lotek 

At the suggestion of a Cranky & Vintage regular I'm opening this
thread (and sticking it) as a place to post your classic/vintage friendly bike shops.
For the purpose of the thread the shop doesn't have to carry C&V bikes/components
but can include recommendations of shops that have wrenches who know/appreciate/work on
classic bikes.
I'd suggest a simple format of shop name, location (city state country etc) and a brief
description of whats available.
Use Title field to name shop and city/state/ etc. looks like title isn't working, nevermind.
for example:

Richardson Bike Mart - Richardson (dallas area) Texas, USA - good shop for vintage repairs knowledgeable staff when it comes to vintage components.

Marty

Mhendricks

Here are some in my neck of the woods. I didn't give descriptions because these shops have websites.

https://www.classicrendezvous.com/Bik...ightweight.htm

https://www.classicrendezvous.com/Bik...o_bikeshop.htm

The last one is my LBS. It's Slough's. Located in San Jose, California. George has been in business for a long time. Mostly dealing in newer stuff now but still has beautiful Italian bikes and frames from the 70's. Older campy parts, vintage jerseys and shoes, and more stuff than I could list here.

YoKev

Woodstock, NY

Check out Old Spokes behind Taco Juans. No phone number, just show up between 12-5 on Sunday (those are the hours I know...there may or may not be weekday hours). Michael runs it. The door to the barn may be open, but he may be walking around town. Just hang around and wait.

Overlook Mountain Bikes, also in Woodstock right on Tinker St across from the library. Has 3-speed cables and a small selection of tires. Loves bikes.

Bike Brothers in Kingston, NY. Pretty good with the old road stuff, from what I hear.

CV-6 

Good...but the idea is to put the info here for easy reference.

That said, A-1 Bicycles located at 10211 Manchester in Kirkwood (St Louis), MO. Ray Florman, Jr is the owner, his dad was THE Ray Florman, who made John Howard possible, among other things. The wrenches there know vintage bikes and will order special items for you. They also have some vintage fixit parts. I got some Araya Aero rim washers and Suntour Superbe cones from them.

cuda2k

The Bicycle Exchange in Carrollton, Texas (suburb of Dallas).

This IS a vintage bicycle shop. I've only visited once, but it was like walking back in time with vintage raleigh, schwinn and more lining the walls. From what I remember they put the bikes back to original equipment as much as possible. Been a while since I've been down there though.

USAZorro

Harrisburg, PA - Pedal Pushers
Mechanicsburg - World Cup Ski & Cycle

jgedwa

Merv 's in the greater Stoughstown (Pa) metroplex area.

He is my hero.

crackerjack

Who is this Sheldon Brown?

Harris Cyclery
617-244-9772
1353 Washington Street
West Newton, Massachusetts 02465

redcaymatt

Steve at the bike stand is great. He has some N.O.S. parts & a great collection of vintage lightweights. The staff is friendly & will go out of their way to help you. Steve built my Redcay touring bike & has worked on a few of my other vintage bikes. If your in N.J. give him a try.

https://www.thebikestand.com/home.html

cudak888 

There are few, if any, VLW-friendly (or vintage bicycle friendly) I can think of here in Miami - the ones that appriciate them don't usually do the best repairs, and the ones that will do good VLW repairs are a$$holes.

The two that make the grade are the following:

Tamiami Cyclery on 6348 SW 8th St. West Miami FL 33144. Good repairs, VLW friendly, but a bit cramped on space. Fellow has some vintage parts, but not much. Orlando, the owner and sole employee is friendly and easy to work with.

Bike Tech on 2220 Sw 22 Ave, Miami, FL 33145 - also good repairs, but the quality of service depends on the associate you speak with - store manager Marcelo is best, as he has an appriciation for VLWs, unlike some of the other robots on the floor. VLW parts are 'across the street' as well (you'll understand if you were standing on the sidewalk in front of this Bike Tech), but are not worth your effort (if you get what I mean).



-Kurt

Katzenjammer

YellowJersey.org in Indiana. They do good remote sales.

(edit: .ORG, not .com. I always goof that up!)

cudak888 

EDIT: Whoops! Wrong Yellow Jersey!

Meant to say that YJ.org was a tad on the overpriced side.

-Kurt

iab

YellowJersey.org in Madison, WI, not to be confused with YellowJersey.com, is very helpful and friendly.

mswantak

Witt's Bicycle Shop in Hayward, CA. 510-538-8771

Clarence Witt has been a Raleigh dealer since the early '70s. Still has some NOS around at low prices, and is always more than willing to take the time to explain the obvious and answer dumb questions (yes, I know this from experience. )

chocula

Star Bike Shop in Savannah, Georgia:

https://yp.bellsouth.com/sites/starbike/index.html

Star even has a "In-Store Nostalgia Museum."

nlerner

Harris is certainly the go-to shop in the Boston area, but another one I like is Ferris Wheels in Jamaica Plain (https://www.ferriswheelsbikeshop.com/). They've had some obscure C&V parts over the years, and haven't charged for things like removing a freewheel. Good place.

Neal

mastershake916

College Cyclery
2760 21st St
Sacramento, CA 95818
(916)-456-2042
They've been there for ages.
Also there's a schwinn place on Broadway.

10speed

madison & davidson bicycles, 8th & jefferson, quincy,Il old schwinn dealer, sells trek now, but the original owner from 1947 still at the desk. They even have him touch a wrench every now n then but what a resource for ealy schwinn & raliegh bikes.Definite stop if your biking down Old Miss on a century.

russian fighter

Anyone know good ones the Chicago area? Boulevard Bikes can be helpful for repairs, but they don't stock/sell anything vintage.

amnomad

They were the only place on the planet, well in town anyway that I could find 7mm bolts for my moto

mandrake

+1 on yellowjersey.com (madison,wis.). I have emailed them questions and they have always responded helpfully and promptly, even though I bought anything from them. Seem to be nice people.

mandrake

make that yellowjersey.org (I have it bookmarked and forgot the suffix).

Katzenjammer

I invariably goof up the YJ suffix too, for the same reason. *sigh*

mrmw

Atlanta, Decatur.

Bicycle South
2098 North Decatur Road
404-636-4444

https://bicyclesouth.com/

Very VLW sympathetic wrench (Lee), and several of the floor staff too. I can't say enough good things about this shop. The only VLW shop I've found in the metro-Atlanta area.

Road Fan

Here are several:

George Garner Cyclery, in Northbrook, Illinois. This is the midwest branch of THE George Garner Cyclery that was so instrumental in the growth of Schwinn and the birth of the Paramount. Now sell Specialized and some others, but the staff remember their heritage. It's still mainly an LBS, so I didn't see any C&V on the stand, but the staffer I met was able to speak intelligently about them.

Wastyn Cycles, Fullerton Avenue, Chicago. Owned by the son of Oscar Wastyn, who was also one of the drivers in the birth of the Paramount. 5 to 10 great old machines on display.

Roberts Cycles, North Clark Street, Chicago. Current owner maintains previous (my former employer) owner's philosophy that if you run a bike shop, you must be capable of working on any bike. Former (as many others) importer of Holdsworth, back in the day sold Raleigh, Peugeot, Gitane, and Fiorelli.

Gary's Cycles, North Clark Street, Chicago. Store in place since at least 1950, my childhood LBS. Owned by original owner's son. Gary's BSA racing bike is hanging on the wall, and the shop looks exactly as I recall, but no Raleigh Superbes or Internationals are on the racks anymore.

RRB Cycles, Green Bay Road, Kenilworth, Illinois. Ron Boi (and brother) is one of the better frame builidng and servicing locations in the Midwest and perhaps farther away. Ron has an active business in custom bikes, selling bikes to the neighborhood as an LBS, supporting his customer's products, and selling modern performance and sport machines. One of his custom frames, with Tange Aero tubing, was used by an RAAM winner (would that I recalled better!) and at least was planned to be placed in the Smithsonian. I can't confirm that it is there. I needed my Trek 610 aligned and wanted to have the trail increased, and Ron did the job to perfection. A guru of C&V bikes.

The Pony Shop, Evanston, Illinois. This has been in place since the early '70s if not longer. May still be a good repair place, not really sure.

Sportif Importers, Lawrence Avenue, Chicago. A big shop with lots of display space. Some unsold vintage frames are hanging from the ceiling, Paris-Sport, and Nishiki. Character of the shop is as it was 30years ago: We are here to sell and support product, and we will help you as much as we can with that. We do not have time to chat. Lots of good NOS parts in a display case.

Ridge Cyclery, Ridge Road, Highland, Indiana. Most shops in Northwest Indiana are Trek corporate stores, it seems. Ridge takes the niche to support family bikes, and any other old stuff someone brings in, for a suitable parts/labor pricing. Not to say they're gougers, just you won't get a $100 job done for $50 just because the bike is worth $20. The best part is, he has many old top-grade parts on hand, he has a few sources for vintage high-end parts, the owner loves C&V, and has some NIB vintage lightweights. He keeps a low profile because he has core business that keeps him fully occupied.

I hope that will keep you Chicagoans busy! It's a big city, there are a LOT of shops, and many of the LBSs have career bike folks that know how to handle the old stuff, and can teach the young'uns.