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Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on April 9, 2013 at 3:12pm

What are you looking to buy?

For parts, Working Bikes has the best prices, but the attitude is self service.  You will have to dig through buckets of parts, and those parts may or may not be working.  You will not get help.  You will pay a buck or two for brake calipers, derailleurs, etc.

Boulevard will help you with what you need and you may pay more - but remember, Working Bikes sells donated parts so "mark up" is minimal.  Boulevard will give you a fair price for what you need, though.

No experience with Smart Bike Parts.

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Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on April 9, 2013 at 4:55pm

h' 1.0 said:

Youngmancycle-

it makes absolutely no sense to start a new discussion about this. All of the context is in the initial discussion, which is still very active.  You got several pages of mostly lengthy, thoughtful replies, and barely acknowledged most of them. Not very respectful.

http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/best-cycling-bike-shop-in-...

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 10, 2013 at 1:04am

I agree that this duplicate thread is a bit post-whorish and should be combined with the earlier one by a mod with god-powers here.

But I'll bite...

These 3 shops listed are pretty much as different as bike shops can get.  I go to all 3 fairly regularly (as regularly as I go to any LBS) for different reasons.    Geographically Boulevard and Smart are fairly close and you can ride between the two in a few minutes.   WB is more of a haul from the area in Logan Square where the other two are located  but worth the trip.  

If the object is to "visit" urban shops then I think these 3 would be great examples to pick due to how different they are and great examples of the well run shops in their respective niches.   I would add in The Bike Lane & Comrade on the way South along with maybe a few other shops like West Town & Rapid Transit on the way down working towards Working Bikes.

Are you going to be driving in or riding your bike into the city? Not all shops have easy parking out in front although Boulevard is usually a good one to find parking in front of as long as Lula isn't too busy.    Maybe two trips are in order for time's sake -especially on the weekend.  Driving between these shops will take a lot longer than riding.  Do the ones on the near North side one day and hit Working Bikes and a few other South side shops on another.  

I don't know the area around Working Bikes very well as the only reason I ever go down there is to specifically visit WB to dig through their MASSIVE used parts bins.  It's the main draw for me as you can find just about anything there over 10 years old.  Newer/nicer stuff doesn't tend to pile up in the boneyard but I've found a few nice components laying in with the more vintage piles.  I can spend literally hours digging through it and not even really put a dent in that gold mine.  It's like a monthly pilgrimage for me.  No other shop is like it, really, with the scope of used parts in bins.  You have to see it to believe it.  

To the North shops you could add in a few more neat shops like The Bike Lane, Comrade, and even Oscar Waystn, which has a really nice display floor of new complete bikes, but fewer parts goodies out for display which is what I'm always looking for so that shop doesn't appeal to me as much.  I have never actually bought a brand new bike at a LBS in my life.  I'm more of a bottom feeder buying used or new parts and building my own.  On that same note, one more bonus for Smart Bike Parts is that they have a spot near the counter where they usually have a bunch of used/take-off parts piled into some bins at really fire-sale prices that you can dig through rather than asking at the counter what they have.  It's not Working Bikes, but it is only a 5 minute ride from my house so I stop by every once in a while to peruse what is in there.  Many/most bike shops will have take-offs but few have such a nice display area or easily-accessed bin to dig through them. 

If visiting this area Rapid Transit and Quick Release are other shops to think of too.   

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