MAK

I checked them out on BF before ordering and with no apparent major complaints ordered a Brooks B-17 narrow from ChainReactionCycles.com in England. Their price was cheaper, with shipping, than Nasbar and other US dealers, even without shipping and their general selection of items is huge. My saddle was ordered late on a Friday evening, shipped last Monday and arrived today. I even e-mailed a question which was answered in less than 12 hours. I

Fast, inexpensive and responsive...It's nice to be able to report a no problem experience.

...and my new saddle is so beautiful!!!

rekall

niagara cycle
jenson usa
aebike

i have had nothing but totally excellent customer service from all three. RECOMMENDED.

pwdeegan

my favorites, in no particular order (all fast with great service):

peter white cycles (puts the stud back in studded)
glenn swan cycles (if you can make it up the hill, glenn is hands down the best around Ithaca)
velo orange (retro and polished)
webcyclery (super nice guys, good senses of humor)
harris cyclery (aka the late, great sheldon brown)

i've also purchased things from jensonusa, and while the parts always arrive at spec, their "discount cards" never seem to work for me, which makes me feel cheap and used.

neilfein

A set of rubber STI shifter spacers were meant to be included with my Novara Randonee, but the ones for the right side were left out. I realized this some months after purchasing the bike, and called REI.

They not only mailed me the spacers, but sent along instructions and a nice note. They also emailed me to let me know they were on the way, and called me to follow up the email.

This isn't the first time they've fixed a problem with class. They've got my business for a long time. We just ordered $170 of stuff from them last night for an upcoming tour. (Intending to return the stuff that doesn't fit, but still...)

Geonz

Champaign Cycle sent me an email 'cause they pickedup Trek folding bike bags which the Dahon I bought there last year will fit in poyfeckly. Pretty obvious he got enough bags for those of us who got the folders last year and contacted us personally. $20 for a lot of vinyl is a sweet deal.

rsyb

For recumbents and recumbent gear: Hostel Shoppe

Always excellent advice and service.

noglider 

The manager at my local bike shop is fantastic. His first priority seems to be to please me and second to make money. I mean, it's almost bizarre. He gave me a pair of cleats and a stem Saturday rather than selling them to me. I don't even know why. He gave me excellent advice on relieving my foot numbness, though I haven't tried it yet. I did buy a few things while there, but really, I don't know why he is so nice to me. He knows about my odd hobby of fixing up old bikes, and I've never shown any interest in spending big money there.

OverTheHill

South Lyon Cycle is about 4 miles from my home, which makes it very convenient. This LBS is located in a small town setting, but does a brisk business because of the personal attention you receive. I can walk in to pick their brains about something and they drop everything to assist me.

I bought a silver rear rack for my wife's white Townie 21D, took it home and installed it on her bike. She didn't like how the color matched. A couple days later I called South Lyon Cycle and explained my dilemma. They said take it off the bike, bring it back and exchange it for the black rear rack she preferred. Their reply was that her being happy, is what's most important. Way to go South Lyon Cycle!

Ranger63

AE Bike.
Mel Pinto Imports
Loose Screws
Arts Bike shop (who had the sigma red computors when everyone else was out..and had em for under $16.00!)
Kool Bikes (mary Pfieffer did an awesome job on the Ross Paragon and Signature decals
Bicycle Classics
any of the folks over on Bicycle_Restoration (mark stonich for one)
and my favorite local bike shop Campus Cyclery who'll go out of their way to get the repair done for you TODAY.

xtrajack

Peter White Cycles,
Xtracycle,
Rock the Bike,
Cycle 9,
Auclair Cycle and Ski my favorite not so local LBS

stark23x

I cannot say enough nice things about the guys at College Street Cycles. I took my beat-up Xmart bike in there to get the suspension fork removed, and Bob went into their stock and found an old generic cromoly fork that would work. He took the bike at 1 PM, replaced the fork, adjusted the bottom bracket (it was over-tightened), and lubed the wheels, bb and chain. Called me at 6 PM to tell me it was ready. 65 bucks for everything, and the bike feels utterly different now. More controlled, and the BB is spinning smoothly, which it never has.

When I got there to pick it up, he and the other mechanic chatted with me about my future plans, the century I want to try, my current bike, the possibilities for future bikes, etc. We had a good general "bike guys" chat, and they treated this newbie with respect. It was a far cry from my last LBS experience. I really felt like they cared about what I needed, they were interested in my end of the conversation, etc. At one point I told them how much attitude I get from a certain other shop over my Xmart bike, and one of the guys said what a lot of people here say: If you're riding, then that is all that matters. Lots of people start on department store bikes until they learn what they need and what they want to accomplish.

I cannot tell you how nice that was to hear from an LBS employee!

They even threw in two Bonk Breaker bars...we had talked earlier about how much I love Clif bars and they said these were even better, smaller and wouldn't leave my mouth feeling like I just ate dry oats (as Clifs can do sometimes). Gonna try a long ride tomorrow and give 'em a shot.

College Street Cycles just got shot to the top of my list. I will likely be buying a bike in mid-August and they will be my first stop. I highly recommend them, especially to new riders.

dizzy101

Positive experiences with
Peter White Cycles in NH
Harris Cyclery near Boston
AEBIKE
Velo-Orange

kissTheApex

Arrow Bicycle at Hyattsville, MD. Coolest bunch of guys.

imstumpedru

Norris Schwinn cyclery in johnson city tennessee is very cool! After buying 2 items and getting a wheel trued, he remembered me even after 6 months of not being in. When my nephew went in to buy a new chain on my recomendation, he mentioned me and the owner/ manager even remembered what I ride! I was blown away when I heard that. Thats the way it should be done!

Ubie

Performance Bikes on Brannan in SF today: Walked in the door and was handed a $20 certificate, spun a wheel and was given $5 more. Everything in the store was on sale, with an additional 15% on top of that. Spoke with Christopher for a good while about a bike trailer and based on his recommendation will be going with a trailer from Nashbar instead. I realize that they're corporate bed partners, but not often a guy will tell you to buy a product from another company because it's a good product at a great price.

bay area biker

After about five visits I can say it's what an LBS should be; there are many of them around here and I've had my share of bitter experiences with them. Montana Velo is on Piedmont Ave., just off Pleasant Valley, in North Oakland.
Their bikes are not my type - they're mostly "cool bikes" or "rad" bikes: fixies, racers and such -, and they don't have a lot of accessory stock on display. But they can go in the back and find just what you need, including odd components, at good prices. Reminds me of the good old hardware stores we used to know, where they could dig up something to answer a need, as opposed to the big corporate ones we have now, where "if you don't see it, we don't have it" (In fact they might, but they're not trudging back there to look, not for a small sale when they're working for starvation wages.)

Atmosphere at Montano Velo is comfortingly hippyish, with couches to wait for the mechanic on while he finishes with another job. Very pleasant "greeter" (the owner?) and a good old dog in attendance. These folks really seem to know what they're doing. An oasis in what can seem like a nasty business at times. It's even more to their credit that they can run such a friendly business with valuable merchandise, in an area that can be a little dicey at times as to crime and craziness.

I should add that I've mostly had good luck with on-line retailers: two good experiences with Biketiresdirect.com, one with Niagara Cycles, one with Calhoun Cycle, and one or two with Universalcycles.com The jury is still out on Everybicycletire.com, as I await shipment of a wheelset. Rivbike.com can be good for some things, but it is a "boutique" kind of cyclery, and the local taxes are stiff in the Bay Area. Some things there may be a good deal if you are out-of-state and choose a less-expensive shipping method. A few of the things are probably exclusive to them or hard to find elsewhere, such as the OGK derailleur chainguard, which is wonderful, IMO.

BarracksSi

The Bike Rack in DC scored some points with me this weekend. My parents and niece came to visit, and we went to the shop because my dad wanted to get me something for my birthday. After getting a Brooks and a Pedro's Trixie tool (which shop guy Bill ordered the moment I asked him earlier in the week), Bill said, "Hang on a second," and took a shop logo T-shirt off the rack and gave it to me. "Happy birthday," he says.

jaxgtr

I always had pretty good service and experience from Nashbar, but I got a letter today advising that they had a hack into their servers starting in Dec 08 and was not confirmed until May 09. . Seems they moved the server support 3 months after the initial break-in even though people were letting them know they had fraudulent charges on their cards.

Sorry to say, no longer a customer.

UBUvelo

if you are in the media-swarthmore-wallingford area of southeast pennsylvania (outside of philly) i strongly recommend CYCLE FIT on 320 (right beside the bridge that crosses 476/blue route)!


https://cyclefitonline.com/

ask for greg. personable, realistic, helpful. he listens. as do the other employees. a very comfortable environment.

my rant of praise ... (last post):

https://www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussion/564744-easy-find-stiff-fork-replace-rst-shock-fork.html

justwes

i'll second this, i ordered new tires/tubes from them on a friday night, and they were here tuesday morning. absolutely incredible turnover and pleasant to talk too.

bay area biker

When I saw Mak's post praising Chain Reaction Cycles, i realized I'd forgotten to include them when I listed good online experiences. Everything he said is true; amazingly fast cheap international mail and prices that make it seem dumb to buy these saddles from a US retailer. I like to support US labor, but it's an English product from an English manufacturer, so fair's fair. Brooks saddles are one of the good things in life.

I was also a little unfair to Rivendell when I called them a "boutique" cyclery. They have a great head mechanic who put together a fine crankset for me at a good price. Rich is his name. A good shop with responsive staff. It just gets a little expensive with the stiff bay area sales tax, if you are buying an expensive item. But then, if you can find your way out there you do save the shipping.

noglider 

bay area biker, I took a look at Chain Reaction Cycles. I've stumbled on it doing searches. Interesting site. You can look at the site in various languages, and you can also specify your country (for shipping costs) and currency, so their prices are expressed appropriately, in real time.

But I took an example and found that shipping a pair of brake shoes to me was nearly $17. How do you manage to buy stuff from this business?

bay area biker

Noglider, I was referring to the Brooks Saddles only, because the selection and prices are so good, depending on the exchange rate of the moment.
I don't recall what I paid in shipping, but I chose "Royal International", the cheapest, default method offered, and when I added that to the price of the saddle, it still came out a lot cheaper than a US online retailer would be, since you've got to pay shipping in that case as well.
They run specials on the brooks, so by watching for those and buying with the most favorable exchange rate, you can pay, like, 55-75 bucks for a saddle (not counting the pro or titanium types, so even if you do pay 17 for mail, you come out better than paying 95-125 for the same thing in the US, and tacking domestic shipping on top of it.
I can't vouch for the other things they sell; I've only bought saddles.

Chas.

bay area biker

I take it back, sort of. Today's Chain Reaction price for the b17 standard is about $72, and Jenson USA is quoting $75, so no great savings there.

I bought mine at Chain R. on sale a couple of months ago, and I think it was $62; US retailers were showing much higher at the time.

Cyclist0383

Ha! I'm in the EU and they charge me more for shipping than customers in the States! Go figure.....