Originally Posted by Stumprofig
Also, I gotta say that since I have had a less than stellar experience at literally every bike shop I've ever been to, I tend to view them as a means to an end (the end of having the bike I want in the right size) and leave service to James Carpenter in the East Village, who's rad and knows a lot about bikes, and is fair about pricing. Check his ad out on Craigslist. He deserves a plug.
I've always been able to find at least one shop in the area I live that has great service. Here in Austin 360 Cycleworks is about the best shop I've ever been in. They are always really friendly and the owner is one of those guys who always remembers your name. When I first moved here I went in and introduced myself and the first thing he did was give me free water bottle and really great map of all the rides in and around Austin. The service guys are always really helpfull and get my stuff done fast and right the first time. All this and I've never even bought a bike from them.
I just bought a new Pista myself. I bought it for two reasons first I needed something cheap to tow the kids around in the Burley and second because I've never owned a fixed gear bike and I didn't want to drop a ton of money on an unknown. Now that I have it I have found that I really like ridding a fixed gear bike and this is good case of "you get what you pay for". You can feel the lower quality of the components, I fist thought of up grading the drive train but I think I'll just keep this to tow the kids and build up a different frame set. I did however swap out the seat right away and added a brake and some bullhorns but thats as far as I'll take this thing.