Thursday, January 25, 2007

Road bikes in Dick's Sporting Goods

I guess it's different in Texas, but here in Rhode Island the only place to get a road bike, or any bike manufactured by a real bike company, is at an LBS.
The exceptions are the borderline market, that is, Mongoose (which can be found at LBS and sporting good chains) and the newly-acquired GT/Schwinn, which can be found at Dick's Sporting Goods.
In fact, the only road bike I've ever seen anywhere other than a LBS is a low-end Diamondback model at Dick's Sporting Goods, which very recently put up it's first few stores in this area. I had never heard of them before.
They keep a stock of one of these bikes, as far as I can tell, in each store; there is no price tag on it, and it's generally not obvious that it's even for sale. It looks more like a display, they've usually got it hanging on a bike rack they're selling, or something.
I asked how much, and found it was something like $325. That's great, if it's any good; I'd rather pay $325 for that than $600 for a bottom-of-the-barrel Trek that's not any better. Luckily, I bought a nice Giant that I love, instead (before Dick's Sporting Goods showed up). ;)

Labels: