At the cycle shop
This blog post comes without any spin (except for the spin of a smoothly oiled wheel, perhaps). It comes without any side (apart from an upside). It comes with little by way of an axe to grind (and even less of a grinding axle).
I rediscovered cycling in the Autumn of 2012. It drew me in more and more until the point where I cycled in the 100km Nightrider event last year, raising just over £3000 for a wonderful local hospice. It has now become part of the rhythm of my life. There is a problem, though – and it is not the cycling itself. I am extremely inept when it comes to practical maintenance skills, and readily intimidated into inaction or taking expensive recourse to paying for labor when there are jobs I could do myself. What if my local cycle shop were to run a non-intimidating introductory maintenance session where I could learn which jobs to tackle myself and which jobs to pay for?
At this point, enter Moore’s, my local cycle shop, and a whole strong of thankyous.
- Thank you for your warm welcome – drinks and snacks included.
- Thank you for your patience – explaining things two or three times so that people like me could get it.
- Thank you for using non-technical language throughout.
- Thank you for offering hands-on experience, literally, so that those who are afraid of getting it wrong could feel how it should be.
- Thank you for the goodie-bag.
- Thank you for not selling the evening out to a marketing ploy.
Now, time for some pleases.
- Please keep on doing it, Moore’s.
- Please watch and learn, other local businesses.
- Please would the advocates of cycling as a green alternative or an exercise regime recognise that many are put off taking the plunge by the fear that things will go wrong with a machine which they don’t really understand?
- Please can other cycle shops invest in supporting their customers as cyclists and not just as customers in creative ways such as this?
Of course this does not mean that I will never shop anywhere else for any cycling related thing. Then again, Moore’s don’t expect that outcome. However, as any advocate of Totally Locally will tell you – loyalty breeds loyalty, so it is sure to make a difference.