New gear for a newbie

[Dirt]

@CCrew 4884 wrote:

Love to know who they are.

Conte’s and Bonzai have me covered for high end stuff. Conte’s has proven perfect at ordering stuff that they don’t stock. I haven’t tried Bonzai for that. I try to be polite about having them order things. There are some items that are a pain for them to deal with. If it is something that takes a lot of effort on their part, and gets them little or no margin on, I will mail-order that. I’m open and ask them if it is something fits into that category. They’ve always been honest. Sometimes dealership requirements and minimum orders complicate things for a shop.

I’ve never tried to special order something through Bonzai, but I have no doubt that they’d handle it well.

When I need something really weird for my rather odd bikes, I’ve found Bike Club in Falls Church usually has it.

Those three shops make it so that most of my on-line or ebay buys are for vintage stuff.

Honestly, I don’t worry about price very much when I’m shopping for bicycle stuff. If something is really expensive, I usually wait and buy it later. I make sure that my workhorse bikes are a) pretty much bomb-proof; and 2) with spares at my shop for most common items that do wear out. That makes it so I almost never have to order something and have it arrive before the weekend. I plan ahead pretty well.

[Jsnyd]

@Dirt 4879 wrote:

This is an interesting thread! Thanks for contributing.

Thanks for all the responses, everyone! I’ve learned so much already and have barely been out on the street.

[PotomacCyclist]

I don’t think anyone pointed out the difference between road bike shorts and triathlon shorts. Regular road bike shorts tend to have a thicker pad than tri shorts do. Some like this but some don’t. I bought a couple of regular bike shorts when I first started riding as an adult a few years ago. I found the pad to be too bulky for my liking. I switched to triathlon shorts with the thinner pad. It provides enough comfort for me without that diaper feeling of the bike shorts. I haven’t touched the bike shorts in about two years now since I switched to tri shorts.

Some find that tri shorts don’t offer enough padding for longer rides, but I’ve managed to do many long rides in tri shorts. (My longest ride was over 100 miles in the tri shorts.)

Unless you try both, it’s hard to say which will work better for you. See how it goes with your current bike shorts. If you find the pad to be too bulky, then you may want to look into getting some triathlon shorts.

[Mark Blacknell]

@Dirt 4879 wrote:

I remember ordering a King headset from Metropolis (my local shop back in the day). They charged me $40 over MSRP, they required 100% payment before they’d order and there were no refunds. When it arrived 6 weeks later and it was the wrong color, I was told “Take it or leave it. You’re not getting your money back.” Am I surprised that shop is no longer around? NOPE!

That was the one in Shirlington, no?

~

And yes, please buy local from decent shops. (And note the *decent* part of that. No need to support bad businesses.)

[RESTONTODC]

@Mark Blacknell 4894 wrote:

And yes, please buy local from decent shops. (And note the *decent* part of that. No need to support bad businesses.)

I agree that we need to support the local shops but it’s hard sometimes. To support it, my recent bike costs me about $400 more but I also get free fitting and 1 year adjustment.

I also able to get the Performance bike to do some price matching.

[consularrider]

@Dirt 4879 wrote:

I’m fortunate to have two local shops that stock most of what I’d like. They also have PERFECT customer service.

When I read comments like “I’d buy locally, but my shop doesn’t sell what I want and their customer service stinks” it definitely does NOT make me wonder why people buy on the Interwebs. If my local shop sucked, I would have serious problems supporting them. I went through that for years. I remember ordering a King headset from Metropolis (my local shop back in the day). They charged me $40 over MSRP, they required 100% payment before they’d order and there were no refunds. When it arrived 6 weeks later and it was the wrong color, I was told “Take it or leave it. You’re not getting your money back.” Am I surprised that shop is no longer around? NOPE!
Pete

And I thought it was because the owner died. Although, I have to give them some credit for some good service for me when I was first in the area and my options were Big Wheel (or whatever the name was of the store in Lyon Village at the time) or the shop on the Georgetown side of Key Bridge (I’m not sure which of the two current ones it was then). I used them all for what they could provide.

[StopMeansStop]

I suggest OP skip getting shoes and pedals and use sneakers and the plastic jobbers that came with the bike. Get used to your ride before you start messing around with locking in.

[baiskeli]

@Mark Blacknell 4894 wrote:

That was the one in Shirlington, no?

Yeah, with another shop on Capitol Hill. The actual reason it closed was the owner died.

[Jsnyd]

@StopMeansStop 4912 wrote:

I suggest OP skip getting shoes and pedals and use sneakers and the plastic jobbers that came with the bike. Get used to your ride before you start messing around with locking in.

Good idea StopMeansStop. Itll be a great way to really feel the difference when I put on the clipless.

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