El Maestro Shop - Interview transcript

Participant 1 35 Male, Brooklyn, NY

1. Can you tell me about your recent experience riding a bike? First commute of the season on the road bike. It was very nice. The big temperature swing between morning and afternoon is a bit awkward to deal with w/o carrying a full change of riding kit.

2. Can you tell me about what motivates you to ride a bike? Most of my rides are commutes. By doing them by bike they become quality time instead of a chore and basically time lost. It allows me to eat as If I was still a teen. It’s fun and it keeps me fit.

3. Can you tell me about your experience purchasing your bike? It wasn’t much fun. The guy knew less about the bike he sold than I did.

4. Can you tell me about your experience of getting your bike repaired? It was even worse. A spoke failed while still under warranty. So I dropped the bike off to be repaired. And had to pay $25 to get the bike back. The shop claimed - against consumer rights - that ”everybody knows that warranty doesn’t cover wheels”.

5. Can you tell me about how you find a local bike shop? By now, I know where enough good ones are and have little reason to look for more. Otherwise, I’ll search the net.

6. Can you tell me why you chose this local bike shop over others? I pick shops according to a compromise between cost, inventory, and accessibility.

7. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with a local bike shop? The one that sold me my previous pair of winter boots. Excellent service, and they were happy to order two different sizes in extra wide for me to pick one pair to buy.

8. Can you tell me about your frustrating experience with a local bike shop? That’d be the ones who didn’t want to honor their warranty. Or the bike mechanic across the street from work. Once I’d flatted on the way in and wanted to buy a tube to have as a spare for the return journey. He refused on account of being a mechanic, not a shopkeeper. Even though I explained the situation, and that I’d be willing to accept a ridiculous over price to have a spare for the ride home, he still refused.

9. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with an online bike shop? That’d be either ROSE bikes or SJS cycles. Excellent tech support in helping determine what parts I needed.

10. Can you tell me about the frustrating experience you had with an online bike shop? The first thing that comes to mind wasn’t a fully stocked shop, but a specialist manufacturer of only a few bike parts. These guys were in such a rush to answer my email that they never read the full question. And never having read it, of course, they failed to provide a useful answer. Participant 2 40 Male, Sacramento, CA

1. Can you tell me about your recent experience riding a bike? I often ride a bike to work, or at my lunch break. Sometimes after work, I ride it further. I ride both a road bike and a .

2. Can you tell me about what motivates you to ride a bike? I live a reasonable distance from work to make this possible. My area (eastern suburbs of Sacramento) is well equipped with infrastructure and the weather is usually clear. I don't have any other time scheduled for working out. In sum, it's easy and reasonable.

3. Can you tell me about your experience purchasing your bike? My last new bike was bought at REI. It was ordered online and delivered to the store, who assembled it. No issues to speak of with the purchase.

4. Can you tell me about your experience of getting your bike repaired? I have a lot of my own tools and do most of the repairs myself. Bike shops stock only the most basic or the most showy parts and usually do not have a direct replacement, and they will have you wait days for ordering and work.

5. Can you tell me about how you find a local bike shop? I threw a brick and probably hit one.

6. Can you tell me why you choose this local bike shop over others? I chose REI to buy my Salsa because their rebate and credit card signing bonus amounted to a discount better than the other local shop who's a Salsa dealer and is much closer to my home.

7. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with a local bike shop? I went to a very nice local bike shop once, my friends recommended it to me. They had very knowledgeable staff and a cool atmosphere. They presented their bike accessories very well and were very organized. And the owner decorated the shop with a lot of greens.

8. Can you tell me about your frustrating experience with a local bike shop? The local bike shops don't carry a huge amount of things I need. Then if you need something they don't have they say they can order it. Well so can I so I do.

9. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with an online bike shop? The experience shopping at REI was pretty nice. You can compare the prices of the similar products and they always have discounts if you are a member. I think you can get 50% discount for the returned products.

10. Can you tell me about the frustrating experience you had with an online bike shop? Many times there are a lot of cheaper and basic stuff out of stock. And they push to the versions that cost twice as much. Participant 3 55 Male, Sacramento, CA

1. Can you tell me about your recent experience riding a bike? Yesterday I rode 15 miles at lunch. I was not commuting due to work from home. The day before I rode another of my bike about 6 miles doing essential errands (pharmacy, etc)

2. Can you tell me about what motivates you to ride a bike? The smile on my face and joy it brings, the practicality

3. Can you tell me about your experience purchasing your bike? The last bike I purchased was brand new for me in 1989. It was a good experience from a knowledgeable shop. Last new bike for anyone in the family was 14 years ago when Santa got my son a BMX bike...went to place that specializes in BMX, got a good education and the right bike other than that the last 2 frames I purchased were from a member of this forum and facilitated by a forum member

4. Can you tell me about your experience of getting your bike repaired? I do 99% of my own repairs, I have had a goto shop/mechanic for things that are one-off, like re chasing the threads in a bottom bracket

5. Can you tell me about how you find a local bike shop? I have lived in my area for well over 30 years, so I have visited most and known by experience and recommendations from others

6. Can you tell me why you choose this local bike shop over others? The shop I use know I followed the mechanic when he moved from his previous shop and this shop knows old bikes as well as new

7. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with a local bike shop? Going in and talking about bikes and builds, having the mechanic ride a bike I’ve built and provided input.

8. Can you tell me about your frustrating experience with a local bike shop? They are busy so it was frustrating to wait for a frame spread on a special frame that I did not want to do myself

9. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with an online bike shop? Getting a good deal

10. Can you tell me about the frustrating experience you had with an online bike shop? I was going to make an order and then found that the item is out of stock Participant 4 45 Male, New York

1. Can you tell me about your recent experience riding a bike?

Since recently I have been working from home so I haven’t ridden my bike for a few weeks. Normally I ride my bike to work if the weather is nice.

2. Can you tell me about what motivates you to ride a bike? Consider it some kind of exercise. I don't have time to go to the gym after work because when I get home I need to look after my kids. I can clear my thoughts when I ride my bike, on the way to work or back home. Also, I can get away from the New York Subway as you know it’s just gross.

3. Can you tell me about your experience purchasing your bike? I bought my bike from a person who sells custom Titanium frames or at least specializes in Titanium bikes. No one near here has Titanium frames and in fact, one local bike store made poor comments about Titanium bikes that were just self-serving because they sold Carbon Fiber. The person I bought my bike from was personal and I called him and ordered it and what I needed. He offered a few suggestions and then here is the catch.

I told him I could just put a certified check in the mail for the bike he would get it in two days. I did not need the bike that fast he could ship when he got the check and cashed it. I told him that this would save him all the fees and I was not in any huge hurry. I still have a bike to ride. Well when I mentioned that he said great and I will upgrade you to the premium Richey Fork as a throw in no charge. It was a tremendous transaction and a win in all directions. He basically was getting cash with no fees and could then take his time and know he was getting a sale with no problems.

Moral of the story is that the world is much bigger than the local bike stores and given choices and specialization business has to adapt. One area I see that LBS can win is on bike repair and maintenance. Be adaptable to service any kind/brand of bike and carry the tools and expertise to hand any situation. Forget so much about being loyal to someone who bought their bike from the shop but be open to anyone's maintenance needs. I am sure many LBS work on this principle but it has been an issue in the past. Many LBS do not deal with this part of the picture. If it is not there brand or cup of tea they tend to stay away.

4. Can you tell me about your experience of getting your bike repaired? I can not think of anytime I have my bike repaired by anyone else. I usually do it myself.

5. Can you tell me about how you find a local bike shop? If I' m going to find a new bike shop, I would probably search on google and read the reviews.

6. Can you tell me why you choose this local bike shop over others? It's close to my workplace. If I need anything I can just go and buy it at lunch time. It was convenient. Once I bought a bike light for myself on my way back to the office. It’s just on Broadway, a few blocks away.

7. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with a local bike shop? It’s convenient, I got what I needed very quickly, the staff was really knowledgeable and helpful, they allowed you to test your bike indoors.

8. Can you tell me about your frustrating experience with a local bike shop?

There was once I went to REI. The line was so long, especially since it was a weekend. They really need to call their coworkers to help with the checkout when there were more than 10 people lining up.

9. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with an online bike shop?

I never purchased anything from an online bike shop.

10. Can you tell me about the frustrating experience you had with an online bike shop?

There are so many online stores that you can choose from. It can be hard to figure out which one is the real deal, which has the best prices, selections, and most satisfied customers. So I just stick to a few well-known brands, or just go to a physical store to test it by myself. Waiting for the shipping and returning the products you no longer need are not pleasant. Participant 5 45 Male, Colorado

1. Can you tell me about your recent experience riding a bike?

I just got back from a lovely ride - my city is normally a pretty nice place for cycling, but it was even better today with fewer cars on the roads.

2. Can you tell me about what motivates you to ride a bike? Physical health, mental health, it's a cheap and efficient way to go places and run errands, and it's just plain fun.

3. Can you tell me about your experience purchasing your bike? I bought my last bike from one of my old friends. Everything was great.

4. Can you tell me about your experience of getting your bike repaired? I made an appointment with a local bike shop and they sent a man to my place. He was very punctual and seems a very reliable person. He's extremely professional, not only fixed my bike but also explained alot to me about the bike parts and how to maintain them in the future. Overall it was a great experience and I don't have to transport my bike to the store, they came to me.

5. Can you tell me about how you find a local bike shop? If I was in a new area and looking at bike shops I'd go to google to generate a map, and then I'd ride to visit them and see what they're like in person.

6. Can you tell me why you choose this local bike shop over others?

I like shops that are locally owned and invested in repairing bikes of all sorts (as opposed to being entirely dominated by their sales floor), as these are the sorts of places that are more likely to share my interest in cycling as both sport and transport.

7. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with a local bike shop? If for some reason I need something from a physical shop, I like to be able to walk right in, ask for the specific item I need and have the person working understand exactly what I'm looking for and if they have it or not.

8. Can you tell me about your frustrating experience with a local bike shop? I went online to find some components I need for my but I will have to wait for a few days until they are shipped to my house so I went to the storefront, but they didn't have them in stock.

9. Can you tell me about your enjoyable experience with an online bike shop? Same as any other online shopping experience: buying something at a good price, and getting it delivered a few days later is great.

10. Can you tell me about the frustrating experience you had with an online bike shop? The only frustrating thing about online shopping is the difficulty of doing price comparisons across different storefronts.