Originally Posted by YoHeartFrijoles
I just moved from Brookline to Southie - the best spot in/around Brookline is Boston Bicycle on Beacon St. by Park Drive/Fenway. Their sister store called Cambridge Bicycles on Mass Ave near Kendall Sq. is also solid. Harris Cyclery is lauded as the best spot, but they are out in Newton. I've had mixed results at International Bicyle on Brighton St. PM me if you seek other info.
Do not shop at International. Please. Terrible service, overpriced, unbelievably overpriced labor rates.
Broadway Bikes in Cambridge is good. Harris Cyclery in West Newton (very close to some parts of Brookline, so I'd say you should check them out. It's a 10 minute ride for me from Brighton Center.) is great. Cambridge/Boston Bikes are OK, but they are overpriced, and are well known for trying to push buyers into stuff they don't want/need. Example: I went with a friend to Cambridge Bikes to get a 1" threaded road fork, as he wanted a front brake on his older non-drilled De Bernardi track frame. He wanted the cheapest fork they had. The guy who runs the shop wouldn't even admit to the fact they HAD used road forks. He just kept pushing a silly bladed air-foil aluminum fork that my friend definately didn't want, and everytime we asked about anything cheaper/used, he was like "Oh, we don't deal with much of that....you want this!!". Eventually we got the kid who works in the back (nice dude, rides that big chopper at CM) to show us the stock of used forks (they had at least 20 in the service area), found a cheap chromed fork, and brought it up to the dude up front to pay for it. Not cool.