carpediem

Because people like to think that they were among the first to do something, listen to something, say something, eat something etc... It makes them feel elite, even if they have no latent talent, don't make any money, are ugly, and have no personality to speak of whatsoever. They get off on getting attention for doing something a little bit different.

Give those same people a job that forces them to talk to the general public about their obsession and you've usually got a problem. Granted, Mr. Joe Public is pretty annoying, and perhaps he asks the same questions over and over but he should be able to ask every stupid question he wants if he's handing over his money.

Talking down to ignorant customers and regarding themselves as knowledeable beyone the common person's understanding makes them feel good and allows them to hide the rest of their pathetic lives.

Hmmm, that was pretty bitter I guess I've dealt with this attitude a few times.

How about pet stores? I have four dogs, a collection of snakes, and have kept tropical fish for 20 years. I go to a local *small* pet store the other day to get away from the huge corporate monsters that mass sell animals. My intent was to buy a couple of Clown Loaches. So I browse around the store for like 20 minutes admiring the general cleanliness and upkeep of the store and its denizens. When I locate the loaches, I politely ask this crunchy granola girl for assistance in scooping 4 of them. She looks at me, smirks and begins to discourage me from buying the fish. "Those are VERY difficult fish to keep, they require special food, hiding places, they're not recommended for beginners blah blah blah, I would suggest these corydorus catfish over here". Now I realize that this girl probably deals with stupid customers all the time that don't listen to her advice, buy delicate fish, and then come back to the pet store 2 days later with dead fish and demand their money back. The bottom line is that they are offering those fish for sale, she could at least try to talk to me to find out if I know what I'm doing. I pretty much lost it, told her that I have been keeping fish longer than she's been on the planet, made sure her boss could hear me, and went to Petco.

F&%$ing elitists

Guess I feel better now...

cicadashell

this whole attitude thing is more widespread than bike shops, as more and more posts in this thread demonstrate. in the ultra-cool college town into which i happen to have been born you can get sneered at for choosing an unhip flavor of gelato. i tend to think the problem is worse north of the mason-dixon line, however.

that said, i'm happy that the bike shop closest to my house is staffed by friendly, outgoing, knowledgeable persons who seem to have nothing better to do than help me enjoy bicycling more. on the other side of town there's a store where they play miles davis records and try their hardest not to see you when you walk in. unless they know you, of course.

edb

I must say that I grinned when I saw that Kim's on A had closed down. I stopped going there because the staff at Two Boots are much more pleasant!

s2sxiii

****ing Elitists

See Shannon Hamilton quote above.

*new*guy

nicely put.

x2mars

sorry, but for the life of me i can't remember the name. I'm from nyc, and only stopped in on a visit.

deadly downtube

I'm from cali, and just recently biked from the west coast to nyc... anyways, I was getting my stuff ready to take a plane back home to cali, and I went to a bike shop to get a bike box for shipping, they were kind and gave the 3 of us each free bike boxes they were probably just going to throw away..... so that was cool... but people in new york generally seem pretty strange, like.. i asked him "hey um do you have any spare packing material?" and he didn't even respond...... also my friend had to ask 136 times for the pedal wrench from one of the mechanics.... i find people in NYC are 100x more likely to ignore a person, it's just how people work in NYC i suppose.

progre-ss

There are a couple of LBSs near work that I frequent. The closest one is the place I go to if I'm in a hurry. I asked them one time for a part or something for my singlespeed mtb and was given the "why the **** would you want to do that?" look. The LBS near work that I frequent the most though is Cosmic Wheel in Ridgefiled Park, NJ. About a 4 mile ride from work, they are the ones I try to deal with if I need to buy something. One time I was looking for 27" tires one of the Johns (there are two guys named John there) spent about 15 minutes running all over the store looking for a set of tires he knew would be perfect for me. He also spent some time looking in their used parts for a nice quill stem and drop bars for me too. Also commented on the good job I did in converting my Miele to fixed. Needless to say, this shop get kudos for its willingness to help anyone, from the trir-geek to the DIY Fixed guy.

ThunderThighs

It's like shooting craps in Vegas. Sometimes you score a friendly person, other times you get the person who is incompetent and/or forgot to take their medication.

emilymildew

This shouldn't be necessary, but I have found that if you go in with someone who knows the mechanics / workers / owners it really helps. My LBS has a rep for being sort of jerky sometimes, but I went in with a guy that they know and now they know my name and help me out with stuff and make the extra effort to do **** for me because they know I will come back and spend most of my disposable income there.

But yeah, it can be intimidating. I find that I am often disregarded by bike shop workers 'cos I am a girl and they assume I don't know things. Sometimes I don't, but I really want to learn.

ysf

I personally love the attitude.. Even if I get mad, it makes everything more real, as in real people with real feelings.. I might be wired but I always hated the "smiling sales person".. Why do you act like you are happy to see me? Am I your friend? You probably are bored the **** out of your life but trying to look happy so that I spend some $$.. fake fake fake....

Bike Works in NYC gave me that attitude when I wanted to buy a cinelli track frame from them.. Asked them if they could drill the fork or sell me an additional fork w/ a hole for a break.. They refused to sell me the frame after this, saying that that frame was intended to be used w/o breaks (as in a velodrome) and they would like to make sure that the buyer uses it accordingly.. Well, I respect that... Basically, they are not there necessarily to make money, but also cause they love bikes and want to have good time.. Now when you go there ask stupid/pointless questions, they do not have to be nice to you just because you have $$... Or sell you a very special bike just because you have the $$... to get respect, you gotta have respect

skeleteeth

uhh welcome to nyc?

nolageek

Out of the three New Orleans LBS's I frequent I only enjoy one of them, Bayou Bicycles. Their staff is friendly, knowledgable and their prices are decent on most stuff. The only thing I don't like about them is 60% of the time I can't find what I'm looking for, and I'll ask them - and they run in the back and get it. Now, that should technically be a good thing - but it makes it awkward for a me to shop. I'm one of those guys that doesn't like to "bug" the sales people. (Rather, I don't want the sales people bugging me <g>.)

I don't like Joes. It seems all they offer is Pyramid products. Every time I've bought something there I've asked them if they had anything better than Pyramid and I get told stuff like "That Lee Chin brake is just as good as that Shimano stuff."

Bicycle Michaels has a great selection of tools and their wrench is very good too, but I always walk out of there feeling really looked down upon. I brought in an older bike once to have some work done on it cause I'm restoring it, and all they did was tell me how crappy it was. "Wow, that's some cheap tubing." "I guess we could spread the fork, but it's really a cheap bike, it's not our fault if it breaks".

I dunno, I wanted to be like "Look, I know it's a 4o year old bike, but I didn't ask your opinion. Do the work. If it breaks it's not your fault, but don't rag on my bike. I *LIKE* my bike." I dunno, it's like someone telling you your infant is ugly.

eric w

Well I'd have to say I have limited experience with shops above the mason dixon line but I'd have to agree.

I live in Richmond VA. the ancient capitol of the confederacy, though by accounts from the deep south we're considered just barely passable as southern since we're so far north in comparison. There's one great bike shop here rolwett's www.rowletts.com

I went to Columbus Ohio to visit OSU for graduate school and wandered in all the bike and tattoo shops up there to check em out. Perhaps being an unfamiliar face didn't help me get any sort of respectable treatment. Every single bike shop I went into I poked around and looked to see if they'd be track bike friendly...
There's one thing I hate when i go to a store...seeing all the employees sitting around in one small section, not doing anything, not even giving you a simple greeting or offering any help whatsoever.

anyone know a good bike shop in columbus...i'll be screwed without my friendly neighborhood bike shop if i move there

ThunderThighs

Welll, here's a good deed being offered by a NYC bike shop...Bicycle Habitat is offering a discount on locks due to the Kryptonite debacle...Check out their website for more details!

luckycat

So, let me get this straight. Dave at bikeworks refused to sell you a cinelli frame because you wanted to put a brake on it? Because it wasn't intended for use with a brake? That's so stupid I can't even believe it. For starters, the bike wasn't intended for use on the street, which I'm assuming you were going to do. In fact, NO true track frames are intended for street use, so none of those bikes Dave has gladly sold are intended for that! The same goes for most track parts, which they also sell. I'm really hoping that he just didn't want you to try to drill the track fork, which wouldn't work anyway. But you can replace the fork on the track frames with the fork made for the steel road frame, which will accomodate a normal brake. They can order that fork for you at bikeworks, maybe he just didn't feel like the hassle...

fixedfiend

It's NYC. I mean, you can walk into a Deli and get attitude here. It's part of the culture.

HereNT

Uh, you meant brake... But why would you want one on a track frame anyways? If you are taking a track bike on the road, you better be able to control it without needing a brake. I know that my Bianchi doesn't have anywhere to put a brake, even if you drilled a hole for it (too close, 1mm clearance on the front)...

You should have bought the frame and just rode it brakeless... It's FUN!!!

drulu

i guess you're all right. just have to deal with it or move out.

fixedfiend

That's not attitude, that's integrity!

carpediem

Nope, that's laziness and the unwillingness to help a paying customer.

sohi

hahahaha!!! ******* hahahahah...

fixedfiend

Laziness? Obviously this customer shouldn't be buying a Cinelli track frame in the first place. If you know anything about Dave Perry, you would take that back considering all he has done for the NYC cycling scene. Nothing lazy about that man when it comes to helping fellow cyclists. Take your F.ing money and go to someplace else. Get educated, and then come back to Bike Works when you get a clue.

luckycat

Exactly. Like I said earlier they easily could have called their supplier and ordered a cinelli supercoursa road fork. Hell, they probably could have found you a fork somewhere in the shop, though it would be a shame to throw some random fork on a new cinelli. But for him to give you this whole "intended use" thing is complete bull****. If the issue was really integrity he wouldn't be selling all that track stuff that is overwhelmingly going to be used on nyc streets, not kissena.

And no, it's not part of nyc to deal with stupid bike shop attitude, or at least it shouldn't be. There are dozens of bike shops here if you're treated crappy, simply go somewhere else. Savvy New Yorkers shop around.

The brakeless issue is another thing, I have several track bikes that I use on the streets and the track, and have never used brakes. And while I don't think I need a brake, I also don't think it's a bad idea, especially if you are an inexperienced rider. It really bothers me to see some idiot hipster blazing down the williamsburg bridge, obviously totally out of control, shouting "no brakes!". If you are going to ride brakeless, PLEASE take your bike to the track or the park or somewhere and learn how to ride your bike before you hit the streets and kill someone. That's my main problem with the recent popularity of riding fixed/track bikes on the street, it seems like only a matter of time until someone gets hurt and ruins it for all of us.

slvoid

I think this is exactly the kind of macho testosterone filled nose up in the air "i'm better than you and you don't deserve it" superior attitude that the original poster was talking about.