What do you think of Conte’s

[americancyclo]

@cephas 140018 wrote:

My experience with Ballstono has been similaro. but the nonofficious pit stop by the WFC store/on WOD was the bombitty this am.

I heard the WFC store is starving for business. They always seem to do the neutral commuter support on days that I’m not around, though.

[bobco85]

@lordofthemark 140013 wrote:

To clarify you mean the Fresh Bikes in Ballston, that had been a Conte’s franchise, not the current Conte’s in Virginia Square?

Correct. I have not yet been to the current one in Virginia Square.

[eminva]

Sorry to be a debby downer on BTWD, but . . .

I find it unfortunate to see such frank observations about local bike shops on the forum. Sometimes we treat the forum like an “over the back fence” conversation but it is not. It’s a public message board and anyone doing a Google search could find these threads.

If you want an honest assessment about a bike shop, it would be better to have that conversation in person at a local coffee club. If you have a complaint about a local bike shop, it would be best to take that up with the management — or at least give them a chance to make things right before going public.

I have patronized several local bike shops over the years and I find them to be, uniformly, well meaning corporate citizens of our cycling community who are sincere in their efforts to provide good products and services. And they care about their reputations. They all have different personalities and target different markets, so if you don’t find what you need in one, please try another.

Liz

[lordofthemark]

Okay, how do I get the whole thread deleted?

[dplasters]

I think their Yelp about mirrors the thread.

But I came here to talk tires…..

[MFC]

@eminva 140047 wrote:

Sorry to be a debby downer on BTWD, but . . .

I find it unfortunate to see such frank observations about local bike shops on the forum. Sometimes we treat the forum like an “over the back fence” conversation but it is not. It’s a public message board and anyone doing a Google search could find these threads.

If you want an honest assessment about a bike shop, it would be better to have that conversation in person at a local coffee club. If you have a complaint about a local bike shop, it would be best to take that up with the management — or at least give them a chance to make things right before going public.

I have patronized several local bike shops over the years and I find them to be, uniformly, well meaning corporate citizens of our cycling community who are sincere in their efforts to provide good products and services. And they care about their reputations. They all have different personalities and target different markets, so if you don’t find what you need in one, please try another.

Liz

I haven’t worked my way back through this thread to see whether the statements on Conte are appropriate here, but one of the points of forums such as this is to have frank discussions about local bike stores, so members of the forum can obtain some input as to which businesses to patronize. As long as the discussion is on-point and not malicious, it should be ok. At least the forums generally don’t have issues with false posts.

[mstone]

Given how long a certain shop has been well known for only being interested in high end sales, they would have changed their practices if they didn’t want people giving each other warnings. I don’t see a problem here, nobody is going on a rant or blowing anything out of proportion, just sharing experiences.

[AFHokie]

@americancyclo 140020 wrote:

I heard the WFC store is starving for business. They always seem to do the neutral commuter support on days that I’m not around, though.

I stopped in the WFC store for the first time earlier this week (happened to be out that way with time to kill) & while I didn’t buy much (ordered tires) it was probably one of the most pleasant LBS experiences I’ve had in awhile.

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[ShawnoftheDread]

@eminva 140047 wrote:

Sorry to be a debby downer on BTWD, but . . .

I find it unfortunate to see such frank observations about local bike shops on the forum. Sometimes we treat the forum like an “over the back fence” conversation but it is not. It’s a public message board and anyone doing a Google search could find these threads.

If you want an honest assessment about a bike shop, it would be better to have that conversation in person at a local coffee club. If you have a complaint about a local bike shop, it would be best to take that up with the management — or at least give them a chance to make things right before going public.

I have patronized several local bike shops over the years and I find them to be, uniformly, well meaning corporate citizens of our cycling community who are sincere in their efforts to provide good products and services. And they care about their reputations. They all have different personalities and target different markets, so if you don’t find what you need in one, please try another.

Liz

I disagree with this, at least in part. I think it’s helpful to know which shops have a good reputation and for what reasons. I doubt FB cares at all what the commuters here think about them; on the slight chance that they do, it shouldn’t be too difficult to address the issue.

[dbb]

I suppose that eminva has a point in that the thread might have benefited from some curation as there was some confusion about exactly who was being discussed. I suppose the initial question was asking about the business that recently entered the local market called Contes. The discussion appeared to blend the old 5-6 years ago Contes, FreshBikes, and the “new” Contes.

[Judd]

I don’t know… I’m a fan of open and honest assessment on the internet. Generally, I think everyone on the forum is pretty balanced when they offer negative feedback, whether it’s about a product or a local business. And I also view what’s posted in relation to what I know about the poster and how similar my own outlook on the world is. Based on most folks on the forum being somewhat similar to me, I know that Conte’s is probably not my shop. I can similarly offer my perspective that everyone I have ever talked to at Revolution Cycles in Clarendon is awesome except for the one dude that is not awesome and has nearly caused me to walk away from two bike sales in the last sixth months and who I will have no problem telling to get lost the next time I buy my next bicycle there.

[rcannon100]

Hmm. My experience with LBS has been pretty close to horrible. One LBS failed to install rim tape resulting in a blow out on the 14th St bridge. Another LBS did not deliver when promised, did not notify me, and when they did deliver the bike, the cabling was wrong (rushed job). Another LBS likewise failed in a repair and makes you wait in the mechanics line to get the simplest of supplies. Oh and after that blow out I walked my bike several miles to a LBS who made me wait just to buy a role of rim tape that they kept behind the counter. Then there is the LBS owner who heckled me because I pronounced Bianche wrong (I looked at him – showed him the $1000s I had in my pocket for a new bike for kidv1 – and walked out). And then there is the LBS who never game me the time of day because their commission-paid sales people would not make money off me. Oh yeah and then there is the LBS that EVERY time I have gone in their they have told me my bike is no good and I need to buy a new bike.

There are a lot of LBSs out there that do just lousy jobs. They have bad business plans that basically are premised on selling $1000s bikes to poseurs. Their business plan is not based on return business. They don’t like commuters. They don’t like people who understand bikes. And they don’t like people who do their own repairs. And some don’t hire people who know anything about bikes.

No I am not making that up. Kidv1 worked in various bike shops in the past few years and gave pretty good insight in how crappy their business plans are, how they are struggling, and basically how *you* are not their target audience.

Are their good LBS? Yup. A few. And they get talked about all the time here. And these generally are the LBSs very involved in the cycling community.

So what’s my point. I think as a cycling community discussing how the LBS businesses are failing us is perfectly reasonable. And I think they ARE failing us. I think they are pushing us to online bike stores because either I go into a store and they don’t have parts on the shelf or I go in and they do just ignore me.

I actually think this discussion is 100% appropriate. I understand eminva’s concern. But frankly LBS are failing us. I wish LBS’s would read this forum and buy a clue about what is wrong – but that actually IS part of the problem that a number of LBSs have little contact with the local biking community. I know for a fact they are unaware of this forum and unaware of other cycling communities in DC.

And again, their are good LBS. And we should support them.

[ShawnoftheDread]

Wait, how were you pronouncing Bianchi?

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[LeprosyStudyGroup]

@ShawnoftheDread 140072 wrote:

Wait, how were you pronouncing Bianchi?

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[video=youtube_share;3ADu3tHanP8]https://youtu.be/3ADu3tHanP8[/video]

[KLizotte]

I’ve been going to Spokes (Belle Haven, Quaker Lane, and Vienna) for years and the mechanics have always been super, super, super awesome to me (and most recently to a good friend of mine who knows next to nothing about bikes and had allowed his rig to deteriorate to a very bad state). They have been consistently honest, done excellent repairs and have admitted mistakes and fixed them promptly. They have also bent over backwards at times to help me out of a time crunch when they didn’t have to and often not charged me a dime.

And when I first started biking I was a completely naive noob who bought a really heavy upright bike and didn’t even know how to fix flats or shift properly but they never made me feel like I was less of a person than someone in lycra with the 5K racing bike. They have always been instructive and respectful when I have brought in botched home repairs (an all too frequent occurrence). I’m not sure if that is because I’m a woman but I hope they treat every *reasonable* person that walks in their door the same way.

Curtis at FreshBikes in Clarendon (was, and perhaps still is, the service manager) has also treated me the same way though I haven’t gone to FB in a couple of years because of price and location; also their turnaround times aren’t as good as Spokes. Clovis, FB’s fitter, was also super helpful and professional when I had my fitting. I’ve been to Revolution a couple of times in Georgetown for minor emergency repairs and they were great as well.

Salespeople at most LBSs I have visited have tried to be helpful but I’ve found that their level of knowledge to be highly variable and finding a good fitting bike is so individualistic that I think only hard earned experience and good luck will prevail in the end (barring a professional fitting); at least it is for the vertically challenged like myself. I agree that FreshBikes does give an aura of elitism but as a more experienced cyclist now I don’t give a hoot; that said, I was rather intimidated as a noob.

When I was looking for my first bike, I visited Papillion on Columbia Pike and was treated like pond scum; the owner was obviously uninterested in making a sale or dealing with a noob. I’ve never been back; it was truly an awful customer experience. I still cringe at the thought of it.

The only other LBS I can think of that I’m disinclined to visit again is Bicycle Pro Shop in Georgetown because the front of house staff were not very friendly and looked down their nose at my commuter setup. The mechanics were perfectly friendly and respectful though.

I’m a big fan of Spokes and they carry a range of bikes from the inexpensive casual to pricey carbon lightweights. They also carry an assortment of kiddie bikes so I think it is fair to say they don’t discriminate against the non-racing crowd.

Just my two cents. I must admit to being rather perplexed by rcannon’s experiences (and I know he is a really nice guy!).

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