Originally Posted by P2SL Marc
I too use Bow Cycle as my LBS. I have found in the past that they can be a bit slow and you have to hound them sometimes to get stuff done, but I have always found them to be friendly and do high quality work.
Also over the past year that I've been using them I have worked up relationships with the the guy that works the parts counter and a few of the mechanics. Having done this I find that I always get parts and labour at a 20% discount and will usually be bumped ahead if my bike needs work. On a few occasions I've brought my bike right before closing and had a few guys actually stay after hours just to get my bike done (on the 3 times this happend they charged me no labour, only a 6 of pill (canadian beer))
However I have had some problems getting them to do work when I've dropped my bike off, but a phone call every day seems to move the work along fine.
I've bought 1 bike, had a fixed gear built up on a frame I supplied and am in the process of buying a frame for a new road bike from them. With the service I get and the discount they give me I have no problem going through them.
I heart bow cycle, haha!
I think part of the "problem" is that I do most of my own service work, if not all. It's hard for me to buld a rapport with a shop because I don't usually go in for repairs. In the last 5 months I've built 3 bikes from the frame up and built a wheel for my SS. I'm sure that the people who are in the shop every other week will get preferential treatment, but I dropped $4k there, and one would think that I might get a wee break on the service. If they had assembled the bike for me [it took me a couple of hours, mostly because I couldn't figure out how to fish the cables through the frame], I can say that Bow would be my New Best Friend. Now, they're a half-step in front of the Bike Shop [motto: Profit Uber Alles].
