The Bicycle Outfitter

 

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John W.

San Francisco, CA

This is the bike shop local to my work where I bought my first road bike. As you know, bike shops tend to work me up into a lather because I want to have at least one of everything in sight. At Bicycle Outfitter, it's no different.

The shop looks small and even looks like they might not have what you need. Well, they do, trust me, they do. I have dropped so much cash here, it's staggering.

A couple of final notes:

(1) They're great for service. They do an excellent job maintaining your bike and can even help in a pinch. I was having gear trouble and came in at about 6:00 p.m. on a Thursday. I needed to have the bike fixed pronto because I had an 80 miler planned for the weekend. They diagnosed a snapped gear cable and a bad chain and had both replaced in about 20 minutes.

(2) Evidently, they aren't the best at understanding racial diversity. A buddy of mine who also shops here often brought one of his coworkers on an errand here. In the first five minutes, my friend's coworker was asked about eight times if he needed any help. Now, my friend's buddy is definitely overweight, so not the prime cycling demographic; however, he also happens to be black, and I sort of wonder if that was the issue. It is Los Altos after all.

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71

Thighmaster M.

Menlo Park, CA

This WAS the place to go for tandems - because "Wisco" was dah man for sales and repair of the things - and he would never oversell you, nor fix what wasn't broken - he did some extra work without charge on my old tandem because I didn't do it right myself and it bugged him. Now he's leaving - to the Stanford Campus Bike Shop for godssake! Like other TBO's before him... more to go?
*Everyone knows the place hasn't been the same since the Powell's sold it a few years back.  The crew doesn't have the same morale since the change occurred - wonder why?
*The guys in repair are still great in my opinion, and whatever they are sneaking into Jim's water - keep it up - he's become great with customers! Bill and Jonathan (give him ice cream and he can actually smile) are superb of course.
*Their estimates are usually right on as well with time and price. True they could improve call-backs, but I'm okay doing that on my end.
*caveat: I'm a grouch when it comes to mollycoddling kids: No, I do not think it's cool when the managers tend to their child rather than help me BUY something which happens about 30% of my visits.
*in general the Outfitter is still a great place to keep the roadie spirit alive and get honest repair work - thanks.

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6

Rich H.

Los Altos, CA

I just had them build a wheel for my ancient mountain bike.  The fellow I talked to in service, took the wheel and gruffly said $60, seemed a little high but  I know they do good work.  They called me back a couple days later when it was done and charged me $40, said it took less time than they thought, nice.

What I love is my wife took a class from them a couple years ago, she just wanted to learn how to ride better.  They didn't laugh when she showed up with her bike, it has fenders, basket and the whole kit,  she was placed with all these serious riders in spandex.  Seriously, she has been riding since a kid, what can they teach?  You know, she is a better rider now.  thanks guys.

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cyn k.

San Francisco, CA

I got my first bike here (a Trek Pilot), and while I've since moved onto brands they don't carry (Santa Cruz, Klein) , I still drive an hour to get my bikes serviced here and I also recommend it to any friend who's looking for a bike.

The people in the shop are extremely knowledgeable, and their prices are very reasonable. When I wanted a bike fitting checked (with a bike I bought in another store!), they had no problem at all- Mark even stayed a half hour after closing to help me out. When I wanted my mountain bike overhauled after a bad crash, they did a great job and for an extremely reasonable price. On weekends, I sometimes start my rides all the way down in Los Altos so I can swing in and ask about how to fix something like a "weird clicking", and they'll just pop the bike up, check it out, show me what's up, then send me on my merry way without asking for anything.

It's great to have a bike place where the people who work there are really friendly, smart, and always happy to help. There are too many places where they microcharge you, are catty about giving any sort of advice, or try to guilt you into buying what you don't need.

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Elite '08

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124

Willis W.

Fremont, CA

I went in to the service shop with a list of 4 antiquated parts I was looking for.  I didn't even get past the first item on the list, and the guy there told me he was too busy working on a bike to help me.  to his credit, he walked in back and came out with something he offered to me for free, but after that, he blew me off.  So now we'll both never know if they could have solved my problem.

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Elite '08

183

619

Dave K.

Sunnyvale, CA

I'm usually concerned about the small bike stores because they usually size you up once you come in and are ultra-elitist.  Not this place.  They have a decent selection of mid-range and high-end bikes.  I haven't bought from them yet, but I feel no pressure from them to buy.

The best thing about this place?  It's 6 miles from where I live, and being right off the Foothill Expressway, it's a convenient place to get your tires pumped up.  They have a pressurized valve right outside for you to use!

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Elite '08

94

403

Alfonso E.

Oakland, CA

If you own a tandem, mark this place.

I drive about 40 miles door to door from home to these guys (that's about an HOUR by Bay Area traffic standards, folks) whenever my Otis Guy freak tandem needs love or fixin.  In the very-quirky and demanding performance tandem community, this shop has a stellar reputation that precedes them, and I must say they've lived up to it each time I had them work on our rig.

Far too many primo shops in Oakland and SF, though very capable service shops for all sorts of other bikes, just haven't given me a level of confidence to believe/know that our tandem would be getting -- or got --  expert TANDEM care.

Bicycle Outfitters?  Fuhgeddaboutit.  They didn't sweat the weird stuff that other shops just plain refused to even try to fix/maintain (e.g. Magura hydraulic calipers, Arai drum).

One thing I have mixed feelings about:  when they're done servicing your bike, they hang it outside the shop like butcher meat.  :-/

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Apollo L.

Sunnyvale, CA

Well-stocked with Trek, Bianchi, Orbea, and Co-Motion road bikes, mountain bikes, and tandems, the friendly staff at Bicycle Outfitter are knowledgeable, helpful, and fun to talk to.  A large selection of accessories, tools, parts, and clothing is available.  The adjacent shop can handle any repair and is staffed by extremely competent professionals.

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21

Deoskar M.

Sunnyvale, CA

I have been going there for over 10 years, both for sales and for service.  Sales has always been great, but my last experience with service was not good.  I may not go back again.

I gave them my bike for a tune-up.  I have been taking this same bike in every year for the last 12 years.  The guy said it would be ready in 3 days.  I called after 4 days, and the guys said "yeah, it's ready."  Now if this were my weekend bike, it would not have bothered me.  But this was my everyday commute bike, so I was annoyed that they did not call me.

A couple days after I got the bike back, one of the pads of my front brake just fell off on its own.  It had not been tightened properly.  A major safety issue.  Luckily I was on flat ground when it happened.  I remember when I gave it in, I asked them to adjust the play on my front brakes.  The guy condescendingly responded, "yes, that's part of the package."

I don't think they are incompetent.  But I think they took on more work than they had staff to handle, so they ended up doing a shoddy job this time.  It was the first time in 12 years that a had a quality problem, but this was a potentially dangerous one.

After one previous tuneup, I called back and reported that the chain was skipping when I stood and pedaled.  The guy responded that he never stands and pedals.  Thank you mister purist biker, but that was not the point.  To their credit, when I took it in, they adjusted it and fixed the problem.

The place is not the closest to me or the cheapest; I went there for their quality.  With the last brake problem, and the surliness the last couple times, I think I will switch to the shop closer to me.

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