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...or don't actually realise that doing 30-50 miles a day of stop start riding in a city is going to mince a set of cheap v brake pads out in a few weeks.
One of my biggest pet peeves is customers going
“Oh I’m just riding it a couple miles a days”.
Yes, you’re using the bicycle for the exact purpose, a couple miles a day is actually as much as drivers drive in London daily.
“A couple miles” with no rest day will wear parts out and it does need servicing.
edscoble-
When I was working at a bike brand where this frequently came up as a customer gripe: I had a macro set up that explained a persons hypothetical commute mileage (even factoring in time off) and demonstrated how easily a casual rider can stack up 2000 miles a year. Given that's what a fair proportion of people probably put into their car insurance quote, all of a sudden a worn chain doesn't seem so bad
jackbepablo
Yeah you get these, but you get way more 'you put a new chain on my bike 4 months ago, and said it was good quality, how is it worn out again already'...... looks at the nearly bald marathon plus's that were fitted a year ago, erm I think you do more miles than you think you do.
"Cycling is different for everyone". Totally!
My most frustrating correlation is... those that need to ride for work (uber/deliveroo/big long distance commuters) rarely want to spend anything on their bike, or don't actually realise that doing 30-50 miles a day of stop start riding in a city is going to mince a set of cheap v brake pads out in a few weeks. Vs. those who only ride for leisure + pleasure, are quite happy to put that £350 Sram XO cassette and £140 Ti KMC chain on their carbon MTB that might do 80 miles this year.
We just try and slowly inform them/help them make useful (to them) decisions, most shops do this, online can't*
*Without hours of trawling youtube for that German engineering guy who tested every chain he could find in a typically German engineering guy type of a way