alfaspider

i lve in sacramento.now all we have are trek and specialized bikes.. nice thing about performance bike.. great selection of bikes, tires.. etc.. trek and specialized dont carry much stuff..

BillRS22

Yeah, I miss their local shop that used to be in the Chicago area. Bill

urbanknight

It's kind of love/hate for me. They swooped in with "LBS's" and drove other stores out of business, then raised their prices, and finally packed up and left town. Lucky for me we have a few strong independent shops which survived and are back to providing quality service with decent prices. Never had a problem with Performance's selection or service, but they left us high and dry when it didn't suit them to have physical stores anymore.

For what it's worth, Amain owns Performance and Nashbar, and is just a short 90 minutes away from Sacramento.

jon c. 

They were going to open a store across the street from my LBS. But they hit the financial skids and ended their retail operations before the store opened.

Didn't end up mattering as my LBS ended up closing their doors up a couple of years later anyway,

Nyah

I miss being able to go into a store to buy a $7 fleece, quality, store-brand earband. I'm wearing one right now that I got from them., but wish I could get more.

noimagination

I don't recall them ever penetrating the NE U.S., I went to a physical store once (in Md) close to the end, though I didn't know they were ending at the time.
I used to order online all of the time, though. I figure about 75-80% of my gear and consumables was from them. Parts, and anything I didn't have experience with (e.g. cycling shoes/pedals for my wife who had never ridden clipless, disk brake pads when I got a new bike; pin wrench for an eccentric BB, stuff like that) I would normally get at the LBS, along with some advice.
The online store is still up, but when they "downsized" I found alternatives, so I spread my purchases out a lot more now.

Steel Charlie

Yeah, but Chico is not exactly the hot shopping destination for Sacramento area residents

bblair

We had one here too. They had a large inventory of clothes, helmets, shoes etc. that a small LBS simply can't afford to stock. Tires and chains I can buy online, but clothing is not as predictable. Now we are stuck with the buy-and-return scenario, same as other consumer goods.

skidder

They had their own unique quirks that differentiated them from other bike shops, while the current on-line shop is nothing different from all the other on-line bike shops. I liked the 'wall of tools' in the shop that was near me, great if you liked to do your own wrenching. Their house-brand tires were a great deal, too; yep they were noticeably heavier than other brands, but inexpensive and road nicely enough for the 'beater' and 'rehab'd' bicycles I like to ride. There house-brand fingerless gloves were one clothing item I liked, too.

prj71

You're in luck!!! We have the internet and hundreds of online stores to buy things from. They carry lots of stuff!!!

Rolla

I was never a fan, but I understand the need that Performance shops fulfilled. The REI bike department seems to be a pretty close facsimile.

2old

I had the good fortune to have three stores within 10 or so miles, and miss them too. Some of their products were exemplary, probably because they had great buying power. It was always handy to have a bike shop that was open until 9PM if I needed something at the last minute. Fortunately I'm still enjoying many products purchased on their last day 90% off sale.

Squeeze

I miss their inexpensive Forte store-brand tires. At one point, I had 26" x 1.75" Forte Gotham tires on my commuter, 700x25 Forte tires on my older road bike, 700x38 Forte Greenway tires on my wife's bike, and 26" x 2.0" Dartmoor tires on both of my kids' bikes.

Keefusb

I have the Forte Gotham 700c x 35 tires on mine and my wife's Cannondale hybrids. They are cheap, smooth, and very flat resistant.

veganbikes

There service department at least near me was atrocious, thankfully it wasn't them that put the local shop out of business it was Trek a couple years later. I guess they had some cheap stuff that was semi-decent but nothing that exceptional. I think I remember them having 105 in a display case like some shops might display Campagnolo Super Record or Dura Ace or something like that, Not knocking 105, it is a solid workhorse groupset but nothing fancy.

Camilo

For those of us who didn't have an urban center with good variety of shops and available shops, Nashbar and Performance printed catalogs were just a god send. I still have some "relaxed" tights and wind pants - as well as a bunch of hardware items and jerseys - that gotta be 25+ years old. The house band stuff they sold was always good quality for a good price and lots of variety. When they evolved into online, that was good too. The New Performance is OK at best, but not my first go-to any more for online.

79pmooney

They had some house brand clothing and shoes that were just plain excellent for winter, no style points needed riding. 20 years ago I bought their mesh tank T for 19 bucks. Liked wearing it enough that I bought another. Ultimately more than a half dozen so I could wear a clean pair for every commute. And now? Every one is as good as new except a little greyer. (Get worn less now but that is only because the expensive Patagonia Ts are so comfortable.)

I also bought one polypropylene jersey. So-so fit, not good enough to be seen. I'd had poor luck with polypropylene in the past so I didn't have high hopes but I needed the long sleeves. Well, 20 years later, it is still my long sleeve under jersey for 30-50F because it works so well! Wore it today and without thinking about it per say, remarked to myself that once again I nailed it for comfort.

Performance also nailed it with the house brand shoes they carried for years. Eventually I learned they were Lakes (when I finally saw Lakes at another shop and compared).

icemilkcoffee 

My former commute-to-work Performance Focus bike:

made of Tange Prestige tubing (stiff).
Performance rebranded a bunch of products under their Forte house brand. For example, Wellgo MG8 magnesium SPD pedals, ITM quill stems, and Microshift brifters were all rebranded into Forte products. These were manufacturers who maybe just missed the cut for tier 1, but they were solid products nonetheless. They were not peddling junk at all. In that sense Performance was much more than just a retailer. They worked hard to establish their own bikes and product lines.

Steel Charlie

I have no idea what caused the demise of the storefronts, but in the Sacramento area the two stores that I dealt with had absolutely horrible locations and so invisible that searching was required for the first visit.

Juan Foote

My favorite aspect of Performance was the clothing. They had things that actually fit tall clydes. The "elite" shorts were quite comfortable and wore well. Their selection on bikes here in Atl was pretty much on par with BD except that you could actually ride it. I picked up a GT city type bike not long before they closed, never even got in for the free tune up, lol. Unless I want to shop Trek/Bontrager or a really small Specialized shop the nearest LBS with good variety is up in Atlanta.

Leinster

I used to go into the Performance and REI next to each other in Santa Rosa, and can confirm.

I liked Performance; they had all the basics and more. Their staff was usually pretty knowledgeable. I have stuff from them that I bought in the mid-00’s that’s still going strong.

Leinster

The Santa Rosa store had parking in the back. So the only entrance they had open was the back door. So if you actually biked up to the front of the store, you might not know it was there.

genejockey 

They had a store in San Mateo, less than a mile from my house. They didn't have everything I needed, but they did have the mundane stuff, like tubes, or water bottles.

Camilo

In addition to the stuff I mentioned in my post above, two of my favorite bibs of all time were IIRC, both the Ultra and Elite bibs they sold years ago. I ordered some a couple of years ago from the New Performance and they weren't the same and I didn't like them. I thought both the Elite and Ultra were about as good as anything I've ever worn even at 3X the price.

79pmooney

I still have Forte/Wellgo LOOK Delta pedals I'm riding now. Yes, cheap pedals and I do not expect them to go forever, but 10-15k miles? No sweat and no issues at all. (I absolutely fear unclipping at the wrong moment and crashing hard. Clipless will never go on one of my fix gears as and soon as I have my first doubt, they are off my geared bikes. I will not invest enough money to feel "wedded" to any clipless. By contrast, I still love the redundancy and safety of cleats and toestraps.)

And their cheap house brand gloves. They fit nicely, wore a long time and disappeared riding.