I have a friend that works in New York but lives in New Jersey that is doing his first triathlon in July and needs a recommendation for a good bike shop , knowledge of bike fitting as well.
Thank you for your help with this!
Karen :o)
High Gear Cycles highgear****cyclery.com/
Bert at the Stirling store fit me for my road bike and then refit me fro my tri bike. He is not a FIST guy but my previous FIST fit was too aggressive and I could not ride it for more then 40 minutes. His fit has been much more rideable in the aero position. He took his time and did a lot of measurements as well as check my flexability and tweaked my fit over the next couple of months for me. Not sure what TRI bikes they sell as I already had my Cervelo.
Where does your friend live? I got my bike fit done at Sports People in Far Hills by Jonathan. I don’t know his last name, but if you ask for Jonathan (not Jon) they will know who you are talking about. He does all the maintanence on my bike too. He always answers the 100 questions that I have for him and never makes me feel stupid for anything that I ask (even though I probably should feel stupid for asking it). The owners are nice and are friendly to triathletes. I have been going there since 2004.
I personally have found that High Gear Cyclery is very pushy, not very helpful, and not very nice to triathletes. This is just my experience in the 4 times I have been in there.
njtrigirl,
He lives in Monclaire, and he is in need of buying a tri bike as well and because he is a newbie and is overwhelmed when trying to find a place to go and as you said finding a place that is not pushy :o) I believe he is willing to go where ever he can find a reasonable price and good fit. He needs helmet, shoes the works.
Karen
Flat Tire,
Thank you. He is in need of buying the tri bike as well you say you had yours already, where did you get yours?
Karen
Sports People does not have as much selection as some other stores. In NYC there is SBR which has a lot of selection, but I don’t know what there sales people are like. I am going to go in there in the next few weeks to buy a wetsuit so I will find out then.
Maybe someone else knows another good shop closer to Montclair. I think that is a bit of a drive anyway.
njtrigirl,
As you probably could tell I have no idea what would be close to him. I do know that if it is a good place to go to insure he has a good fit and a good price I am sure he would go.
As you know being in this sport recommendation mean everything :o) Any you have would be appreciated.
Karen
No doubt about Sunrise Tri in West Babylon (Long Island). Frank does an incredible fit (I was there 3 hours), and his selection is first rate: Cervelo, Felt, Kuota, Argon 18, Scott, Pinarello, etc.
I cant say enough about this shop.
monclair has a high end bike shop, but i’ve not heard good things about them. i use high gear in sterling for my road bike (bert was referenced above), but in truth they no longer have too many tri bike offerings. There’s westwood cycle which might be good, but again I think they mostly handle road bikes. Going farther from montclair, you have sports people (also referenced above). They are supposed to be pretty good with tri bikes. Down the shore there is cycles54, which is owned by christian, a friend of a friend. they are an up and coming shop, and support a lot of local racers (and races). if i were to buy a tri bike, i’d definitely look there. you may also want to consider brielle cyclery, which is where i think christian used to work.
all that said, and i’m sure there are more around, it’s probably worth going to elite or cadence in philly, or sbr or racycles in new york. i’ve been to the two ny shops and most of the jersey shops.
ra by far has the best selection, and a very good reputation. putting my personal bent toward cycles54 aside, i’d go to racycles.
Hi
I go to a great shop in Lincoln Park, NJ called Bicycle Tech (973) 694-6775 . Mechanics are very good! Shop owner is Rich and the mechanics are Scott and Glenn…Great guys!
If you are looking for fitting I would give Paul Levine a call…he has a studio in NYC and in Central Valley NY…
I just got my tri bike from Bicycle tech and they did a great job from sizing me to the finished product…If you want anymore info send me a PM
My 2 cents…hope this helps
I have sent all of your responses to my friend . Keep them coming, I am sure this will be so helpful to him and he will be so grateful !
Karen
In Northern New Jersey…
SBR MultiSports in NY, www.sbrshop.com.
Montclair Bikery has recently switched owners/managers. There’s one guy I’d consider very knowledgeable there - blanking on his name though. Goateed skinny guy - pretty much a mt biker himself. They carry at least QR, specialized and Van Dessel. I think Cannondale too and I’m pretty sure no Cervelo (the horror!).
I was fit by Paul Levine (who I HIGHLY recommend), so don’t know about their fit services. Back in the city, besides Paul Levine, I’ve had good experiences with Toga (though it can be a bit of a cattle call) and not very good experiences with SBR (I don’t think they’re a great shop for the newbie).
Don’t know them personally, but doesn’t RA cycles post here?
i second this! doing my first tri this spring and Frank took great care of me. He spent a lot of time with me answer all my newbie questions and helped me find a great bike with no pressure at all. www.sunrisetri.com
best of luck to your friend.
I am sending him these replies and he should soon be a hooked viewer of SLOWTWITCH with the rest of us :o) What a great way to get top notch information!
It’s about an hour drive south on the Jersey Shore, but, I would HIGHLY recommend Brielle Cyclery
Kathy Penna has run this high-end shop for over 30 years and is an expert with tri-bikes & fit. (On top of being one of the nicest people on the planet)
They carry Cervelo, Trek, Cannondale, Litespeed, QR, Elite, Lemond, Orbea and more.
www.sunrisetri.com
None Better!
Gary
This was a timely question as I’m also looking for a new tri bike. I bought a road bike 4 years ago from High Gear, and also was fitted by Bert. I still have the same set-up on my road bike, so I guess he did a good job. I was looking at them and Brielle cyclery for my tri bike, but it looks like there are a couple of other shops to try out also.