I feel guilty for buying up a bunch of gear from my LBS that's on sale because of COVID

21

Hmm… most of the items available in the cycling industry are made overseas, but rarely shipped directly from there.

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22

New Gear! Just enjoy that feeling. Screw guilt. Nothing good will come of it. They were probably happy to have the revenue, and you did mention New Gear, right. That always makes me happy.

23

I went to see my LBS on Saturday just to say hi. They have been really good to me over the years. They said they were doing really well from people buying bikes. That made me so happy. They’re a very small shop, but run by bike guys, not people who just wanted to open a bike shop.

They have to close mid afternoon to get time to build the bikes. I am happy the local community has used them and not just gone online. A silver lining to this dark cloud.

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Good point. I meant more general shopping rather than just cycling, but I don’t think my post made it very clear.

25

Join a bike team. My bike team is sponsored by an LBS and offers a 20% discount on everything they sell, sometimes on top of an item that’s already on sale. It’s possible to get better deals on the Internet, but that’s a huge time suck. Plus, the internet will not fix your bike when it’s broken.

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From what I’ve heard, the shops around here can’t build bikes fast enough to keep up with demand over the past 2 months. Bike shops were considered essential businesses from day 1 (Transportation I suppose). Modified hours and limited number of people in stores to maintain distance, but doing good business.

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I can, and often do, do (hehe doo-doo), much of my own maintenance and repair work, but in June when the sun is shining and the kids have activities and I just wanna’ ride, its usually more time-economical to ride another of my bikes and pay to have my broken bike fixed. I don’t feel bad about buying apparel on-sale online since my favorite bike shop in town doesn’t carry jerseys or bibs, but I try to buy a pair of gloves or two every year because I want to be able to find gloves locally when I need them. And I also want someone who has a headset press around, and I want someone who has a bleed kit handy, and who can get me a spoke or replace a spoke quickly, rather than waiting four days after I re-measure three times to be sure…