karrar

The dealer locator on their site doesn't work at the moment, but does anyone know of any FOCUS dealers in the DC area?

makeitso5005

Can always fall back to Performance

karrar

they are a big corporate outfit aren't they? i bought a bike from city bikes and really liked them. wish i could go back to score a cyclocross bike for commuting but they don't carry any of the brands/bikes im looking at.

entukay

Speedgoat Cycles up in PA is a dealer, not sure what they have in stock, but looks like they have the 09's on sale right now... Might be worth a drive up, because I'm almost positive no one closer sells them.

https://www.speedgoat.com/

I highly recommend these guys.

Quel

Performance is the only one as far as I can tell. Lots of their employees are clueless, but a few are decent, and you appear to already know what you want so that isn't a problem anyways. I'd rather deal with the clueless Performance employees than the hipster snob City Bikes employees.

mzeffex 

Yep. Performance. I still find it funny when I went in there one time with my Giant and the manager says "Wow.. nice bike! We don't see "real" bikes in here very much"

Quel

I went to the one in Rockville to help my sister buy a bike. She wanted something cheap because she isn't sure she'll actually use it much. I tried sitting back and letting the salesmen deal with her. He told her that womens bikes are different from mens bikes because of the wide saddle (no mention of a shorter top tube). Then he explained why: "Because women have wider hips. You know, because of child birthing. The uterus". Then he told us that he was fired from Revolution Cycles. In 5 minutes, he brought up that he was fired from another bike shop and somehow brought her uterus into the sales pitch. It was truely one of the more pathetic things I've seen in recent memory.

mzeffex 

That's pretty good. Clearly he was fired for a reason.

karrar

ok so, haha, go to performance if i really want that 2011 focus mares... and just go up and ask for it, pay the down payment and walk out... before someone starts talking about my balls. I'll troll the other DC bike shops looking for a Felt dealer as well, maybe try to catch some sales on '10 model bikes too. the Fuji and bianchi cyclocross bikes look nice if i can find it marked down a lot.


oh and how is that Giant treating you, i looked at their cross bikes as well, the low end one is in my budget, know anything about it?

LaSarthe

I have to vouch for the DC area Performance here (Franconia). Excellent service from their guys if they know you spent some money there. I bought a Scattante and they're pretty much hanging on my every word whenever I wheel it in. Some examples:

My rear wheel came out of dish for some reason and the tire was starting to rub on one of the chainstays. They re-dished it free of charge. This was even after telling them I bought the wheels as an upgrade - they did not come with the stock bike.

Pedal "claw" on the right pedal started wearing really badly for whatever reason. They were some Performance brand ones and they replaced them with a pair of $100 pedals off the shelf for free, no questions asked.

Pretty sure I'm going to continue spending money there.

Edit: Also theres a multistory carpark next to the metro station not far from the store. Its a good place to try out your ride.

karrar

good to hear.

Jeepnut22 

Hit or Miss with Performance.

Had a salesman out here at the Reston shop talk me out of the full carbon Fuji bike they had on clearance this Spring and said I should get the BMC I was considering at the same time as well. Said it was a much better bike with some reasons behind his recommendation.

Then there are times when I am in the same shop and the sales people there could care less that customers even exist. *sigh*

I prefer my smaller Mom & Pop type LBS as the service is consistent AND excellent.

ultraman6970

It will sound cruel but... at some level the lbs wont have a single stuff of what you need. Besides the prices are just ridiculous sometimes. In those cases INTERNET is the best walled friend you can get, besides... even if you buy over the phone the guy will be more helpful than the summer kid saleman or the quasi-hot-chick that works at performance for example.

Jeepnut22 

Absolutely NONE of those at any of the Performance shops I have ever been to...

slothlike

I got this at JensonUSA during their July 4th sale for $2K with Ultegra 6700. I swapped out wheels, seat post and saddle with stuff I had but it came with some nice Mavic Aksiums and a Prologo saddle that I already sold on Ebay and made some $. It doesn't matter where you buy this bike from, just do it if you can find a good deal. Jensen was awesome to deal with and no tax, free shipping. This bike is just as good as my bikes that cost 2-3x more.

ultraman6970

DC will be too expensive, all the high end shops in DC are just nuts, and performance do not even have the bikes on the store to look at them or something, besides the price will be way up there.

If i was the OP i would just find one around, check out the sizing then go and find one at the web maybe for 700 to 1000 bucks less than in the shop.

Sounds cruel anyways but for 500 bucks is a fair deal to do it.

karrar

cool, good advice. thanks everyone