Woggle Bear's thread on a PITA customer kinda migrated to working on POS bikes, so I thought a new thread was in order:
The shop where I work specializes in road bikes and specifically tri-bikes. About 50-55% of sales are in those two categories. The remainder consists of mt(15%), and comfort(25%) and very few BMX bikes.
Repairs are a large portion of the gross sales for the shop. Even though a large % of our bikes are high end, we probably have a 15:1 POS:EXPENSIVE bike ratio of repairs.
As much as we hate the X-Mart bikes, they sustain a constant income for small shops. If they made them better, we would have less in for repair. So, the POS are critical for keeping us mechanics fed. The nice bikes are well made, and if properly assembled and regularly tuned, need very little maintenance. A cable replacement here and there, maybe wrapping some new tape, new tires...etc. Nothing major.
This just got me thinking, how many other mechanics have a love/hate relationship with the POS bikes of the world. And what are some other thoughts/opinions on working on them.
L8R
The shop where I work specializes in road bikes and specifically tri-bikes. About 50-55% of sales are in those two categories. The remainder consists of mt(15%), and comfort(25%) and very few BMX bikes.
Repairs are a large portion of the gross sales for the shop. Even though a large % of our bikes are high end, we probably have a 15:1 POS:EXPENSIVE bike ratio of repairs.
As much as we hate the X-Mart bikes, they sustain a constant income for small shops. If they made them better, we would have less in for repair. So, the POS are critical for keeping us mechanics fed. The nice bikes are well made, and if properly assembled and regularly tuned, need very little maintenance. A cable replacement here and there, maybe wrapping some new tape, new tires...etc. Nothing major.
This just got me thinking, how many other mechanics have a love/hate relationship with the POS bikes of the world. And what are some other thoughts/opinions on working on them.
L8R