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Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Do the Side Step Shuffle!

Wouldn't you know it!
Yesterday was another Summertime "Odd Bird".  Skies were gray, but thankfully didn't amount too much!  Weird part being, sent the Raleigh touring road bike to it's new home in the first hour, then things fell silent.  Had one repair pick up mid afternoon, then things went all quiet again, except one 24" wheel replace to a slightly peculiar bloke.  Once again, it was ample time to listen to my hair follicles lubricate, then in the last 45 minuets of the day, got busy again.  Trippiest thing was, both bikes sent out were ten minute rules!  LOL!  The Raleigh was pined over by a newly arrived fellow who loved the look and feel, and it was exactly what he was looking for...but... "had a couple other places to check out"  No worries.  We've become accustomed to starting a mental countdown in lieu of the more "official" ten minute clock we have been coveting, and sure enough, a few minuets later another newly acclimating "Floridian" in training, came in looking for the same thing.  Happily, turns out he's from up our way, Boston, or more specifically, Cambridge near Harvard Yard (pronounced HAH-VAHD YAHD) and he had already been to several of the other shops in town, and had all but given up hope he would be able to find the bike he wanted at a price he could afford.  Then his new landlord suggested us.  Needless to say, he was QUITE the happy Yankee!  As a Northerner, he too can remember the plethora of used bike shops up our way, and even though the Menotomy Used Bicyle shop and others, are inner city, therefore a wee bit pricier, they are nothing in comparison to the cost of a second mortgage you'd have to take out to buy a bicycle in Florida (his words, not mine).  And yes, the first gent did come back in, about a half an hour later, but thankfully, understood the whole "first come, first served" rule, and went away with the comment that he'd keep an eye on the website. 
The second time, was with the Schwinn MTB we got in on trade Saturday.  Wish I was able to post a pic, but still haven't got my phone issue figured out yet!  ARRGH! Take my word for it, this peach was cherry!  The lady who had traded it in (she had brought it in to have new tires and tubes mounted, then when she returned to pick it up, saw the Fuji, and traded it in on the spot!) took excellent care of it, and it looked BRAND NEW!!  Had a couple come in to look around, and upon seeing it loved it and thought it would be perfect for their "over eighteen" son who needed to "get a damn job!" as he was carving a dent in their sofa (wow...lots of that going on nowadays!) but....She was sold on it, whereas he wanted to wait for the son to be physically dragged from his perch and brought down to see it so they didn't "waste" the money. 
K?
Well, seconds after that, the couple that had come in shortly after them and were lingering about, also had their eye's on it.  Once the first couple passed, and had cleared the door and were out of ear shot, the young gent turned and smiled a devious smile and simply said "I'll TAKE it!" 
Almost before close, the other couple returned, dragging a burly, blurry eyed teenager in, clearly NOT looking forward to the experience, who himself was quite relieved that the bike was in fact gone, although the Mom cast a piercing glance at the husbands failure to act.  Unfortunately, for them at least, the other remaining rides we had were not big enough for the sleepy giant, so they slumped away, at least now knowing where to go in the near future.
I did have one other happenstance occur that got me a tad bit aggravated, however, but more at myself than anything else.  Two gent came in earlier in the day with a Trailmate three wheel recumbent they wanted to put on consignment.  We came to an agreement on price and I thought I had made it clear that I would "prep" it for sale, and discussed the terms.  Well, I only have myself to blame that I didn't make it crystal clear that we extend our one year warranty even too consignment pieces as a courtesy to our customers.  In a very few occasions, this has ended up a loss for us, but we'd rather loose money than our reputation, so it's a wash!  In this case, however, the bike had obviously sat for a bit, and had some surface rust issues, and both brakes were stuck.  As we had nothing else pressing to do, as soon as they left it here, I got to work tuning it up, cleaning and rusticating and replaced the brake cables and reset them.  About two hours later, one of the guys returned telling tales of a sudden excursion to Fort Lauderdale for a few months of work, and needed to take it with him.  Of course...he didn't have the money to pay for the service, nor had expected to have to?  Yea.  SO, in the future, guess it's another thing I'm going to have to become more "formal" about!  We like to work on common sense, honesty and trust around here, unfortunately, that always doesn't jive with a scant few.  Sad really. 
SO today...yet again, not to sure what we're going to work on, but I'm looking at VERY blue skies out there (as the rain hopefully already did it's bit earlier this morning) so I have HIGH hopes folks will get us busy!
Hope to see ya soon!!

2 comments:

  1. Very glad that Raleigh touring bike went to a good home- it was a true beauty. As for that weirdness with the trike guys, you need to start charging an up front prep fee for ALL bikes on consignment*. If they don't want to pay the fee, you don't want to sell their bike.

    *Well, expect for mine, of course.

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  2. EXCEPT! EXCEPT!

    Curse my left-handed typing skills, and the lack thereof.

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