| rev:text
| - Las Vegas Cyclery (LVC) is one of the most beautiful, clean, and well organized bicycle shops I have seen--and I have seen many over the years. It is a Specialized Dealer. What that means is that they have one of the coveted dealership contracts with Specialized. Like you would not go to a Mercedes Dealer for a Chevy, you would come to this shop for Specialized, not Giant or Trek, etc. Those bike companies have their own dealers.
I was in town for Interbike last week (an international bicycle trade show at Mandalay Bay) as I usually do this time of the year and decided to find out what Summerlin was like by parking myself at the Element Hotel for a few days.
Low and behold, the Element Hotel is right next door to LVC. Who knew? So after looking at tons of bikes and parts, talking about bikes like crazy, when Interbike was over, I walked over to LVC last Saturday before my bike ride to Red Rock to see the store and ask routing directions as I have never been to Red Rocks before.
Now I have been involved in cycling since I was a child, have had many a bike and all kinds of bikes, I buy from dealer stores just like you, and cycle all over the USA and other countries. Currently, I have a few bikes including a 2012 Specialized Roubaix Expert upgraded to full Dura Ace including the wheels.
That is my pride and joy and gets cleaned and maintained more than I ride it, but it has taken me on many a great Century ride all over with great finishing time.
So I was excited to see another Specialized store far away from my home stores in Santa Monica and Huntington Beach.
When I entered the store last Saturday--usually the busiest days of the week for a cycle store I was just expecting some quick directions of the best way to get to Red Rock and while no one greeted me, I walked over to someone behind the counter and told him that I was in town for Interbike and want to ride to Red Rock on my Hybrid bike--how to do it?
It left my heart a little empty when he told me, "I don't know." Wait...you work in a bike store close to a bike trail I later discovered that takes you to a road to Red Rock--one for the most popular rides in Las Vegas for cyclists and you cannot give me clear directions to Red Rock?? I did the ride one time at this point now and could easily instruct someone how to do it. But he did call another guy over who was rushed, really did not want to bother with me, but gave me somewhat directions--I was still not clear, but he gave me a map. Turns out, when I left the store--the trail was right there across the 215. All that had to be said was go across the street, pick up the Bike Trail North, make a left on Charleston, bike a while, and it will be on your right.
The next day Sunday, I returned to LVB because on Saturday I saw they had something on their shelves, some old stock, that is not made anymore and is the best in the industry, and you would never find left in So Cal, so I wanted to get it. On Sunday, everyone was very friendly and helpful, unlike Saturday. Everyone was saying hello, one guy showed me the fitting room--all great. After I cashed out, the guy who gave me the map on Saturday wanted to know if I wanted to look at bikes. I don't know how he knew, but I was interested in seeing the new Roubaix Expert which underwent the first redesign in many years. He had one on display just in. I really liked this bike--I need to get 5K together and I may get one in Yellow.
I did not want to take up too much of his time because I was not in a bike buying mode, but he wanted to chat. So I asked him an important question: I told him that I currently ride a 2012 Roubaix Expert--the ergonomics of this bike fit me as close to custom as you can get and required minimal adjustment by the professional fitter. It really fits me great and I love it. But I know that a bike is only as good as it's fit, and you don't want to have to make too many modifications--maybe the new model does not fit as well as another brand now? So I asked him a simple question that he should have known if he is selling 5K Specialized Bike:
Million Dollar Question: Are the length of the frame tubes--basically the ergonomics on the New Roubaix the same as the old one (that Specialized had not changed for many many years)? I could have looked it up myself at the office, but he wanted to chat and I was curious since I really liked the bike. His response took a little bit more out of my heart:
There are really only two responses a knowledgeable high end bicycle salesman should be giving to this question:
1. Good question, I don't know, it's new, so let me look it up now. OR
2. The dimensions of your 2012 is X, and new one is Y or X, so it's the same or a little different.
Unfortunately, his response was what you never want to hear at a bike store on an expensive bike:
"Don't worry about it, if you buy the bike, we will make some adjustments before you ride off."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)