Originally Posted by bikinfool

Being from the area I'm curious as to which shops you visited; several are owned by friends of mine, too. Until I read that it was SF I was thinking winter staffing could be part of it but certainly the bay area is pretty good year round weather wise although the shops do have some seasonality to them still. Some of the shops do cater to specific audiences, that's very true. We don't have as many shops as we once did; Stanyan street certainly isn't what it was, although it's still pretty good. Frankly, hybrid bike shopping may not bring out the best in service from several shops I can think of. PM me if you don't want to broadcast names and I can give you some opinions...