diphthong

so do you buy beer or beverages for your local lbs/mechanic? if so, what do you tend to bring over?
i usually try for a six-pack mixer of at least two different beers-a lager and an ale-if current reefer/fridge inventory
allows for it. sometimes it's just straight lager(s) or ipa's.

wschruba

I would suggest you ask...not everyone drinks or enjoys beer.

dedhed

I don't

Kedosto

sdmc530

veganbikes

I will sometimes buy beer for co-workers or will share various candy. I would ask your LBS employee what they like though because I have co-workers that don't drink a drop or like me rarely drink.

Thank you for buying stuff for folks like us. We generally try and work hard to get your bike in order.

fastfour

I tip my mechanic with cash. He does an amazing job and gets me out of jams quickly.

DrIsotope

I got my internal cabling replaced for a bottle of Scotch whisky. No waiting, would you imagine?

GuessWhoCycling

I have followed my mechanic for 23 years. I was 220 and he was the first guy who built a wheel that lasted more than 2,000 miles back in the late 90's. Great mechanic and finally opened his own store a few years ago. I don't deal with mechanics much at all now that I build my own wheels and bikes. But if something ever stumps me, this guy can do it or has seen it, heck he might have even invented it.

I have taken treats before when he has worked on my bikes. Few months ago I stopped in to say hi and took him a couple of sandwiches from a nearby deli. Cool dude and if I need anything, he drops what he's doing and hooks me up!

Once I walked into his shop, he dropped the job he was working on, rebuilt my rear tandem hub right there on the spot and only charged me $10!

wolfchild

No I don't, I work on my own bikes. I avoid LBS unless I need parts or if I plan on purchasing a new bike. Bike shops are just like any other business out there and I don't feel any obligation to give them special treatment.

Jim from Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooga-booga

so do you buy beer or beverages for your local lbs/mechanic? if so, what do you tend to bring over?
i usually try for a six-pack mixer of at least two different beers-a lager and an ale-if current reefer/fridge inventory
allows for it. sometimes it's just straight lager(s) or ipa's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fastfour

I tip my mechanic with cash. He does an amazing job and gets me out of jams quickly.

I too have such mechanics at my LBS, and I have previously posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

Tip your LBS

Personally, I think tipping in anything but cash is condescending. As described above, I have a congenial, but respectful relation with all the mechanics at my shop, but I don’t think any of us have intentions to be “buddies,” and share some brews, bourbon, doughnuts, or whatever; or even know their preferences.

Imagine offering a non-cash tip to those workers who are traditionally tipped in cash…waiters, hotel bellmen, cabbies, hairstylists…For me, my bike mechanics provide a vital service that I think about for example when hurtling down a steep hill, secure that the bike won't fall apart.

Every Christmas I receive a lot of candy as a gift from our staff, with whom I have a continuous daily eight hour relationship. Our professional corporate gifts to them, besides a Christmas dinner, is cash.

PS: I actually don't eat the Christmas candy myself, but bring it home for the family gatherings at Christmas time.

MikeyMK

Zit cream and a book on how to fix bicycles - for beginners.

Dan Burkhart 

I have been on the receiving end when working in the bike shop. Always appreciated but never expected..

indyfabz

I have bought cases, but not in a while.

Going to get one for a LBS that has been good to me over the years. Free stuff, and they do things like walk my boxed bike around the corner to the FedEx/Kinko's store when I ship with BikeFlights.

jefnvk

Are they doing something for a reduced or free rate for me, or in some way going well out of their way to service me? Are you staying late to squeeze my work in? Moving me to the front of the service line? Are you going well above and beyond to address me specifically? In that case, I would consider it if the situation called for it.

In general? No. Its a business transaction, you do the work, I pay you, like any of the other numerous business transactions I do on a daily basis. I've personally never understood this necessity of friendship that people will put into their local hobby shops. I stop at my local McDonalds every morning for a breakfast sandwich on my way to work, I know the folks at the counter as well as I know my LBS employees, and I don't think a single person here would think it normal for me to drop off a six pack for them as thanks for their work.

DrIsotope

That's just depressing. Fast food, having some of the highest turnover of any industry, means the face in the drive-thru window quite likely won't be the same after even 3 months. I've known the head mechanic and a couple of the managers at my LBS for over 18 years. It's a family shop. I drop in during rides at least 2-3 times a month, if just to hang out for a bit. I also buy a whole lot of stuff there, because I don't want it to ever go away.

rumrunn6

same here!

side note: just before Thanksgiving while my Mech was replacing a spoke & truing a wheel for me, he turned off the "open" sign & shared shots of Limoncello & pear liquor with me & his elderly Mom!

jefnvk

The three years I worked at my last job, it was more or less the same people every morning at that McDonalds. I have been at my new job for over a year now, and same thing. I'm sure long term well paid mechanics are a thing in some shops, but many near me aren't all that different than fast food: high school and college kids working summer jobs.

DrIsotope

Well, this is SoCal. The hand coming out of the drive-thru window, I may never see more than once. Our closest McDonald's has changed ownership at least 4 times in 10 years. The employees? Well, they have nametags printed on a label maker, if that's any indicator.

Cuyuna

I just bring money. That always seems to work just fine.

OBoile

People actually tip/buy drinks for employees of their LBS? Really? I had no idea this is was a thing.
I agree with @jefnvk. The LBS has a price for a service, I pay it. End of story. I also don't tip the people who sold me my shoes, or my pants. I don't tip my auto mechanic either.

trailangel

I took a can of Coors once and got yelled at......"F that Shiit....IPAs"

indyfabz

Doing something nice in return for extraordinary treatment is a nice gesture and can result in continued extraordinary treatment. I'm talking about things like emergency service on the spot. Free and/or discounted parts and/or labor.

As I noted above, I use a shop to pack my bike, racks and other stuff when I head out west for tours. I ship via FedEx purchased through Bikeflights. I pay to have the bike, etc., boxed. The charge does not include dropping off the bike for shipment, but my LBS does that for me free of charge even though it could say "We'll let you know when it's done so you can make a second trip to the shop and take the box to be shipped." I think that's worth beer. But then again, I don't look at all commercial interactions from a strictly monetary point of view. It's part of what makes me human.

DaveSSS 

I'd be embarrassed to admit that I can't do my own bike repair. Never had a local shop make a repair.

indyfabz

One shop I frequented before it moved would serve beers one evening around the holidays. One time my ex-GF locked up a bike in the house and then lost the key. One of the shop's mechanics stopped by the house after work with cutters and cut the cable. She gave him $20. He said it he'd put it in the shop's beer fund.