ProBikeKit.com - Awesome



GPLama wrote:

> but I insist... ;)... Mini pump - means MANY pumps to get anything into
> the tyre.. nothing new there... but in true "gpl has issues changing tyres"
> style - I finished pumping the wheel up and thought the valve was a little
> wiggly, so I put on the little round nutty thingy.. and pssssss... i managed
> to rip the value out from the tube.. hmmmphhhh.. yet another lesson I learn
>
>
> cheers,
> GPL
> :it only counts when people are there laughing at me right?:
>
>


I'm glad nobody was at my house listening to the cursing on Saturday
when I couldn't get my floor pump to work. I'd been having some problems
with a foot pump I use for the motorbike so have been alternating
between that and the bike floor pump. On Saturday I went to pump up the
MTB tyres but couldn't get the pump connection to fit to the valve.
Tried every MTB tube I had and same thing. Came to the conclusion that
using it on the m'bike had stuffed it. Went to pump up the m'bike tyre
yesterday and realised the lever on the pump connection folds in to seal
on the foot pump, but out on the floor pump. I'd been tryign to connect
the bloody thing in its sealed position! Grrrrrrrrrr! :(

DaveB "where's the standards association for pumps"
 
essendon93 said:
You sure 142 PSI is going to be enough for you? :D

Whats the longest time people have waited for a product to come in stock?
Two weeks and one day. Was getting a little concerned until parcel arrived pre-dawn on a Monday morning. Especially after all the bragging about quick turn around on a.b !

Only problem was they sent an Italian threaded BB, not English as ordered. Currently awaiting the replacement.

Even if I wrote that off, the savings from one set of tires more than paid for the cost of postage. What is up with the Australian bicycle industry?
 
"sinus" wrote in message ...
>
>
> Even if I wrote that off, the savings from one set of tires more than
> paid for the cost of postage. What is up with the Australian bicycle
> industry?
>


Smaller market, shipping, shipping, shipping, GST... my guess anyways..

Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus -
http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the local
industry..


cheers,
GPL
:no loyalty to any LBS, I spend money at ALL of them:
 
"sinus" wrote in message ...
>
>
> Even if I wrote that off, the savings from one set of tires more than
> paid for the cost of postage. What is up with the Australian bicycle
> industry?
>


Smaller market, shipping, shipping, shipping, GST... my guess anyways..

Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus -
http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the local
industry..


cheers,
GPL
:no loyalty to any LBS, I spend money at ALL of them:
 
"sinus" wrote in message ...
>
>
> Even if I wrote that off, the savings from one set of tires more than
> paid for the cost of postage. What is up with the Australian bicycle
> industry?
>


Smaller market, shipping, shipping, shipping, GST... my guess anyways..

Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus -
http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the local
industry..


cheers,
GPL
:no loyalty to any LBS, I spend money at ALL of them:
 
GPLama said:


Smaller market, shipping, shipping, shipping, GST... my guess anyways..
But Cecil Walker has relatively cheap price of $198 for Continental Attack/Force tyres (pair). ProBikeKit sell them for $77 and will post for $19 = $96. That's a mark up of over 100%. Someone is ripping us all off, and I don't think its the LBS.

We need more shops like BikePro to bypass the importers and get us a reasonable deal. Hopefully this might make them pick up their game, or go bust.
 
sinus said:
But Cecil Walker has relatively cheap price of $198 for Continental Attack/Force tyres (pair). ProBikeKit sell them for $77 and will post for $19 = $96. That's a mark up of over 100%. Someone is ripping us all off, and I don't think its the LBS.

We need more shops like BikePro to bypass the importers and get us a reasonable deal. Hopefully this might make them pick up their game, or go bust.
Well, I suspect it may be at least in part the LBS. I shopped around for my new saddle before buying it from ProbikeKit. The cheapest option was over *twice* the price of ProbikeKit. The most expensive local option was over three times the price. Surely the stores would use the cheapest importing options? I mean, at this rate they could buy the saddles themselves from ProBikeKit and still make a decent return :D

cheers,
Ali
 
> Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus -
> http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the local
> industry..


So was bikepro too cheap or too expensive?
bikepro is cheap relative to other LBS in Australia but expensive in regards to probikekit et al.

Bike shops cant legally buy stuff from probike and then sell it cause then it is parallel importation or the like. So they are getting screwed too. The crazy thing is i can buy STi levers cheaper overseas than my LBS can get wholesale from Shimano Australia.

The internet is undermining importers little goldmine and they dont like it (check out the letter to bikepro). Please Boycott Bicycling Australia as a result cause they dont represent you, they represent the trough that feeds them.
 
byron27 said:
Please Boycott Bicycling Australia as a result cause they dont represent you, they represent the trough that feeds them.
Apart from being trite, brief and containing reviews that have no more information than the manufacturer web site (their trough). The readers letters contains the only content with journalistic integrity.

Thank God for Ride Cycling Review.
 
"Zoom" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> GPLama wrote:
> > "essendon93" wrote in message ...
> >
> >>You sure 142 PSI is going to be enough for you? :D

> >
> >
> > I was only able to get about 100 into the tyre with it.. I blame

'climber
> > arms' for that ;).. still, for the size and weight 100psi will get me

home
> > to the safety of my floor pump..
> >

>
> > cheers,
> > GPL
> >
> >

>
> The problem with most of those little pumps is that they're made for
> mountain bikes and tend to be "fat" in order to move lots of air. the
> drawback is that it's hard to get high pressures because force =
> pressure times area. You simply can't force the air in. Skinny pumps
> take longer but at least you can get a higher pressure.
>
> Zoom


Yeah I recieved my order really quickly as well except it was minus 1 tyre,
am yet to recieve a reply
 
"Zoom" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> GPLama wrote:
> > "essendon93" wrote in message ...
> >
> >>You sure 142 PSI is going to be enough for you? :D

> >
> >
> > I was only able to get about 100 into the tyre with it.. I blame

'climber
> > arms' for that ;).. still, for the size and weight 100psi will get me

home
> > to the safety of my floor pump..
> >

>
> > cheers,
> > GPL
> >
> >

>
> The problem with most of those little pumps is that they're made for
> mountain bikes and tend to be "fat" in order to move lots of air. the
> drawback is that it's hard to get high pressures because force =
> pressure times area. You simply can't force the air in. Skinny pumps
> take longer but at least you can get a higher pressure.
>
> Zoom


Yeah I recieved my order really quickly as well except it was minus 1 tyre,
am yet to recieve a reply
 
"Zoom" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> GPLama wrote:
> > "essendon93" wrote in message ...
> >
> >>You sure 142 PSI is going to be enough for you? :D

> >
> >
> > I was only able to get about 100 into the tyre with it.. I blame

'climber
> > arms' for that ;).. still, for the size and weight 100psi will get me

home
> > to the safety of my floor pump..
> >

>
> > cheers,
> > GPL
> >
> >

>
> The problem with most of those little pumps is that they're made for
> mountain bikes and tend to be "fat" in order to move lots of air. the
> drawback is that it's hard to get high pressures because force =
> pressure times area. You simply can't force the air in. Skinny pumps
> take longer but at least you can get a higher pressure.
>
> Zoom


Yeah I recieved my order really quickly as well except it was minus 1 tyre,
am yet to recieve a reply
 
On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 11:55:26 +1000, alison_b
<[email protected]> wrote:


>Well, I suspect it may be at least in part the LBS. I shopped around
>for my new saddle before buying it from ProbikeKit. The cheapest
>option was over *twice* the price of ProbikeKit. The most expensive
>local option was over three times the price. Surely the stores would
>use the cheapest importing options? I mean, at this rate they could
>buy the saddles themselves from ProBikeKit and still make a decent
>return :D


Have you been to some of the ****^H^H^H^Hflash bike shops
in the city (Melb). When you go into SHM, you're paying
for a lot of rent and tinsel.

Smal LBS's do ok, but don't make a fortune. The markups are
big on some things, but they don't do big volume and you're
subsidising their expertise that they pretty-much give away.
It's much easier to sell stuff cheap when you can do JIT ordering and
have no storefront to pay for. I can see you an iRiver H320 for
$100 less than RRP because I don't need to make a heap on it
but if I had to have stock, spares, staff.... which also the
distributors have to have.

The alternative is Rays Bike City and K-mart for service. "no
thanks". It's funny that bike shops are one of the few
small retail businesses that aren't (yet) being eaten by chainstores.

But yes, stuff here is too expensive in a lot of cases, but remember
too that it's easy to buy stuff from an agent, much more work (and
risk) to source it yourself, especially if you're a small shop
with not much time to spare.
 
On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 11:55:26 +1000, alison_b
<[email protected]> wrote:


>Well, I suspect it may be at least in part the LBS. I shopped around
>for my new saddle before buying it from ProbikeKit. The cheapest
>option was over *twice* the price of ProbikeKit. The most expensive
>local option was over three times the price. Surely the stores would
>use the cheapest importing options? I mean, at this rate they could
>buy the saddles themselves from ProBikeKit and still make a decent
>return :D


Have you been to some of the ****^H^H^H^Hflash bike shops
in the city (Melb). When you go into SHM, you're paying
for a lot of rent and tinsel.

Smal LBS's do ok, but don't make a fortune. The markups are
big on some things, but they don't do big volume and you're
subsidising their expertise that they pretty-much give away.
It's much easier to sell stuff cheap when you can do JIT ordering and
have no storefront to pay for. I can see you an iRiver H320 for
$100 less than RRP because I don't need to make a heap on it
but if I had to have stock, spares, staff.... which also the
distributors have to have.

The alternative is Rays Bike City and K-mart for service. "no
thanks". It's funny that bike shops are one of the few
small retail businesses that aren't (yet) being eaten by chainstores.

But yes, stuff here is too expensive in a lot of cases, but remember
too that it's easy to buy stuff from an agent, much more work (and
risk) to source it yourself, especially if you're a small shop
with not much time to spare.
 
On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 11:55:26 +1000, alison_b
<[email protected]> wrote:


>Well, I suspect it may be at least in part the LBS. I shopped around
>for my new saddle before buying it from ProbikeKit. The cheapest
>option was over *twice* the price of ProbikeKit. The most expensive
>local option was over three times the price. Surely the stores would
>use the cheapest importing options? I mean, at this rate they could
>buy the saddles themselves from ProBikeKit and still make a decent
>return :D


Have you been to some of the ****^H^H^H^Hflash bike shops
in the city (Melb). When you go into SHM, you're paying
for a lot of rent and tinsel.

Smal LBS's do ok, but don't make a fortune. The markups are
big on some things, but they don't do big volume and you're
subsidising their expertise that they pretty-much give away.
It's much easier to sell stuff cheap when you can do JIT ordering and
have no storefront to pay for. I can see you an iRiver H320 for
$100 less than RRP because I don't need to make a heap on it
but if I had to have stock, spares, staff.... which also the
distributors have to have.

The alternative is Rays Bike City and K-mart for service. "no
thanks". It's funny that bike shops are one of the few
small retail businesses that aren't (yet) being eaten by chainstores.

But yes, stuff here is too expensive in a lot of cases, but remember
too that it's easy to buy stuff from an agent, much more work (and
risk) to source it yourself, especially if you're a small shop
with not much time to spare.
 
On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:16:10 +1000, sinus
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>byron27 Wrote:
>> Please Boycott Bicycling Australia as a result cause they dont represent
>> you, they represent the trough that feeds them.

>Apart from being trite, brief and containing reviews that have no more
>information than the manufacturer web site (their trough). The readers
>letters contains the only content with journalistic integrity.
>
>Thank God for Ride Cycling Review.


Ride's just as bad, but has prettier pictures.
 
On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:16:10 +1000, sinus
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>byron27 Wrote:
>> Please Boycott Bicycling Australia as a result cause they dont represent
>> you, they represent the trough that feeds them.

>Apart from being trite, brief and containing reviews that have no more
>information than the manufacturer web site (their trough). The readers
>letters contains the only content with journalistic integrity.
>
>Thank God for Ride Cycling Review.


Ride's just as bad, but has prettier pictures.