I love that I wrote this 2 years ago!!
The Preverbal wheel just keeps on spinning or in my case rotates a few times and then ends up swinging back to the valve be in the down position.
This is not a bad thing at all. I'm back in a bike shop. How how the hell did I end up here? Well I went looking for it and it was the first job I landed. I love working in bike shops or for bicycle companies, I really do. There are just a couple of things that bother me about it. so let the rant begin.
A) Your significant other is not your ventriloquist doll!!!!
If you come in with your loved one, to help them purchase a bicycle you are not them. You do not know what they need because you know them. Your feedback is appreciated but for fuck sakes let them speak. Let us have a conversation so I can do my job and find them the right bike for their happiness and comfort. Comfort being the right word.
I see this so much more with men who bring in their female counterparts than I do vice versa, but I have seen it the other way on occasion. I spend my entire life reading about bikes and components and what not. Having you contradict my every word because of your short amount of experience on your Target purchased fucking mountain bike that you use to commute every day is I dare say....infuriating. I don't come to your job and tell you the ins and outs of financial planning or brain surgery so shut the fuck up. I take my job just as serious you do, because if I fail I can make your significant others free time not enjoyable or even unsafe. If the two wheels of freedom that you suggest is not the right bike it can lead to injury, fights amongst you two, or even worse a bad wreck that cases severe trauma. Let me do my thing. Stop fighting me because of your fucking ego that someone might know more than you! I will validate your correct points but complete bullshit I will not allow. Knobby tires do not mean fewer flats or a smoother easier ride. Shut the fuck up and let US speak.
B) I have to sell two brands that morally, I have hard time with. Their frames are really on point and from what I have seen they spec a good product. Here is the kicker, I don't agree with their business tactics past, present, or future.
Company A, they are a sue happy brand that has gone after small businesses for intellectual rights so many damn times since I got into this business that when someone asks if I saw the article about the new lawsuit, we usually have to spend 10 minutes figuring out which one they are referring to. I understand protecting your brand, it is part of business, but I do not understand the concept of hit anything that has a 1% similarity to your brands and trademarks because you know you have more money than they do; and they will just acquiesce so they don't go bankrupt. It just really rubs me the wrong way. I don't like seeing a huge brand trash the small businesses. Especially since it is usually small mom and pops type places that sell their product and it just really seems hypocritical to me.
Company B, is another brand that has left a bad taste in my mouth. They were one of the strongest American brands a short decade or so ago. They make a phenomenal product which I love and at one time or another have thought of purchasing. That was until I went to the other side of the business and met people who lost everything due to them and their lawyers. They went bankrupt a short time ago and were on the verge of going belly up. They were acquired by another company that righted the ship and everyone in lala land cheered "yes we didn't lose another American brand"! What everyone else didn't see was how the companies that supported this brand were treated in the aftermath.
A man who I had many a conversation with, and one of the brands I worked for relied on for finishing product, used to make finishing product for this brand. When all of the bankruptcy and buyout hoopla went on, this brand owed him a significant, and I do mean significant, amount of money for product that he supplied, on terms to help them stay afloat. When they went down he didn't see his money. After all was said and done he was left with literally pennies on the dollar for years of being a nice human and overall a good practicing business man. I know he should of protected himself a little more but when you have been in business with another company for decades you don't expect the owners of that company to shaft you. The not being paid what he was owed, on top of the economic crash of 2008, plus this brand moving their production out of country and not utilizing his services anymore, caused him to go from a 10+ man operation to 4 including himself. I know only 6-12 people lost their jobs but it still fucking bugs me when i have to peddle their wares and know they are making a great deal of profit off my sale.
C) My final point of contention. Bicycle shops are businesses. We have to generate revenue to stay afloat so we can have you come in and belittle everything we do. When we tell you there is a labor charge, it is not because we just want an extra 15 bucks out of you. It is business. We have mechanics who have to be paid. What they get paid hourly times that by 1.3 and that is what the company actually pays for them. So if they get paid $12.50/hr the company is actually paying around $16.25/hr. Their salary plus employment taxes and etc.., that the business has to pay. Then there is the electricity, tools, safety equipment, that while the sales do cover some of it, they don't cover all of it. We do this to cover our expenses. Just because these are bicycles does not mean that it shouldn't cost anything in labor to repair them. It is still your safety at hand really. Next time you go to your dealership with your Audi S7 on $3000 dollar wheels, argue with them about the labor fee to have your brakes installed. See what happens. Or I don't know, if you don't like paying for labor, buy the tools and learn how to do it your goddamn self. Stop wasting my time or patience with your ranting about how labor charges in a bicycle shop are just another way to generate zero cost profit and we are trying to rip you off for $15 bucks to install new carbon pads and a new cable and housing for your $10,000 tri bike so you can come in 31st in your age group in the no-name sprint tri in August.
I really do love this business and for the most part my customers. I live off of seeing other people happy on bicycles. When customers come back to me, after riding for a few weeks on a new bicycle that I helped them decide on, with a grin or a smile covered in sweat it makes my heart jump. I feel I have kept the wheel a spinning. It's not much in the way of financial greatness but I feel I have entered greatness by being the "bike guy"!
