I set out to find brake cables in Indianapolis. Of course I had completed my online research to get a baseline for price. Considering the cost of shipping I'm more than happy to pay full retail at a local retailer, IF I have a selection. If you are a local retailer and you have say....one or maybe the huge selection of "TWO" types of cables to choose from, well then I would expect you to sell them to me an nearly your cost. If you want me to pay for retail, then get a f*cking selection. Oh yeah, and be sure you didn't take the "last" cable cutter to use in your own shop. By the way, if you only stock one of anything, I'm not going to shop at your place.
Being a broker for the bike warehouse IS NOT BEING A RETAILER! Indianapolis bike shops are basically all the same. No parts stock, we'll order it in overnight from the same warehouse that everyone else orders from and we want to make full retail on it. Sorry guys, if I can't BUY IT NOW, it doesn't have full retail value.
Take a FRESH steak at the butcher shop. I could buy one online and get it tomorrow at a discount. BUT I WANT IT TODAY!
Enough for my parts rant.
I originally purchases the XTR Brake and Shifter Cables at Bicycle Garage Indy. (Note: I don't shop at Bike Line unless it is a necessity. They just seem way too unhappy about getting my money in there. Not to mention on the morning of April 4th when I sat in my car to wait for the shop to open in Carmel for about a half hour, they weren't open at 9:05 a.m. when I tried the door.) Get a clue Bike Line...don't squander the goodwill your dad brought to the table.
So back to my purchase. I bought the XTR cables. I wanted coated cables so I could give them more money, but they only had coated shifter cables. Luckily, I checked online for any issues about these cables and found the pre-cut cable sleeves for the shifter cables to be too short for my bike. This was noted many times only, thanks!
At this point I realized I had purchased a classic American product, something that would require another purchase to actually use it or for it to perform its utility. So I returned the XTR cables. Instead I stopped into Carmel Cyclery. Another strip mall bike shop, but at least the guy talked to me about my parts delimma. Basically he said most shops don't stock anything because they can get it in overnight. Well that is great for the shop, but many of us bike enthusiasts are also tinkerers and we like to fix or at least try to fix our own bikes. So we need parts! We can already get our parts overnight, JUST LIKE YOU MR. BIKE MECHANIC! So what we're looking for is a BIKE PARTS WAREHOUSE. No Bikes, JUST BIKE PARTS.
Someone is going to make a good business decision and at least open one of these on the northside. It will then supply the bike stores with their parts same-day.
Oh yeah. I'm installing the brake pads today and I'll review them in the next couple days.
I don't think I even reveiwed the pads. I guess this needs to be re-titled.
Manufacturer: Kool-Stop International, Inc.
Model: KS-MTTB, Mountain Pads - Threaded
Price: ?
Paid: $11.99/pair
Rating: 5 of 5
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