Originally Posted by thenewjs

I would like the option to purchase a extended warranty with worry free maintenance for a set amount of time and the option to re-up at the end of the warranty period.

Originally Posted by Dean V

Why?
Bikes are not that complicated and not much goes wrong.
Maintenance is usually due to normal wear and tear which isn't going to get covered by a warranty.
Or are you hoping for a warranty that covers tyres, chains, cassettes, cables etc?

Originally Posted by thenewjs

When I purchased my CAAD12 new, I purchased a extended warranty that covered chains, cassettes, cables etc. for 3 yrs IIRC. They also provided free adjustments for the first year. Its just piece of mind.

Originally Posted by Maelochs

How much did you pay for "peace of mind," and did you still have to bring the bike to them, or did they come to you?

Originally Posted by thenewjs

$150 and i ride down the street to them.

Originally Posted by Maelochs

What exactly did they do for $50 per year?

Originally Posted by Drew Eckhardt

Consider a mobile bike repair service. You'll have no floor space to rent and can charge a premium for the convenience.

Even if labor was free it usually wouldn't make sense to drive to a shop for drop off and pickup, with that taking more time than doing the work yourself.

Originally Posted by CliffordK

Inventory can be an issue for those buyers who wish to purchase 20 tires at a time.

However, it doesn't exclude small shops who might want to list say ONE of each. Throw it up on E-Bay. When it sells, replenish.

The biggest risk, of course, is if 1000 new small Mom&Pop shops start selling on the internet, then competition will get intense, and people will be dropping that one penny to be the lowest, only to find their neighbor matching and dropping another penny.

Of course, I often look at lowest price, but other things like combined shipping, and delivery times will also influence my decision.

The other issue is competing with oneself. It would be hard to justify listing a derailleur on E-Bay for $50, and having it hanging in the shop for $100. And what about those sellers that find the shop on E-Bay, and insist on paying and walking in to pick up?

Of course, having greater inventory depth would benefit both online and the local shop. So, not only choosing one line of parts to carry, but to carry everything from Tourney to Dura Ace would benefit both online customers and local customers.

Having an online shop (not E-Bay) allows loss leaders. Tempt buyers to shop based on low priced chains, for example. But, then just hope they'll also add a few tires to their order at a greater profit margin (to get that free shipping offer with a $100 purchase).

Originally Posted by maartendc

It does take some time to learn, but for me, that is part of the fun actually. I like tinkering with my bicycle and knowing how it works and how it fits together. It is more like a hobby than a chore.

That being said, back to the original point of a guy paying a bike shop to change his cassette every other week: it would take LESS time for him to learn how to do this simple task himself (takes literally 5 minutes to learn), rather than driving to the bike shop all the time.

At some point, dealing with organizing/paying a "professional" to do it is more hassle than actually just doing it. This goes for a lot of things in life.

Originally Posted by thenewjs

Drive train replacement after I ran over a snake..

Originally Posted by raria

Apologies for the long post but I've been thinking about this a lot lately and even thinking of investing in my idea and would appreciate feedback.

Let me begin by saying, I like LBSs and have been around them all my life. I bought my early bikes from them, then I learnt to build bikes with their help, then I was a steady consumer. Hecked I even "volunteered" in one recently (see https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-m...their-lbs.html).

It was this last stint where I clearly saw the writing on the wall, especially as the employees and owner would often talk about the situation openly. Amazingly this was/is a very popular shop (I won't name them as the volunteering bit will get them in trouble) in a very pro-bike area. So they are in the best possible circumstances and even they know the end is near.

Sales Side


1. As a 1st year "wrench" I could see the two parts to the business service and sales were not evenly match. The sale guy (and the owner) really didn't have much to do all day. Online sales by places like Amazon/BD/Nashbar etc took away a lot of the low level sales and even some high end sales.

2. But those low level bikes (think a $500 Claris equipped road bike) are pretty damn good and don't need much maintenance or even to be upgraded. We'd get a lot of people buying those and asking us to set it up and then we'd never see them again. Claris is only 8 speed, but it works well for a long time.

3. Youtube and professional channels like GMC and Arts Cycle mean even the most mechanically challenged person can put together and tune a bike if they have enough time.

So its a perfect storm of: i) Trickle down effect giving high quality inexpensive components, ii) direct to customer sales and iii) Ample accessible information.

Now with high end manufacturers like Cannon the high end bike market is being eroded. But realistically most LBS would be lucky to sell 2-5 $2000+ bikes a week on average, not enough to even cover the rent. Pre-summer we'd sell 10+ a week, but there were many weeks in the dead of winter where we wouldn't even sell 1.

But there is hope!

Service Side


There was of course one-of-work (move my components from bike x to frameset y) but that's rare. Due to better quality components most people now do *not* bring in their bike for a spring tune let alone a fall one (as I did years ago).

But surprisingly there were people who would want almost weekly work done! We had one customer who would ride hills one week, flats another and religiously he would bring in his very expensive Boyd rear wheel on Friday night and we'd change the cassette for him for Saturday pickup.

There were loads of people like this who wanted us to regularly change tires based on weather, stems, rings, wheel sets etc.

I think its the flip side of cheap online retail. People now have many spare parts to bikes but not the time to change them over. So what these people want is quick turn over which most LBS don't do. The cassette on Friday night guy above was an exception (he'd bring the wrenches a good case of beer every month). Like most shops we'd take in a bike and promise to return it a week later.

So I seriously think the future of most LBSs is to reinvent themselves as a jiffy lube style place. Do routine services in a wait/shop-while-your-served setting and they'll make money. This will require a major rethink of how business is done. i hate to say it, but McDonalizing service is the key. Get one guy specializing in changing tires, another adjusting brakes, another adjusting RD/FD and that's all they do each day and they will do it well and quickly. Most importantly, forecasting would be more accurate. Every week we'd get customers who were promised bikes and due to know fault of him (or us) it would get delayed. It would take some serious groveling from the owner not to loose them.

Originally Posted by Campag4life

Your post has to take the cake...at least this week. Let's see, you are a man of unknown qualifications to posit that one of the longest lasting institutions in America...bike shops in major cities will somehow be eclipsed with your version of something new. That's rich.
I think the only thing you got wrong was...bike shops won't be replaced with a jiffy lube style place...but rather by Jiffy peanut butter suppliers. Can't make this stuff up, but you just did. Too much glue sniffing as a child?...lol. Any other zombie apocalypses scenarios? Maybe houses will be turned into factories of solar panels?

Originally Posted by kbarch

Really?
I didn't get the sense that he was suggesting that ALL bike shops would be replaced by something TOTALLY new and different. Did you even read the rest of the discussion? Seems to me he was just describing a kind of variation or evolution of the business.
Meanwhile, it seems to me there was a time when a bike shop was just as likely to be a lawn mower repair shop. How many of those are still around? Well, I guess it depends where you live, but they're not so common, are they? And one of the biggest bike shops in my neck of the woods seems to have a booming business as an eBay agent - shipping used bikes all over the country for people. Mom and Pop running the bike and lawn mower repair shop didn't do much of that, did they?

Originally Posted by thenewjs

True my wheels as needed,the brakes cables have broken a couple times, replaced broken a few dozen spokes from some falls.

Drive train replacement after I ran over a snake and I have another one more replacement left, replaced the spidering.

Repack bearings in the bottom bracket and replaced hubs

I ride a minimum of 30 miles a day so my bike goes through it.

Originally Posted by Campag4life

Where is the disagreement? OP believes bike shops are going to turn into Jiffy lubes...which is preposterous proposition that goes right over your head. And why can't a bike shop turn into a jiffy lube equivalent? Oh...gee...it may have something to do with...to troubleshoot a Di2 failure...to re-true a wheel or recable a bike including straighten a bent rear derailleur hanger...and rewrap a handle bar...just may take more time than a drive thru. What a concept. Whoops, when straightening the derailleur hanger its snapped. I wonder how long the Jiffy lube line is going to be to wait 3 days for a new hanger. Darn it. Mechanic thought that wheel could be trued...but two bad spokes...man, the line is going to be down the street before the new spokes arrive from out of state. And then what happens? Oh no. Can't be. A local bike shop devolves into what it currently is with a fixed staff when demand exceeds supply. The bike must be dropped off for repair. How unforeseen that a bike shop will never become a jiffy lube. Nor will a local auto dealership...or an independent Porsche mechanic. Both in case you don't know perform oil changes like a Jiffy lube. Sometimes even as quickly...but with one big but. Jiffy lubes don't change engines or diagnosis catastrophic electric failures.

Originally Posted by kbarch

What I don't understand - the only thing that seems to be "over my head," as you say - is your tone. It's as if the prospect of bicycle service stations, independent of the conventional notion of a bike shop, was some sort of personal threat. Seems to me the choice of words in the title and original post were more rhetorical than anything. Perhaps your argument is more rhetorical than earnest, too?

In any event, the idea of varying and evolving business models isn't exactly rocket science. Besides, the conversation here isn't really all that "revolutionary," and it's not entirely about bike shops after all, either.

Originally Posted by jpescatore

Around here (Baltimore/Washington area of US) it has been more like the rebirth of the LBS vs. the death. The commodity "sell kiddie bikes and cheap mountain bikes to the parents" bike shops have been killed by the Walmarts of the world selling bikes, but the full service "sell and service good road/mountain/cruising bikes" are thriving or at least expanding. It is kind of what happened to books stores when Amazon started up and the big box stores starting selling bestseller books - we now have more, smaller bookshops with interesting books and fewer huge ones - better than ever for me.

John P.

Originally Posted by Campag4life

I never walk into a bike shop or rarely. I know more than they do about bikes. I have never had my bike serviced at a bike shop. Ever.

Originally Posted by kbarch

OK. This explains why you know so much about how bike shops work.

But why would this shop that fixes a derailleur cable on the spot need to have dozens of brand new bicycles on the floor, lining the walls and up in the rafters? This is the thing: if you spent any time in typical bike shops, you would see the facts of the matter: most LBS traffic is about snapped derailleur cables - repairs and routine maintenance - already. Trouble is, in many cases, they don't do it as efficiently as they might, partly because the new bikes and the salesmen just get in the way.
The OP did get sort of carried away with the details, which may not all have been very realistic, but what is interesting is his suggestion that bicycle shops dedicated to repair and maintenance may be more viable than shops that emphasize new bike sales. I think that's the baby you're throwing out with all the bathwater of the lengthy original post.

Originally Posted by Campag4life

Difference between your position and mine? You have no baby to throw out..lol.
Waiting anxiously for your Jiffy Lube bike service. Hey, look at the possibilities. I am sure a franchise will be in the works! Brilliant stuff.

Originally Posted by kbarch

Let me put this more plainly: if you weren't so blindly contemptuous, but took occasion to notice what bike shops (as opposed to a sporting goods stores) are actually like, you would realize that functional convenience repair/maintenance shops for bikes already exist, they just haven't been systematically organized.