crustedfish

where do you do most of your shopping?

why do you love your LBS so much? (or hate it?)

how many LBS's are within 5 miles from you?

support your LBS..

randy

Jonny B

3 shops in my local little town, about 6 miles out. One is the Bee's Knees, they even have a Surly Fixxer in stock! Everything from a new lock ring to my Fort frame, and everything else besides. The other two are crap; one steals kids bikes (or has them stolen for him) and sells them on at rediculous prices (so I've heard), the other sells motorbikes and electric old people scooters, I don't with that one.

Poguemahone

Fantastic Thrift is my fave LBS, followed closely by Diversity thrift, the Goodwill Auction, and Southside thrift.

Of course, their service department(s) don't exist as such, but who needs a service department? Prices can't be beat.

This pops up now and then, but my experiences with the LBSs here in Richmond have been so all-out bad I use the LBSs as parts bins of last resort. Rowlett's is the best; at least they have some clue what a bike is. Might feel different if I'd found them earlier in my stay in Richmond, but there you have it. LBSs are pretty much the entire reason I do all my own work and buy second-hand bikes.

khuon

My FBS is my ex-LBS from when I lived about 20 miles to the north of where I am now. I still go to them because they know me, have great prices, always cut me deals and generally treat me very nicely. I'm friends with the owners. There is one shop that's a couple of miles from me and I frequent them too. They also know me and treat me pretty nicely and I buy small items or sometimes parts from them but my major purchases still go to my FBS. There are a few more shops around the area too but they generally seem pricier and don't have that great a selection. I will admit to trolling around from time to time for discount/closeout items from various shops... especially clothing.

familyman

Only psuedo close LBS is 15 miles away. I try to do business there, I really do. They're clueless, complete idiots. Last time I was there I tried to get an Italian BB for my Pinarello. I brought the frame in to make sure it would fit. Not only didn't they have one in stock, once they tried an english bottom bracket and it didn't fit (even though I TOLD them it was Italian) they just handed back the frame and said it didn't fit. I asked them if they could measure to figure out what would fit. The main guy kinda looked at me and sighed and said "I guess so" So he measured it and said he'd call me if he could figure out what I needed.
I came home and ordered it from Harris Cyclery. I try to be good and buy local but unless you own a brand new trek that they sold you then they have no idea what the hell is going on.
It makes me sad.

lucklust

Performance Bike. They're half the price of everyone else in town (Marin County is $$$) and they all know me by name (and vice versa). Unfortunately, I had to buy my Bianchi at a different shop, and have been hating life ever since.

BlastRadius

Yeah, I spend a lot of dough at Performance in Redwood City. The Team Performance 10% back is awesome.

My LBS in San Bruno is cool but they rarely have the parts I want. I do let have them work on stuff I don't have the tools to work on like installing headset races and cups. They also only sell Specialized, blech.

Valencia Cyclery has a great service dept and carry many hard to find parts.

American Cyclery is pretty good too. Nice bunch of guys. It's just a pain to get to from San Bruno.

The Freewheel on Valencia is good too, and is where I bought my Bianchi Axis. They have a nice selection of Bianchi's, Kona's, and accessories too. One disappointment is when I went to look at a Pista and the guy tried snowing me about how the Pista frame is so much better than a SOMA Rush frame.

OneTinSloth

well...if you're looking to race it on the track, the pista's angles might be "better" than the rush's. i think the rush is a little too loose, for my tastes, as far as rear wheel to seat tube clearance goes, but i could be making that up...i like the freewheel. but i wouldn't call them "local" to me. i haven't had enough money to really have any experience with many of the shops in berkeley...but from what i can judge this is my list and reasons why:
1) Recycle on sacremento in berk. because they're right down the street from my house and they have a friggen used parts ROOM! with everything organized into filing cabinets and different bins.

2) momovelo. because they have tons of nifty specialty stuff, and because kai is rad and was telling me about how he can get an entire gold pista kit from japan (gold nitto bars/stem/seatpost, gold izumi chain, saddle with gold rails, and gold chainrings, all NJS, of course).

3) velo sport. because they're friendly as hell, and seem to be one of the larger shops in berkeley that actually sell track bikes and parts. everywhere else i've gone into with one of my trackies the service people have been super snooty...

which leads me to my least favorite shop in berkeley:
Mike's Bikes and saulsolito cyclery on university.
they seem to do a lot of high-end mountain and road bikes, and of course the first thing you see when you walk in is a bunch of clothes...i hate shops like that. if i wanted to go to a clothing store, i'd go to a clothing store. i went there my first week in town looking for a mechanic job, wound up talking to their head wrench for a while, a sort of informal interview, and at one point he actually said "bro, no offense, but that bike doesn't have any gears on it..." this was after i had told him that i built five bikes of my own including a road and a trials bike...he wouldn't hire me because he "couldn't take the time to teach me how to work on disc MTB brakes." he then said to keep checking back because they might need someone to help out changing a tire some day. and he also gave me his personalized business card. ****ing prick. that's really the only shop that i avoid like the plague here.

Missing Link is a cool shop, and they have tools that anybody can use for free, but they don't have a lot of track stuff, and every time i've been in there they didn't have at least one thing i or one of my friends were looking for...also one guy looked at me funny because i wanted to switch from STIs to downtube shifters on my road bike and wouldn't accept pod shifters as a suitable alternative...then again, my face twisted in horror when the words "how about pod shifters?" came out of his mouth. it's a reflex i have to poor technology.

i could go on to extoll the virtues of, and deride a bunch of shops in the boston area, but this post is getting too long.

roadfix

Budget Pro Bikes in LA.....5 miles
Helen's in Santa Monica.....20 miles
Supergo in Santa Monica...... 20 miles

fixedgearhead

There is no local LBS worth visiting if you are fixed oriented in Central Ohio. This place is Schwinn Varsity Heaven. The only thing that I could possibly buy here is brake cable. Oh yea, thats right, I don't run brakes on my almost all of my bikes; and on the one that I do, I never use the front brake more than once a month to see if the cable is still intact. Seriously, There is one shop that tries to be a "Pro Shop" in that it has Higher end multi-geared race bikes but it is very snooty and if you are not part of their scene, they ignore you. I tried to special order something from them a number of years ago, before I discovered Harris Cyclery and other Internet sources. When I checked back after not hearing from them after 2 weeks they said that they had not ordered the item as they did not have a big enough order to place for that one item so they were waiting to get a few more items to combine with mine to make the order "Worthwhile". Thank god for the internet. If you live out in the sticks it is your only hope of salvation. I hope the local shops can survive without my help as they have no relevance to my needs. Actually I couldn't care less.

fixedgearhead

trekkie820

hicksville isn't the best place for fixed/ss cycling, huh? Similar things here in Bowling Green. Two bike shops, neither of them even carry a single fixed/SS bicycle, except a cruiser or two. The place to be is in Cleveland, called Eddy's Bike Shop. Lots of sales and discounts if you are a member of CAMBA like me.

fixedgearhead

I know that shop and it is great. The trouble is they are 80 miles from where I live. That is 160 miles round trip. Frankly, it is easier/cheaper ordering via the internet with no wait for service; when you factor in gas/wear and tearon the vehicle, and time involved in that much travel, to say nothing of the tax advantage, which may not last. I think that bike shops that will survive, are the ones that embrace the internet sales presence and potential, and expand their customer base. Look at Harris Cyclery, for example. they are a small New England town bike shop with Major internet sales. They did it via Internet presence. I think that fixed gear is a Major City Phenomenon, for local sales, and will remain such until the cows come home. It will only change if the cows, somehow, discover fixed gear riding. Now there is a visual that I would like to witness.

fixedgearhead

trekkie820

They give a sweet deal...when you buy a bike, you get lifetime adjustments(if it is geared and/or has brakes) not to mention a sh*tload of extras. I made the mistake of not buying my Trek there. But, the 80 miles is too much of a haul i'll grant you. But for me, its 10 miles away, and i frequently ride my bike there when im in Cleveland. God bless the internet in your case!

svwagner

Revolution Cycles

Good wrenches, deep used parts bins, always a fixie in the window.

khuon

Several weeks ago, some punks must have decided it would be fun to steal one of the two clamp-jaws off the support arms that secure the seatpost of bikes to my Hollywood Teamrider hitch rack. They simply unscrewed it and took it with them which is rather annoying because what are they going to do with just the clamp-jaws? Anyways, I went to my FBS and asked them if they could order me replacement parts.

Today, they called me and told me that Hollywood has discontinued that model of rack and didn't have any parts left. The bike shop however said they were looking around and found an old rack extension kit (allow the rack to carry two more bikes) in their warehouse which people had been scavenging other parts off. They told me they had two clamp heads for me (one as a spare) off it and that they should fit. I asked them how much and they told me they'd just give it to me for free. I seem to recall Hollywood pricing these things at around $25/ea. When I drove over there to pick up the clamps, I discovered they were still attached to support arms. The bike shop was giving me for free a set of replacement support arms too! I can't say enough about how well this shop has treated me over the years and have referred many customers to them. This would be Bothell Ski and Bike.

lucklust

Cool shops rock, uncool shops are LAME.

fixedgearhead

If you have a local bike shop that is great. Cherish and utilize it. If not the internet is a wonderful option which will eliminate all the deadwood local bike shops and not soon enough for me.

fixedgearhead

BlastRadius

ARGH! The second headset I have my LBS install, and the second one they F'up. The first one was a 1" threadless Cane Creek S2 and they forgot to put on the top compression ring/race. Luckily they didn't toss it in the trash or something.

Now on the second one, another Cane Creek S2 1" threadless which I had to buy elsewhere because they don't stock it, they somehow installed a 1 1/8" compression ring on the top bearing! How could you miss that since the ring is not snug sliding down the steerer! I'm gonna by a long threaded rod and start installing my own headsets. Sheesh.

Hunter

WHOA!

fixedgearhead

Ok the question is "Why is this bike shop 'cool'"? They sound to me like a possibly personally likable collection of incompetents. Like the song say's
"Fool me once shame on you,
Fool me twice, shame on me."
I suggest you go elsewhere for service, and have your "cool bicycle shop" experiences that are truly "cool".

Fixedgearhead

BlastRadius

They were cool when I dropped the bike off a few days ago...
They are NOT cool now that I got the bike back and actually tried installing
a stem and handlebars.

You're right though, I'm going to a different shop for service in the future,
and I may just fashion some tools to install and remove headset cups myself.

fixedgearhead

Headset cups are easy. Go down to your local hardware store and get a 3/8" threaded rod that is ling enough to pass through everything and 2 nuts and 2 Fender Washers. These are really large washers that have a hole that will accept the 3/8" rod. Just make sure that the washers will come into contact with outer edges of the headset and not any inner bearings that may be integrated, or you could damage the bearings. Slip the rod through the head tube and through the cups with the washers outside and lastly the nuts. Tighten the whole thing down, making sure you grease the bearing cup outside, and the head tube inside, before trying to install them in the head tube. Be sure also that the cups are in perfect alignment with the head tube before you start to torque down on everything. That's it. Snug that puppy down and you are done. Of course you could use this whole process to justify buying a nice Park Headset Bearing Press tool, but that justification is only necessary if you have to account for bicycle expenditures to your significant other.

Fixedgearhead

ImprezaDrvr

My favorite LBS is the only one around, and, for a change, it's a rural shop with some know-how. Scoreboard Sports in Gallup, NM. And I can usually afford to buy more stuff because of their used parts room and discount that I always get there. My roadie-fixie conversion, including the fancy rear hub, was well under $200 due to hook-ups with a chainring, bottom bracket and other misc parts that I didn't have in my parts bin. The guy is also up to speed on most stuff I've asked him about, or has found out for me if I was too lazy to look for information myself.

It helps that there are so many SS mountain bikers around here. I think I might have the only fixie for about 200 miles, but the SS guys are a lot more common so they see more SS stuff. And it's not that much different than fixie stuff, so it's an easy transition for them.

Close to that is the shop of choice in the town where I'm originally from, BUchanan's Bicycle Shop in Norman, OK. Cool guys that know about a lot and ride a crapload. Service is good. Oh, and they ride a crapload.

jimv

It sounds like you've done this sucessfully with Chris King headsets? It worked OK? I have a Park headset tool but was told that I'd need a special adapter from Chris King. I gave up on cheap headsets too and don't feel inclined to beat a King cup in with a block of wood and a hammer. If a large washer works then I should be able to flip the stepped cones of the Park over and use the large flats.....hmmm.

I've also become anal about facing the head tube on new frames. My guess is some manufactures don't reface after the frame is welded. My girlfriend's Steamroller ate an aheadset in 2 weeks because the headtube wasn't true....yike.

Jim

SipperPhoto

I literally have 7 LBS's I could go to within a 5 mile radius...

Switchback Cyclery in Orange--Mostly MTB stuff.. although I did notice a couple Lemonds on the floor when I peeked in the window when they were closed...

Jax Bikes--I got my wife's Specialized there... good people, ok on the knowledge... depends who you talk to.. Andre there, is the man.

Orange City Cycles--Small shop, nice enough people, need to learn how to use the air conditioner though... always stuffy, and hot in there.

Bike Alley-- 99% BMX gear... might be good for Fixie build up stuff. Never really been in there

Performance--Idiots work there.. a bunch of clerks... although I get good deals occasionally

Santiago Cycling--High Zoot racers go there... SUPER knowledgable people, very cool, small shop...

The PATH bike shop-- MTB Stuff, never been in there

Supergo is a few miles from wrok along with Buy my bikes in CApistrano...

damn... too many choices !

jeff