Maintenance: City Bike, Capitol Hill Bike or other?

[83b]

I’ve gotten very good service from the City Bikes weekend manager (whose name escapes me at the moment) on some oddball issues that really showed he knows his stuff. The rest of the wrench staff has been quite helpful finding parts to address other issues.

For bike shops on the Hill, I also really like (and if I’m not looking for sportier parts, typically prefer) the guys and gals at the Daily Rider on H Street. They’ve got a much more transportation focused inventory and the couple who own it seem to really take the time to help folks.

[DaveK]

I’ve never had great experiences at either of the 8th St shops and neither have friends. I’ve heard good things about the Daily Rider but I’ve never been myself. Honestly, I try to do everything myself and anything that I can’t gets taken in the car away from the Hill. Freshbikes in Arlington for the roadie and Bikenetic in Falls Church for the MTB.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@DaveK 69101 wrote:

I’ve never had great experiences at either of the 8th St shops and neither have friends. I’ve heard good things about the Daily Rider but I’ve never been myself. Honestly, I try to do everything myself and anything that I can’t gets taken in the car away from the Hill. Freshbikes in Arlington for the roadie and Bikenetic in Falls Church for the MTB.

This. When I lived on the Hill I bought bikes from both and had lots of service done at both, partly because of convenience and partly because of ignorance. Was really hit or miss, with CH bikes a bit more consistently better. City Bikes botched some really basic adjustments and CH bikes improperly installed a tube(!). Thankfully, I’ve learned enough since then to do most of my own maintenance and repairs and I have a workspace to do it… Much better.

[rcannon100]

+1 DYI. I have rarely experienced a LBS where at least one significant thing was done incorrectly. Last time, the repair person neglected to install rim tap (BOOOM! goes the tire). One option is to consider Velocity in Del Ray, a bike repair coop where you just rent a stand. Not only is there great ice cream across the stream, but the staff at Velocity is pretty cool about teaching you anything you dont already know.

And Youtube is just about the best bike repair book out there. You can learn anything from this internet thing.

[Author]

Posts