LarrySellerz

Hey guys, do you bring your bike inside stores when shopping? Do you think this is frowned upon/a dick move? Recently a cop outside of a Mexican market I went into told me to take the bike outside. I used to leave bikes outside usually, but I got a nice one and I don’t want it to get stollen.

posted in road cycling because roadies hate locks

Camilo

I just ask a store employee if it's OK. What did the cop have to do with it if the store says it's OK?

LesterOfPuppets

Hippy food market usually doesn't care. Kroger brand Fred Meyer in OR and WA didn't care too much. Kroger brand Fry's in AZ has the ****tiest security guards you could imagine so I avoid Fry's Grocery like the plague

ACHiPo 

I’ve brought my bike inside a neighborhood supermarket when I picked up a few things. It was right when they opened. No one seemed to mind. Could be a dick move, but, well, sometimes that’s how I roll.

LesterOfPuppets

The way I see it the bike is smaller than a stroller for two kids or these things

Polaris OBark

He was profiling the OP.

jrobe

Every bike question has no officially been asked.

LesterOfPuppets

Well this was one's been asked for years among the transportational cycling community. Along with fast food joints that won't serve cyclists in drive-thrus. ****** service by both types of establishments

Russ Roth

When its my road bike I've often brought it in if the store doesn't look too busy or crowded. I'd have asked the cop if that was at the store's request since its otherwise none of his business and ignored him if it wasn't their request. If it has flat bars that stick out I don't, too many things, people get caught on the end of them and the flat bar bikes I would ride to the store aren't anything I worry about.

jon c. 

The drive through line was a huge problem with banks in the days before ATM machines. Banks would tend to have Saturday am hours that were drive through only and it was hit and miss as to whether or not they'd serve you on a bike. When you got paid by paper check at the end of the day on Friday that Saturday drive through line was your only option for getting any cash. On occasion I had to prevail on the kindness of strangers to allow me to sit in their car to carry out the transaction while my bike was leaning on the pole between lanes.

tomato coupe

You've asked this question in previous threads, and you just argued when others replied in the affirmative. Why do you keep asking?

znomit

If it was one of those cannondales they make in Mexico it should be fine.

SoSmellyAir

Why didn't you just give the cop 100 pesos to watch your bike?

urbanknight

So you wanted the other ones to get stolen?

Just ride your bike through the store slowly. Nothing beats doing a track stand while asking an employee where the whey powder is.

rsbob 

I always ask if it’s ok to bring my bike in, and did it just last week at a coffee shop and they were cool with it. I have taken my bike into banks, hardware stores, coffee shops, card/gift stores and was refused at a gas mart. Is it a dick move? If you don’t ask first, then perhaps.

Trakhak

Do what you like, but bringing a bike into a store has always felt like to me like an affectation of the over-privileged. Like bringing your "emotional support" animal everywhere. I own locks and use them. Not a big deal.

rsbob 

My bike IS my emotional support animal.

Troul 

I used to ask to bring it in a store IF i preplanned a store stop.... that was years ago. After a lot of sunken battle ships with the asking, I just stopped putting myself in that predicament.

If more stores (at least the common B&M markets) had in-door secured areas for bicycle parking, I'd be more inclined to commute by bike more often. Being that one of the ways a building is taxed is by dwelling size (as well as the added liability), I can understand the rationale to not cater to such convenience

PeteHski

I have never ever seen anyone pushing a bike around inside a shop. Supermarkets here have a bike rack outside and I’ve never seen an expensive bike parked there.

One of our local bike shops has a bike rack inside the shop, so I guess that counts.

plumberroy

I asked and park it by the contractor desk at Lowe's. That's the only store that it is practical for me to ride a bike to from my house

Jughed

The bold matches the question I was pondering, coupled with the other thread of his on carrying bags from the handlebars...

Why? Why take a full on, high dollar road machine, essentially a race bike - to the market??? Stopping on a ride to refuel is one thing - but a full on shopping trip?

Get a thrift store Huffy and park it outside.

Chuck M 

Same.

I used to belong to a youth mentoring group and when we went places, the kids (and unfortunately some of the adults) were told that if you don't see 90 other people in purple shirts doing it, you shouldn't either.

The OP just needs to be prepared to lock the bike or come up with an alternative plan.

George Mann

It's ok as long as they say its ok. But the best compromise they are likely to agree to is to leave your bike somewhere in the front of the store while you do your shopping.

It's best to lock your wheels to the frame to prevent people from easily making off with it.

datlas 

Post makes me nostalgic for the famous Baby Bike Bolts thread.

But assuming you are sincere, best advice is enter and ask politely if you could PLEASE bring your bike in. If they say NO! simply take your business elsewhere.

ACHiPo 

Excellent point. Whew, I can save my diskishness for other things!😁