The LBS Shitlist: the good, the bad, and the... ugly?

Tarckives Bikes
81

[quote=Janaki]shitlist:

City Bikes in Adams Morgan, DC: I was literally looked over several times, probably because they were judgemental… they helped people behind me. Most of the time when I walk in, all the salespeople are in a group and act like you’re bothering them by giving the store business. Ugh, they also said they had a specific silver bar and then claimed otherwise 1 hr later when I walked in.

Awesome:

Silver Cycles in Silver Spring, MD: An awesome lady is a mechanic there, I think her name is Linda (def a hero), she kept it real with me and trued my wheel along with many other things for really cheap.

College Park Bicycles in College Park, MD: They let me switch out a lever a few times and then spent 20 min to bang it out to fit my bars, really nice people.

It’d be nice to get recommendations for shops that are within DC[/quote]

Check out Rollin Cycles - 1320 14th Street NW, between N and Rhode Island. Really friendly guys, low key, do good work. And a little further afield, but the people at Baltimore Bicycle Works are great. Highly recommended.

+1 for avoid City Bikes in Adams Morgen. I’ve got an '86 Peugeot Galibier that I’ve been riding for 15 or so years. Took it in to City Bikes to ask about parts for conversion to single speed. The guy looked at me, looked at my bike, and said: “Oh, that’s easy. No.” I was pretty surprised, since I wasn’t asking him to do it, I just needed to get parts. I asked for an explanation and he sort of hemmed and hawed and basically told me I couldn’t get parts for my bike since “French bikes from the '70s” used components that aren’t made any more. I asked if I could get new parts (my original question!) and to use with the frame, and he again said “No, that’s exactly the problem.” So I just walked out. Of course I’ve been able to get everything I need (all standard parts) for the conversion from other sources.

Haven’t been to Silver Cycles but will definitely check it out.

82

Performance bicycle- Everywhere.

And making note of The bicycle shop Santa Cruz. That shop IS really lame, but they’re nice people and you cant go wrong with deep v’s for $250 flat.

There’s another shop in Santa cruz, I wish I knew the name. My friend went there and said they were charging this girl like $150 on bullshit for her road bike. They also told him he’d need to pay no less than $200 to have his disk brakes replaced/fixed “personally I wouldn’t even touch them.” We took his bike to our LBS The El sobrante Schwinn store, and our buds there readjusted his disk brakes and got them working for $20, in like 5 minutes (even though that’s kind of a rip off)

83

good spot:
irv’s bicycle shop at 18th and racine (pilsen neighborhood) in chicago. mostly a low-rider/bmx shop, and the component selection reflects this orientation, but they have the maintenance skills for most everything, and for basic shit (tires, tubes, gloves, etc.) they have the best prices in town. the manager, henry, is one of the nicest dudes i’ve ever met, the kind of guy who’s willing to lend tools to you in the short-term (if he knows you). i am trying to build up my mechanical skills, so i have little need to go there these days, but they also have extremely good prices on common repairs (e.g. $15 to true both wheels). two thumbs up.

bad spot:
rapid transit in wicker park. super-overpriced on everything ($40 to true both wheels). i don’t know too much about the staff’s competence and all, but they push uncomfortably hard on the upsell (i asked about an krypto u-lock there once, and they immediately tried to steer me toward the chain [which is, of course, at least $50 more expensive]). shit like that rubs me the wrong way, and i won’t be going there again.

84

The Performance in Greensboro, NC is good and bad in my opinion. Good for prices, but bad for customer service. I brought a bike in because of a loose lock ring, and they said it was as tight as it would go, so to make up for it he took the back wheel off and put it back on so the chain was so tight the wheel barely moved. I went outside and immediately undid what he had just done.

85

Seattle shops:
Wright Bros. - Probably my favorite shop in seattle. Charels is ridiculously knowledgeable and pretty nice. A bit on the pricey side, but you get great customer service.
Recycled Cycles - Hit and miss. Some of the people are super nice and others are total assholes. Some nice vintage stuff if you’re willing to dig.
20/20 - Over priced, douchey and pretentious.
Revolution Cycles - My personal LBS (closest shop to my house) the main mechanics are really awesome, and while not the best of the best, are still pretty good. Mostly BMX stuff brings about some really, really stupid BMX douchewads who hang around and talk about killing girls with bats because they’re ugly (not joking, it was so hard not to yell at them)
Aaron’s Bicycle Repair - Never been there but I’ve heard many stories about Aaron being super misogynistic. I’ve also heard people praise him as one of the best mechanics in Seattle.
I live in the north end, so those are the ones I go to most. Would love to heard about other shops.

86

[quote=PWR]Seattle shops:
Wright Bros. - Probably my favorite shop in seattle. Charels is ridiculously knowledgeable and pretty nice. A bit on the pricey side, but you get great customer service.
Recycled Cycles - Hit and miss. Some of the people are super nice and others are total assholes. Some nice vintage stuff if you’re willing to dig.
20/20 - Over priced, douchey and pretentious.
Revolution Cycles - My personal LBS (closest shop to my house) the main mechanics are really awesome, and while not the best of the best, are still pretty good. Mostly BMX stuff brings about some really, really stupid BMX douchewads who hang around and talk about killing girls with bats because they’re ugly (not joking, it was so hard not to yell at them)
Aaron’s Bicycle Repair - Never been there but I’ve heard many stories about Aaron being super misogynistic. I’ve also heard people praise him as one of the best mechanics in Seattle.
I live in the north end, so those are the ones I go to most. Would love to heard about other shops.[/quote]

Good list. I’ve never been to 20/20, but it sounds like I’m not missing anything.

I’ll add:

Counterbalance - lower Queen Anne - A mixed bag of good service and snobbery. Lots of overpriced fixxxxeeee parts.

Free Range - Fremont - Maybe not quite on par with Aaron’s or Wright Bros. in the mechanic department, but still quite good. Hands-down the coolest and friendliest shop in town. Unless it’s a real head-scratcher of a problem I would not hesitate to take it there. You’ll get it back in a reasonable amount of time.

Il Vecchio - Leschi - Never bought anything from them but they have always been nice to me, and they have an ass-kicking selection of bikes. Land Sharks and lots of rando stuff.

Gregg’s - Greenlake - The sale clothing racks are about the only thing that interests me at this shop. It’s been a long time since I had anything worked on there, but I was not very impressed.

Elliott Bay - downtown - I have mixed feelings about this shop. Bill Davidson is super-nice. Some of the people who work there are less so. I generally go to ogle the Jack Taylors. They did fix the fork on my old steel Merckx after two other shops tried and failed, and didn’t charge me an arm and a leg.

Velo - Capitol Hill - meh - a mixed bag of hybrid junk, tacky fixxxxeee bling, and decidedly non-badass roadie stuff. Not impressed with the service.

Second Ascent - Ballard - Good for used parts. Not nearly as picked over as Recycled. Nice folks.

Bikesport - Ballard - See Velo, subtract fixxeeee stuff

87

I work at the hardware store like 6 blocks down from this place. The wrenches seem like nice guys, but the owner has always kind of brushed me off. Maybe I did something wrong or whatever. I still send people down there when they try and get their bike shit fixed at a hardware store, but I don’t ever really go in myself.

The only other shop I can think of to mention is the other Counterbalance down in the U District on the Sand Point side. Nice guys with good parts. I’ve only really browsed in there, but the people who work there seem to know their stuff. Plus they have that ridiculous Indy Fab funnybike in their front window, and I suppose that has to count for something.

88

[quote=tarckeemoon][quote=PWR]Seattle shops:
Wright Bros. - Probably my favorite shop in seattle. Charels is ridiculously knowledgeable and pretty nice. A bit on the pricey side, but you get great customer service.
Recycled Cycles - Hit and miss. Some of the people are super nice and others are total assholes. Some nice vintage stuff if you’re willing to dig.
20/20 - Over priced, douchey and pretentious.
Revolution Cycles - My personal LBS (closest shop to my house) the main mechanics are really awesome, and while not the best of the best, are still pretty good. Mostly BMX stuff brings about some really, really stupid BMX douchewads who hang around and talk about killing girls with bats because they’re ugly (not joking, it was so hard not to yell at them)
Aaron’s Bicycle Repair - Never been there but I’ve heard many stories about Aaron being super misogynistic. I’ve also heard people praise him as one of the best mechanics in Seattle.
I live in the north end, so those are the ones I go to most. Would love to heard about other shops.[/quote]

Good list. I’ve never been to 20/20, but it sounds like I’m not missing anything.

I’ll add:

Counterbalance - lower Queen Anne - A mixed bag of good service and snobbery. Lots of overpriced fixxxxeeee parts.

Free Range - Fremont - Maybe not quite on par with Aaron’s or Wright Bros. in the mechanic department, but still quite good. Hands-down the coolest and friendliest shop in town. Unless it’s a real head-scratcher of a problem I would not hesitate to take it there. You’ll get it back in a reasonable amount of time.

Il Vecchio - Leschi - Never bought anything from them but they have always been nice to me, and they have an ass-kicking selection of bikes. Land Sharks and lots of rando stuff.

Gregg’s - Greenlake - The sale clothing racks are about the only thing that interests me at this shop. It’s been a long time since I had anything worked on there, but I was not very impressed.

Elliott Bay - downtown - I have mixed feelings about this shop. Bill Davidson is super-nice. Some of the people who work there are less so. I generally go to ogle the Jack Taylors. They did fix the fork on my old steel Merckx after two other shops tried and failed, and didn’t charge me an arm and a leg.

Velo - Capitol Hill - meh - a mixed bag of hybrid junk, tacky fixxxxeee bling, and decidedly non-badass roadie stuff. Not impressed with the service.

Second Ascent - Ballard - Good for used parts. Not nearly as picked over as Recycled. Nice folks.

Bikesport - Ballard - See Velo, subtract fixxeeee stuff[/quote]

Velo was my local shop when I lived there. Girls at the counter didn’t know much, but the asian head mech knew his crap. However, first wheel I built I took in there, told him the deal, and asked if he could make sure I got my tension close (before my tensiometer,) he handed me his tensiometer, and said check a couple. Looking over my shoulder I checked two, not even sure what I was looking at, and he says “looks great” and takes his tool back.

Also, It’s in here much earlier, but since all the SEA shops have been consolidated,

Perfect Wheels - owned and operated by one dude who’s usually a little too busy, but really knows his crap. He started as a frame builder, but now has this little boutique shop. Doesn’t really have much for sale besides frames and rims, but he’s great for questions and the first person I’d trust to do a repair for me. http://www.perfectwheels.net/

edit: Wife bought her bike at Greggs. She’s probably put on a thousand miles and I haven’t had to do shit to it, except a little initial high/low adjustment on the FD when she first got it. The cables were even adequately pre-stretched.

89

Shops in the “Hill Country” area of Texas:

Teh Good:
Fast Folks - Austin, Tx [Fixed gear specific, fairly knowledgeable staff, decent prices, relaxing atmosphere]
Clown Dog Bikes - Austin, Tx [Great guys, super friendly, fast, easy to deal with, etc.]
The Hub - San Marcos, Tx [More of the lounge type of shop(hints the site domain), great guys]

Teh Bad:
Als Freewheelin’ - San Marcos, Tx [Owner just leaves an incompitant old guy there all day, who can’t do anything but tighten/loosen shit and always tells you to “come back when alex is here”]
Mellow Johnny’s - Austin, Tx [Local favorite for most, but it’s just too nice inside, prices reflect it.]

Teh Ugly:
Ozone Bikes - Austin, Tx [Hipster-roadie-all carbon-douches/price gougers]
Bike and Run Works - New Bruanfels [Only shop in town, really takes advantage of it. $16 to put a cog/lock ring on…$45 to install a bottom bracket, $20 to remove cranks, this was all before we had tools, and they sure knew it]

90

pretty much if you live in portland, go to 7 corners

91

i like Recycled and Mobius in Seattle (its a bit on the expensive side, even considering all the parts are higher end) but the mechanic (niki/jon) are the best and labor is cheap
ive also heard tons of positive stuff about wright bros
i really dislike Velo for lack of customer service, overcharging labor and downright destroying the threads on a couple of my friends hubs.
not to mention all the other horror stories ive heard…

92

[quote=Matt S.]i like Recycled and Mobius in Seattle (its a bit on the expensive side, even considering all the parts are higher end) but the mechanic (niki/jon) are the best and labor is cheap
ive also heard tons of positive stuff about wright bros
i really dislike Velo for lack of customer service, overcharging labor and downright destroying the threads on a couple of my friends hubs.
not to mention all the other horror stories ive heard…[/quote]i hardly think anyone cares what you have to say about anything.

93

ah i see, because i think its plausible to ride a track bike without brakes any opinions or experience i might have to share are now null and void. makes sense.

keep your bs in the other thread.

94

DOES PONCHO LEIK THOSE SHOPS.
I HOPE THEY’RE NICE AND HE RIDES THEM HARD.

95

[quote=trackstar]another bump for criterium bike shop in colorado springs to be on the complete shit list.

I have a couple of stories. this shop has gone to complete shit.

First, dudes at criterium threw this new crank and chain ring on my freinds bike. They paid no attention to the chain allignment and now as a result the chain jumps every 10 rotations or so. we took the bike back only to be told that it would cost another 20 for a new part and another 25 for instillation. on something i would have thought bike shops knew to check for from the begging.

Yesterday I went in there with a freind, dude told us we could throw his bike on there stand and throw on the gold chain they had just ordered from them. finally we got that setup and im trying to take his back wheel off so i ask a different dude who works there if i can get a wrench. dude goes off on me for interrupting him when dude wasent saying shit. i tried to be nice, he was standing by this other dude, i just put my hand on his back and asked if i could get a wrench. dude starts throwing this hissy fit talking about how since im so rude he’ll help us out. yelling in from tof the whole shop. the whole time im just trying to get this chain on so we can go ride before the sun sets. ive been in there a couple times when they seem to have complete douschebags for employees. i noticed now that there getting employees from other shops around town as well.

even though theres not that many people on the springs on here, i figured id put it out there that criterium is falling off…fast.[/quote]

I lived in Colorado Springs for 3 years from 05-08. I never once set foot in Criterium. I actually was doing very little riding there. I don’t know why, but I was not feeling it there (riding wise). Looking back, I wish i rode more there, but I did get to ride all the cool spots, on and off road. I lived on the east side and the shops closest to me were Performance and Bicycle Village up on Academy. Both were very meh. I always dreamed of opening up a kick ass bike kitchen / sammich shop kind of place in that town.

Also, the infastructure is total shite there, so many bike paths, few connect, dangerous unfriendly bike drivers, so much potential, gah…

96

The shop near my buddy told him that you can’t use a masterlink with a Shimano chain, so they took his chain off and replaced it with a white one. :colbert:

97

i like back bay bikes.

98

I like The Bike Biz in Sac. Pretty cool place, very knowledgeable staff. Sometimes rude but whatever once you get past that it’s a great place.

Apex Cycles in Davis. It’s okay. Just moved into a new shop and has pretty decent prices. Sometimes low selection, but will order whatever you want.

Mikes Bikes. Sucks. Their normal prices are high, but their sales aren’t that bad.

99

Mike’s Bikes in Berkeley is one of those shops that scares me with the people in their uniforms. Whatever it is that they’re selling, I’m not their customer and they know it, so it’s always an awkward experience.

100

They’re right, officially. Unofficially, SRAM Masterlinks work alright with ten-speed Shimano chains.