Great Lakes - Best shop for service in Madison, WI?

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on the bike shops in Madison. It will be time to give the 3-year old Litespeed a full overhaul come the fall. With two little ones running about, I don't really have time to do it myself, so I am in search of recommendations about where to go for timely, quality service. Willy? Budget? Machinery Row? The Trek stores? Erik's? Elsewhere? I haven't used any of them for service before, and my experiences in visiting them to buy things have involved mostly garden-variety (i.e., usually apathetic, sometimes condescending) service.

So, any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks,

MSC

I recommend Exclusive Cycles in Verona.

You can get decent everyday service almost anywhere. You could also get about 12 answers from this forum.

Budget - Student shop, not the best wrenches, in my opinion. Inventory good. (They also sold me a too-small tube for a 700x28 wheel on Mr. Wiswell's commuter bike; it blew up, caboom, at only 80 PSI!)

Machinery Row - good wrenches, variety of brands, good service people, good inventory.

Williamson - decent wrenches, professional "sales" people (sometimes condescending service), good inventory. Too busy to give personalized service.

Erik's - decent, a little pricey for service (sales over service, IMO), ok inventory.

Yellow Jersey, Revolution - the boutique, Classic & Vintage experts. YJ is a bit, er, funky.

Trek - chain store, sales over service, ok inventory. Despite the fact they sell Madones, I sitll think of them as a "family/recreation" store.

If you want personalized service (as in, I am the same person who does the books, sells you your bike, builds your wheels, and does the wrenching), I would recommend Atkins in Verona (off Verona Rd, west of Main St), hands down (also includes power washing). If you don't want to drive that far, I would choose Machinery Row (MR's accessory prices are a bit high, however). Atkins lacks inventory and variety of bikes but for service, it's excellent. By fall the overhaul turn around should probably be relatively short (I was just down there Sat and it is currently a week). Not sure where the other stores are. One minus on Atkins are the hours. The only late night hours are Monday and Wednesday.

I hear rave reviews about Atkins in Verona, and in my experience Yellow Jersey does good work with prompt turnaround- however their ambiance doesn't appeal to all. I get good service at Machinery Row but be prepared for a slow turnaround for a lot of work (could be the same anywhere for a full overhaul). I don't know enough to compare prices.

I can't really comment on Willy, Erik's or the Trek Stores. I've taken my bikes to Budget before and there's often something that's not totally right when I get the bike back. I do most of my own work, but when I pay to get work done I want it to be done well.

I work at Erik's so I won't comment on who I think does the best service but I do agree with what Wiswell said (by and large). As for lead-out time when I was last at work on saturday, yay two days off, our wait on a repair was only a couple of days assuming you don't need anything more than basic parts. The reason for this: towards the end of the season we don't order quite so much breadth of parts so we may not have that 11-23 10spd cassette that you're looking for, for example.


I recommend Exclusive Cycles in Verona.

Why? To the best of my knowledge they're more of a boutique sales shop than a do-it-all service center. Though, if you've got a $5k road bike maybe that would be the place to go.

I should clarify my Erik's opinion (thanks for keeping me honest Severian). I haven't dealt with them too much, but since they sell my brand of bike I go in there on occasion for small stuff, accessory-wise. I think they are small enough (talking about Odana Rd) that they would give personalized service. They switched out a tube for me quickly and efficiently when I was too lazy to do it myself and didn't have the size on hand. I don't have any other service experience with them. I do like Erik's story about his business developed.

Budget owns Machinery Row, btw.

i think the wrenches at revolution are really good. they always give me the best prices when i go there to get little things like bolts, spacers, cogs, etc. plus they've saved me money by telling me how to fix things myself, and how to solve problems w/out spending money when i thought i had to buy something.

I should clarify my Erik's opinion (thanks for keeping me honest Severian). I haven't dealt with them too much, but since they sell my brand of bike I go in there on occasion for small stuff, accessory-wise. I think they are small enough (talking about Odana Rd) that they would give personalized service. They switched out a tube for me quickly and efficiently when I was too lazy to do it myself and didn't have the size on hand. I don't have any other service experience with them. I do like Erik's story about his business developed.

I like Erik. :)

He's a good man to work for. The company is much bigger than you'd expect most bike shops to be. And its a testament to his business savvy that he's as successful as he is for as young as he is.

What most folks here in Madison don't realize, though, is that Erik's as a company is about 80 percent in the Twin Cities and 20 percent here in madison. I'm at the new store on the east side, so give me a hollar some time if ya like.

i think the wrenches at revolution are really good. they always give me the best prices when i go there to get little things like bolts, spacers, cogs, etc. plus they've saved me money by telling me how to fix things myself, and how to solve problems w/out spending money when i thought i had to buy something.
I also like Revolution. Whenever I go in there, they take some time to show me things that I can do, and save me some cash. I have also had good experiences with Willy Bikes, but I haven't had work done anywhere else. I know some of the wrenches at MR and they are good mechanics.

+1 on Wiswell's post which pretty much covers it. She's been to more of the Madison LBS's than I have, and her comments jibe with my experiences and the LBS reputations that I'm aware of.

The one thing I'd add: Trek's west side store does have that "family/recreation" orientation. (One perk is your little kids can entertain themselves at the store's play table, depending on their ages.) Trek's other store on the east side caters more to serious cyclists.

Also, discounts: some Madison LBS's offer discounts to Bike Federation of Wisconsin members. The BFW website lists (http://www.bfw.org/membership/index.php) Yellow Jersey and Budget, though I thought others did too. Trek stores give a 10% discount to Princeton Club members.

These posts are extremely helpful - thanks for the tips!

I recommend both Machinery Row and Williamson.

I bought my Trek MTB at the Trek store. It's fine to buy a Trek from them, but get work done on your bike somewhere else.



I also like Revolution. Whenever I go in there, they take some time to show me things that I can do, and save me some cash.
+1. My experience exactly.

[QUOTE=sekaijin;7209271
Also, discounts: some Madison LBS's offer discounts to Bike Federation of Wisconsin members. The BFW website lists (http://www.bfw.org/membership/index.php) Yellow Jersey and Budget, though I thought others did too. Trek stores give a 10% discount to Princeton Club members.[/QUOTE]

I was just in Machinery Row (helps to work only two blocks away). They have the BFW discount also. At the moment, they are having good sales.

P.S. Hey, madcity, go local: madisonbiking.com

and we at Erik's also honor BFW if you've got your member card handy.

god I'm gonna sound like a shill by the end of this thread. sorry guys.

Cronometro

I'm two blocks away from Willy Bikes but I go a mile in the opposite direction to get to Machinery Row. I can't take three steps into the shop (even during their big clearance sale recently) without a friendly sales associate offering help.

I bought my bike there instead of at Willy because walking around Willy (west side) for ten minutes or so not a single associate would give me the time of day. The whole process from walking in the door, to test ride, to picking out accessories, to checkout took maybe twenty five minutes at Machinery Row. Their prices are a little higher but the service in my experience was a LOT better. The mechanics seemed really knowledgeable and were courteous as well.