On Saturday I picked up my Guru Geneo that Chris Li at the Bikeway Source in Bedford Mass built up for me. I bought the frame elsewhere, and he put on all new parts based on my preferences for equipment and setup. Prices were matched with what I could find elsewhere, and everything was installed correctly. Communication was good (normally by e-mail) as the parts came in and issues were resolved, including a compatibility issue with the bb sleeve and the super Record 11 components. This involved the bike shop contacting Guru directly and solving the problem without my involvement. Even when they don’t sell Guru bikes.
Chris was able to diagnose an unusual shifting problem on one of my earlier Cannondale bikes without even seeing the bike. The problem was the spacer between the crank and the frame was cracked. I took the bike to 3 other shops before going to the Bikeway Source, and none had a clue (one suggested the chainring needed replacing even though I had 20 miles on it, another suggested I was too accustomed to dura-ace). When I wanted to replace the gruppo on my Litespeed Saber, he was able to make suggestions and let me ride his tri bike that was similarly equipped before I made the decision.
I’ve been to so many bike shops in NH and not found a shop I particularly like. So, now I drive 40 miles south over the boarder into Mass (a big deal with you live in NH), but no longer worry about the work being done on my bikes. The other shop I had good experiences with was Tri-Speed in Baltimore (before moving to NH). There are things in common between both shops: relatively small, the person you get to know there is an owner/partner, works on bikes themselves, rides/races enough to know the differences between equipment, knows a lot about the bike companies and bikes they stock (as well as the ones they don’t without being disparaging), can knowledgeably recommend and order upgrades for you directly, can adjust the price themselves to be competitive, is easy to deal with, and is available at the shop often.
So, was this just a good experience, or a function of a particular bike shop model?