RG, your question needs to be a two part question:
1)Where should I go to find out which bike is the perfect bike for me?
2)Where should I buy it?
The answer to #1 and #2 may or may not be the same place.
The answer to #1 has to do with the skill of the staff and the level of service in working with you to understand your specific needs and goals, plus whatever equipment or proprietary systems they have to help make equipment and geometry choices.
The answer to #2 has to do with the depth of stock (i.e. can they get you the bike?) the quality of assembly, quality of packing & shipping, ability to substitute parts and add accessories, and of course the total price.
In your case, the answer to #2 should have nothing to do with the post-sale service, because unless you buy the bike from a shop nearby, you’re probably never going to interact with them again. You’re certainly not going to pack the bike up and ship it back to them for maintenance every few months. So you probably need a question #3, what’s the best bike shop near me for maintenance services?
My answer is biased because JackRabbit has specifically decided to excel at #1 by NOT doing #2. That is, we offer our customers the service of helping you buy the right bike, and we are completely neutral about what bike you buy because we’re not going to sell you a bike. We don’t care if you buy a brand new Carbon P3 or an two year old bike off Ebay. We charge a fixed fee for the service of helping you select a bike, hooking you up with a quality seller (#2), and for fitting and aftermarket accessories after you get the bike. Usually we can help you get a deal on the bike that more than offsets our fee. But in the end, we’re the only place I know of that’s offering completely neutral advice because we have nothing to sell but the advice (and components). There are coaches who offer this kind of service to their clients, but where they may recommend a dozen bikes a year, we’re building to a dozen bikes a month, and are growing rapidly.
The only other place that I know of that has a similiar model is Signature Cycles, led by Paul Levine. Paul is one of the best fitters in North America, and is certainly acknowledged as a master of the art. He will also provide you the service of helping you find the right bike for your cycling needs, and will perform an outstanding fitting once you get the bike. The difference between Paul’s model and our model is that Paul also offers custom bikes, which can be very tempting but are rarely necessary. Paul puts absolutely no pressure on his customers to get a custom bike rather than a stock bike, but when you hear him explain the benefits of custom, it is tough to resist the logic. Plus those Serottas are sweet bikes.
Regards #2, if you’ve chosen a brand that BikeSport carries, I would suggest them as your source for purchasing the bike. Very few shops take the same time & effort to go over the bike with a fine toothed comb before they ship it to you, and Tom’s folks do it quickly and well. Being near Detroit his stock isn’t as deep as shops in bigger markets, but being Tom he can get bikes when he needs to. Also, since Tom has a very public persona he has an incentive to treat everyone well lest you call him out on it in a public forum like slowtwitch. If it’s not a brand Tom carries, then it depends on the brand of bike you’re looking for because different shops have different stocks of different brands, and of course different prices.
Lee Silverman
JackRabbit Sports
Park Slope, Brooklyn