I am going to go off on a rant here. Please forgive the diversion of going off topic.
I tire of people touting amazon purchases. Amazon along with Walmart are responsible for the destruction of so many small businesses throughout our country, Amazon frequently undercut their own "partners" frequently driving them out of business with cheap knockoffs that lure in the unsuspecting. That people are willing to contribute to their neighbor's failure for the convenience of one click or saving a few dollars is beyond me.
Amazon is frequently a more expensive option than ebay or even the local bike shop, You can buy many bike products directly from the manufacturer or from Jensenusa, chain reaction and other discount on line sellers.
Why share even one penny with such a destructive, greedy corporation, intent on swallowing up all retail sales, a company that does nothing to enhance community and often isn't even the best deal?
I bought a Kinekt 2.1 seatpost this past Spring from a local Pedego shop even though I could have bought it from Amazon, or EBay I guess. I buy lots of stuff from Amazon. My purchases are too diverse to list here. But list includes some books, most of them Kindle, and recently some telescope related stuff. The prices on the telescope stuff were definitely less than if I had bought them direct from places like Celestron or Orion. And...there are NO local telescope shops so I had no choice but to purchase online.
Last week I bought an extension ladder roof support. Went to Home Depot and Lowes and they didn't have what I was looking for. Nothing close in fact. I ending up purchasing the part from Amazon , AND got it in less than five days even though I paid no shipping.
I never understood how Ebay works so never have used it. Amazon is very simple to use and I rarely pay shipping.
When I was looking into purchasing the Kinect seatpost, Cirrus cycles didn't sell it themselves. And I wanted to talk to someone directly about the correct size post for my bike. They list Pedego as a retailer and there is a shop that recently opened up nearby so I contacted them. Turned out it was a good thing I did that because there are different sizes and the one they had on hand was too small. So they ordered in the correct size and helped me set it up.
I also recently upgraded the front forks on my bike. The LBS ordered them and installed them for me. I wouldn't have saved any money buying them online I don't think. And the LBS knew how to set up the front forks and did a good job. And I they only charged me 30 bucks for the install.
I also buy stuff online from places like REI or Diluth trading. If I see something I'm interested in from REI but want to check it out before purchasing I just drive down there. And I found out by accident that Diluth trading opened up a B&M store nearby. So they're going from online to B&M. Interesting.
I used to buy Bicycle stuff online from Performance bike, and would even sometimes drive 45 min to SLC to a store they had to check out something I wanted to buy, but they went out of business.
I could go on and on.
So sometimes a local B&M is useful, but Amazon wins out because of the ease and diversity of selection. And the next big bonus is free delivery to my front door. Twenty years ago when Amazon and other online resources started, the big advantage talked about was not paying taxes, and the local B&Ms that think they're losing business to Amazon because of that still complain about that but it's really not a factor anymore. I think I pay taxes on most of my online purchases. Honestly, not paying for shipping is a bigger deal than paying the taxes, which are always much less than shipping would be if I had to pay for it.
Oh, and the Kinekt 2.1 seatpost is well worth the money. Only minor negative was I had to put some blue lock tight on the adjustment bolt to keep it from unthreading during a ride. Just trying to stay on topic.
www.bike-discount.de
