That's awesome...

I remember my 1st time to R&A (I'm from the midwest). I drove past it 4 times....as I was looking for the "big" bike shop.

What I found was more gear cramped into one store than pretty much all bike shops west of the Mississippi combined.

You guys rock.

We aim to please!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

DROOL!!!

Please say hi to my new bike that's still living with you guys for a few more weeks until I can pay the rest of her adoption fee!

You guys ROCK!!!

Deb

No central air... in New Yahwk City?!

Holly mother of god...heaven does exist.

---

----------------------------------------------------------

What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Al,

how about some pics of those sweet-ass DeRosas and Colnagos...

I was in the shop at the end of December and was creaming myself the entire time. Maybe the best part was when one of your guys chased me 2 blocks away on his bike in a snowstorm to correct the directions he had given me back to the subway.

Awesome shop and the people there were great too!

Thanks.

How come you guys have Jens' bike in there?



That should be more promiently displayed and a theme made of it, unless it's not his. If that is the case I can see no reason for having it on there, I mean what's the buyer going to say when asked? "No, it's not his bike just one that looks like it"!

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

I have to say, the Look is the most beautiful frame I've ever seen. That really is something...



Nice shop decaled bonty disc by the way. Thats a nice touch.

Wow! What a bunch of sweet pics. It is amazing how much you have packed into a small area. If I'm ever in NYC, I will definitely come by just to drool on all your frames.

Do you have any pictures of the old 2002-2003ish QR Caliente? I've always loved that bike and it's cool orange color. When I bought my Softride, I had it narrowed down between that bike and my Softride. I loved it, but ultimately decided my back would love me more if I got the Softride. Still . . . .

But does any of it top this which I just found on a bit of a google wander?:



and in situ:

---

"Are you sure we're going fast enough?" - Emil Zatopek

Dammit Al, you just spoiled my next 400 visits to my local shop! And worse, you have a P2C just sitting there and mine is probably still off currently in a pile of CF cloth and resin waiting to be made for me;) Nice shop though, I love the one of every disk display and the white carbon Bontrager bars behind glass!

Wow, now I know what $1,000,000.00 worth of bike inventory looks like.

I guess you guys went the Quality and Quantity road.

---

This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. - Fight Club
Industry Brat.

Sweet...dueling bikeshops (Austin Tri last week...and now R&A...who's next?... Bikesport?....)



LuckyLeese...that Cinelli is absolutely beautiful...a very nice concept by whoever took the time to do that. I'd only quibble with those cranks...should have stayed with Campy.

[reply]Holly mother of god...heaven does exist.[/reply]

Wow - that is what I was thinking. Maybe need to do a road trip just see all that eye candy packed into one place ... Chip, pick me up along the way (but don't let me take my credit card or checkbook) :)

---

____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Yes, I remember my 1st time at R&A also....sorry to be the one to rain on the parade here.....

I'd taken time off from work to go in to check out bikes. Called ahead to make sure someone would be able to spend time with me & help me out. Had every intention of making a big purchase.

Got there & was ignored until I finally cornered someone & asked for help.

The sales person spent the entire time telling me what a jerk the owner was, what a great rider he was, showed me his own bike which was in the back of the shop.

When he finally got around to allowing me to get on some bikes (on a trainer) among other things, I was told that Cervelo frames were made with "crap" aluminum & that Softrides were "only for people with bad backs." (his words). Oh yeah.....no test rides...only on a trainer.

After 30 minutes I was told he did not have time to allow me to check out other bikes (no one else was in the shop at the time) & that I should come back another day.

Needless to say I've never set foot in R&A again.

Before anyone tells me I just had the bad luck of going in & getting a moron who is no longer employed there I've spoken to dozens of others who had the exact same experience over the years. Maybe we all are just unlucky.

Based on my experience, if you know exactly what you want & what size/specs you need & have your cradit card in hand, then R&A may be "heaven" to you, otherwise IMO you're better off someplace else...even spending a bit more for better service, which should not be hard to find.

Having said all this, I suppose it is entirely possible things have changed for the better inthe last couple of years. I hope so.

WOW.

Well, I really hate to burst your bubble here, and I am sorry that you "may" have had a bad experience at our shop, but extrordinary claims means that you should have some proof to back up that an employee actually spoke bad about the owner and then proceeded to tell you that Cervelo was madeout of crap aluminium. I beg to differ, we are Cervelo's largest dealer, why whould we talk bad about one of our hotest products?!

Who was this employee that you talk about? Do you remember his name or what he looked like?

We never turn people away telling them to come back. In fact many hours a week are spent after hours selling people bicycles. What bike(s) did you want to test ride? Was it a bike built up already on the floor?

I invite you to come down to the shop again and ask for me personally and I will show you what R&A Cycles is all about.

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

My "bubble is not burst" & there is no question that I DID have a bad experience at your shop. There is no "may" about it.

It was 2+ years ago & no, I do not remember the name of the employee who "assisted" me & while I have a vague recollection of what he looked like I doubt I could pick him out of a lineup.

The bikes I wanted to check out were already built up & on the floor. I was interested in looking at Cervelo, Softride & Felt. I would have been open to something else had the sales person been willing to spend time with me & talk to me. I ended up buying a Felt from another shop.

While I cannot offer "proof" of my experience, other then my word (would you like me to take a lie detector test?) I stand by every word of it.

I'm glad to hear that you say that my experience is not the norm for R&A, but as I've said, from speaking with others it was not that unusual. I sincerely hope things have changed at R&A since my visit or that it was a fluke occurence.

I may take you up sometime on visiting again & asking for you personally. I do applaud you for coming on here & standing up for yourself & putting your $ where your mouth is.

That yellow QR Kilo is awesome. SWING! That is serious porn.

The door is always open for you to come in. I will personally assist you. Many things have changed at R&A Cycles and we are working hard at being the best tri and road shop on the planet.

















Jens Voigts bike- because Cervelo likes us.















































To boot, we have everything in stock, these photos are not one piece inventory!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Wow...do you really have to buy that inventory or do manufacturers let you hold on consignment. Seems like a huge cash flow battle. Nice stuff!

This looks like a bike shop wang hang between R/A and Austin TriCyclist!

We own our inventory, but we are not collectors, we sell and turn everything over. So we are not tied up to anything at any given time. Colnagos, Cervelos, QRs, Derosas, Zipp, HED etc all come in and go out relatively quick.

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

My thoughts as well. Have bike shops heard of free cash flow? There seems to be a huge investment in inventory and therefore a lot of cash tied up in working capital. No wonder this is tough business.

Is that a QR Redstone in the background?

---

Suffer Well.

It's going to be 75 and sunny all week here (we had our A/C on two days ago). Top that! (I need to pick my battles on this one)

---

http://www.austinTRIcyclist.com
http://www.Cannondale.com

Attn : Fatdoggy - hint for life at ST...if you have a complaint about a shop such as yours - take it up in a PM. Dan catches wind of your posts and you may just get banned.



Kudos for R&A calling him on it.



FWIW...I think that if anyone goes into a LBS and happens to have Performance, Colorado Cyclist or any other mail order only brand clothing on they should be ignored at an LBS (not saything that is the case here).

---

----------------------------------------------------------

What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

yup!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

This post proves it to me...the Caliente has it all over the P2C in the flash department. Both bikes are badass...but I'm glad QRs fit me better...

hi 40s low 50s and rain here- you got us beat on that one!!!!

;-)

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

This does not look like inventory is turning over man... ;-P

---

----------------------------------------------------------

What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Good call Don, we had to come up with something.

OH and how about we have better Mexican food.

When they were new we had probably upwards of 20 or so redstones in stock. One or two left is a pretty good turn over I would say for this bike!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Do you have any Trek Y-Foils? Size 54???

t~

just a few 48s nos. Sorry!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

lets not forget, r/a [i]is[/i] also a mail order business...

Yes, this is Jens Voigts bike, but we had to move it for the QR night as we needed the space for chairs. It is normally displayed in full sight!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

[reply]This looks like a bike shop wang hang between R/A and Austin TriCyclist![/reply]

Not really, because a customer was tooting ATC's horn while here RAC is tooting their own horn...

Yes, just like the other big shops, we do have a large internet and mail order business, but we started as and still currently a true bicycle shop. Although high end is our bread and butter, we still serve the community with children's bikes, and price point mountain and hybrid bikes as park slope in brooklyn is still a family community and we support the community!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

I found, too, that R&A has a very unappealing approach to sales. It's almost like they don't want anyone's business. At a certain point, I decided that I would never make a major purchase there, and when I was in the market for a new cervelo, I went so far as to buy the bike online from excel sports and got it finetuned elsewhere in NYC.

And by the way, I am not trying to be a jerk and rain on this parade. R&A has a beautiful inventory, as you can see, and it seems like some bad but truthful feedback could be some good medicine. If they took some of the criticism to heart, my sense is that they'd have a bigger business in the NYC area. It seems like some very silly attitude problems stand in their way of doing an even better business.

I had said the same thing about a Chicago area shop...got blasted and posts deleted....

---

----------------------------------------------------------

What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Again,

Rundhc, I apologize for any unsatasfactory service that we may have given out, but a lot has changed and we are working hard and being the premier shop around, I invite you to R&A and again I will personally help you to make your visit a great one!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Any chance, if I were to come in, that I could dry hump a few of those frames? It wouldn't take more than a few minutes each, and I'd bring my own tissues.

Al, I spotted the display card about it in your earlier post, I had to take my contacts out to be able to read it but read it I did.

Very nice.

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Al,

Two questions, is the DeRosa you focused in on in one of your pictures the 50th anniversary edition (was it called King?). If not it's still a beautiful bike.

Is Kuota offering up Stadler's custom paint job for the general public, or is this his frame from Hawaii? Not interested personally (a little effeminate if you ask me!), just wondering.

Thanks!

Chris

---

--
"I do not hurt on the bike, I punish."

Damn Al, u need to lay off the coffee or something.. those are some sweet pics, but they are kinda blurry from all that camera movement.



Paul

---

Paul..

Yea the Cinqunta 50th (derosa) is a King with special campy parts!

The Kuota is actually a special limited run of Norman's bike, but not his personally. We ahve them in several sizes!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

A shop actually has multiple sets of Lightweight wheels in stock. good lord.

So, how much of this stuff is bought by gazillionaire stock brokers because it's the most expensive available? (not that there's anything wrong with that).

great pics.

a good amount! lol

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

More pics of the bulldog!

---

-------------------------------------------------
Team FeXY

"The legs feed the wolf, gentlemen... Again!" - Team USA Hockey Coach, Herb Brooks (Miracle)

Its a good thing...cause then we can buy their bikes off of them dirt cheap when they finally need to clean out their NYC appt or garage...

---

----------------------------------------------------------

What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Record10Carbon: Don't think I did not know this when I posted my thoughts. Having said this, I'd PMed Dan a while back about my experience with R&A in the past when I saw his review of the shop here on ST. If I get banned for posting a truthful experience I had then I'd rather not post here any way (not that I do so often any way). FWIW I doubt Dan would ban me over this or delete these posts. I agree with the other person who stated this could be "good medicine" for R&A.

Al seems to be genuine in his replies about things changing for the better at their shop, which would be an excellent thing for all of us in the NY area. Hell, I might even step foot in there again based on this thread & his replies. That place is made for a poser like me....a really slow guy who just wants to look really fast. ;-)

I tend to think a bad experience in this shop is probably more of an abberation than the norm. Shops don't stay open, and certainly don't prosper like R&A appears to be prospering, if their employees suck and their shop is not customer friendly. Not everybody who ever walks into a place of business is going to walk out happy, but generally, you can't be successful unless the vast majority of your customers are happy.

I've never been in R&A's shop, but I bought two bikes from them on the phone about 10 years ago. Before I get drilled for not patronizing my local shops, I should point out that I looked far and wide for a shop in my state that carried tri bikes. No luck. It was mountain bike mania at the time and there wasn't a tri bike in sight, and certainly no bikes on the floor I could ride. The R&A guys advertised in the tri magazines, they were very helpful on the phone, gave me a great deal, and got my business.

-- Big EE

Is there anyway you could post some sort of price list too with all the items your selling on this forum? If we are interested in buying an item/bike should we call you directly or email you?

"I found, too, that R&A has a very unappealing approach to sales. It's almost like they don't want anyone's business."

there are two R&As. there's the store that existed 2 years ago and prior. last year was the transition year. this year it's an entirely new shop.

you might say that the patriarch, phil, was the stereotypical new yorker. very good guy, honest, steady, but with a "new york" personality. sort of the bike industry's version of the "soup nazi."

now much of the store's management has been handed down a generation (you'll notice that al, phil's son, is the one who is posting), and it's an entirely new store, almost like it's got a new owner, except phil's commitment to having an unbelievable inventory is still there.

so, those of you who feel the need to express any negative views, please state when it was you had these bad experiences.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

 We are not posting anything here to sell, we are posting pics of our shop with bike porn for the enjoyment of the sport. If you want to browse what we have in stock and or want to make a purchase feel free to browse our website www.racycles.com

All the best,

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

(FatDoggy) I don't get upset with your negative posts but like the hoesty. All I have to say is things are very different now and our service comes first...

(Big EE) - I completely aggree with what you said and could not say it any better. I am glad you were satisfied with our service.

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Thanks Al (& Dan) for participating/having a forum open to honest debate which can result in a positive outcome.

The end result of this thread, for me anyway, is I've gone from being a person who would never set foot in R&A again to a potential customer at some point down the road.

Hell has frozen over. Well done. :-)

I had a good internet experience with R&A last fall. I successfully located a Felt F2C road bike at their shop in my size. They made me a good deal and shipped it right out. I have no issues with the service and appreciated that they had it. No Felt shop in a 100 mile radius had what I needed. Thanks R&A...

---

Doug in Michigan

The Looks don't really do much for me, but the Pinarellos and Colnagos certainly do. And speaking of the Colnagos, what in the world is Dura Ace doing on a Colnago? That's blasphemy. The Lightweight and Campy wheels are very, very nice.

I've bought a bike from R&A mail order. My purchase was about 4 years ago, and I dealt with Phil. He had that typical New York personality, and I was new to the cycling world so I was very intimidated by him. But my service was good and I was very pleased. It was unfortunate that the bike was the wrong size, but that wasn't Phil's fault. It was mine.

RP

Very impressive store and inventory. I have never seen so many in-stock Record and Dura Ace parts!

I had no problems when I went in R&A whilst visiting New York over Christmas (apart from not having enough money to buy more stuff :) ). I went in to buy a bike and get it shipped home (New Zealand), the staff were very helpful and even discouraged me from buying one certain bike because it wasn't a good fit, even though it was more expensive than one of the ones I was looking at. The guys were polite, helpful and friendly and the shop was like walking into Santas grotto. I would shop there again no problems.

In the end I settled on a QR Seduza, I may not go very fast at Ironman NZ this year but at least I will look good doing it on the new bike:).

It's good to know that there's been a shift at R&A. I actually didn't know that. I'm certainly open to giving it another try.

----------------
there are two R&As. there's the store that existed 2 years ago and prior. last year was the transition year. this year it's an entirely new shop.

AL,

Do you have a email address? I would like to buy a tri bike from you. Need your advise. Thanks.

Al@RAcycles.com

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

The two red saddles in the middle of the saddle picture between the blue and white ones.

What are they?

jaretj

Hi Dan---I had PM'd Tom Demerly (hasn't replied, must be away) on January 21 expressing my displeasure of R&A after noticing the banner ad on this site. My question to Tom in my PM was 'what can you expect from your local LBS?' I am not out to bash R&A but feel compelled to participate in this thread. I was last there this past July for over $500bucks worth of work on my bike (this is the second bike I've purchased from them) and gotta tell you did not get the service (and in my mind, the respect) one would expect. This was not my first bad experience with them---needless to say, I am no longer going back. I am not surprised to hear some of the negative replies on this thread. Really appreciate your willingness to hear a negative view---thx

Really very, very impressive. Some beautiful stuff.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

The bottom line though Tom... is if you posted the amount of pictures this guy has posted...20 people would have told you to take it to the ST Classified's..right?

KJGrog, are you what they call a "shit stirrer"?

---

----------------------------------------------------
Striving to have sex more than 66 times per year

Its so true though...people would want Tom's head if he posted this many pictures of stuff he is selling outside the ST classified section...

Well, yeah. They might have.

Personally- I have no problem with this. I like R&A and I think they do a nice job. Also, they are an icon in the industry. They are good marketers and good, credible retailers.

I like to see their contributions on here and hope they continue. This post and the photos are particularly good.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Again, we apologize if you feel you did not get the service or respect that you felt that you deserved.

If you would like, PM me and enlighten me on what you feel that we did wrong and how you feel that we can better serve you. If you choose to PM me, I would be more then happy to discuss your visit. In your PM, please make sure that you tell me all of the specifics on your visit. Was it during the week or a busy weekend? Did we service your bike to your liking or were you not satisfied with our mechanical service or product? Was it our attititude or was it very busy and we were under manned in the shop? Was the shop empty at the time, or were there a lot of people there?

Please let me know so we can take the proper measures to increase the quality of what we do at R&A. Like I said in several posts, we changed a lot, and we are aiming to please.

All the best,

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Tom,

Thanks for the kind words, or hat goes off to you as well as we feel that you set the standard on service and we, like you are striving to be the best, plus, you are perhaps the biggest fan of our boy Bjorn!!

PS- we are working hard on our 3rd industry leader workshop scheduled for the end of February tentatively, and as usual, a special invite will be going out to you! (This 3rd workshop is going to be a good one- well, it is hard to top Gerard and Cervelo and Herbert/Brad Devany and QR, but we are trying hard to make it a good one!)

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

They are Gel Flite selle italia saddles

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Thanks for posting your information. I will stop in the next time I visit my son who is renting an apartment on 6th Avenue. I can't believe I have visited twice in the past few months and did not know you were there. Don.

better?

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Is that a Renaissance mid-rack? What size?

Hey Don,

Very easy to miss us, we are right across the street from Keyfood and are the big blue building, next door to R&A True Value Hardware.

Stop in and say hi next time you are down our way! Ask for me (Al) or Jason (fellow ST'er Jasonogk) who does our metabolic testing and runs our Tri team and is in the shop a lot when he isnt out doing 1 on 1s or testing with his clients!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Ya it is, that is a 56, we also have a 54 in stock as well as a 56 prodigy. PM, email or call if ya are interested!

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com

Wow! Lotsa way cool bikes! I have always been fond of Colnagos...since I started riding in the 80's.

Do you have any photos of the new '06 Vision Tech clip-ons and base? If I have it right they are an anodized finish on 'em?

The "anodized" finish so far has been on the oem bars. We havnt received any stock inventory with them yet.

---

All the best,

Al Cabbad
R&A Cycles
al@racycles.com