For three years I've been riding and loving a motobecane mirage i converted myself, and some jackass stole my rear wheel last week on 32nd and Park outside my office. So now I need a new one. I went into a certain shop in my hood that can remain nameless i suppose and it was pretty much a "buy what we have straight up w/ no service or get out" type of vibe. They're busy filling web orders I know but this wasn't too cool for my needs anyway.

My stolen wheel (sovos hub) very luckily meshed perfectly with all my other components—shimano 68mm BB, Sugino RD cranks. I didn't have to mess with it at all, so I don't have much experience with tweaking chainline.

I'm looking for a good shop to help me find a new wheel that fits. Have heard some good things about trackstar—is this the place for me or are they going to run me out of the shop for not riding tru-grit track stuff? I'm just looking for someone friendly to help a guy who's teaching himself mechanics (but isn't nearly handy enough to build a wheel) get back on the road.

Any other recommendations are welcome too. I surfed the LBS sticky and know the usual suspects, but I'd love some specific feedback on my situation if anyone has any. Thanks.

if you're teaching yourself mechanics,you are handy enough to build a wheel...it is easy
start with Jobst ....The Wheel Book...I think 's called

anyways...measure your chainline, and it won't matter whether someone is conversion 'friendly' or not...know what mark you gotta hit, and hit it

I'd love to teach myself wheelbuilding some day. Right now I don't have all that much spare cash for tools and time to learn. Some day though...

It does seem like I've made this wheel-fitting operation more complicated than it is. Poor experience at the first shop probably didn't help (dude talked to me like I was crazy trying to get a wheel to fit my setup, even when he didn't know what my setup was). I'll measure and go from there.

I guess the general question is if trackstar is tolerant of informed novices, ie people who may not have a full body of mechanical knowledge but know how things work generally and are very interested in learning more. I'll probably just swing by and find out for myself tomorrow.

i used to see your bike every day when i worked at 2 park....

i'm sure t* would build you a wheel and help you get set up, but they tend to have to order parts in my experience.

Jesus christ it's just a shop. Last time I went in there I was rolling on a 80s Trek Antelope with a ghetto broken Der. chain tensioner and a chinese delivery bike was in the work stand.

I went in there with a conversion and got punched in the face, then they dragged me to the curb and pissed on me.

/sarcasm

i think bike works would be better fit. nothing is wrong with trackstar, but u do have to wait for them to order the parts where as bike works usually already has it. I also tend to notice that bike works it much faster at building wheels then trackstar.

Last time I visited NY they made me* track stand on some busted frame and laughed at me before they unlocked the doors to let me out. Totally unreasonable..

*it was a lot of fun.

bikeworks sounds like the way. i like their shop. dave's a cool guy.

You know I bet you're thinking of that silver one. I used to see that one every day too. I don't commute as often as that dude but maybe you saw mine too at some point. Green one.

Thanks for the tip on bikeworks, will check them out.

watch out for trackstar- i've heard they some serious qc problems. i'd go else where.

https://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=306374

Trackstar will be good to you. So will Bike works. Both are pretty solid shops.

Yeah. Trackstar's pretty cool, too. Bikeworks is unfortunate in that they have weird hours.

I mistakenly read the thread title as, "Is Trackstar in NYC conversation-friendly?"

Just curious, how did this happen? I'm always interested in the
best lock-up methods, so I'd like to know how they managed to
get the rear wheel.

Yeah seriously. I love the shop but it's not often that I can get there between 11 and 6.

just go in there, be straight up and explain what yer looking for, and ask what they recommend.
do it earlier in the day if you can - they can get pretty busy at day's end.

last time i went to trackstar, somebody stole my bike from out in front.

it was during a race. i chased the person down with the package i picked up, and hit him in the head.

i didn't do too bad in the race.

AWWWW, mattio this is right before we went over the willyburg together, finished the race at the same time and then became best friends.

*single nostalgic tear

AWWWWWWWWWWWW!

no it's not. it was during the alleykitten.

oh yeah, though. i was at T* during monstertrack. some hairy dreaded guy yelled at me, told me to drop my pants, and then did something to my ass with a permanent marker.

*that* was shortly after we took the willyb together, finished at the same time, and then became besties.

They built up my conversion....no complaints. They did a great job.

Also, Bicycle Station on Vanderbuilt in Brooklyn will likely gladly help you out.

That Trackstar thread linked above was the silliest ish I've read in ages. Wow.

wait wait wait, what the hell happened?! why oh why did i not do the alleykitten? why did i miss such quality racing? oh. wait... i had a girlfriend. pffft...

glad you got your priorities in order!