Ladies and Bike Shops

In my experience with bike shops in general (USA and in London) were quite patronising towards me for being a woman and a bit clueless about some things. In fact they did such a poor job looking over one of my bikes that it was unsafe. It's like car mechanics, if you don't know about your machine they just take advantage and your money. That's why I have been teaching myself and taking care of my own bikes now and have found a real love for it, so in some way I should thank those guys for being such jerks!

I agree with that, I've come face up to a lot of trouble when going into bike shops, pedal and motorcycles, majority of the time I get a bit of a cold shoulder, but there are the little gems that really go that bit further to make you feel at home, Dani Foffa is one example, just bout my bike from him and his attention to detail and customer service was second to none...there's hope out there at least.