A friend is looking to buy an entry level road bike to get started in road biking/triathlon. Any recommendations for a good ship in the L.A. area, preferably west side, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
There are quite a few!
There’s BikeImprove on Santa Monica (http://bike-improve.com). Locally owned, super nice guys, and they have some lower end bikes as well as tricked out racing machines. I take my race bike here to get worked on, and I’ve never been anything less than thrilled. They give a discount to LA Tri Club members.
There’s Helen’s (Marina del Rey, Santa Monica and Westwood) (http://helenscycles.com/). They’ve got a huge selection of any kind of bike you can think of. They have amazing parking lot sales, too. The Santa Monica shop is the biggest of the stores on the Westside. They’re a higher volume shop so you won’t get the personal service you’ll get at the smaller places, but they have great prices. Matt, the manager of the Westwood shop is a great guy and will really make sure you leave happy.
Cynergy Cycles is in Santa Monica (http://www.cynergycycles.com/), and they’re a great shop. They have a program where you can rent a bike and apply the rental towards the purchase price of the bike. Great if you want to try a few models. Cynergy also has some great group rides.
Bike Effect is a small shop with some really high end stuff, but they carry some nice entry level stuff, too. (http://www.bikeeffect.com/home/)
If you want something more triathlon oriented, TriLab (http://www.triathlonlab.com) is in Santa Monica and they have everything - tri kits, wetsuits, shoes, gels and, of course, bikes. Of course, they give a discount to LA Tri Club members.
+1 on Tri Lab. I’ve dealt a lot with the Redondo Beach location, nothing but good things to say about them.
Also have had good experiences with Ted’s Manhattan Cyclery in Manhattan Beach (originally referred there by TriLab when they couldn’t help me with a repair on an older wheel).
Huge vote for tri lab on pico. I’ve purchased 3 bikes from there and always treated very well. Ask for Brian.