All,

I moved recently from Pasadena to Mountain View, and some colleagues who want to get into biking, are asking me for bike stores in the area. Do you have any to recommend ? Preferably one where they don't try to oversell what people don't need, and that will be able to sell a good quality city bike, not necessarily a road-racing bike. In Pasadena I used to go see that guy Steve, who is not at all after your money, and even does minor repairs for free. Bought a $500 city bike for my girlfriend, that is fine for the 25-30 miles rides that she does.
Not looking for free service here, since I believe work should be paid, but for people who will provide good advice and good products without trying to get all your cash.

Thanks !

Calmar Bicycles in Santa Clara! These guys ROCK! They have really good customer service and have taken excellent care of me.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/calmar-bicycles-santa-clara

http://bikeshops.mtbr.com/cat/united-states/california/california-bayarea/bikeshop/PRD_368525_6221crx.aspx

For a city bike, check out Performance on El Camino near Rengstorff in MV.

They carry Fuji, Jamis and Felt city bikes, best price in town and excellent customer service, no pressure selling.

Calmar really and truly rocks. They put together my cross bike. Great service!

For service or for shiny stuff? For the former, I like Slough's Bike Shoppe in San Jose (plus there's a great fish food/market and taqueria across the street) and Shaw's Lightweight Cycles in Santa Clara on Bascom (might be called Washington Street there). Google them. Long time bike shop proprietors and both have outstanding service. The latter is sort of the trackie go-to shop for chainrings & cogs and other necessities. Neither oversells - to the contrary, they tend to undersell...

Disclaimer: I do most of my own wrenching, but I trust these two shops to do all the hard-to-do or requires-specialty-tooling stuff. If you're a regular, sometimes you have to insist on paying. But high quality local shops need your support, so I always insist on paying...

The OffRamp in Mtn View is hands down one of the better shops around. Ask for Rick, and he will definitely take care of you. I've had nothing but great customer service from them!!

Sports Basement would be my second recommendation. I just bought a my daughters bike there this last weekend. Plus you can also get a 10% discount if you belong to certain clubs or groups like Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. I just check the SVBC page an you can get the same discount at Calmar.

i'll second calmar, but for service i like break-a-way on big basin in saratoga. worth the drive.

All,

I moved recently from Pasadena to Mountain View, and some colleagues who want to get into biking, are asking me for bike stores in the area. Do you have any to recommend ? Preferably one where they don't try to oversell what people don't need, and that will be able to sell a good quality city bike, not necessarily a road-racing bike. In Pasadena I used to go see that guy Steve, who is not at all after your money, and even does minor repairs for free. Bought a $500 city bike for my girlfriend, that is fine for the 25-30 miles rides that she does.
Not looking for free service here, since I believe work should be paid, but for people who will provide good advice and good products without trying to get all your cash.

Thanks !

Hey Pierre! Welcome back to Silicon Valley!

Bicycle Outfitter in Los Altos.

Santa Teresa Cycles is where I get my business done. They are also an authorised Trek dealer.

Palo Alto Bicycles

+1 for the Trek store in San Jose

i'll second calmar, but for service i like break-a-way on big basin in saratoga. worth the drive.


Hear, hear! I got my Giant OCR2 there, with a year's free service. And only 1/4 mile from my front door. :D

I wouldn't recommend:
the off-ramp or Performance

I would recommend:
Calmar on El Camino and Shaws Lightweight Cycles on Lafayette behind the shopping center

and Trailhead Cyclery is the go to for mountain bikes

I wouldn't recommend:
the off-ramp or Performance

I would recommend:
Calmar on El Camino and Shaws Lightweight Cycles on Lafayette behind the shopping center

and Trailhead Cyclery is the go to for mountain bikes

Agreed on pretty much everything you stated.

I have to agree on Offramp. Years ago they tried to charge me $15 OVER MSRP for a XT derailleur. When shops try to pull that kind of crap on me I'm done with them. I'm sure others have had great experiences with them, but my own personal experience left a bad taste so I won't go back. I use Performance all the time for basics since they tend to have sales all the time....tubes, tools, etc but thats about it.

Shops I have used in the past and recommend....Bicycle Outfitter (Los Altos), Shaws (Santa Clara), Calmar (Santa Clara) , Trailhead (San Jose)...as stated above mtb focus at this shop

EDIT - almost left out Karl at SVCC http://www.svcyclingcenter.com/ Although Bike maintenance isn't really one their "charters" so to speak (i think they are doing some bike maintenance), Karl and Alex have good prices on high end stuff. Since I utilize Karl's coaching services I do purchase through them as well....price breaks on some stuff if you are a client as well

MSH

I've had similar issues with Offramp. A buddy was looking to buy a bike and he found two there he was interested in, a 2007 and a 2008, and they wanted to charge the same for both. The worst part was the 2008 was upgraded from the 2007. I explained that 1) the bike was already a year old and 2) there where significant changes between models. Their response: "The price is the price". Our response: "Thats too bad." and we walked.

Calmar is great! Super friendly! but you need something that can't be fixed on the spot, expect to wait awhile for repair jobs. They are usually very busy.

Wow, really impressive how many peeps are recommending Calmar. They are truly a gem. Awesome service (rebuilt my wheel in one day) and have a cool mix of city/mtbs. Not a great place for new road bikes, but, as said, killer service.

For triathlon bikes, check out front of the pack
http://www.frontofthepack.com/portal/

and Chain Reaction, particularly the Cupertino location has good service and lots of Treks.

and Bicycle Outfitter has some awesome road frames plus good service (though a bit busy).

Palo Alto bike used to be super-snobby. They have toned down but can be expensive.