Knog lights - kill them in the wet

Because there is absolutely no way your LBS can afford to compete, the internet price is below the price they buy them for the in the first place, so if they sold them at £11.50 (51p more than the internet) they'd still be making a loss due to overheads like rent etc.

Tell me about it. I work in a bike shop and most the time I feel really sorry for the few people buying parts. Because they are usually paying hugeley to fix up a terrible completely unsuitable cheap piece of crap bike because they are either a bit thick/not savvy.

But those are the people small independent bike shops rely upon! knowledgable cyclists who want to support their shop or want the convenience are rare.

yesterday I went into work to grab something (my day off) and I made a bracket out of zip-ties and a piece of inner tube for a customer with a broken light. They were thrilled by it, and it made me feel really good. Times like this are not common, there is no freedom during paid hours to help customers with detailed advice/freebie repairs that I would normally happily do for any polite fellow bikey. We cannot stock any actually good bikes even though we can offer them at very good prices (in comparison to parts) because they are too much of a risk - no one actually buys them!

We have to focus on crap cheap wannabe mtb's & kids bikes so there is 'rotating stock' even if profit is tiny and its bloody frustrating!