Three Reasons Why You Should never buy a bike on Amazon.
It’s seems like such a simple solution. Order your bike online, it gets shipped directly to you and you get to ride. Well…. it’s not quite that simple and our experience with customers that have bought bikes on line is ongoing. Don’t make the same mistake they did.
Here’s three reasons why not to by your bike online or via Amazon. These reasons should be all you need to make the choice to shop in a local bike shop, or our bike shop. Along with the fact that when you shop local you put dollars back into your community.
When you get the bike, Who puts it together?
Not to mention if the bike comes damaged.
It’s so easy to price shop on amazon but in this instance it’s just not a good idea. Unless you’re into throwing hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars in the toilet.
Lets walk you through what happens in this instance.
You buy a bike on Amazon because you price shopped the stores and found it $200 cheaper on Amazon. You buy the bike on Amazon and get so excited when it arrives on your door step 2 days later.
You open the box to it in parts ( no bikes you buy on amazon do not come assembled).
You haven’t got the first idea on how to assemble a bike correctly. You can do one of two things here.
You ask a friend ( who also rides bikes so they must know something...right?) to assemble the bike or give it your best shot. If it’s wrong or something isn’t quite right a bike shop will take in the bike for repair to fix whatever wasn’t put together correctly but they will not warranty their own work at that point. Therefore the bike may never ride correctly.
You bring it to a bike shop and they let you know that the bike you just saved $200 buying on amazon will cost you $169 to put together. Then you will likely need a rack for your car to get it home and they might have a used one for $50
So now your saving are no more and your bike won’t have a year of free service because the bike shop only includes a year of free service when you purchase a bike from the store.. Maybe not even a warranty.
What happens when you order the wrong size?
You get your beautiful brand new bike together. Its a glorious moment and you are so excited to ride like the wind. You straddle the bike and realize it’s about 4 inches too small. Immediately your dreams of reaching your fitness goals this week are crushed. You shrug your shoulders and decide to take the bike all apart. You box it back up, call customer service begrudgingly, ship it, and hope they accept the return because if it got scratched in the process it will be considered damaged.
A bike on amazon may come with a warranty, but how do you use that warranty?
If you buy your bike online vs. walking the bike into the store.
When you get a bike from a physical store they are using trusted brands, working with those brands on any known issues with products, and are going to bat for you to fix them should any issues arrise with your bike. Say you have a gear that’s busted or the frame is bent. First having a trusted professional look at it then having them discuss it with the manufacturer is going to be a much easier process than having to do it yourself. Often it is something the brand can send the bike shop parts to fix. If your bike is under warranty with both the shop and the brand this process will be an easy one. If you ordered yourself and put to together the brand is not likely to cover the repairs or replacement parts.
Now that you have gotten your tips for shopping for bikes, we hope that we get to see you in our store looking at one of the beautiful bikes we have on our floor or is order able to our store and put together by our wonderful and friendly staff. Don't forget we offer free delivery and pick up during the holidays within the Twin Cities metro area.
See you soon!
Jonny Rock Bikes
