Do bike shops have any idea about retrobikes?

Sounds a bit smelly to me, as every major manufacturer still has square taper or Octo at the lower nether of their ranges.

My LBS loves retro, but the chief mechanic there is retroyetirigid. I've taken my bikes into most of the local ones, and I usually get nice comments from the guys. Even got nice comments from the 15 year old looking youth in the Motobits (Raleigh and DB dealer) about my R.

As for LBS... My only recent experience as follows:
Not so local 2hr round trip (to fairly well known shop in Plymouth) was undertaken because I wanted to replace damaged front mech ASAP/same day. Would have paid the extra £20 they were charging over web price if they'd just listened to what I wanted - but all I got was a lecture about how I shouldn't be using downtube shifters (on my road bike) because they were dangerous & 'barely legal' & then launching into some spiel about how I should be buying some mega-expensive STI combined system. That's all he was interested in.
I left empty handed. Much time & over a fiver of petrol wasted. Chain Reaction delivered me what I wanted the next day (£20 cheaper). No questions asked. No accusations I was committing a crime by simply having something old (unless I missed that particular email)!
Good LBS may be able to answer technical questions but folk on sites like this do that very well now. Almost instantly.

The indignation of people on this site, who are amazed that their LBS doesn't cater for a niche group that represents a tiny fraction of the market, astounds me.

My indignation was that the shop could have catered for me. He had a Campagnolo Centaur front mech in his hand that I would have given him real money for...
It was the whole condescending lecture that: 'you really don't want this & really shouldn't be doing things the way you think you should be doing it - you want to be buying all this other stuff instead'... That's what made me leave.

Russell":31uzl5dp said:

The indignation of people on this site, who are amazed that their LBS doesn't cater for a niche group that represents a tiny fraction of the market, astounds me.

Click to expand...

But retrobikes should be a pretty large percentage of their income. People like the users of this site are a niche group, people who ride old bikes aren't.

I see literally dozens every day on the way to and from work through a major city, but 99% of the people on them don't realise it. The average LBS makes a lot of their money through servicing bikes and a hell of a lot of those will be bikes people bought 20 odd years ago or bikes that students or whatever have bought cheap for nipping around on.

So things like cantis and outdated parts should be a familiar sight to them.

Newman8":18afxm06 said:

My indignation was that the shop could have catered for me. He had a Campagnolo Centaur front mech in his hand that I would have given him real money for...
It was the whole condescending lecture that: 'you really don't want this & really shouldn't be doing things the way you think you should be doing it - you want to be buying all this other stuff instead'... That's what made me leave.

Click to expand...

A good point well made. First rule of selling. If you got it and he wants it. Sell it.

Anyway what are we all doing on here today really? It's so sunny out. I'm logging off now. Going for a ride - Polperro to Downderry & back complete with my 'dangerous' downtube shifters... Have a good day everyone...

Half the bikes sold by local bike shops still feature quill stems, square taper, cantilevers and v-brakes - hardly 'niche'

I work at a bike shop. I started out just wrenching and now my time is split between wrenching and sales. We have a strict policy that every customer is treated the same, from the $7000 carbon road bike rider to the "just need it to get me to work" BSO rider. I find the customers riding 15, 20, 25 year old bikes are very happy to find a shop where their older bike is understood and enthused about, and I in turn get to work on cool stuff like the Rodriguez tandem that just came in - Suntour bar end shifters and SE brakes, Specialized tandem cranks and an "emergency" roller brake at the back, High flange Sansin hubs with 48 spoke UKAI 700c rims!