The Deets

I second the Hub’s Awesomeness. And Freewheel? They might be an okay place as far as retail goes but they are complete morons as far a service goes. They broke all kinds of tools trying to transfer my old freewheel to a new Phil Wood hub (I purchased a new wheel from Rivendell at their recommendation) and then they told me that I was out of luck, couldn’t be done. I took it to the Hub and the guy got it on the first try. I won’t go back to Freewheel for service.

We bought our bikes at Carlson Cycle on Minnehaha. They were pretty awesome. Great service with a few service perks and discounts. But we’re by no means hardcore bikers. We got us some of them hybrid mountiain bike/tourning bikes. I really want to get a tandem bike but the wife sees no awesomeness in this.

I don’t believe I said The Hub was awesome. It fills a need, but I’m not exactly raving about the place.

So it appears that opinions vary: I had just about the worst service ever at Carlson Cycle on Minnehaha (and I mean in the history of all service ever provided to me). They seemed bitter with me that I was bothering them with my business. So I did them the favor of not returning, depite their proximity to my old house.

The Hub gets mixed reviews based upon location: the shop on Minnehaha near Lake St. has mediocre service at best and I’m pretty sure that although I’m a lefty-liberal, they hated me because I look like a yuppie. (I felt the hate, no yuppie hate-speech was spoken). However, I received excellent service from a gentleman at the Cedar Ave. location on two occassions (another time I received mediocre service from someone else). As it stands, I’d probably go back to the Hub on Cedar, but I may have to seek out a locale in St. Paul and give them a shot. Any suggestions?

[...] Dress down: Don’t go walking in there looking like a Yuppy like Fritz does (see comments here) and expect to be [...]