I am going to be in Chicago in March and was hopeign to check out some good tri shops there any advice on where I should go?
There is no tri shop around where I live so I need to get my fix when I’m away
The best shop in the area is Mission Bay Multisports. Two locations, downtown and 40 miles west of the city. Great place, read Dan’s review here. There is also a Bicycle Sports affiliate in Glen Ellyn, about a 45 min drive.
Yup - Mission Bay
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Sadly, Mission Bay is about the only game in town. Personally, I don’t think they’re all that…in fact, the guy that runs the shop was a total dick to my wife (who went in looking at high-end tri bikes). Given a choice, I’d check out Bicycle Sports.
Rich Ducar has opened a new store just a block away from the old Bicycle Sports location (Main St. Glen Ellyn). That store is definitely worth checking out. MUCH better than Mission Bay, better service… etc. Not to offend anyone here, but I have also received poor service at Mission Bay. They didn’t know who I was (I am nobody 
and didn’t believe me when I told them I am an actual triathlete.
No joke, I think it is just called The Bike Shop. There is also the Glen Ellyn Running Company, they share the same space. Not sure about Rich’s number, but the running store’s number is 790-IRUN. You should be able to reach him there.
I was in Misson Bay a few weeks back, I find their staff arrogant at best…and I always know that the best bike for you, is the one that is instock. I have to agree that their service is lacking.
Address?
There is a new tri/adventure shop in Evanston, But I dont know the name. Vertels and Fleet Feet have tri clothing but no bikes. Mission Bay Elgin store it supposed to be better than downtown, I got a good deal and good service on wheels there.
FYI. That number is wrong for “the bike shop” in Glen Ellyn. It’s 630 793-4030.
Dan
It is a bit of a hike from Chicago to Glen Ellyn, but if you are looking for bikes, running shoes, and a few other accessories then The Bike Shop/Running Company is the place to go. Rich is good and his young wrench is good, too. My g/f and I both bought our first tri bikes from Rich and he just installed a compact crank for me. Good fitting. Good products of limited range.
By the way, you can take the Metra train from the station at Madison and Canal Streets in Chicago out to Glen Ellyn. The Glen Ellyn station is about 400 meters from Rich’s shop. Here is the website for the train schedule: http://metrarail.com/Sched/cnw_w/cnw_w.html
Have fun shopping!
Rich does have the new shop in town and it is called THE BIKE SHOP. It is located in Glen Ellyn. He has a great inventory of Litespeed, Orbea, Softride and even a selection of running shoes. Rich will stand behind his product.
Rich is the man. He fixed what Mission Bay screwed me up on.
Rich thanks for the re-fit on the 61cm P2k.
-Joe
i’m not responding to any PARTICULAR post, but i’ve been in most of the shops in chicagoland, and imho mission bay is BY FAR the best shop chicago has or has ever had if you’re a triathlete.
yes, MB occasionally fails to give someone what it is they’d like to have (whatever that is) but it’s a very stylized set-up, very much personality driven, and those who have a bad reaction to the staff just aren’t a mesh with the personality of the store. too bad. your loss.
it’s easy to take for granted a shop that has 400 wetsuits in stock, and several deep in every size of QR or Cervelo tri bike, but MB didn’t start big, or with money. when i first got to know the shop it was a very, VERY small, not at all tri specific, and it was built into the shop it is brick by brick.
i pretty much get along with everybody in retailsville all across the country, and my view is, if you think a staff person is arrogant, it’s possibly because you’re sensitive to your own fragility or lack of technical sophistication or whatever. if somebody doesn’t wait on you in a reasonable period of time, don’t walk out mad, go up and tap somebody on the shoulder and ask for help.
and, btw, when bill from MB sees a customer not getting waited on in a hurry, he goes ballistic. if you don’t get good customer service at MB, it’s probably because you’re hiding behind a burley trailer or something.
certainly there will be a person that pops up and says, “no, dan, i really DID get bad service at MB!” then you should’ve brought your whatever-it-was back and told MB that, and they’d probably have made it right.
If you are looking for a QR/Litespeed, Mission Bay is the way to go. If you are looking for a Litespeed/Tomac bike, The Bike Shop is the way to go. As I can tell, there are not many bike shops in the Midwest trying to turn off customers in January or February. When you expect a three hour bike fitting on a Saturday in May from Mission Bay, you arent going to get it. Not from The Bike Shop either. Or probably not Nytro…You get the idea. You make an appointment for a three hour fit on a Tuesday at 10:00 am, they’ll probably give you four hours…You should get the idea again. My husband and I go out to dinner all the time. We may have a great meal, get great, attentive service - but we get really pissed when the bill isn’t sitting there waiting for us when we want to leave. My point (I think there is one) is that customers expectations are sometimes not realistic. Most bike stores are not trying to drive customers (and sales) away. The end. For what it’s worth, I don’t care where you buy a bike in Chicagoland, as long as it is a Litespeed, Merlin, QR or Tomac.
Well, maybe my wife caught Bill on a bad day, but here’s the story…
She’s a fairly well-known and respected area triathlete - so much so that one of her training clients wanted her to have a sweet tri bike (his treat) when she went to Kona. MB was recommended, and he contacted Bill to make sure that he’d personally be at the store to work with her. To his credit, Bill took the time to check out her previous race performances so he’d know who he was dealing with when she came in. Well, after spending just a little time with her, she was told that she was indeed a decent local athlete, but that a high-end tri bike wouldn’t be that much of an asset, and that instead, she should ‘lower her expectations’ in Kona. In addition, he raved about another local woman triathlete and remarked that an athlete of her caliber would benefit from a nicer bike, but not my wife. Well, long story short…my wife went to Kona and kicked her ass…and did it on the same Merlin she’s been riding for years. The bottom line is that Bill not only went out of his way to turn away a customer looking for a high-end bike, but insulted her as well. I’ll never set foot in that place again.
“if you think a staff person is arrogant, it’s possibly because you’re sensitive to your own fragility or lack of technical sophistication or whatever.”
Wow, that’s the first time I have been told I’m sensitive to my own fragility! Does that mean I can move to California now?
Or, perhaps the staff does manage to come across as arrogant (at times). Sorry Dan, but as someone who actually lives in the area, uses the store, with friends who use (or used to use the store), the “attitude” issue is a common complaint. Rather than trash the forum users, maybe a better idea would be to pass the info on the MB as a form of marketing feedback.
Personally, I still use them as my primary LBS. Any “personality-mesh” issues are overridden by the level of service MB provides. On the few occasions when I have needed immediate service, they have always taken care of me. As far as pushing you into stuff, I felt this happened to me once, but on at least two occasions they also steered me toward equipment that was less expensive than what I was looking at.
FYI, Rich runs a very good shop as well.
“The bottom line is that Bill not only went out of his way to turn away a customer looking for a high-end bike”
i can categorically tell you that bill would NEVER turn away a customer looking for a high-end bike. this goes entirely against the tenets of his religion. something got lost in translation. this sort of breakdown in communication is unfortunate for everyone. especially because bill dearly wanted to sell a high-end bike (for him, a higher experience than sex) and your wife obviously wanted to buy one.
a loss for both.
bill is a GREAT guy. absolutely one of the most solid people in multisport, loved by EVERYONE in the industry and considered THE most solid shop in the retail community by each and every manufacturer. but he’s got a strong personality. and he’s an immigrant. in a way, he’s a bit like ves mandaric (tho bill is fairly entirely americanized, ves–yaqui–is still pretty european). they both have strong, nuanced personalities, which endears them to their customers. but if you take something they say the wrong way, and get your nose bent, then it’s to everybody’s loss. my recommendation: when dealing with either of them, best to realize they have hearts of gold, and if in doubt just assume you’re taking what they said the wrong way.
maybe what bill was telling your wife was, with her riding style a merlin was better than spending a lot of money on a steep tri bike? and judging by her kona performance, perhaps he was right.
when you’re a chicagoan and you cut yourself off from MB you’ve divorced yourself from the midwest’s best cycling resource. why not just go into MB and say, “let me tell you why my wife was insulted,” and clear the air and put it behind you? bill will be aghast (more that he lost the sale than anything else).
“Does that mean I can move to California now?”
no. we have too many people. but we’re willing to export our bullshit pop psychology. you ride enough in the santa monica mountains and malibu eventually rubs off on you.
you have successfully gotten over any need to bleed over a perceived slight from a bike shop employee or owner. bully for you. better for other readers to do the same. if you’re not getting what you want, ask for what you want. don’t stew about it.
i like rich. he’s a personal friend. but here’s something to remember. most of the IMPORTANT stuff rich ever learned about bikes and the bike biz he learned from bill. i wish for rich’s success. each is its own style of shop. rich is the little guy. bill is the big guy. but i remember when bill was the little guy, and he’s a big guy now because nobody works harder, nobody works smarter, and nobody in the midwest is better at building a tri shop than bill.
my mission here on this thread is not to report back to bill how he ought to moderate or alter his personal approach. my mission is to tell forum readers to quit whining about shop personalities, and read this site, familiarize yourself with the issues that surround your specific needs, go into your LBS, go up and ask for help, if you don’t like the attitude of the shop person say, “we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, i’d like to spend my money here, perhaps there is someone else i should be talking to in order to get us both past this personality impass,” and then go to a different shop if it turns out you know more than the shop personnel. just get what you want. don’t make it a personality thing. go to church on sunday if you need warm fuzzies. find the LBS that has the expertise to fix your problems and the inventory to service you immediately. then go there to get your business done.
Dan…you are 190% right about Bill…however, some of his staff are idiots. I was there a week ago (Elgin) they DONT have 400 wetsuits (did not have my size either). I was dumbfounded not at how staff treated me, it was how they treated some other people who were in the shop looking for their first bike. I do not think that it is proper roll your eyes and put a queer ass twang on the words “Beginners bike”…we all had a “Beginners bike”. Shit, we all know that Peter Reid would have been about 15 hours at Kona had he been on a $1,100.00 Felt.
And they are the #1 most guilty shop I have ever seen that will sell what is there. I know what it is like as I in a past life worked at an IBD. But at the end of the day, you need to sell people what is right for them. An IBD is like a doctor, we take for granted that they are doing the right thing by us. We here at Slowtwitch are VERY educated in what we are looking for when we walk into an IBD…a beginner is not. We have the advantage - over a beginner, the IBD has the advantage.