Mountain Biking - Chicago - Chicagoland highly regarded LBS

Hi All:

I need and would appreciate some help. I am new to the forum and Chicago. I have used the search to find recommended LBS in this area but did not find much. Does any one have any highly regarded LBS around here?

Btw, the purpose is to buy a hard tail. I am currently inclined towards a Haro ICS 4.0 or Raleigh M80 looking to spend arouns $500 so if the LBS were to stock these brands it would help. The reason of my selection is simply that I had a good experiece with Raleigh in the past and was well impressed with the Haros.

All suggestion / recommendations would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Cycle Smithy on North Clark Street. If Mike is still there, ask for him. I love that store!

Koffee

Oops- some people say Higher Gear, which is also in Chicago, but when I called them and tried to talk to the guy (I think his name was Brad), he was always too busy to talk or catch up with. Plus, when I went up there, they were pretty neutral and non-informative. But a lot of people think they're great, so give them a call too.

I still prefer Cycle Smithy over all of them, and I think their mechanic is great too.

Koff

Koffee Brown:

Thanks for your responses. What about these other: 1) Johny Sprocket's, 2) Village Cycle, 3) Kozy's and 4) Rudy's. Any experience with these? I actually leave in the West suburbs (Naperville) but have yet to find a well stocked bike shop around here.

I'd skip Kozy's. The service sucks, and I question their mechanical skills after they "fixed" (translation- not fixed) my bike. Village Cycle is the same way- a whole bunch of sales phonies that won't give you the time of day unless they think you're buying a bike, and even if you are buying a bike, they sometimes couldn't care less. I practically had to get on my hands and knees for a little attention. Both shops are also overly crowded with the general masses, so even if you went in there with a lot of money, you still have to wait a long time for decent service. And forget about getting your bike fixed the same day... drop off on Monday and pick up no less than 5 days later. Service is pretty bad.

I don't know much about Johnny Sprockets or Rudy's.

Good luck.

Koffee

Johnny Sprockets kicks ass, my personal favorite. Great care is taken in setting up and tuning up bikes, great selection, the place is packed to the gills with bikes, they know what they are talking about and are always generous with information, check it out. Kozy's sucks, I would not trust my bike with them, Village Cyclery is OK Koffee hit the nail on the head with them. Smithy's is very nice, good info, good mechs, but I prefer Johnny Sprockets, either way you are in good hands

Welcome.

What area of Chicago are you talking about?

Bill

He was saying Naperville, which is actually not Chicago, it's the west suburbs.

Cow country, I think.... or is it grain and corn country out there? ;)

JZ19-
Shameless self-promotion here: I'm about 45 minutes due North of you in downtown Barrington. I've got a couple of '03 Specialized Rockhopper A1s that are a heck of a better value than the M80 (I'm a Raleigh dealer as well but we don't stock the M80 because we feel the Specialized is far superior). I also have some of last year's Rockhoppers (discounted) and some Cannondales that'd be in that price range as well. Do you know what size you would need? We do free lifetime tuneups on all our bikes as well.

Waldo:
Thanks for the offer on those Specialized. It came late as I did find a LBS that had a good stock of Raleighs at fair prices around here ("cow country" as Koffee Brown said :D) and went ahead with the purchase.

Temp1, bfong, Koffee Brown: Thanks again for the information. I will eventually check out those bike shops too.

Cool. I hope you had a good experience! Now all we need are pictures to go with the posts! ;)

You bet. Glad you found something you like. It's not so much cow country as shopping center country, at least it seems that way to me-I was down in your area this past weekend and it seems much more built up than I recall.

Ahhh Naperthrill... my hometown. I wouldn't call it cow-country either... more like office-park country.

Originally posted by khuon
Ahhh Naperthrill... my hometown. I wouldn't call it cow-country either... more like office-park country.
hehe

i thought i was the only one that called it naper-thrill, thought i was pretty creative too:p

i would have to go with traffic jam country, especially rt 59(.... the local folks know what im talking about)

~mike

Originally posted by mp3z24

i would have to go with traffic jam country, especially rt 59(.... the local folks know what im talking about)


When I was in high school, I got a job at Fermilab as a lab tech for the summers. I had just received my driver's license and my parents were kind enough to lend me use of the "spare" car to drive to work. I quickly found out that Rt.59 was [1] the only way to get to the lab from Naperville and [2] clogged worse than a Greyhound bus lavatory on a cross-country trip. After about two weeks of spending close to an hour crawling to work in the car, I decided to just ride my bike instead. It took almost as long but riding through Danada and stopping to admire the serene Herrick Lake in the early morning was preferable to being in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

how about bokoo bikes in marshall fields, its by randolph and state and the people in there are the best. They don't fix bikes there but they have a guy that comes to you and fixes your bike, he has a huge ups-like truck and it is just the coolest thing ever, lol. Also the people that sell bikes are not going to make you buy something that you don't need, if you want it they will get it for you but they try to match you to the bike you need and to the one you are asking for. It is a pretty cool place.

Please don't bump up old, left for dead threads.