Dick's Sporting Goods "bike services"?

[useless_wrench]

I'm not sure if they're in everystate yet, but my home state (Wv) has several of their stores scattered about ..

Has Anyone here actualled used any of their bike department's services? And If So, How was it?

[hophead]

There's a Dick's about 10 minutes from my house. I've been there, but never have used their bike service dept. Actually, I'd be very surprised if they had anyone there that can do anything but the very basics--assembly, minor adjustments, etc.

My impression is that they are maybe a cut above Wal-Mart, but not in the league of a real bike shop.

[bianchi79]

I work with them every day in the industry as a supplier.
If you want to save some dough, and get shafted when it comes time to service the bike, then go there.
If you are serious about quality advise/service/repairs (and if you ride, you should be....;) ), take your buisness to your LBS. The few bucks extra you might spend, or the few extra miles you might have to drive, are a small price to pay for sound advise and solid support down the road from a knowledgable staff.

[bianchi79]

Jesus, I sound like a freakin' commercial for small town america over here......:D

[useless_wrench]

oh i usually do (take my business to the lbs), if it's a readily availible part or if i just have to have it then. otherwise i just go online.

as far as the services actually go, i do most of my own work .. the thread was just me being curious as to what people's perception of dick's was.

honestly i'm the "bike tech" at one of their stores, there we can do most repairs (i can't repair frames or rebuild forks/springs). my only real training sadly to say is the certification test that they give during orientation. other than that everything i've learned to do on bikes has been from books or hands on learning.

as for the quality of the bikes .. if it's not a diamondback it's probably not going to last long.If it's a Mongoose's you'd be lucky to ride for a month with out some sort of failure, and the Quest bikes actually seem to take some beating without falling apart. They do sell better brands but the store i'm at just doesn't carry them.

[markie]

Well no offence, but I was roaming around an Illinois store a few weeks ago and the two young chaps were trying to set up a front deraileur. Going well it was not. What is this screw? Turn it! Nah didn't do anything! Look here is another! Turn it instead! Nah, didn't do anything.....

It was like Beavis and Butthead, even my wife who hates bikes and knows nothing about them was laughing at the guys.

[Teamfubar]

As hophead said, they are a cut above Wal-Mart, but I would say just barely. Actually, Dick's used to be Galyan's (at least here in Colorado) and they sold Ellsworths and a few other decent bikes. Now that they are Dick's, it is like Wal-Mart Plus. Saying you won't be able to get good service there is like saying the sky is blue. Just too obvious.

On the other hand, I just have a hard time going into a place called "DICK'S". (Pun intended).

[rockhound]

I have found some great deals on parts at Dick's Sporting Goods (and when it was Galyan's).

[LoneBiker]

A friend of mine purchased a bike from there being cheap and recently unemployed. After logging about 10 miles the rear derailler blew up. He took it in, they said they would fix it, he had to pay for the derailleur, 5 weeks later he got his bike back.

[useless_wrench]

well i'm glad to say our results are better than that .. usually if we have the part we fix it with the warranty (which i'm not a fan of) otherwise they pay parts/labor.

usually our turn around time has been around 2-3 days ..

as for the beavis and butt head deal .. alot of the stores have a hard time finding bike tech's for whatever reason (low pay?). it's more than likely that they were just trying to cover and "get the sale" of the services.

long term i'd love to move up to a real bike shop one of these days ..

[hophead]

honestly i'm the "bike tech" at one of their stores, there we can do most repairs (i can't repair frames or rebuild forks/springs). my only real training sadly to say is the certification test that they give during orientation. other than that everything i've learned to do on bikes has been from books or hands on learning.

Nothin' wrong with that. I work on my own bikes now too and everything I know I've learned by reading books, on various forums, the Park Tools website, from friends, etc.

[Ultrawolves]

I have found some great deals on parts at Dick's Sporting Goods (and when it was Galyan's).

Haha Rockhound I figured out where you live:)

[rockhound]

Haha Rockhound I figured out where you live:)

It's not much of a secret, but you get a gold star anyway for figuring out that I live in the quiet port city of Nunya, New Zealand.

[bianchi79]

Useless_wrench,
Listen to HopHead. learning on your own is the tough way to go, for sure, but "Run what ya Brung" I guess, and if books is all ya got, it's what ya got.
I knew the training was slight, but I didn't realize it was that bad! The fact that you care enough about your job to ask strangers (aren't we all a little strange?) their opinions about this, already puts you several notches up on the Respect Board. Unfortunatly, you seem to be one of the exceptions that prove the rule.
Nothing would make me happier than to call store # whatever on two occasions, in two months, and get the same bike tech.
As Bruce Campell says, "Experience is everything":D

[useless_wrench]

Thanks for yalls support ..

i think the whole reason they can't keep people is that they want us to work as a sales associate (usually in fitness) so your time there at work is usually split up more towards the sales side.

in my personal opinion this takes away from bike aspect of the job (tuning 1 bike might take all day between customers), but with out sales i'd only work about half as many hours.

is there any type of certification course that is a standard for the bike industry? i've considered starting a bike shop on my own so having the qualifications would be a great start. any thoughts?

[rockhound]

i think the whole reason they can't keep people is that they want us to work as a sales associate (usually in fitness) so your time there at work is usually split up more towards the sales side.

in my personal opinion this takes away from bike aspect of the job (tuning 1 bike might take all day between customers), but with out sales i'd only work about half as many hours.


That doesn't sound much different from the shops where I wrenched...

[bianchi79]

Rockhound,
Too true, but at least when you wander over to help out the customer in a shop, you are still talkin' bikes:)

Useless_wrench (That name makes me feel bad when I write it!),
The "Big Daddy" of bicycle schools in my opinion is U.B.I. in Ashland, Or. It's a few weeks of intensive training ON-CAMPUS. Imagine, living in a local hostel, waking up every day knowing that all you have to do is work on bikes, hang out with bike nerds....man! I'm getting all Giddy!
If that's a bit too much, I'm sure that there is a Park Tool School in your area. Google it up and you should be good to go!

[sweaty__merckx]

Here it is... inside information.

When I was in college, I worked at a Dick's on the weekends to make some spare change. It was an okay situation because they needed someone to build bikes, and didn't expect me to work on the sales floor because of my visible tattoos and pierced ears. No sweat off my back. I set up a workstand in the warehouse and listened to CDs and built their bikes for them.
At this particular store, they had 2 guys who they considered capable of answering questions about bicycles. Neither of them really had a clue. They were good guys, but they just weren't bike people.
This store also had a very odd repair policy. Let's say that a customer brought a bike back because one of the wheels had cgone untrue. Dick's would take the bike in as a repair, sit on it for a few days, usually until the customer called for an update. Finally, instead of repairing the the wheel, they would replace it with the same or similar wheel off of one of the bikes on the sales floor. This is fine for the customer, but it points to the fact that noone there had any clue about bicycle maintenance. Several times, when a repair came in that was tough to replace, the customer would be given a new bike.
Other funny things happened there. Before the inventory in January (I think) the manager who oversaw the bike department came into the warehouse and told me to look over all of the bikes that had already been built, single out the ones that had any problems (cosmetic, mechanical, or otherwise, anything more serious than a flat tire), strip all of the parts off of them, and put the frames in a big box to be warrantied. The left-over parts were compacted. They didn't have any staff around who could fix these bikes and letting them just sit around was costing them money.
One weekend, I noticed that the store had just received a few Mongoose (or Diamondback, I can't remember) road bikes. They had come in during the week, and had been put together by somebody other than me and put on the sales floor. When I went to check tham out, I noticed that the shifters hadn't been set up properly (or at all). They were a mess.

Granted, this ws just one Dick's. For many of the bikes that the store sold (mostly BMX and comfort), what little the full-time employees knew was enough to get by. Also, this store was located in a very un-bicycle friendly smallish town. However, I would assume that the 0 out of 2 ratio of employees who know what a spoke wrench looks like scales properly to larger stores.

My advice is stay away! (MY advice.)

[useless_wrench]

weeks at a time just working on bikes .. with bike people? sign me up! just hope the wife doesn't miss me too much.

i too have seen dicks just toss out salvagable frames while stripping parts for "spares" .. granted they refuse to sell said frames or parts to me but they're more than happy to crush them in the trash compactor. i can honestly say i was a little mad. granted they were nothing fancy but with what they threw out i could have built atleast 4-5 fully functioning bikes to be used .. i even offered to set something up with the local goodwill (anything to keep from just trashing useful parts).

as for the stores that rob peter to pay paul .. in the end you just end up with several totally useless stripped frames and numerous damaged bikes(that can't be used or sold). which puts you in the situation above where you end up tossing out all the left over bits.

i hate seeing things just crushed that are still useable.

[davkatreb]

My advice is stay away!
What he said. Sorry sonsabitches don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.