The Urban Cyclery Shop — Local services in Maplewood

I just shipped my bike all the way from Chicago and to get my tires pumped. I'm not familar with pumping tires because I never had to. The shop I went to in Chicago did it for me and always checked out my bike. They were very helpful. I assumed all bike shops were this way. I came to Urban Bike Shop and was greeted kindly by the owner. Its clear by the questions I was asking that I didn't know how to pump my tires. She said she wasn't able to help me. So I took the instructions and pumped my tires myself. I brought my bike back in and asked her if she could check if I did it right. She did a quick check and said yes. I did quick ride to ensure they were pumped well. I put my bike back in the car. While driving home, I heard a "pop" sound. I checked one of bike the tires. It was flat. I drove back to the Urban Bike Shop to assess the situation. The owner came out again, checked my tires, and surmised that the inner tube popped. She said I'd have to pay to fix it. Now here is where my dissapointment lies. The money is not the issue. An inner tube costs a mere $25. I'm annoyed by the fact that is entire situation could've been avoided if I'd recieved more help. I politely explained my annoyance to the owner. She respectfully listened and explained that her helping me would be liability for the business. She also said that in hindsight, she could've offered for the mechanic to pump my tires but it would be $5/per tire. She also said that the mechanic is busy and it would be hard to help me. I listened to her response and decided that I'll take my bike somewhere else to be fixed. Part of of being a good business owner that serves his/her customers is assessing their needs. It was that I didn't really know what I was doing. And that's no fault of the manager. But I was left to fend for myself when I asked for help. She could've at least checked the PSI which would reveal that my tire was over capacity. That's why this venture...

On 5/29 I brought 2 bikes to this shop for tune-ups. Their website shows a tuneup costs $50. After discussing the bikes with the repair person (I find today he's the owner) I was quoted $125 per bike. I told him the website stated $50. He explained there are different levels of tuneups. Had I not known ahead of time of the lower option I wouldn't have known it existed. Very deceptive. Today when I went to pickup my bikes I noticed that the final cost was about $70 higher than what was quoted. They ended up replacing some old parts on my bike that were old but worked. They did so w/o first informing me and getting my consent. The owner indicated when I dropped off my bike that depending on the condition of the parts, he may need to replace them, but I never agreed to that, expecting him to first contact me if that was needed. He did not. When I confronted him about this he said he would remove the new parts and put my old parts back. I was there on my lunch break from work and had to go back. I asked him to have the bike delivered to my home to save me the minor expense (gas) and time of an additional trip stemming from there bad practice. He told me he could not promise me that he could have it delivered to me prior to there closing hours so I had to make that extra trip myself in my car. No apologies & no ownership of them not contacting me first. I asked if he would compromise on the cost of the bill and split the difference between the original quote and the higher bill. He would not. His compromise as he put it was to put my old parts back on. He tried to up sell the tuneup level first and then attempted to up sell for new parts w/o first notifying me that he felt they were needed and w/o my consent. My wife posted a review online. The business responded by asking if this was her or if it was me and my full name on Yelp w/o my consent. Do they expose personal data of all their customers who leave...

So happy that we went to The Urban Cyclery Shop, in Maplewood. Was looking for a solid trail bike for my 12-year old daughter. I first went to their website, which I found helpful enough to make my next step, which was to call The Urban Cyclery Shop about a particular bike. I spoke with Ozzie (hope I spelled that correctly! Sorry if didn’t), who helped me over the phone with bike-sizing for my daughter and related questions about the bike. Ozzie had in stock the bike we were interested in, in an appropriate size and my daughter’s preferred color (Ozzie was kind enough to check his inventory for me, noting that he had multiple sizes in stock for test-fitting, before we drove to the store). Such a kind and considerate phone presence, I looked forward to meeting Ozzie that day. Once at the store, Ozzie recalled my name and took us to see the bike. He helped ensure sizing was right for my daughter, with some room to “grow into the bike”. The experience of purchasing a bike from The Urban Cyclery Shop, in Maplewood, was easy and, well, perfect - Ozzie explained the warranty and the free annual tune-ups (great!), and his overall professional demeanor made me feel like my money was well spent at a business that wants to serve the community for a long time to come. I suggest that, if you’ve been considering a new bike purchase, while The Urban Cyclery Shop, in Maplewood, currently has good bike inventory, perhaps best not to wait for Spring when everyone decides that it’s time for a new bike!...