They do it BIG in Texas

The deal gets done in Dallas and I've got an hour or so to spare before I have to get to the post-deal party. I remember hearing that a certain bike shop in the local area was pretty darn huge. After doing some searching of old posts on different bike message boards I read/post, I found it. Richardson Bike Mart!

It only took me 10 minutes to get there from where I was, and it was on the way to my final destination. Perfect, I knew there was something about my rest week off the bike that would work in my favor. I walk into the store and am warmly greeted, "Welcome, to the world's largest bike store. 34,000 square feet of everything you need!" Hmm, sounded interesting, but let me be the judge of that statement...

Yeah, this place was huge. They had 12 colors of every Trek and Specialized bike you could ever want, even some apparently limited addition bikes. But not that it mattered much to me since I can't fit those and they cause back injuries. You could tell Santa had briefed them on moving tons of bikes this season because there were some deals to be had, but nonetheless, I kept on walking through the isles...

After 35 minutes of walking through the entire store, I've got some words of advice. This IS the worlds largest bike store, because I've never seen so many bikes under one roof, unless you consider the bike parking structure in Amsterdam.

But they really only had bikes!?! I thought it would be fun to see more components: saddles, seatposts, stems, brakes, handlebars, etc. You get the point. They had a poor selection of this kind of gear. I ended up walking out of there without a penny spent! It felt like a small bank account victory knowing that a store that size had nothing to offer a guy like me.

I've realized now that it's not the size of the store, but the contents that matter. I'm on a record breaking spending spree at Velotech over the past 3 months. Yeah, Merry Christmas to me this year, and next, and next, and next...enough spent there to last a couple of years.