buy some parts or gear from them even though I could get it cheaper on amazon just to support them.

These days, amid the COVID biking boom, I have to call at least a month in advance for a tune up. They are swamped.

[blakesterz]

>> I have no idea how these places are still in business this year

Around here the shops are all nearly sold out and have been since May. It's crazy busy and sales are BOOMING for all of them. The largest shop has racks for probably 200ish bikes, and there was maybe a dozen in the entire store last time I was in there a few weeks ago. Bicycle sales are awesome this year in my area. I assume next summer there will be more than a few of those bikes bought this year listed on craigslist "used 3 times last year" :-)

[OldHand2018]

I'm sure that there will be plenty for sale next year, but from my experience out on the trails people are actually using their bikes more than they used to - which is a great thing!

If I ran a bike shop, I'd definitely add a consignment component to the business, and make it really fair to the bike owner.

[lokedhs]

I saw the same here in Singapore. Waiting time to get a service was on the order of weeks, if not months. I used to be able to drop it off and pick it up a few days later. Now they won't even accept my bike because their shop is too full of bikes waiting to be serviced.

[throwaway9191a]

That is really good to hear. Hopefully I'm wrong about beer being a large portion of sales for my local shops. For me, the whole cycling thing is about community. I just hope they are still around next summer.

[liability]

> > their competitiveness isn't just about their cycling stats, but buying from the cheapest source.

> Well, yea. Competitive cyclists want to buy that $1000 power meter, or those $2500 ENVE wheels as cheap as possible.

Is this the ultimately the market for parts from bike chop shops? What I never quite understood is how parts from stolen bikes are turned into cash; some of it doubtlessly goes through eBay or craigslist, but those sites are new and bike theft isn't. My suspicion is that a lot of stolen parts somehow find their way back onto store shelves as "second hand" parts that can be sold at very low prices for a large profit.

[walrus01]

People are hopefully not locking up bicycles with power meters, or full Dura-Ace di2 or similar in public to be stolen by the local metro area's drug addicts.

Anybody who lives in a sufficiently large city, and rides a bike worth more than about $1,000 or so, knows that they will never be locking it up and walking away from it anywhere.

[liability]

Maybe not those accessories in particular, but what of the rest of the bike? Tons of bikes are clearly getting stolen.

[olyjohn]

I think a lot of them are just cheap crappy bikes that get cut up for scrap too. Someone stole my heavy-ass steel 90s Schwinn mountain bike that was worth maybe $50 used at the time. I had a big ass lock on it too, and they cut right through it with one clean snip. I was pretty pissed because I had just fixed it all up, but there weren't any expensive components on it... Not sure what kind of money could be made on it. Maybe a few bucks at a pawn shop?

Also around Seattle, I have noticed a lot of places that look like homeless camps, but right smack in the middle is a huge pile of hundreds of bicycles. Just sitting there outside. Part of me thinks that a lot of bike thefts could be mentally ill people collecting and hoarding them.

[walrus01]

I agree they are, but from watching the several local social media groups in my metro area which are trying to keep track of stolen bikes, everything that I see stolen, if it were road would be Tiagra level or lower components, or if MTB/city bike would be deore equivalent or cheaper.

The main exception would be downhill bikes that are occasionally stolen from garages.

[mc32]

I think the best bike shop is the kind of bike shop where you don’t notice “classes” of bikers/cyclists because people aren’t “presenting” themselves.