Pacific Northwest - Bike Shops in South Portland

I am moving to Portland in the next month. Looking to live in south Portland - Tualatin/Tigard area. Can anyone point me to a good bike shop in the area and a link to a local bike club?

Yeah, SoCal to Portland, my time in the garage just increased exponentially...

I'm sure others will reply as well, I shop that area quite a bit and there are two shops I like. Lakeside Bicycles and Bike Gallery, both in downtown Lake Oswego.
http://lakeside-bikes.com/index.cfm
http://www.bikegallery.com/content/Bike_Gallery/BG-locations.html

Welcome to Oregon!

Tualatin and Tigard are pretty dismal suburbs. You'd be better off living closer in.

Tualatin and Tigard are pretty dismal suburbs. You'd be better off living closer in.

+100, IMO. But perhaps the Messrs. Ratliff could be of help to you.

I am moving to Portland in the next month. Looking to live in south Portland - Tualatin/Tigard area. Can anyone point me to a good bike shop in the area and a link to a local bike club?

Yeah, SoCal to Portland, my time in the garage just increased exponentially...

Aw, don't listen to them chillyc... They're just jealous that we have more Costcos than they do. Actually, the Tualatin/Tigard area simply used to be rural towns which are growing pretty quickly now.

I live south of Hillsboro in a rural area and commute by bike (when the weather is better than it is now) through Tigard and Tualatin. The best bike shop in the area is probably the Bike Gallary. There is one in Beaverton and one in Lake Oswego. I've only been in the Beaverton shop.

There is a pretty crummy bike shop in downtown Tigard called "Tigard Cycle and Ski." I don't know what type of cyclist you are; if you are a roadie, you won't find this shop any good. If you are utility cyclist, it has lots of odds and ends and used bikes. Mostly though, it is a bunch of low quality and old stuff kind of thrown around in piles and run by a former convict.

There's another bike shop in Tigard called "Randall's Family Bicycle Center." I've never been there though so I cannot vouch for them.

There is a nice little place in Newburg, which is not too far away from where I live, called the "Newburg Bicycle Shoppe." I have been there several times, they are locally owned and do good service work. Unfortunately, they are a bit out of the way.

Overall, I'd recommend The Bike Gallary, and specifically the one in Beaverton. I like them. Other than that, there is not much in the way of good bike shops. The Newburg shop and the Bike Gallery are both great, but good shops like these are few and far between and require trips outside of the Tigard/Tualatin area. At last resort, REI has some decent stuff as well, especially in the summer. There is one of those in Tigard. I wouldn't trust their service (it can be spotty), but I've bought a fair amount of bike parts there, and they carry a full spread of bicycle components and cloths.

As for cycling clubs, the Portland Velo (http://www.portlandvelo.net/) (not to be confused with a bike racing team of apparantly the same name). They are a new club formed about two years ago to be kind of a west side alternative to the Portland Wheelmen, who operate mostly in east Portland. I am a member and rode with them several times last summer. They are a great group. In the summer, we were drawing rides of 50 people. They have a set ride (10:00am in fall through spring, 9:00am in the summer) on Saturday mornings called the Saturday signature series and typically have two to 4 groups of various abilities. They also have other, smaller rides during the week and on Sunday.

Brian, I knew you or you dad would have something more constructive to say than Randy or me. One person's dismal is another person's paradise. :)

Even if you live in Tualatin/Tigard, you should come into town for the bike shops and bike events. City Bikes, River City, Veloshop, Bike Central, Belmont Coop, the Recyclery, more Bike Gallery Locations, etc.

Events: http://www.shift2bikes.org/index.shtml http://calendar.shifttobikes.org/

One thing that is really nice about living out this far is the easy access to country roads. I've been on some great rides with Rad around rural Washington Country, and I ride a lot around the Stafford Triangle and French Prairie/Champeog areas from our house in Wilsonville.

Thanks for all of the feedback. I am a roadie and love the rural rides.

The reason for living in the Tigard/Tualatin/Sherwood area is because that is where I will be working. I'd rather live close to work and be able to ride than live on the other side of town and sit in traffic on the 205 or the 5.

BTW, there is also a Performance store in Beaverton and one essentially in Tualatin near I-5. I'm not going to give them a recommendation for full bikes...but they always seem to have sales on things we all need like rain gear, tires, chains, gel packs, saddles (with a friendly return policy), etc. If you easily change those things out yourself, you can save a lot of money there. Their service is okay as is the servce at nearby REI. If I have the time, I tend to head for Lakeside for service. But the best service (and tour guide) in the far SW area of Portland can be found in 55/Rad's garage.

Oh, and definately take a pass on that "Tigard Cycle and Ski". I went in there once and it's mostly garage-sale-like used stuff at near retail prices...and the guy is a nut case.

That makes incredibly good sense, chillyc, and is exactly what regional planners are hoping people will do to try to keep our area growth saner. Forgive the repeat if you've already seen this site (http://bikeportland.org/index.php), but if not, it has the best links page for cycling resources in the Portland area. Have fun!

Thanks for all of the feedback. I am a roadie and love the rural rides.

The reason for living in the Tigard/Tualatin/Sherwood area is because that is where I will be working. I'd rather live close to work and be able to ride than live on the other side of town and sit in traffic on the 205 or the 5.

We do have some good rides out in that area. I've lived in the city (Seattle, not Portland, though I've had a job in downtown Portland and commuted their from Beaverton by bike) and now the rural areas. I got to say, while cities have their good points, like good bike shops and the city life, rural life is quieter and makes for better cycling. In Seattle, just to get to some good roads, you had to ride through 20 minutes of crap.

Besides the Portland Velo, there are a group of Portland area roadies on the road cycling forum who get together on rides in the area. I rode with them once last year and they are a friendly bunch. If you search under "Portland Roadies" in the road cycling forum, you'll find them. I cold dropped into one of the threads where they were arranging a ride and they immediately accepted me and we had a fun ride around Tualatin and Wilsonville.

PS, I forgot to add, I think dtrain was of those riders I was talking about above.

If you have no kids or family and live on rent, you want to live close in Portland.

Suburbs of Portland such as Beaverton, Vancouver, Tigard or Tualatin are fine, you will get more for the money in terms of housing but now, let s be serious, it s not where you want to live.

I didn't have a very good experience with Lakeside, if you go there hopefully yours will be better. There are plenty of shops around and everyone will develop their favorites so I would recommend hitting them all and see how they work out for ya.