The Annoying nonsensical things in bikeshops thread.

rollingscone

Ahoy all,

Not looking to bash bikeshops by name as many of the things that irk me may stem from the manufacturer's decision, and my motivation is more to do with being a grumpy (poor) serial browser.

But with knowing a hell of a lot more about bikes than I did when I first started visiting LBSs ogling their wares I'm now starting to feel somewhat incensed by some of the stuff on display which appears to exist purely as a way of separating the naive from their money.

And so I present to you three examples from around Dublin City Centre brought before my court yesterday:

Exhibit A: A very upright Scott Hybrid with Vee Brakes and Tiagra flat bar trigger shifters but sporting a105 chainset, derailleurs and casette for 1300 Euros.

The crime: selling the marginal gains of 105 over distance on a bike that would cause your lower back to dislocate on spins over 30k.

Verdict: Guilty of rube exploitation.

Exhibit B: CX bike, with Road wheels and Gearing, 23mm tyres but Cantilever brakes.

The crime: The old, oh a cyclocross bike is one bike for all uses trick, with the added insanity of setting it up entirely for road use apart from the brakes which doing any sort of serious descent or traffic stopping will be somewhat akin to grabbing the rims with two hands stuffed with cotton buds.

Verdict: Guilty on the counts of mis-selling CX bikes where a cheaper roadbike would be superior and the misdemeanor offence of building a bike that makes no sense whatsoever.

Exhibit C: A Pashley roadbike with a 105 groupset and downtube shifters.

The crime: Why would anyone want a new build bike with downtube shifters?

Verdict: Not Guilty by reason of insanity, if you're going to ride a bike made entirely from Brass and leather you might as well go the whole retro hog.

PS: The Pashley actually looked kind of fun, should I see my doctor?

Lumen

rollingscone wrote: »

The crime: Why would anyone want a new build bike with downtube shifters?

They're satisfying to use, and no real disadvantage if you don't need to change gear whilst madly accelerating or braking. It also means -2 sets of gear outers that you don't have to maintain.

Additionally, you can completely lose your mind and fit Shimano Di2 hydraulic road levers with the shifters disconnected. :pac:

rollingscone wrote: »

PS: The Pashley actually looked kind of fun, should I see my doctor?

Exactly!

ednwireland

just to summarize - rollingscone has waay too much time on his hands

Harrybelafonte

Surely your issue is with the manufacturers rather than the shops.

laraghrider

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Surely your issue is with the manufacturers rather than the shops.

Indeed. Just because a bike has say a Tiagra group set doesn't mean the entire drive train etc... has to be Tiagra. Manufactures will often upgrade individual parts of a group set to keep a bike within a price range while maximising the value. Ergo look at the amount of bikes out there that are 105 group sets and ultegra rear mech.

rollingscone

I did say that at the beginning.

It's annoying things in bike shops not annoying things by them.


And my issue wasn't the mix of tiagra and 105.

It was the sheer pointlessness of having 105 on what is verging on a sit up and beg bike.

I'm not sure if I have too much time on my hands as much as too much reluctance to spend it productively....

smacl

rollingscone wrote: »

It was the sheer pointlessness of having 105 on what is verging on a sit up and beg bike.

Before getting the road bike, like many, I initially bought a flat bar hybrid with a 27 speed deore group, which is actually fine on long journeys, and got me through my first WW200. Yes, I prefer the drop bar road bike, but hybrids with bar ends are actually quite a workable solution for long spins. Last year I rented a similar enough looking hybrid, with a crappy 21 speed group, which was basically grossly undergeared.

While the Scott listed seems very expensive and certainly wouldn't be my choice, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with having reasonably good components on a flat bar bike. Also worth remembering that the STI levers are the most expensive bit, so 105 on a flat bar is cheaper than 106 on a drop bar.

rollingscone

smacl wrote: »

Before getting the road bike, like many, I initially bought a flat bar hybrid with a 27 speed deore group, which is actually fine on long journeys, and got me through my first WW200. Yes, I prefer the drop bar road bike, but hybrids with bar ends are actually quite a workable solution for long spins. Last year I rented a similar enough looking hybrid, with a crappy 21 speed group, which was basically grossly undergeared.

While the Scott listed seems very expensive and certainly wouldn't be my choice, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with having reasonably good components on a flat bar bike. Also worth remembering that the STI levers are the most expensive bit, so 105 on a flat bar is cheaper than 106 on a drop bar.

I think this is the bike I was looking at, although I didn't ping the Carbon forks that might explain some of the price tag. Really my issue was with the Geometry, as some Hybrids (like my escape in its original flat/riser bar format) have a reasonably long stem and top tube so you are leaning quite far forward which made it relatively comfortable for longer spins (my back did start to ache at the 50k mark though).

On the Scott Metrix my impression was with the tightness of the space between the steerer tube and the seatpost you would be sat nearly bolt upright. More like a sit up and beg bike than an MTB derived hybrid.