As requested, here it is. I will update the list in the first post, if you want one added, put down your justification, the name of the shop and where it is located.
-Markees Cycling Center-Kennewick WA
-GNO Cyclery-New Orleans
-Bike Tech-Olympia, WA
-Bicycle Shop Santa Cruz-Santa Cruz CA/fixedgearfreak.com
-Colonel’s Bikes-Fort Worth, TX
-richardson bike mart-dallas location.
-Cambridge Bicycle-Cambridge, MA
GNO Cyclery in New Orleans…
Personally I’ve found them to be useless in terms of picking-up parts, they have a really lousy stock from what I can tell… they’ll order stuff, but I can also order it myself. That and they had no idea what I meant by “non-ergo handlebars.” Picky on my part I suppose, but they are a bike store and all… one would hope for a certain level of knowledge.
Hearsay evidence of them sucking… my classmate has a litany of complaints: he rode up there once to get some parts on an extremely hot day, and they flat-out refused to let him fill his water bottle (and they wouldn’t fill it for him) without any kind of decent excuse (such as “sorry, our sinks aren’t working” or whatever). And then when he went in there yesterday to get innertubes for his wife’s bike he asked them if any of the staff were going to do the “#$%^ the Fourth” alleycat and they said they weren’t because it was dangerous and they “didn’t support that kind of thing” (imo alleycatting is as dangerous as participants choose to make it).
I realize some of this is the age of the internet and there not being a big pool of people to buy expensive bike parts from an LBS, but I get the sense they’re quite happy selling complete bikes and have no interest in trying to be helpful…
So recently a friend of mine bought a bike from a local bike shop here in town, not only did they sell him an $800 specialized allez elite, they told him it was this years model and the 105 rear derailluer is only 9 speeds while 08’s are 10 speed. Secondly, they gave him the bike without fitting him, as well as without even explaining how anything on the bike including the shifters and cycle computer work. I have to stress the fact that this kid has no cycling background, and their conduct pretty blatantly explains that they knew this and took him for all he was worth. Then they convinced him to have the tires immediately replaced with armadillos for an extra $100, and that he needed a $100 helmet, and when they mounted the tires they didnt even bother to line up the labels. When his back started hurting after the second day, he took the bike in to have it fitted par my suggestion, the kid they had “fit” him started by deflating the front tire until someone told him he wasnt supposed to to fit a bike, at which point he reinflated it and fitted the bike, without anyone looking on and he did a damn poor job. It really disappoints me that a business would treat someone so poorly and so blatantly rip them off, and not even have the decency to give them good service while doing so. Sorry for the rant.
cross posted from the other thread to justify the position of Markees
Bicycle Shop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA, and their website fixedgearfreak.com.
This guy sells totally shitty rusted out deathtrap conversions, like bottom barrel ralieghs and schwinns with a crappy wheelset and the shitty original parts for $3-500 to unsuspecting people, doesn’t put any sort of foot retention on his bikes, sells them with janky brakes, spams his shit on craigslist constantly and is just a dick to deal with in general. It seems that he just says that anything he doesn’t want to do is dangerous. When I asked why he was selling fixed gears without any toe clips or straps, he said that it was dangerous for new fixed riders to be strapped into the pedals. When I bought a road crankset and wanted to swap out the chainrings for a different pair (and was willing to pay the difference) he told me that it wouldn’t shift properly (they were both shimano 7-8-9 speed chainring sets) and that it would somehow be dangerous. I’ve heard him say all kinds of questionable things to sell unknowing customers bikes.
I haven’t dealt with his website because I know the guy and don’t want to support him, but if it’s the same guy I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with it.
From my experience his salespeople are totally hopeless as well. One time I bought a pair of MKS sylvan roads and the dude at the counter, who couldn’t be older than 17 tried to sell me two left pedals. I had to explain to him the rocket science concept that you have to have a left and right pedal.
The last straw for me was when the owner, after the 3rd person in a year had been hit and killed at Bay and Mission, said in a video on the Santa Cruz Sentinel website that no one should be allowed to bike on Mission st because it was too dangerous. I couldn’t believe it, a bike shop owner advocating banning bikes from the street, where they belong. His shop is, by the way, on Mission st.
isn’t that the guy who sells cameras or some shit as his main business, only selling “fixies” as a cash cow?
bike tech- Olympia, WA
backed hard. they kept my bike for 3 weeks without working on it because they were too busy “getting ready for a sale”, then i came in to pick it up because i thought they just hadn’t called when they finished. turns out they were gonna wait another week and a half before they started any of the work on my bike.
Should we have a LBS Heros list too? Only seems fair.
They carry decent stock, they just suck at repair and stuff.
Mike’s Bikes is also pretty bad on Howard St.
They take forever and will flat out not do something. My friend brought in his bike in to specifically to have the stem cut down so he didn’t have to have spacers. Well they just put the stem in, didn’t even screw it in all the way so his bars spun on us when we road away. I don’t trust any of those tard mechanics.
As for LBS Hero list, my hero shop shut down. Road Rage on Folsom was the best shop ever. Matt was the king.
I’m all for a heroes’ list… let’s start one.
seconded, someone else should be in charge of that one haha. if you start it, i’ll sticky it.
Shifter Bikes More
Trophy Bikes/Trophy Bike Garage - Philadelphia
The Hub at the Zoo - Providence
Cain Park Bicycle - Cleveland
Mt. Airy Bikes - Mt. Airy, MD (possibly College Park Bikes as well?)
Friendly Bikes - Greensboro, NV
Recycle-a-Bike - NYC
Adam’s Bicycle World - New Orleans
Cycle Smithy - Chicago
Seattle’s Perfect Wheels - Seattle
Ted’s Bicycles - Colorado Springs
Criterium Bicycles - Colorado Springs
Bicycle Villiage - Colorado Springs
Bicycle Experience - Colorado Springs
Business Cycles - Miami
Mack Cycle & Fitness - Miami
B1 Bikes - Columbus
Wheelnuts Bicycle Shop - Alexandria, VA
stickied!
Why not just merge the threads to one and keep two lists in the first post? The last thing any forum needs is excess stickies.
first in: Shifter Bikes
Dan stocks only good shit, does sound mechanic work and does it fast. If you need something, he can get it and if you bring him shit to build up he’ll try and talk you out of it regardless of what you want to do. He even takes phone calls and replies to sms reliably.
^^ by “shit” I’m assuming you mean shoddy/janky/worthless parts, or are we talking about discouraging building your own stuff up?
Trophy Bikes/Trophy Bike Garage - Philadelphia.
Not a damn one within 30km of my house - Sydney, Australia.
The Hub at the Zoo - Providence
Cain Park Bicycle - Cleveland
Both places are the kind of LBS that will set you up with their mechanics stand and let you use their tools to fix your stuff, or chat with you about stuff if they’re not too busy. That’s the basic kind of trust I need. I don’t need a bike dealership.