I lived in Bloomington, that ****stain of a town, for a year. I can talk **** about the place because I lived through it.

Edit: to add something useful to this thread - I have gone to a few LBS in Chicago and found most of them to be helpful. Kozy's on Halstead treated me just fine when I went in there, Marcus' shop is great, and Performance on Halstead wasn't bad either.

that makes it even better... who are you, i'm sure i know or know of you. did you move out after bloomington stopped being squatter pc punx paradise, did you go to school, just ****ing about?

I was @ IU for a year. I knew the guys who ran True Skateshop on 5th and hung out at Space 101 once in a while (indoor halfpipe was awesome).

Funny enough.. I'm wearing my Bloomington Bass Syndicate t-shirt (from Syndicate Strikes Back on 3/10/02 at space 101)

hmm... so that was like 3 years ago. so you hung with d britts + co? good dudes. i miss space 101.

Jason is the best!

You know what's scary how many bike mechanics in Chicago I
know on a first name basis. Oh wait that's not scary, that's cool.

jeff

does bloomington still have a free store?

I'm thinking about taking my stoner rock band on tour this summer, and wanted to hit up that town, is it worth it?

well worth it...

stoner rock will be well accepted... i don't think the free store is still rolling. come on down!

sweet, we like alcohol and drugs, please stock up on both for Bog Wraith.

yeah the crustpunx sect hass been dabbling in china white not unlike the rich kid dudes, and trees are always a staple. and in bloomington the spirits are quite plentiful

seems like coca plant is making it's rounds pretty heavily lately. it's like everyone wants to be in Scarface.

say hello to my little friend.

ps, round these parts we call it booger-sugar, snot-rot, or powdered sparks...

Get a Grip

I've been to Upgrade - in fact I bought a frame there. Good peeps if you get the right ones (Nat or James, there's a guy in there who's all kinds of tweaked) and Doug the owner is super nice - I've conversed with him over email before.

Higher Gear is a so-so place. It all depends. It's a high end roadie shop (get fitted for a custom Seven there!) and their prices match that. They're a bit snobby though - the kind of place where youhave to "prove" you know your stuff or look hardcore before they're more open to you. But I also think sometimes it all depends on the mech or salesperson you talk to.

Some are cool, some are just not.

agreed. they're super nice in there, completely straightforward, and perfectly willing to give the DIYer helpful hints.

Oh ****. I hung out with Britts and all those kids. I was there from 98 -02. I miss Rockits pizza and the vid...not necessarily in that order on a friday night.


R.I.P. TD - Best Guy Ever.

I promise this will be the last OT post I make in this thread.. but Rockits pizza was the best thing Bloomington had going for it. I went back last year to visit some friends and found out they had closed down.

What a shame

I moved to chicago in September, and living on the south side all the shops are pretty far so I've hit a bunch of them.

Yay:
-Yojimbo's (duh)
-Boulevard (again, duh. Best experience I've ever had in a shop and I wanted to like bake them cookies or something when I didn't end up spending money there)
-Turin (carry some lines others don't, but turbo-far. Worth the trip if you're buying a frame or complete, tho)
-Rapid Transit
-Uptown
-Performance (yeah, they're big and corporate, but everybody who works there is cool, including the manager, and they know their stock. Good selection and cheap if you need clothes/shoes)
-Art's Cycle (Hyde Park. OK local shop, kind of Soviet - they have one and only one option for everything, take it or leave it.)

Boo That Ish:
-Village (They seem to hire some people who don't know bikes)
-Wheels & Things (Hyde Park. Certifiable Hole. Owner is a jackass, could give any shop a run for its money as worst LBS.)
-Kozy (Not sure why so many people like this place, but I went to the one next to the Lincoln Park Ballys back when I didn't know better. Good mechanics I hear, jury's still out I guess.)

Yes. RIP TD. Now there is a ****** running his store. At least Michael Tapscott is gone. The Vid Rockits combo is only topped by a whole strom with extra pickles at nick's.

Britts is still up in indy... saw him last week.

I love this dude's vocabulary already

Well, with the Carlin filter on this board, I figured using "Ish" or something like that was pretty mandatory.

I am I Sticking it To The Man™ yet?

I'm not a fan of Turin, never have been. But recently I had even more reason to not be. My friend and I were playing around skidding and such, then decided to hit a movie so rode up to Evanston (We're from the north side, so not turbo-far for us). On the way she says something feels like it's lose. I ride her bike and going forward is fine, a VERY slight amount of backpressure and the cog unscrews a bit. I rotafixed it down, and it was a long way to go down, I seriously worried that the threads were stripped. I told her no more skidding until she gets the lockring tightened.

She's barely been skidding on her bike and it came VERY LOOSE. I've been skidding/skipping a fair amount on my cheap Suzue wheel and the cog has not moved at all. (I got the wheel/cog/lockring from Boulevard.)
It is however possible that Bianchi installs the cog/lockrings, not Turin, but if it's a known issue then a LBS should know to tighten them. Turin installed a brake on the Pista, they knew it was going to be ridden on the street not the track.