60!
My Mom turned 60 this year and she’s decided to do a triathlon. She’s decided to invest in a better bike for the triathlon and beyond. She bikes quite a bit. Sometimes we run into each other in distant towns on long rides…
However she didn’t know what type of riding she would do when she bought her bike- a mountain bike. As anyone who’s biked for a bit knows, the first bike you get is always the wrong one. It turns out she prefers to be on a road, so a road bike it is. But somehow the average bike shop employee is having trouble wrapping their head around this…
However they shouldn’t underestimate my mom. Or that she will just to go to another shop that will offer real help.
I went to a few shops to try to get new wheels for my vntage bike and they just tried to sell me a new bike in the same style as mine, they couldn’t understand that I wanted to keep my bike, it just needed wheels with a coaster brake that worked better than the old one.
Funny, as I was reminded yesterday, not listening to the customer and trying to push them onto a $400 bike means you might lose the chance to sell them the $1,500+ bike they’re REALLY looking for. Just because someone doesn’t, say, look like a bike racer, doesn’t mean they’re not looking for a go-fast bike (especially when you work in an area with very active masters and juniors racing teams!)
Cool, meeting your mom while both of you are bikes! Hope she shops around until she finds a shop that takes her needs seriously.
I’ve been cycling regularily for past 20 years (am car-free). Have reached 53. My partner will be 69..he also bikes and has done bike touring solo across North America, twice after 58 yrs.
keep in mind that most bike shops are VERY-low-margin operations that make most of their money off of high-end bikes, expensive accessories, and service.
frankly, a lot of commuters and other casual cyclists waltz in with the attitude that they should be able to buy a brand-new bike for $200, and maybe get a free lock of helmet or something. and then they are perturbed when they get charged for a tune-up after leaving the bike on their porch for the winter.
I know because I used to be that way.
Very true, other Matt! Shipping costs have risen so much over the last couple of years that on some of our least expensive bikes we may only be making $30-40 profit, which makes it frustrating when customers try to get pushy about the price. If the customer isn’t obnoxious about it, we’ll try to give them a break on accessories and add-ons, but there’s not a lot of wiggle room on the bikes themselves.
Aside from just price though, I hear a lot of people complain about how a bike shop employees don’t listen to what they want, or are dismissive of their preferences, gender or body type. That’s a problem in communication that not only can hurt sales but can turn off people from biking in general.
One of these days I’d love to get a discussion going about some of the questions and concerns bike shoppers have, and address them from the bike shop side.