Uptown BART Bike Station — Local services in Oakland

This long overdue post is to sing the praises of the Oakland Bike Station. Aside from the obvious convenience and safety of having your bike serviced where it’s parked (for free) all day, while you are at work - they do really great work! Perhaps because Bike Stations in the Bay Area are sponsored/subsidized by BART - it seems like it’s about supporting a community, rather than making a bunch of $$, and it never feels like you are getting hustled, gouged or upsold. The people that work there seem to like the job and the customer service is excellent. I want to especially call out the amazing work that Bike Station mechanic Daniel did on my ride a couple of months ago. It’s an early 80’s Univega mountain bike that was Frankensteined into a city cruiser and I needed a complete overhaul from new handle bars and cork grips, to a complete drive train replacement (that found me at least two extra gears). I cannot thank him enough for extra effort he gave to the project, and how happy I am with the results. The great communication skills and excellent craftsmanship I experienced from Daniel was typical of other service work I have gotten in the past at Oakland Bike Station. It’s important to note that this is a bike service center not a bike sales or bike part sales center. They usually have the basic parts on hand necessary to get the job done but you may need to source specialty, uncommon, or vintage parts yourself or wait for them to be ordered before certain projects can be done. Overall, I highly recommend this place. Great prices, great work,...

Wow; the best bike service I've had in 8 years of biking in the Bay Area. These people clearly care about bikes and their riders.

They understand that their customers are price conscious, and don't force repairs on you. I've yet to find another bike shop that so perfectly balances safety with budget awareness. Most err so far on the side of caution (and doing more work on your bike) that they strongly recommend extra parts be replaced when they're just somewhat used. This bike shop explained the risks associated with continuing to ride on certain used parts, but also was totally fine with letting us make that decision ourselves if we wanted to save some money. They neither over nor under sensationalized the issue, which is unusual.

Our bikes feel good after the service, the price was cheaper than I've been used to in San Francisco, and I get the strong sense that these people just care. It's rare to find honestly earnest people running a retail shop, but these people went out of their way to save us money, while doing great work on our bikes. I also got to see them handling other customers, and they all seemed to get this same depth of care. I can't wait to go back and see what they can do with...

I can't say enough good things about the uptown BART bike station and all the amazing people that work there! Seriously, if you need a place to park your bike and feel safe about it 10 out of 10 I'd recommend them. If you need work done on your bike, I would also recommend them!

Daniel recently rebuilt my bike after an accident and it rides better now than it did when I first bought it brand new years ago. Everyone there is incredibly kind, skilled, and thoughtful. I have never had a negative interaction there. I recommend them to anyone that needs bike work or a place to leave their bike for a couple hours while they get things done downtown. They are all amazing humans that are good at what they do and don't overcharge, I don't know how much they're making but they should all be paid considerably more, for the services they provide. They're a wonderful resource to the community, so go show...