Literally the worst customer service. And their shit is super fussy.
When they first started the owner/founder was a customer at the shop I worked at and he was kind of difficult to deal with but spent enough money that he had a loyalty discountā¦. and yet when he launched the brand he refused to offer any of kind discount to the mtbros I worked with. Iām not talking pro deal, 9point8 was strictly d2c so he was telling anyone that wanted one that they had to pay full pop.
Funny you mention customer serviceā¦ in 2015 or 2016 I was doing purchasing/e-commerce at a big bike shop in Toronto. It payed decent for a bike shop gig ($21/hr) but the commute was shit. I interviewed at 9point8 to be the jack of all trades customer service, warranty, tech support person. Would have been great since itās like 8 miles from my house.
They told me I was exactly the kind of candidate they wanted. Industry experience, customer service experience, tech knowledge etc.
They offered me $16/hr. I told them I wouldnāt work for that and they told me to take it or leave it. I left it.
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It also was not a struggling start up or anything. At that point every seatpost they made had been pre-sold and the company was/is an off-shoot of an established industrial automation business.
The bike industry is unbelievable, unskilled construction laborers made that in Vancouver at that time (source: i was in construction in 2015)
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Yeah, min. wage was I think $12 then and Iād been making more than $16 at two different bike shops for like 2 years before that interview.
It seemed really ridiculous and shortsighted to me. The whole point of that position was that they wanted someone to do all the customer facing work involved in running the business and yet they wanted to pay fuck all.
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Not directly related, but thereās a top-down problem with the industry and wages that really flows from Sram/Shimano down. The gross margin at the shop level for core consumables has gone down around 10% in the last twenty years. Bike margins have dipped some, but not nearly as much (thankfully).
Shops are basically forced to operate at a drastically reduced margin where it is most important. The knee-jerk reaction is going to be wage suppression. It truly sucks.
If Outpost was making the same margin on p&a that the shop I worked for in 2001-2006 was making we could easily afford to pay more and probably offer meaningful benefits.
Speaking of low wagesā¦ Sram posted a job that is exactly what i do now (tech docs creator/writer), based on Colorado Springs. Colorado law requires employers to list pay range so i read on. The job pay started $45,000 a year.
Kinda blew my mind to know the money Iām barely scraping by on is still somehow 20% more than a much larger bike industry company is offering.
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any hacks to get bike24 to ship to the us?
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Order items that are allowed to be shipped to the US
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Find a freight forwarder
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itās soo hard to find a deore 11 group
eBay?
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Ok so ultralight jerseys, like the kind that are sheer enough that you can read labels on bib straps through them:
theyāre just total sunburn magnets for people with pale skin, right? Iām always into clothes that keep me from getting heatstroke immediately in the midatlantic summer, but these seem like something Iād be tearfully explaining to a dermatologist in a few years
Iām very fair skinned and burn easy. Have had zero issues with meshy summer weight jersey from theblackbibs. It feels great on a hot day and have never had any burns or redness under it
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Same.
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Universal Cycles has M5100 danglers, shifters, and cassettes in stock.
House Of Sinyard says these bottles hold 21 ounces, but I see other sources claim theyāre 500ml. Curious if anyone has actually measured. My favorite bottles are those absurdly lightweight Elite bottles, but the capacity is less than the claimed 550ml.
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Can Tarck agree to stop using this to reference specialized? Its ableist as all get-out and doesnāt even have anything to do with why the big S is lame isnāt the nicest bunch.
Not to police your language Fax, I just donāt think itās funny and adds nothing to the discourse.
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You right.
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Shartle me this
If my gp5000 TL pops its bead while Im plugging a hole and then wonāt reseat with my frame pump, is it helpful to add another layer of tape?