I scored a bonus this year and my wife told me to go buy a new bike. (Yeah, she's my biggest fan.) I've been riding a mid-90s Giant CFR3 for about 2 years that I purchased from Craigslist, putting about 2,000 miles per year on it.
I decide to work very hard to buy it locally, as I usually do, instead of from a chain. But if I'm dropping $2K on one of my hobbies, I'm going to make damn sure I buy intelligently.
I hit 3 of the local shops for test rides a couple of Fridays ago. The first shop did it's absolute best to sell me one of the trade-ins they had, despite me telling them I was interested in a new bike. My only beef with purchasing another used bike is, I can't tell if it's a good deal or not. Besides, they guy immediately showed me something $500 more than I said I wanted to spend. (I train salespeople for a living, so I know selling techniques. He didn't give me a reason for showing me higher prices, he just did. Fail.) I did ride a Giant Defy that was amazing but it was also about twice what I wanted to spend. One of the other guys in the shop, I took him to be the owner, said, in a really shitty tone, something like, "Yeah they make one in your price range but it's that cheap carbon." Sorry, I don't like being talked down to....I told them I'm not a racer, not putting that much into this purchase. Besides, he degraded one of his manufacturers' products. See ya.
Next place grudgingly let me take a test ride, wouldn't give me any assistance or recommendations with type of bike to buy, and made it feel like I was an interruption of their day. The bike rode fairly well but I was wondering what it would be like after they had my money....would I get decent service?
Next place treated me very well, set me up with a great test ride, and exceeded my expectations. The Cannondale bike, however, wasn't a comfortable ride, coming in 4th in my tests. I really wanted to buy here but the price of this bike, coupled with a bad ride pushed me away.
I finally went to Performance....yeah, I know, the evil empire. You know what? They were surprisingly good. I got Fuji Gran Fondo 2.1 which had the second best ride of all the bikes I tried for about $300 less than my budget, full 105 group, and since it was triple points weekend, $480 worth of "rebates" to buy accessories. Money-wise, it was the best deal by far.
I feel badly that I didn't buy from the local guys. And I also think it was their fault. If I were selling in any of their stores and had a guy like me coming in, I could have closed him by making him feel wanted.
Thoughts?
Brian in VA
P.S. I love the bike!
I decide to work very hard to buy it locally, as I usually do, instead of from a chain. But if I'm dropping $2K on one of my hobbies, I'm going to make damn sure I buy intelligently.
I hit 3 of the local shops for test rides a couple of Fridays ago. The first shop did it's absolute best to sell me one of the trade-ins they had, despite me telling them I was interested in a new bike. My only beef with purchasing another used bike is, I can't tell if it's a good deal or not. Besides, they guy immediately showed me something $500 more than I said I wanted to spend. (I train salespeople for a living, so I know selling techniques. He didn't give me a reason for showing me higher prices, he just did. Fail.) I did ride a Giant Defy that was amazing but it was also about twice what I wanted to spend. One of the other guys in the shop, I took him to be the owner, said, in a really shitty tone, something like, "Yeah they make one in your price range but it's that cheap carbon." Sorry, I don't like being talked down to....I told them I'm not a racer, not putting that much into this purchase. Besides, he degraded one of his manufacturers' products. See ya.
Next place grudgingly let me take a test ride, wouldn't give me any assistance or recommendations with type of bike to buy, and made it feel like I was an interruption of their day. The bike rode fairly well but I was wondering what it would be like after they had my money....would I get decent service?
Next place treated me very well, set me up with a great test ride, and exceeded my expectations. The Cannondale bike, however, wasn't a comfortable ride, coming in 4th in my tests. I really wanted to buy here but the price of this bike, coupled with a bad ride pushed me away.
I finally went to Performance....yeah, I know, the evil empire. You know what? They were surprisingly good. I got Fuji Gran Fondo 2.1 which had the second best ride of all the bikes I tried for about $300 less than my budget, full 105 group, and since it was triple points weekend, $480 worth of "rebates" to buy accessories. Money-wise, it was the best deal by far.
I feel badly that I didn't buy from the local guys. And I also think it was their fault. If I were selling in any of their stores and had a guy like me coming in, I could have closed him by making him feel wanted.
Thoughts?
Brian in VA
P.S. I love the bike!