I had to laugh.  I often tell people the only bike shop in Coatesville is Wal*Mart. 

The people that come to our shop with Roadmaster, Next, etc. are happy to have a bike and we want to help them enjoy their bikes.  They know they’re not Lance Armstrong’s bikes, but they’re good enough.

When they’re frustrated with their bikes, I console them by starting with the obvious.  There are more expensive bikes out there.  When you buy a more expensive bike you get many benefits, including a more reliable bike.  If you choose to buy a less expensive bike you need to be ready to put some time and effort into maintaining and repairing it.  Then, I offer to teach them what they need to know.

Notice that I never mention that they probably bought the cheap bike because it’s all they could afford.  I give them the benefit of believing that their purchase was a choice, and that they put some thought into it.  It’s usually not far from the truth. 

Doug Franz

Coatesville Community Bike Works

From: thethinktank-bounces@bikecollectives.org [mailto:thethinktank-bounces@bikecollectives.org] On Behalf Of veganboyjosh@gmail.com
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 9:21 PM
To: The Think Tank
Subject: [TheThinkTank] using soft words to explain someone has a crappy bike?

Hey Everyone,

In the past few days, I've had several bikes people have brought in which are department store bikes of the worst kind. Pressed dropouts, steel cranks, etc. I'm sure you all know the bike of which I write.

When explaining mechanical issues to the owner, sometimes the answer to "why do I keep having problems with this bike?" really does come down to a quality of manufacture issue. Of course I don't think anyone here wants to disparage someone's bike, or make them feel not worthy to be in our shops, but buying a bike at Target or Walmart does sometimes come down to a class issue. How to explain this in a way that's not as harsh? Any experiences you've had where it went wrong, or where it went really well?

We really do want to encourage people to ride bikes, and getting them on a craphole Roadmaster is pretty much going to just discourage it and frustrate them after about 100 miles.

Thanks, y'all. Hope you're all doing well!

josh.