Good entry level bike shop in palo alto.

[merckx89]

Ok, so basically I have a friend who is up at stanford for the summer and needs a bike to get around campus. Since I don't know any of the bike shops up there I can't really help him out much, but figured you guys would be able to. He said he's looking for something as cheap as possible, so a hybrid or inexpensive mountain bike. He checked out the shop on campus and the cheapest thing they had in the store was 550$. I think he would be good with something in the 300-400 range, so if you guys could suggest a shop that would be able to help him out. He also knows nothing about bikes so craigslist is pretty much out of the question because he won't know whether he's getting ripped off or not. Any help would be appreciated.

[ifox]

Craigslist.

If he wants to go to real bikeshop, than there are Mike's Bikes, Bike Connection and Performance (this one is in Mountain View, but not too far).

PS: how tall is your friend? I'm about to sell my old MTB ('04 Specialized Rockhopper). The frame is 17". PM me if interested.

[merckx89]

Problem with craiglist is he has a good chance of getting ripped off as I would not be able to take a look at the bike first. He's about 6' so a 17 would probably be a little small, but I'll let him know. How far are those shops away from the campus?

[ifox]

Mike's and Bike Connection are pretty close. Thay both on El Camino. BC is closer to the campus.
Here are the maps.

Mike's (the campus is to the upper left corner) :

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3001+El+Camino+Real,+Palo+Alto,+CA&sll=37.564174,-122.159729&sspn=1.145166,1.842957&ie=UTF8&ll=37.423003,-122.142756&spn=0.008964,0.014398&t=h&z=16


Bike Connection (campus is to the left side of the map):

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2011+El+Camino+Real,+Palo+Alto,+CA&sll=37.432818,-122.151318&sspn=0.03585,0.057592&ie=UTF8&ll=37.428746,-122.149065&spn=0.008963,0.014398&t=h&z=16


In Mike's talk to Vee. In BC talk to Mike. Both are general managers of the stores and great guys.

[ifox]

Forgot to mention. There's also Palo Alto Bicycles shop in downtown Palo Alto.
But I have no experience with them.

Performance is further away from these three. Maybe your friend can take a bus (VTA 22, if I don't mistake) to Mountain View. Performance is located closer to intersection of El Camino Real and Rengstorff Ave. Oh, and there's also Off-Ramp bike shop in the same are where Performance is.

[2WheelTard]

There also the Campus Bike Shop (http://campusbikeshop.com/) located on the Stanford Campus in Tressiter Square (I hope I'm spelling that right) next to the Treehouse Restaurant. They usually have very good deals on new and used bikes as well a limited selection of components and accessories (my friend got a brand new Jamis hard tail for <200 during one of their sales).

[1jacktripper]

There's also Cardinal Bikeshop that's right outside of College Terrace, and they sell used-bikes as an even cheaper alternative.

[richardmasoner]

There also the Campus Bike Shop (http://campusbikeshop.com/) .

+1 on Campus Bike Shop; a friend of mine is the service manager there.

Palo Alto Bicycles is one of the more expensive shops in the Bay Area. The staff are mostly helpful, but you'll pay for the privilege. It's mostly high end everything. Very nice bikes and gear, but it might be a bit much for the beginner who just wants to tool around town.

Menlo Velo in neighboring Menlo Park has a great selection of commuter bikes and stuff, but you've got to put up with an exceptionally old school curmudgeon.