Zanes !

We all have our bike shops, but I have to throw it out there for Zanes.

I noticed that there was a hairline crack in the upper screw hole of my stem last Saturday. Being an idiot, I looked at it carefully and decided that yes, I could ride on that. And I did, making it through two and half hours that turned the crack from a hairline to a lightning crack.

I took the bike into Zanes on Sunday and left it. Now I have an oddball Easton stem on the bike, so I wasn't expecting much. It's also worth noting this is a bike that I didn't buy from them, but rather from Elite. So they have no investment in it at all, although they frequently make me feel like they've made an investment in me.

Why ?

I went in Thursday and picked up the bike and they'd replaced the Easton stem with a close to perfect Bontrager stem, lined everything up just so, and even retrieved the old stem (with the Ironman Arizona) sticker on it.

The cost ? Nothing. Nada. Not a penny. Even if the part was just lying in drawer on the bench, it takes a while to remove a stem, replace it, and make sure everything is just so.

I rode the bike hard Friday- two hours at time trial pace- and never once thought about the new stem or my position on the bike despite being aero about 1:50 of the 2:00.

This is why you love your local bike shop. Admit it, you do. Because they take care of you. They treat you like an asset instead of a commodity. Because the guys there ride too and they get it...