Re-Cycle

I run a tiny bike shop which is quite single speed / fixed gear centric. I also deall in vintage 10 speeds a lot. What tips could you give me to better service people like you... the SSFG crowd.

Advertisment I just had a local artist draw.


Photo in front of the shop propr to one of our monthly group rides.


Mural on the back wall.


Oh and this is all done on the cheap, so investing in deep V-Phil wheelsets in every color isn't an optoin. I'm thinking in terms of what small stuff do you wish your LBS had. Also on the line of community service items like recently I locked a pump outside the shop and plan on locking some tools out there to. Suggestions?

https://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...6-524a693ec806

evanyc

i would say if space allows, offer an area in the shop where customers can use your tools to do their own work. you could either do this for free, or perhaps have an annual membership fee of $10 or something, just to help pay for upkeep. or you could rent shop space hourly/half hourly. such a thing would be greatly appreciated.

shishi

Good customer service will get you far. IMO

schloe mo

looks like a friendly LBS.

sponsoring local alleycats seems to be a good way to connect. also, keeping a stock of rear cogs and chainrings is a good idea.

good luck!

edub

sweet drawing... where's Van Ness Village??

progre-ss

+1. You could have the smallest inventory in the world but if your customer service is top notch, word will spread like wildfire. Then you'll need a bigger shop!

Space for customers to wrench on their bikes is a good idea. Offering monthly or weekly workshops for the mechanically inept would help too.

I'd shop at your shop.

thiskidgotmoxie

I know a shop that have a stand set aside for customers to use, thought that was a great idea.

Oh yeah, customer service is huge. A lot of bike shops are populated by dicks, so word will get around if you're cool to people. One of the reasons people like IRO so much is because Tony does his absolute best, often with limited resources, to get people what they want.

evanyc

yeah, as far as customer service goes, especially as a shop that can't have a huge inventory, just make it widely known that you are more than happy to do special orders and will make every effort to happily get people stuff they want

Re-Cycle

Thanks, I had the same artist that did the mural in the shop make the ad. Its going to be put in a local newspaper on July 1.

Fresno > CA > USA > Planet earth.


Thanks for the feedback. I wish there was a work bench customers could use, for now I have a box of tools they can drag outside. Also there is a co-op that a friend of mine runs so in that regard all bases are covered me thinks.

marcm

I wish I lived near a bike shop like that...

The part about recycling/fixing old bikes is great, IMO. A lot of shops I've seen or heard of seem to look down upon old bikes. If one of them offered your $50 single-speed conversion, I'd pay for it.

Friendliness always helps, too.

And I like the part about having a stand for customers to use, as well as a way for them to get instruction on repairing their own bike. I'd pay for stuff like that, but it doesn't seem to be offered much around here.

spud

i'd totally buy a mixte fixed-conversion for 50 bucks.

babetski

At the shop I worked at in high school we had two policies I liked.

The first was that if you walked in and needed a simple tweak-a derailleur adjusted, wheel aligned(in the dropouts, not trued), hub cones adjusted, etc-something done in a minute or two, we did it for free. If you needed more than one adjustment or it was a bigger job, then we had to charge labor.

The second was that for all new bikes purchased, any normal maintenance done on the bike was free. This obviously didn't cover breaking down the hubs and relacing a destroyed wheel, but tune-ups and the type of minor adjustments mentioned above were covered.

These two policies kept the customers loyal and spread the word.

We also helped run a weekly time trial that was hosted out of our parking lot, kept the yearly stats posted in the window and ran a Sunday morning mountain bike ride. In general, encouraged activity in local cycling. This isn't real singlespeed/fixed specific but it gives you the sort of idea of things that worked well for us.

geog_dash

Depending on your clientele, maybe stock some books. Mainstream book stores around here are beholden to the Lance Armstrong industry. I was thinking of books on how to wrench, e.g. Barnett's, how to ride, e.g. Hurst and Zinn, and history, e.g. Herlihy and Wilson.

asburysinglespd

i only wish there was a shop by me that offered such services, AND was friendly. i just got done converting a SS, and the guy at my LBS was so bitter, i wanted to never walk in there again. i guess i wasn't over 50, overweight, and looking for the newest of the new racing bicycle, so it didn't matter much to them. i was a customer though, that had real questions and was willing to spend some money. i learned more from this site/ sheldon brown than i did in my LBS. customer service is key!

noriel

I like the idea of a space to work on your stuff. My lbs which recently closed, eventually let you in their work area if they knew you. dunno how the new shop that's taking it's place is gonna be. Getting rides together would be cool, too. I mean, don't let the sale be the last time you see someone. I like the mechanic/maintenance classes, pub crawls, weekly rides. Having a class where you give people pointers on how to ride in traffic would be great, too. I see too many people on bikes that have no business on the street (or sidewalk) the way they ride. Great customer service is the key, though. My LBS didn't have everything, but they could order what I wanted and have it arrive in a couple of days. I was worth doing that than paying for shipping, I thought. Plus, I put a little money in my LBS. It was when I started getting quoted low prices and then when the parts came in and I was given a different price, that I stopped buying there. I was really cool, we had a grill out front, and we'd bbq it up and drink beers on the deck.

SXN

i tend to agree with everyone here. In davis, i keep going to the same bike shop (theres a good dozen in this small town), because they have a section for renting tools and working on your own bikes. they used to have 3 stands for customers, and let you grab your own tools, but due to theft of small expensive tools, you now give them a photo ID, and they give you the tools you need (thats a good little hint/idea too). they might not do all the work for you, but they are willing to give you suggestions, or tell you how to do something, all for free. they however, know just about nothing about fixed gears, so i know what i can expect from them when i walk in the door.

the shop i keep going back to in san francisco isn't the cheapest, or the biggest, but the guys who work there are really knowledgable about fixed gears. They will help you install parts you buy, or tweak small problems for free; they give great advice about what parts to buy, and are willing to tell you that you should go somewhere else when they don't have the exact part you should get, or when you could get a much better deal somewhere else. They have old track and road frames sitting around everywhere, and they buy and sell a lot of used gear; the old guy there has lots of old track stories, and always wants to go ride fixed with us on the weekends... really good environment

el twe

OK. Stock a fridge. Red Bull, beer, vegan wraps, whatever. It's nice for employees. Tool use is nice. Very nice. But be careful with it. Have a customers only tool set so as not to **** up mechanics' tools. Please please please stock some cogs. 14-18 would be awesome, and order regularly. If you're focusing on the fixed crowd, hold wheelbuilding classes. Charge maybe half the price of building one (or less) to make it worth people's time. Books are always nice. You could also have a couch with some non-bike books for customers while they wait on a tune up, or if they just want to hang. A porch would be rad, but maybe not practical. Maybe try and convert a condom machine into a patch kit machine, and put it out with your locked up pump. Better safe than sorry.

-=(8)=-

Sell coffee....???

I know Im gonna buy a T-Shirt !
The artwork as soooo great !!
It is very reminicent of the Crumb / Zapp Komix
type stuff that came out of San Francisco in the late 60's early 70's.
Im in vermont though.......

Re-Cycle

Fridge with beer [check].

Not interested in stocking food, especially types which apeal only to specific hip sects of people.

I am the only employee

As far as making cogs readily avalible, I've gone a step furthur to offer a unoficial cog trade in program. Your old cog plus a buck or three to get the number of tooth cog you really want.

Is cycling clothing like hats and gloves that important for a tiny LBS or would you people rather just go to a large LBS to get generic stuff like that?

My spelling rules

hyperRevue

If I ever opened a shop, I'd make it almost identical to Black Sheep Cycles in North Carolina: https://www.blacksheepcycles.com/

Not just a shop but a cafe/place to hang out.
Super rad.
I'd never leave such a place.

BostonFixed

I won't shop/buy anywhere that has a myspace page.

hyperRevue

ooooookay

fix

I love the idea of the tool bench for customers.
The cog swap is genius.

RhinoRiot

this must be ben???

great job with the artwork, it's flippin sweet. still doing the monthly cm rides?? i hope to make it over sometime soon to ride with y'all

barba

I would frequent your shop. The cog swap alone would be worth the visit.