[terwey]

Interesting article, I grew up in Amsterdam and have been biking most of my life. As I moved to Berlin I didn't for the first few years as the roads just weren't up for it. At some point I ordered a MTB online, got me back into biking for enjoyment (as opposed to commuting), however quickly noticed a gravel bike would make more sense. I bought a gravel bike from a LBS and sold my MTB, however the service was absolute garbage. Everyone who worked there had no clue and were purely box movers.

I would love to find a local bike shop that cares, but seeing everyone and their dog in Berlin bikes to commute nowadays the LBS have their customers for the choosing. A friend actually dropped off his bike 4 (!!!) weeks ago at a LBS because he had a crash with a car and needed to know what was actually broken, they called today to let him know it was ready for pickup, just to be called that they couldn't order the part they needed to repair it.

Sadly, a lot of shops are like this, so the author of the article is correct in choosing his audience. I know a lot of guys I ride with who refuse to spend 15% markup more to get it local and installed directly but will whine endlessly because they can't do it themselves.

I took it on myself to be able to maintain my entire bike myself, which works well too. Sure it was a pain to figure it out but the gratification is worth it too and now I feel confident that on a longer ride (I prefer multi-day) I can repair the bike on the side of the road without stressing out.

The market also shifted, many tech from MTB transferred to road/gravel like thru-axles and disc-brakes. Parts are dropping in price, but if you have an "older" bike it's more of a pain. I opted to go for an "entry" bike with thru-axle, 105 and disc-brakes. I replaced almost every "cheap" component and sold it used for nearly the same price as the sale component cost.

However if a LBS would be as good as my local car shop I'd be there more often then I'd have to be... he did say he considered getting into repairing bikes as cars are less popular, and I figure if you can service a V12 how hard can a RD be?