irvinehomeowner
Well-known member
I'm not a bicyclist.
But, as a family, we do try to go biking every weekend we can... nothing major, no dirt roads, no mountains, just cruising down the bike trails that are numerous in Irvine.
Given that, we don't spend a lot of money on bikes, we get whatever is on sale, is available locally, and more importantly... already assembled. I hate putting bikes together, had to do so as a kid, once when I was older as a husband, and a few more times as a parent. The problem with buying already assembled bikes "off the rack" is that they may have not been assembled "professionally".
So you get problems like brakes not adjusted, derailleurs out of alignment, etc etc. The bike my wife got last year was one such animal. The funny thing is she bought the more "expensive" Schwinn because it was "brand name" (not really anymore, just like Huffy, Magna and Next, it's just a Chinese manufactured bike line). The tires rubbed against the brake and it really bothered her. I tried to adjust them myself but I have no idea what I'm doing and in the end, it seems like the wheel isn't straight (or the operative word is "true").
Then a few weeks ago, while pedaling up an incline and shifting gears, one of the gears break off... literally. You would think that would happen to me (and my bike was only $100).
So she was thinking about getting a new bike and starting looking at this $250 Schwinn (yeah... still thinking it's a name brand) at Target. She tries it in store but when checking it out, I notice that the wheel has that same problem with rubbing against the brakes. So I figure that maybe if we take it to a bike shop, they can check everything to make sure it's assembled properly.
I Yelp around and it turns out the only local bike shop that has 5 stars is Orange County Bicycle Service & Garage:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/oc-bicycle-service-and-garage-laguna-hills
http://www.orangecountybicycleservicegarage.com/
23011 Moulton Pkwy
Suite E7
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
It's located in Laguna Hills, just off Lake Forest and Moulton/Irvine Center Drive. Unlike the other shops in Irvine, this is strictly a service shop. They don't sell new bikes (although they can probably order you one) and even have service bays that you can rent to do your own service (not like I would do that).
Not only do they service bikes, but they also build them from the box (since places like Costco don't pre-assemble their bikes anymore) for $60.
But then looking online, I notice their repair items are reasonable so I call them to find out what it would cost to fix the gears on the bike. I talked to Corey and he says probably around $20-30 and then to "true" the wheels another $10-15 per wheel. So about $60 vs $250? Why not? He was very straightforward, didn't try to sell me on anything, just asked me to bring it in and he could figure out what exactly needed to be done.
Long story short, brought her bike in for repair, brought my bike in for a tune-up ($55 for truing the wheels, adjusting the brakes, adjusting the derailleur and other minor adjustments) and her bike was better than when we bought it for less than $65... in only a few hours (they told us it would take a few days but called us later that day saying they were able to get it done sooner). On our first ride since the repair, everything seems to be working okay... wheels were straight (no brake rubbing) and the gears worked fine.
I believe it's owned by a husband/wife and not too far from Irvine. They even have classes to learn how to repair your own bike. Even the guy who actually did the repair (Chris?) was very nice which reflects what the other Yelp reviews say about the owners and their staff.
Again, I have no knowledge about bikes. So I'm not even sure if the prices were reasonable but comparing them to the shops in Irvine, they were less.
But, as a family, we do try to go biking every weekend we can... nothing major, no dirt roads, no mountains, just cruising down the bike trails that are numerous in Irvine.
Given that, we don't spend a lot of money on bikes, we get whatever is on sale, is available locally, and more importantly... already assembled. I hate putting bikes together, had to do so as a kid, once when I was older as a husband, and a few more times as a parent. The problem with buying already assembled bikes "off the rack" is that they may have not been assembled "professionally".
So you get problems like brakes not adjusted, derailleurs out of alignment, etc etc. The bike my wife got last year was one such animal. The funny thing is she bought the more "expensive" Schwinn because it was "brand name" (not really anymore, just like Huffy, Magna and Next, it's just a Chinese manufactured bike line). The tires rubbed against the brake and it really bothered her. I tried to adjust them myself but I have no idea what I'm doing and in the end, it seems like the wheel isn't straight (or the operative word is "true").
Then a few weeks ago, while pedaling up an incline and shifting gears, one of the gears break off... literally. You would think that would happen to me (and my bike was only $100).
So she was thinking about getting a new bike and starting looking at this $250 Schwinn (yeah... still thinking it's a name brand) at Target. She tries it in store but when checking it out, I notice that the wheel has that same problem with rubbing against the brakes. So I figure that maybe if we take it to a bike shop, they can check everything to make sure it's assembled properly.
I Yelp around and it turns out the only local bike shop that has 5 stars is Orange County Bicycle Service & Garage:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/oc-bicycle-service-and-garage-laguna-hills
http://www.orangecountybicycleservicegarage.com/
23011 Moulton Pkwy
Suite E7
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
It's located in Laguna Hills, just off Lake Forest and Moulton/Irvine Center Drive. Unlike the other shops in Irvine, this is strictly a service shop. They don't sell new bikes (although they can probably order you one) and even have service bays that you can rent to do your own service (not like I would do that).
Not only do they service bikes, but they also build them from the box (since places like Costco don't pre-assemble their bikes anymore) for $60.
But then looking online, I notice their repair items are reasonable so I call them to find out what it would cost to fix the gears on the bike. I talked to Corey and he says probably around $20-30 and then to "true" the wheels another $10-15 per wheel. So about $60 vs $250? Why not? He was very straightforward, didn't try to sell me on anything, just asked me to bring it in and he could figure out what exactly needed to be done.
Long story short, brought her bike in for repair, brought my bike in for a tune-up ($55 for truing the wheels, adjusting the brakes, adjusting the derailleur and other minor adjustments) and her bike was better than when we bought it for less than $65... in only a few hours (they told us it would take a few days but called us later that day saying they were able to get it done sooner). On our first ride since the repair, everything seems to be working okay... wheels were straight (no brake rubbing) and the gears worked fine.
I believe it's owned by a husband/wife and not too far from Irvine. They even have classes to learn how to repair your own bike. Even the guy who actually did the repair (Chris?) was very nice which reflects what the other Yelp reviews say about the owners and their staff.
Again, I have no knowledge about bikes. So I'm not even sure if the prices were reasonable but comparing them to the shops in Irvine, they were less.
