Going the Distance
One of the tragic consequences of my recent move to Sonoma county is that I no longer have easy access to my homeboys at Precision Bicycles. Since I managed that shop for 5 years and made the owner a lot of money, and trained and raced and rode and drank and hung out with the guys that still work there, they were kind enough to continue supporting my racing career by flowing me the Bro' deals on everything I needed, not to mention providing access to real bike tools and spare hands and stuff to assist in maintenance. Now I'm 2 hrs away from them and forced into the marketplace to get my goods. Since I haven't had enough time to convince any local shop owners how valuable I can be for their business, that means I'm pretty much paying retail for stuff, just like you, or most of you, at any rate.
I'm sure most of you who are reading this are the same sort of poser computer geeks that cruise the newsgroups in search of some stimulation that doesn't involve actual riding. Buying from cheesy-ass, impersonal, far-away, fucked-up mail-order losers seems to be the popular web-geek solution to my problem. Well, in the immortal words of Eric Cartman, "Screw you hippie!" I've had enough experience with mail-order as a customer (when i was stationed overseas) and a competitor (when i ran the bike shop) to know how much they suck (and how much you suck if you buy by mail). I want to actually touch stuff before I buy it, and if it sucks, I want to be able to take it back and get the problem solved without the hassle of paying to ship it to freaking Zimbabwe or something. Furthermore, I want to be able to ask a serious cyclist "Does this work?" Therefore I must seek a shop.
Maybe I just got lucky again, because I've already found two competent and honest bike shops, both of which have genuine cyclocross credentials. The first one I went to was Dave's Bike Sport in Santa Rosa. They sponsored the cross series that first got me into the sport about 5 years ago. Proprietor Dave Walters is a national class racer in some old, fat guys age group (older and fatter than my age group even), and the store stocks serious equipment for mountain and road, like Gary Fisher mountain bikes. They even boast an actual pro class mtb-er in Brian Finnerty behind the counter. They have a big selection of stuff and people there are reasonably nice.
The second shop I went to, The Hub in Cotati, (between santa rosa and petaluma) was even better. It's not a huge place, but it's friendly and the staff is knowledgeable. They also sell Fisher, and the owner, Chaz Fetrow, races cyclocross! Of course they did sell me some crappy yellow-coated brake cables that didn't work at all, but they also hooked me up with a headset, front brake cable hanger, stem and front derailleur for my spiffy new cyclocross bike. They had good suggestions and quality parts at reasonable prices in stock. Most of all, I got the impression that they were honest cyclists. I think Chaz would rather lose a sale than try to sell you something you don't need, which is refreshing in these times.
So I still have to pay retail for stuff, but at least I have shops I can depend on.
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