Local bike shop......

I had the opportunity this morning to go into one of our local bicycle shops to search around for a few needed items. We are very lucky here in Chico in that we have more than enough bicycle shops - we have quite a few spread around town......most of them are centered right in downtown Chico though, which is a nice central location.

With the Internet nowadays, I think sometimes we get caught up with the online cycling shops.....I know I do. I scour all of them for deals on a weekly basis, as well as Ebay and Craigslist. And although my paycheck doesn't allow me to get anything and everything I want that's cycling related(although I wish it did!!), I do like to find deals on things now and again.

But today reminded me why I love bicycle shops so much - and why I need to be more of a regular there. This particular shop had tremendous service, great product and plenty of it, everything was clean....and the information we were getting was fantastic. It was one of those shopping experiences where you just wanna keep going back to this store - you want to give them your business. And to top it off, it had a great feel to it - just pure cycling, pure fun, pure adventure. They weren't there to rip you off or give you bogus information in order to drive sales - they were there to ultimately help you in any way possible with your favorite sport. It was, to say the least, refreshing. Today, they gave us the type of service that you just can't get from those online places(although, I do admit it, I'll probably make a few online cycling purchases this year anyway just for the deals).

In the end though, after today, I know that more of my time and more of my hard-earned dollars will go to this particular bicycle shop here in Chico. And believe it or not, I thank 'em for that.