DIAF, bike snobs

[misslynx]

Deeply annoyed with bike repair shops today. Or two of them, at least.

After having to leave my bike locked up downtown last night due to a flat (and all the shops being closed), I retrieved it today and wheeled it about eight blocks to the nearest bike repair place (in the freezing cold, with my hands gradually going numb) - only to find that

Comments

[pbprincess]

Bateman's over on barton at bathurst is my go to. Jason is a sweetie.

I also hear great things about Dave...fix my bike near me on christie just south of dupont.

[thewronghands]

What jerks! I'm sorry that they treated you so shabbily.

[kettunainen]

N has had good luck with urbane, iirc. also, wtf? who does that? it's not like curbside is in yorkville, jeez.

[em_h]

Ken recommends either BIke Pirates at Bloor and Lansdowne (a workers' co-op, which may be the only bike store in the world to have women-and-trans-only days) or The Bike Joint at Harbord and Manning. He's had good experiences at both, with friendly and helpful service (and we ride very low-end bikes).

[misslynx]

I have been to the Bike Joint, and they indeed seemed pretty down-to-earth and cool with unglamourous bikes. I haven't yet checked out Bike Pirates, but I've been meaning to.

I actually seriously thought about just heading west to the Bike Joint instead of south to Bikes on Wheels, but it was a longer distance from where I was, it was freezing cold out, and I'd also heard they were keeping inconsistent hours that close to the holidays - ironically, since that turned out to also be the case at Bikes on Wheels!

Really, my favourite place is my local bike shop, Bikes @ St. Clair, but sadly they close for the winter, because the owner generally goes home to Chile for a few months then, and reopens the store when he comes back in March.