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How to give bike advice?
You know the drill, a "non-biker" at the workplace or friend wants to buy a bike to ride to work or weekend etc.
One workmate today told me he'd seen my bike(s) and want one just like it BUT only want to spend $100 (cough)
I tried to explain to him that my bikes cost $5k each but he's back with a unfazed reply, "so do you think i can get a good bike for $100 then"?
I try pushing the price up to $500+ where it gets some parts and names that inspire "some sort of confidence".
No, the price is firm, $100 only. What about a secondy? Nup - saw these new ones for that much at K Mart.
Next thing i know i'm being asked for my opinion on which is better, the one from one ebay "powerseller" or the Big W special. (Hardly anything there to even rise the heartrate for the most bike obsessed person)
I was confounded and insulted. I felt like what Gordon Ramsey would feel like if you took him to KFC or Maccas
How do you offer advice on a bike of that price range?
Go with the one with the longest warranty?
Or the least ammount of recalls?
I told him to stay away from the "dual suspension" model ($79) - even though he tried to convince me that it's a pretty good deal and a "sweet bike" (not my words)
I know, i know i want to encourage the frugal chap in the joys of bikes and all, but there is a line in the sand, a point where i have to walk away (or throw a frypan at him and tell him to get the f@#king hell out of my f@#king kitchen - if i was Gordon Ramsey)
Should i help him put it together? (They come unassembled) and risk forever repairing and adjusting the "sweet bike"
Should i fully welcome him into the MTb fold by taking him (and the new sweet dually) for a ride to manly dam or Redhill.
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Do the latter, but only if you didn't do the former
Let there be light
Just throw the frypan at him it will be a lot less painful than taking him to Redhill to ride his $79.00 dually.
Take him to Cascades and go up Quarry. At the top you can explain to him the benefits of a light bike that doesn't bob.
Then take him down Quarry and up Heath and explain to him he got exactly what he paid for and that for the same price you can buy a really good UST tyre and tell him if he cleans it up real nice he might be able to recoup some of his money by selling it on Ebay.
I was going to suggest the Oaks but the bike may not make it.
... at the beginning. Cam, you gotta start somewhere mate. Let him get it.
i agree with little ditty. let him waste his hungee and cry when the peice of poo burst into flames at the slightest incline!
I've been down this path before. Also with a work mate. After many explanations as to why this type of bike is plain awful I gave up and walked away, stating that he should just do whatever he would damn well please.
So he buys the bike. From Big W.
He then asks me to come round and build it for him. I refused.
He then takes it to a bike shop near his place in which ever God forsaken suburb he lived in. They refused to even charge a fee to build this bike.
He asks me a second time. I refuse a second time and he's getting mad with me over my stuck up attitude, criticizing me for being able to afford an expensive bike. We argue, I continue to refuse.
He finds some mate who builds it. For a slab.
He rides it to work. I'm rigid with shock.
The fork is on backwards.
The transmission is a friction system.
The V-brakes are on in reverse i.e. as if he is American.
Neither brake works.
The bell worked very well.
The seat position is too low for his height and also the entire bike is one size to large for him. The overall weight resembles that of a large block of concrete.
Upon riding home he gets a flat, possibly due to the shitty rims that allow the spoke nipples to touch the tube. He pushes the bike home. He comes to work the following day only to ask about repairing a flat! I claimed I didn't know as my expensive bike never gets flats. Never ever.
Time goes by and his mate fixes the flat. He chooses to only ride on the weekend and not commute. That very weekend he crashes because his rear wheel disintegrates beneath him. He was doing some kind of jump at the time.
He returns to Big W to complain and obtain a refund. After all it's only been three weeks. They refuse stating that this particular bike, promoted as a mountain bike and featuring, albeit crude, front and rear suspension, is not suitable for off road use and/or aggresive riding.
This occured over a year ago and his bike was never repaired or replaced and he hasn't ridden since.
He firmly and passionately believes that the bikes typical of the types we all ride are a rip off and we are all being conned and the only reason his bike failed is due to his lack of mechanical know how. He did claim that one day he'd learn how to build the bike himself and then, only then will the bike from Big W work flawlessly...
I bought my first bike from Toys r us for 170 bucks
it lasted me two months
then i bought my next bike from anaconda for 450 bucks
then bought another one for 1300 bucks
then bought my Dh bike off ebay second hand for 750 bucks and spent a hell of alot more doing it up for me to ride the way i like it
Mountain biking to me is about progression and customising
i passed my toys r us bike onto a mate so he could enter mtbing
and he is getting ready to move up as well
so let your mate buy the bike
all you have to say is
that bike wont get you down a hill
it will be good to treddle down the milk bar on for a loaf of bread
but use build a little fitness and move up when your ready
put it together for him
and maybe you will cultivate a new riding partner in a few months and a few upgrades
cheers
Kurt
What a sales pitch!!!!
Today the same chap corners me as i try to make a cup of coffee.
Starting with some small talk... Is that a different bike today to the one you rode yesterday? (I keep my bike in a small storeroom in the office)
I rode Manly Dam last night after work so the bike was a little dirty. Obviously quite observant.
Small talk then here comes the sales pitch.
How about you take me to Big W and pick up the bike and then put it together for me?
What do you say to that???? No offer of even some beer payment. How rude!
I explain that i'm very busy (I'm not being a jerk and I'd rather not start down the long road of repairs and advice into something i don't want to be involved in at the start)
Do I have to explain again that part of the price in buying a bike from a bike shop is getting them to put it together. Their time is worth money so they charge you for the pleasure.
And when did i go from advice giver to TAXI / courier? If he lived near-by maybe i'd go for a brief trip but he lives WAY OUT WEST and i don't.
So i told him that he'd have to ask someone else and mentioned that another person in the office also rides and maybe able to help him out. That chap is a scummer. Goodluck my friend.
To clarify some points that have arisen. He is someone who i work with. Not a mate.
If he was a mate, i'd give him a slap around the head and tell him to wake up to himself. Help him choose a cheap bike secondhand and clean out my garage with bike parts fix it up.
I don't know if i want to ride with someone who can't tell the difference between a dirty and clean bike (just a little dust from the Damn quick laps last night).
Big W doesn't sell bikes, unless you consider those 2 untrue wheeled, 20kg, undamped, shit shifting, non-braking, crap bearinged, poor handling, chinese made, unsafe death machines, that cannot be ridden off road (as their warning stickers state) a bike??
Let him buy one of those 'bikes', just so that you can throw it at him.
This is cacks
I have some mechanical skills and get asked for help regularly. I have also shown quite a few people the local trails and some basic skills. The response I get is usualy positive.
why not take on this Work Mate as a project - Teach him some skills - pay it forward - you never know what might happen...
PB:)
I first got into MTB because I was offered a chrome and yellow full sus Saracen mountain bike for 95 quid on a market street corner (it wasn't knicked btw). I thought it was amazing at the time, I didn't know anything about bikes at all. It had vee brakes, non dampened suspension and was very very heavy, but I rode the pants off it for well over a year and it never let me down. I started progressing from there once I knew I was into MTB properly.
Let him get it, he should know it's cheap and could break. If he is keen he will soon spend more money on another bike anyway, after a few rides let him have a go on yours. The main thing is he keen to get out there and hit some trails.
gees he has to take some responsibility,
if he's got to put it together "doesn't it come with instructions"?
maybe suggest he find someone(a friend nearby etc) who can read instructions & with fitting/mechanical knowledge,
or you could try "ahh i've never put a bike together, wouldn't have clue, so dont ask me" sort of reply
if he doesn't want to/cannot fit it(put it together), then HE has to buy one assembled
his choice -
& when he's got his bike you'll show him stuff/trails
good luck
it's a funny story though
I went on my first few mtb rides in the RNP on a borrowed K-Mart bike before I invested in my current bike. Just let him buy the cheap one. He'll soon get sick of pushing a tank up the hills (especially great fun when you're unfit)
I think we have all been asked about this - i recently had a work colleague also ask me which new "MTB" bike for 200 bucks should he get.
There is only one piece of advice you can give really, buy the one you like the look of. Nothing else really matters at that price range.
it's Christamas time, just smile and be nice - maybe he could bring the bike into work and you could put help him put it together?
I remember when i first started riding I was totally HORRIFIED at the amount of money all the guys said their bikes had cost them, (even more shocked that they discussed it so openly) plus I didn't know if I was going to 'get hooked' and keep going, no way was I spending loads of money on a bike I may not use...
naturally, i did get addicted and with help from the fabulous boys in this site not only did i get hooked but i have a perfectly fabulous bike now...
it's not his fault he has no clue!