Let's talk bike shops

[darkemeralds]

Recent bike shop win and bike shop fail has got me curious about other people's experiences.

What's your best bike shop experience? Worst? Ideal that hasn't happened?

Do you have a preferred local bike shop? How would you characterize it? Neighborhoody? Big and sparkly? Sport-and-performance oriented? Down and greasy and can fix anything? Woman-centric? Family-friendly? All-purpose?

And how do you use your bike shop? What kinds of repairs do you have done and what kinds do you do yourself? Do you buy accessories from them? Peripheral sporting goods? Clothes?

Do you have a good selection of bike shops in your area? Do you know if different ones have different specialties?

How far do you have to go to get to your favorite bike shop? Do you feel loyal to it?

Me, I dislike working on my own bike, and as documented here recently, the bike my former bike shop sold me has needed probably more work than average, so I've been a frequent flyer at the service counter. I'll have a flat fixed at the nearest shop, but for scheduled repairs I'll ride three or four miles to my new favorite commuting-and-city bike shop (Clever Cycles FTW!), where I plan to buy my next bike. I'll give my limited accessory business to whoever has the beset stuff (again I say, Clever Cycles FTW! Cutest panniers you've ever seen.)

There are approximately eleventy-eight bike shops within the Portland area, and half of them are within an easy walk, ride, or push of my home or my workplace, so I can afford to be kind of picky. So unless I've got a flat in the rain, if I walk into a place that has all men staff and all men customers, and mostly speedy sport bikes, I expect I'll walk out again.

What about you?

Comments

[copracat]

There are three bike shops within two minutes ride of my house and another two within ten minutes ride. Why yes, I do live on a major bicycle route in my town. My favourite is the part of a small chain (three stores in our town) and all the shop assistants (mostly men, a couple of women) I've dealt with have been respectful of my non-male, non-lycra-wearing self. They don't try to upsell or ever suggest much beyond my (fairly firmly stated, I admit) financial limits. I've also found their other customers to be friendly, too.

The shop is varied: they sell all-ages bikes and those trailer and such that are for transporting kids or pets. Small critters, anyway! So they have a family-friendly vibe.

[darkemeralds]

I'm struck by your saying that their other customers are friendly too. That's a huge point that I hadn't thought about consciously. But of course, I'm going to feel more at home where the other customers are more like me. In the bad-fit bike shop I wandered into and wound up buying Clyde, my current bike, I always feel like a huge clumsy in-the-way thing and the other customers are allowing me to speak to the mechanic with a sort of embarrassed politeness, the way one might if a mentally disabled person were ahead of them in the queue at the bank or something.

Hah! This is a great insight. I'm going to the place where the other customers smile at me and talk bikes.