Yes I don’t like when some one tells me how to spend my money and I wouldn’t do it to anyone else .if he can save hundreds then it’s his choice right ?Personally I'm a big fan of going to your local bike shop
I'd find the local shop that does the most Trail building and/or advocacy and support them.My brother in law is looking into getting a mtb and is looking at this online shop , any thoughts ?
I did tell him and he did go to a shop , he found better costs online is all , I totally understand what you are saying and I myself use pros to work on my stuff , i have purchased every bike from a shop . I also order as much as I can from amazon for my bike , it's called being cost efficient. You obviously love what you do and have been doing it for awhile , and seems like the shop is staying afloat ? I'm sure years ago when you would blow out of work at noon to build 6 mile while the boys were working and selling bikes and earning you money it was a fucking great time ....doing what you love to do and being able to make a living at it . That's what life is all about . A lot of folks don't like what they do but they do it for insurance or family or to survive . You were able to do something this whole time that is your true passion . You should be grateful you had that time . Consider yourself lucky . Hopefully you can figure it out and survive because I don't see it changing . My business has been effected for sure . No more upcharge on materials ....and costs for everything are everywhere ... it sucks plus I deal with the undoc labor force who charge almost nothing because they are uninsured and don't pay taxes . I had to change my life completely to survive . I'm not trying to cut you down or anything . I hope you do well but for me to tell someone to spend several hundred more bucks because the shop builds and maintains trails is a joke especially when the guy I'm talking to also builds and maintains trail ...I'd find the local shop that does the most Trail building and/or advocacy and support them.
Well said,..I did tell him and he did go to a shop , he found better costs online is all , I totally understand what you are saying and I myself use pros to work on my stuff , i have purchased every bike from a shop . I also order as much as I can from amazon for my bike , it's called being cost efficient. You obviously love what you do and have been doing it for awhile , and seems like the shop is staying afloat ? I'm sure years ago when you would blow out of work at noon to build 6 mile while the boys were working and selling bikes and earning you money it was a fucking great time ....doing what you love to do and being able to make a living at it . That's what life is all about . A lot of folks don't like what they do but they do it for insurance or family or to survive . You were able to do something this whole time that is your true passion . You should be grateful you had that time . Consider yourself lucky . Hopefully you can figure it out and survive because I don't see it changing . My business has been effected for sure . No more upcharge on materials ....and costs for everything are everywhere ... it sucks plus I deal with the undoc labor force who charge almost nothing because they are uninsured and don't pay taxes . I had to change my life completely to survive . I'm not trying to cut you down or anything . I hope you do well but for me to tell someone to spend several hundred more bucks because the shop builds and maintains trails is a joke especially when the guy I'm talking to also builds and maintains trail ...
Thx buddy I almost like building trail more then riding if that makes sense , you should see the cool stuff we have been building out here , I'm always trying to make it as tech as possible . I have heard nassau is getting new trail .... I love that system and miss it for sure . Hopefully I will be high up in the COMBA organization in years to come and can make a solid POSITIVE impact . Thx for the kind words PAT . I hope your day is filled with sunshine and smiles !Brendan at cycle craft has stated he will match any legit, regular price (meaning it isn't a blow out of the last 3 someone has.)
As long as one doesn't walk into a bike shop, demo a bike, then buy on-line.
we should all be a aware of how we spend our money, and the capitalistic way is to pay as little as possible.
Nothing wrong with that - it makes the system as efficient as possible - while it changes the income stream,
it also affects the spending stream.
BTW Rich - I know you spent your time building at Nassau. Not sure everyone else does. Did loops there the other day, and
continue to enjoy it. ty.
I did tell him and he did go to a shop , he found better costs online is all , I totally understand what you are saying and I myself use pros to work on my stuff , i have purchased every bike from a shop . I also order as much as I can from amazon for my bike , it's called being cost efficient. You obviously love what you do and have been doing it for awhile , and seems like the shop is staying afloat ? I'm sure years ago when you would blow out of work at noon to build 6 mile while the boys were working and selling bikes and earning you money it was a fucking great time ....doing what you love to do and being able to make a living at it . That's what life is all about . A lot of folks don't like what they do but they do it for insurance or family or to survive . You were able to do something this whole time that is your true passion . You should be grateful you had that time . Consider yourself lucky . Hopefully you can figure it out and survive because I don't see it changing . My business has been effected for sure . No more upcharge on materials ....and costs for everything are everywhere ... it sucks plus I deal with the undoc labor force who charge almost nothing because they are uninsured and don't pay taxes . I had to change my life completely to survive . I'm not trying to cut you down or anything . I hope you do well but for me to tell someone to spend several hundred more bucks because the shop builds and maintains trails is a joke especially when the guy I'm talking to also builds and maintains trail ...
I totally get that the allure of lesser up front costs are wildly appealing and often unbeatable by local shops.
That said the shops that are left standing are all doing something a bit different than we were a few years back.
We are all busting our asses for our long time customers and working hard to earn new ones.
I hate watching so many good people loosing jobs all across the country. Yes, some deserve to fade away. I don’t man to guilt anyone into supporting something that they don’t see value in. I would however say that if you find any value in a LBS, then throw them a bone now and again. Most of us are pretty reasonable and if price matching is in the table, we can often move a little. Sometimes we simply can’t buy things for as cheap as they Sell them. As you know the playing field isn’t level. Our costs of operation and our scale of volume is not anything like Jenson. They are basically commodity trading. Often using varied methods of purchasing that border on illegal.
I’ve been wildly lucky to live a lifestyle that I have and I don’t take it for granted. I Enjoy trail building more than ever and I do not do it for the recognition (nor does anyone I’ve ever met).
I’m proud to have logged over 5000 hours building trails over the years and I’ll likely keep it up as long as my body allows.
I’m wildly envious that you’ve managed to sneak in it of NJ alive. I hope to do the same one day. Have an awesome summer and keep the photos coming. We all secretly hate you, but we still want to see what the good life looks like.
J