pittmatj

My fixie was stolen a few weeks ago, so now i am looking for something to fill the void in my life. I'm currently in Wisconsin on a road trip with my girlfriend. We are headed to chicago tomorrow to watch her sister give a presentation at Northwestern. So we will be in that region of Chicago and also in the wrigley field area for a baseball game. Next we are headed for Madison and Minneapolis.

Would any locals of these fine midwestern cities like to recommend some bike shops?

xiamsammyx

in madison hit the legendary yellow jersey on state street, pretty hard to miss, about 3 blocks from the capitol building.

Severian

Shameless self-plug: Erik's Bike Shop... we've got 2 Specialized City Langsters (seattle and london) left at my shop (madison east)

look us up on eriksbikeshop.com

khamel74

Here's a few to try in Minneapolis - though there's lot's more that I haven't made it to yet...

one-on-one (bianchi, surly, swobo and more)
behind bars (kona, salsa, masi, and more)
freewheel
the hub co-op

Have a good one...

bornagainst

Yellow Jersey is cool if you want to spend a bunch of money but definitely worth checking out(new frames=Panasonic,Waterford,Colnago,De Bernardi,Olmo, and tons of old Campy stuff! Plus a complete Nagasawa last time I was in there!!).Budget Bikes Used Showroom(930 Regent St, Madison) is probably the coolest shop i've ever been to! There are hundreds of used bikes in all price ranges. In MPLS I would recommend Behind Bars or One On One if you are in the market for another fixie. Sometimes the Hub has some cool frames and almost always Steamroller completes(I drooled over a pink Bareknuckle there for a good while). The Freewheel is a great shop (and only 3 blocks from my apt) but they cater to the roadie/mtb crowd a little more. In St Paul i'd check out the Sibley Bike Depot and Express Bike for used bikes.

4zn_balla

go to milwaukee! bens cycle
benscycle.net

joetotale

In my opinion, Irv's Bike Shop is the best LBS in Chicago, hands down, though they don't have a ton of fixed gear stuff (though I did get a set of DP-18s there for a decent price). They have the best prices on repairs and basic gear like tubes and lights and such, and a great family-owned, small business vibe to boot. Good Mexican food nearby.

As far as fixed stuff goes, Cycle Smithy is pretty great. Lots of the brands that the kidz love (Specialized, Bianchi, Fuji, Cannondale, etc.) and a friendly staff. They also have bags, NJS parts, hats, and all kinds of other crap. Thai and Indian restaurants nearby.

Some folks will probably mention Yojimbo's Garage too, but I've never been because of the mixed feedback I've seen on the web.

bionnaki

chicago: yojimbo's (most excellent), smart bike parts, boulevard bikes, armitage bike shop, cycle smithy.

matt wisconsin

Bikesmiths is a good stop too. Ben's has a good supply, but the employees aren't the friendliest from my experience.. you?

maddyfish

I have ridden in Houston, Oklahoma city, Indianapolis, Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago, Columbus, and all over s. FLorida, including Miami.
Madison is by far the worst place I have ever ridden. No doubt, not even close.

EVERYONE IS DRUNK ALL THE TIME. 24/7/365. Kids, soccer moms, 90 year old grampas, students, bus drivers, everyone drunk all the time, and driving their cars.

Aeroplane

Try using more emoticons.

maddyfish

Madison sucks!:

geoffvsjeff

You suck. Unfortunately, I do agree with the "Everyone is always drinking and using some vehicle for transport" thing. Lots of drinking on bike/cars/mopeds/foot. But there are so many bikes around, that at least people are typically looking for cyclists.

And to the subject at hand, I have not spent much time in Chicago, but all the Mpls shop offerings (already mentioned here) are probably going to have more stuff to help you out than anything in Madison. There are plenty of fixies to be had here in most of the stores you walk into, and YJ is amazing (but a little $$), but I love the shops in Mpls.

edited to add something relevant to the OP

maddyfish

Thank you. DO you drink 24/7 like the rest of them up there.

gehrkead

I will agree with you on the employees. They are not very friendly helpful the few times I have been in there. They just seem oblivious to me being in the store while I have been there. So now I usually just purchase things on the internet and pick them up in the store to avoid this now.

matt wisconsin

I actually had to SHOW the guys where some of the stuff was in the upstairs stock room and it was my first time there. And it blew his mind that I was running a 3/32 on a fixed gear. To top it off he was an ******* the entire time, even after giving them a big sale[2 conversions worth of drivetrain products].

I would never go back, but I'd order off their site. Even though there are always 3 taco trucks within 100 ft. of the place.

koyman

A few things:

A:
Be sure to use a question mark when asking a question. Also, either remember to either remove yr finger from the "shift" key by the second letter of the first word, or (if this was your intention) put the emphasis (aka - caps) on a word that makes sense. This can only help you.
And to answer the question I think you were asking (someone else): Yes, yes I do.


B:
I had a highly positive experience with Bens, and I promised myself that I would share it whenever I could.
It is this: I was in a bind, there for MMI (V? VI? IV? I don't remember which) but my driveside crank had been slowly warping at the spindle hole for awhile, and the crankset I had ordered came in (I later learned) the Monday after the race.
So there I was, ****ed up cranks in Milwaukee with minimal time on my hands.
I registered for the race, and then rode to Bens for to purchase a crankset. Did I mention that it was the first nice day of spring? So of course the shop was packed with G_d-knows-what manner of peds.
I get the crankset and ask the guy if there's any chance of them putting it on right away. Predictable answer (no). I mention that I was hoping to use them right away, and what happens?
They let me go back into the shop portion of the store and just use all their tools, grease, etc etc. It was amazing. I changed out the cranks (with a few points of advice) and was on my way, back in time to race.
I did poorly in the race.

So I do recommend them.


And C:
I do recommend stopping by YJ, if only for the experience.

joetotale

Also, if you're on the hunt for tasty food and beer while you're in the Chi, I highly recommend the Handlebar.

jason walley

When you get to Chicago there are a ton of bike shops worthwhile. If you stop downtown, near Millenium Park there's a place called McDonald's Bike Station. They will probably be able to give you a bike map that has bike shops marked on it (without any names). www.chicagobikeshops.info has a huge listing of area bike shops with links to google maps.

A place like Yojimbo's is really for locals who can be patient and want a bike built up from scratch with lots of care and attention. A place like Performance Bike on the other hand is designed for people looking to walk out immediately with a new bike ready to ride. They also have a website where you can order bikes and have them delivered to the shop (www.performancebike.com).

Other quality places: Kozy's Cyclery, Cycle Smithy, and Village Cycle Center. Goodluck to you!

bornagainst

Your opinion=fail. Madison is a great city to ride in AND a great city to get drunk in.

SuperVillain

I'd recommend Budget Bicycles on Regent St (west side). They have 4 shops in a 3 block area, I believe the one furthest west is the one you need to go to. Last time I was there they had some SE Lagers, a Bowery, a Rush Hour, and some others. Machinery Row is also a good shop with a lot of stuff. Both have very helpful and friendly people working in them IMO.

veganeric

Every person I've talked to that's been to One on One says the Employees are pretentious pricks. I've never delt with them first hand, so I can't say personally. I've done some after hours window shopping there and they do seem to have nice stuff.

The Hub is hit or miss. I usually go to the store on Cedar. The guy in the Municipal Waste shirt (every time I've been there he's wearing it) is awesome. The rest of the employees don't seem very helpful. I hear the other store is better, but I haven't been there in years.

The St. Louis Park Erik's is awesome, though technically not in Minneapolis (about 3 miles west). They don't have a lot of ssfg gear, but most of the emplyees know about them and have fixies of their own. There are usually a few Langsters floating around. Plus, if you like to shift sometimes there are a bunch of Sevens to drool over.

The Uptown Penn Cycle usually has some Pistas in stock.

Dyoon

Boulevard Bikes in the Chi is the place I got my Bianchi Pista. Got a pretty good deal on it for $625. They were real nice and even worked overtime to assemble it.

geoffvsjeff

I agree with all this. Even with the attitude, I still would find myself drawn to the carnage that is the lower level of OneOnOne, but by the time I left the cities for madison, I found myself going more to the Hub on Cedar. Similar piles of used parts, less attitude. However, the wall hanging bikes and Bianchi motorcycle are pretty cool at OneOnOne.

I worked at Trailhead Cycling in Champlin (great mom-and-pop store for a typical suburban store, not at all worth your time b/c I was the only guy who road fixed. In the three years I was there we sold one Pista). Anyway, this lead me to dislike Erik's in general (some things they did were kind of jerkish, and the commercials are annoying), but I still went to the St. Louis park one because I did have a lot of respect for the guys who worked there.

Yes, I do drink in Madison, but I never drive, and I rarely ride my bike. I feel much better being on foot or crashing on a couch.

And despite my earlier comment, I do like a lot of the shops in Madison, particularly when considering the population. In reference to the earlier post, budget and machinary row have the same owner, and they are both OK. For the big shops in town, I prefer Willy's, because I have gotten better service there than at Budget (they have Masi's, Pistas, Schwinn Madisons, and probably something else I am not thinking of). The shear number of bikes at Budget's used bike store is amazing, but I think their prices are too high.

As a side note, if you are into really expensive road/tri bikes, Chronometro (Madison) is incredible. I could take my Orbea Opal in there and feel very ordinary. I used to think that Excel and Grand Performance (both Twin Cities) were about as high end as a business model would allow, but Chronometro ups both of them.

FLYcrash

In Chicago, try Johnny Sprockets at Broadway and Wellington. Good, knowledgeable staff who are not pretentious and don't up-sell you.

I live across the city from them and still use them. I'll be getting my new frame from them.