GOOD THINGS TO FIND
A warm welcome and a smile. If your mechanic or salesperson isn't happy to see you, you should wonder why. The classic old grumpy bike shop served no function except to scare people away from our sport. A good IBR (Independent Bicycle Retailer, not a chain store) will have eager staff ready to greet you, discover your problem or need, diagnose your repair, or work with you on a test ride. If a shop is busy, you may have to speak to someone while they are working on a repair, but you should still get their full attention.
An Independent Bicycle Retailer. A chain store like Dick's or Sport's Authority carries bikes that lay somewhere between bike shop and department store quality. They are often department store brands with slightly prettier paint jobs or component specs, and built by less qualified mechanics whose purpose is to meet the bottom line of profit. The problem is, they will never offer you the quality of service, devotion of attention, and willingness to instruct that even the worst of the worst IBRs can do. Look for a store that carries a major distributor, because major distributors will only hook up with a shop that meets exacting standards for quality of repair, ability to service and warranty bikes, and ethical standards for sales and service. Exclusive major distributed brands include Cannondale, Bianchi, Electra, Gary Fischer (Trek's boutique brand), Giant, Jamis, Nirve, Raleigh, Schwinn (the bike shop sector), Specialized, Trek, and Voodoo. Boutique brands of high quality that any bike shop can acquire include Fuji, Salsa, Sun, and Surly.
Question-askers. The question-asker is the best diagnostician, salesperson, and bike fitter. They find out everything there is to know about your needs, your budget, and your experience. They ask about your ambitions on the bike, your history of cycling, how far your commute will be. Only then do they think about product. Sometimes it can take up to an hour to find the right bike for someone. If your shop is asking about your needs, you've found a good one.
Knowledgeable Staff. The mark of knowledge is really knowing when you don't know something. By that I mean, if a staff is in a pinch about a component spec, part size, or can't explain how a particular suspension fork works, then they will find someone who does and not be ashamed. A great bike shop will have staff that are comfortable in their particular areas of expertise, but also in their ignorance.
They ride what they sell. The staff doesn't just sell you product, they sell you product that has a history, a record of service, and a good reputation with riders from the community, the shop, and the industry. My favorite is Planet Bike lights. Each time I sell them, I can point to every staff bike in the shop, even if they belong to riders from another store coming by for a visit, and see Planet Bike lights. On the other hand, when I sell the mini-lights know as "Frogs," I always warn people that the police are unhappy with the brightness of these lights. They really are a backup for the purse or backpack. A good staff will be honest with you about the benefits and limitations of various items.
Consistent Pricing. The days of the deal are over. Why should you pay less or more than someone else? Deal making isn't necessarily bad, and it happens everywhere, but a good shop will add enough value in its service policy and the way it treats its customers so that deals are not necessary. Of course, you should always inquire about club and team discounts.
Community Support. Is the shop just there to make money? There's nothing wrong with profit, but most cyclists expect that their shop will give something back to the community. Most good shops are family businesses, even if the staff are not truly "related." Shops often support local clubs and teams, charity events, races, or bicycle advocacy groups. Ask your shop to get involved, if they aren't already.
Non-traditional cyclists treated well. The bike industry was, until very recently, almost exclusively an adult, white, and male domain. Bike shops are often still quite masculine spaces. Women salespeople are rare, and women mechanics even moreso. Times are changing, and your bike shop should as well. If your bike shop openly adresses your needs as a woman, accepts that your body is different (especially where bike fit and comfort is concerned), and treats your ambitions with respect (Yes Virginia, women like to kick ass just like men!) then be glad and send your friends there.
Solid Service Policy. The industry standard is hard to pin, but I would set it at a "median" of about 6 months free service and/or two free tune-ups. In competitive towns, you'll find one year free service, or even lifetime service in some college towns (the townies eat richly from this trough, the transient students less so). Be sure to get the service policy in writing.
Professional or Certified Fit Personnel. The importance of bike fit to even recreational cyclists has transformed the industry in the last decade. We know now that one cannot fit oneself, that fit is not intuitive, and that most people benefit from being fitted. An "eyeball" fit is still the industry standard, however (meaning, "hey, it looks good from here" usually suffices). If you are ever on your bike for more than thirty minutes, you need something more. Even if your preferred shop doesn't have professional fitters, you can find one that does. Don't by ashamed to have a preferred shop for sales and service, and another one for fitting. I am honored that local shops in Gainesville send their customers to my employer for fittings, and also that we send our customers to their shops when we don't have the bikes they require. It's a small world, but there's enough customers for everyone. We all play our strengths.
Generous Test Ride Policy. Expect any bike in any store to have been ridden at least an hour or two before you purchased it. A good shop will have a liberal test ride policy on all of its bikes. For commuter and sport bikes, you should expect a good twenty minute ride. For racing or high-performance bikes, the shop will typically let you bring in your pedal and shoe system for a longer ride. Some shops even "demo" full suspension bikes, and will typically return your demo fee if you make a purchase.
Saddle Return Policy. This is especially important for women, who have more variation in the seat area than men. Even with a good bike fit, you might want to try a different saddle. As long as its not scuffed, and its not over thirty days (after which the saddle begins to form to your itschial tuberosities, or "sits" bones) you should be able to return a saddle for credit, or with a small fee. It was a great honor to me when a neighboring shop insisted their customer buy a saddle from us for road riding. It was an even greater pleasure when I sent a customer back to them after failing to find a saddle (after five tries!) that fit a customer right.
Shops that work together, grow together. Good bike shops cooperate with one another. Despite a few rivalries, the shops here get along fairly well, all things considered. A good shop will recommend another shop if they simply can't help you out for some reason. When a mechanic from another shop comes in to buy a part from us for a repair, or when we do the same, we do so because we acknowledge we are all in this together to make you, the customer, happy. You can mark a good shop by its willingness to please you by cooperating with others.
Used Bikes that Work. The whole point of buying a used bike from a shop (where you pay more than on-line) is that it is properly tuned and ready to roll. Be wary of shops that sell "barely working" bikes. The used bike business can be a rough trade for buyer and seller, and Gainesville has some good used bike shops. A good "new bike" bike shop will usually be able to steer you towards a reliable used bike store.
BAD THINGS TO FIND
Women's issues ignored. If the salesperson cringes when you mention chafing in your seat parts, or gets addled when you complain about your welcome on the local club rides, then flee, sister, flee. This sport, and our industry, have no place for that. Shops have a lot of making up and catching up to do with women riders, who still compose an uncomfortably small margin of IBR customers (about 20%). I have a customer who is planning to drive three hours from South Florida to shop in Gainesville, because a sales staff tried to hit on her teenage daughter and the rest of the shops in her area treated her (the Mom, not the daughter) like a child. If only this weren't common. I put this one first, because it is the single most disappointing aspect of our industry. We're getting better, but slowly.
"You Can't Get a Good Bike for Less Than . . . " As soon as someone tells you you can't get a good bike shop quality bike for less than a certain amount, you can be sure that you are going to be sold what is in stock, and not the bike you truly need and can afford. Some bike shops are a bit snooty about product and feel the need to insult you into spending more. My favorite is the shop that carries $300 bicycles only so it can show you how low of a person you'd be to buy one. You have to wonder, why is the bike in their brand line or in the store at all?
The Bad Mouther. You should always ask yourself why someone is dissing on other shops. After all, we're trying to grow cycling, not make it smell bad. Most customers are wise enough to know when a shop is untrustworthy, and most bad mouthing of shops, in my experience, comes from those very ones who are undesirable. If a store can't sell you on its products, integrity, and service, it will often get in the mud.
Selling the Brand, not the bike or shop. This bears some lengthy explanation, as it is the most misunderstood part of IBR culture. As soon as someone tells you Brand X is crap, beware. Yes, Schwinn makes department store bikes, and they also make really fine bike shop bikes. Even a brand I've sold in two stores, Giant, is likely to be making department store bikes for other brands on a given day. It doesn't make their shop bikes any worse. The dirty little secret of the IBR is that most shop-quality bikes are made within a stone's throw of one another either in China or Taiwan, often on the same lines that are making nasty Target and Wal-Mart bikes. Competing brands are typically made in the same factory from the same materials. As far as components, that Shimano 105 component group is going to work the same on any bicycle, as long as it is well tuned. Not many people can tell the difference between brands at various price points, because they are very small, but there is a huge perception of brand differentiation because of advertising. The differences do not typically warrant selection of a brand. What you should be selecting is the component spec of the bike, the integrity of the shop, the service policy, and the trust you have for the staff. Some distributors do have better and worse warranty records, but I have to say that the industry has very much standardized its warranty policies so that it is not much of a selling point.
Lack of Receipts or Repair Tickets. If you are in for a spot repair, no ticket is okay, but you should never leave your bike in for repair without getting some kind of claim ticket. Currently, some shops are going green with option-only claim tickets. Just be sure you trust your shop if you opt out of the paper claim. As to not getting a receipt for something, especially if you paid in cash, you should be suspicious.
No Price Tags. Are you going to pay the BMW price if you pull up in your grandmother's car? Do you get the "townie" price if you drop off some special brownies? While some budget shoppers like no price tag stores for haggling, the lack of price tags is sometimes an indicator of other problems in the store. Most shops in Gainesville, even without pricing, have an inventory system based on bar codes or unique identifiers that guarantee consistent pricing.
The "Pro" Shop. Most shops work on pro-level equipment, and some even have a "resident pro." But you should never feel like you are being treated poorly because you are a regular commuter, average rider, or especially if you are trying to get into the sport and don't know much about bikes. I can tell you from experience that being fast, or having raced at an elite level, in no way correlates to one's skills as a mechanic, salesperson, or bike fitter. It is okay for a shop to point out their support of racing as a feature of their store, but if you feel "less than" because of it, then move on. The truth about pro shops is that, except for in very large towns, they rarely succeed. Most of the bikes that most shops sell are going to cost less than $500.
The "Anti-Pro" Shop. Unlike the Pro Shop, this one prides itself on dissing anything that has to do with performance. You shouldn't be ashamed of your $2000 road bike (well, unless your kid can't eat because of it), or at least your mechanic shouldn't be the one making you ashamed of it. That is the job of your non-riding spouse. If you are a performance cyclist, I would say that, no matter how "cool" or "legit" a shop like this might seem, you are probably going to be disappointed in their knowledge of special order equipment, access to high-end bikes, and inexperience with advanced componentry repair. Do you really want your $800 suspension fork rebuilt by someone who thinks bikes with gears are evil?
Rotating Staff. If your shop changes managers, chief mechanic, and sales staff every eight months, you can be assured that something isn't right in Denmark. While staff changes are an inevitable part of business, repeated firing and replacing is a sign of instability in almost any industry except fast food. It takes a long time to get to know a shop's clientele, inventory, strengths, and weaknesses so one can truly contribute to the businesses' success. Good shops will keep their staff around for a while to better serve their customers.
About the Author
James Thompson has worked at four bicycle shops since 1982 for a total of nearly twelve years, with management stints at two shops. Thompson has extensive experience training sales staff and educating the public about cycling, bicycle fit, bicycle repair, road racing, and track racing. He teaches vehicular cycling, basic repair, and basic group riding techniques. Thompson has also made every possible mistake in customer satisfaction, store management, team sponsorship, and product selection (that's why he thinks he has something important to say). He was a founding member of Querencia Community Bike Shop in Denton, Texas and a founding Board Member of BikeGainesville.org.