IEatRice4Dinner said:
most shops dont even make money on 200$ bikes if there properly adjusted...its' a business there has to be a line somewhere... look at that danali bike, sub 300$ road bike with STI that bike with the same parts at a shop would cost 500$. bike shops cant compete with dpt stores, and when they do they cut build time and adjustments, then your gettin the same bike thats missadjusted, so theres no point. that's why most shops seem to stock higher end bikes. wall-mart plans to do a bike dep similar to dicks sporting goods with semi-trained staff, bikes in the 3-400$ range... it's scary if you work in the industry. It all has to do with demographics but according to Industry news (not marketed to general public)reports more and more shops going under every year. believe it or not but dpt stores and mail order is what kills shops....
Actually, the Denali doesn't have STI it has the "revo-twist" which I found somewhat repulsive. The bike was HEAVY and CLUMSY to use. Now, the version that has the STI is in the 300-400 range for a bike.
I have an LBS nearby that is selling the Trek 7100 for around 300.00. I can't believe that they cant build a "road bike" with similar components for 300.00.
If they could, I would have purchased from them rather than buy the bike from ebay (which has turned out ok for me at least so far....).
what components: road bike handlebars, road brakes with hoods,
indexed or friction shifters (not bar ends or sti. could be down tube or stem
shifters for all I care), 7 speeds in the back and 2-3 chain rings up front.
low tech, but quality (meant to last) components.
heck, on my group ride on saturday, I met a guy that was riding an italian "Torpado" bike that was either a 10-12 speed that was obviously high end at
one time (I would say 20+ years ago...). I can't believe that we can't have a similar bike manufactured today for about the same price as one of the "hybrid" bikes that are being sold in LBS's. so if an LBS could sell a hybrid and make money
off of it, why couldn't they sell what I want and make a profit... seems that
there should be levels of product "high" to "low" (but above wal-mart...)
and if they don't want to "carry" the product at the show room, at least have it so that it can be mail-ordered by the shop itself. The whole Idea of a professional type of bike is that things can be swapped in and out easily because of standard parts, and because of that should be easy to configure
for the buyer. Thats one thing that walmart can't do for you and why one would go to an LBS instead.