[Bent] help

[Joao de Souza]

Okay, some of my experiences with Habitat.  A couple of things to keep in
mind:  I knew the store's owner (Charlie), and my girlfriend at the time was
a friend of his.  And we were living just a few blocks from the shop at the
time all of this happened.  And keeping in mind that Charlie published an
article as his on several bicycling publications, that was about 75% mine,
with some contributions from other participants of the ebikes.org mailing
list, and that he had absolutely no input on:

These are just my personal experiences.  And I personally know a few other
locals with similar experiences, two of them recumbent riders.

This sums up every single visit I ever had at Bicycle Habitat.

- Since I knew the owner, and a lot of people on ebikes.org gave it great
reviews, I decided to check what all the fuzz was about.  I was living in
Brooklyn at the time, and had just finished assembling my first recumbent.
And since my first ride was going to be in the dark, I needed a good light.
So I walked into Habitat looking for some NightRiders, but I had forgotten
the name.  But I remembered what they looked like, so I was confident to be
able to describe them.  The salesma....saleskid? was about 14 years old.  I
told him I was looking for some high-powered lights, and he directed me to a
rack by the front door with a bunch of AA-batteries-powered lights.  I said
I was looking for the ones that are a black cube, halogen, the remote
battery in the same shape and size as a water bottle with a wire running to
them, and the kid kept on insisting the little ones on the rack by the door
where the best lights money could buy.  So after I said "forgetaboutit" and
started to walk out the door, another costumer who had heard the
conversation said: "He's looking for nightriders".  And I said "Yes!  That's
the name. Nightrider".  So the kid started "Oh, if you wanted nightriders,
why didn't you just say so?", and kept going on and on on how I should have
said the brand name instead of just describing them.  So he showed me
several boxes of Nightrider lights.  All of them opened.  All of them
missing some component.  A bulb here, a battery there, mounting hardware on
another one, and so on.  So I left, and got the light I was looking for
somewhere else.

Second time I went in there, I had just ran out of tube patches, and someone
hadn't returned my tire irons.  So I just wanted some glueless patches and
tire irons.  They tried to charge me waaaaay too much for the patches
(forgot the exact amount, but it was nearly 10 times as much as they really
cost back then), and the tire iron they tried to sell me was a single one,
heavilly worn down, epoxy-glued to an old screw driver.  Once again, I
walked out empty-handed and got my supplies somewhere else.

WARNING: FOR THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT SUCH THINGS, THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS CUSS
WORDS.  READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Third time:  I forgot what it was I needed, but I believe it was a chain.  I
just needed the part, and wasn't looking for any service.  I rolled in there
with my Haluzak, and before I could reach the front counter to ask for the
part, Hal saw me and right away started with "Oh, no!  Not a fucking
recumbent.  You better not want me to service that thing.  What the fuck is
wrong with you guys that you have to ride such ridiculous things?..."  and
he kept on ranting for a while, as I turned around and walked away, once
again empty handed.

So I emailed Charlie, giving the details above, as well as my friends'.  He
apologized, told me he was going to have a very stern talk with his staff,
and that I should really give them another try.

At first I was hesitant to give them another try.  But when I got my
Bacchetta Strada, and the rear brakes were completely useless due to them
being V-Brakes with caliper brake levers, I called them and asked if they
had a single flat-bars V-brake lever.  They told me they had "tons of
them".  So I went back in there.  Right off the bat, they wanted to sell me
a complete XTR braking system for several hundred dollars, even though I was
insisting on one single lever.  As I was about to walk out, the sales guy
asked me to wait, headed down to the basement, and after 10 minutes came
back with a single MTB-style brake lever.  The lever seemed okay, but it
looked like it didn't pull quite enough cable for V-brakes.  So I asked him
if he was sure those were V-brake levers, and he assured me they were. He
turned around to the mechanic and asked what kind of brakes those levers
were for, and the mechanic agreed those were V-brake levers.  Once I got
home, I played with the levers a bit, and wasn't convinced.  So I went to
the Shimano website, typed in the model number, and right on top in big red
letters it said "CALIPER BRAKES ONLY".  I tried to returned the levers only
to be completely ignored by their staff as if I was an invisible entity, and
left without being able to talk to anyone for nearly 1/2 hour.  I have never
gone back.

And I should point out that my ex's experience is much worse than mine.  She
lost quite a lot of money thanks to their incompetence.

So yeah, stay away from Habitat.
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