Bike Shops in Madison, WI

I love my bike from Stray Cat: https://www.straycatbicycles.com/ Single speed, little to no maintenance and made here in town. Just off Milwaukee Street! Otherwise the Bicycle Recycle is great. Also on Milwaukee Street: https://www.facebook.com/The-Bicycle-Recycle-518401914865235/

DreamBikes dream-bikes.org Rebuilt bikes and a great shop to deal with them.

What's your budget, and how much life do you expect to get out of the bike? Whatever you do, stay away from "department store" bicycles like huffy, murray, mongoose, pacific, schwinn (used to be good but no longer) etc. If it came from a big box store (Wal Mart, Target, etc) you don't want it. These are disposable bikes and won't do you any favors. Go with a quality brand like Trek, Giant, or Specialized from a reputable dealer. I've had pretty good luck at Erik's and Budget Bicycle. ​ A decent quality, entry level bike will probably cost you about $400 new (and the sky is the limit from there) unless you can get something used on craigslist, etc - but be careful that a used bicycle might have a bunch of deferred maintenance. A few bike shops sell trade ins for less which can be a good deal. ​ Keep in mind on craigslist, a lot of people buy bikes and do zero upkeep and sell them a few years later - a $100 craigslist special might need a $200 tune up to the point where you might have well have just bought a new bicycle in the first place that was ready to go.

Dream bikes or Freewheel are great shops for used bikes; for advice, service, parts, and new bikes, I'd recommend Revolution. They're fantastic- knowledgeable, give great advice, talk you through your needs, great service, and never upsell-- they try to keep you riding on the bike you have and talk you through all your options.

I am old also, and Atkins’ bicycle shop in Verona help me find the right bike. Nice, family-owned business. I would phone them first and see if they have what you are looking for. Budget Bicycles on Regent probably has what you need but be aware that “Budget” is only the name of the place, they are not cheaper than anyone else.

Bicycle Recycle, hands down. As local as a business as it gets, you wont regret it.

Just a thought based on my experience being old and getting back into biking myself. Go test drive a ebike at https://www.crazylennysebikes.com/ . It's easy to get discouraged by creaky knees and steep hills when you are starting over again. These bikes can be pricey, but they are a blast and allow you to go further than you ever thought. You can incorporate them into your life as grocery getters or for running errands. A lot of their clientele are older out of shape folks who are looking to get back into riding so they were very understanding of my concerns. They also have their own workshop specializing in ebikes so the can help with any issues down the road. They also buy back bikes if you are looking to upgrade or switch to a conventional bike. Bonus:. If Lenny is in on that given day you can wheel and deal with him as he just loves selling stuff.

I didn't buy my bike from them (didn't live here at the time), but [Fitchburg Cycles](https://www.fitchburgcycles.com/) has done the maintenance on my bike and the employees are very knowledgeable and respectful. Definitely recommended.

Quarry Park is in town and has some fun and technical riding. Check out this site for an overview of all the local riding areas: https://www.madcitydirt.com

Trek Travel, which specializes in booking trips for cyclists, uses BikeFlight for shipping bikes. They're located at 613 Williamson St. -- just east of the State Capitol (about an 8 - 12 min. drive or bus ride from campus, depending on traffic). You might want to start with them. [https://trektravel.com/](https://trektravel.com/)

Slow roll cycles is a great shop in the area. Very knowledgeable staff. For trails, quarry park has more advanced trails but they’re kind of short imo. Blackhawk ski club has some great trails and a new skills area but they require a $25 membership fee. If you have time for a little drive, cam rock park in Cambridge is supposed to be great (haven’t been there myself yet) it’s about 30 minutes east of Madison.

Quarry Ridge in Fitchburg has some excellent trails, and is accessible through bike paths from downtown

Slow Roll Cycles. Also check out CORPS website (capitol off-road pathfinders) And if you have a day off and have transportation, drive 2 hrs to Levis Mound. It’s worth it

Hate to dash your hopes, but imo anyone coming from mountain biking out west is going to get bored very quickly at quarry park, or quarry ridge park, or really any of the trails around madison unless you're a fan of mostly flat stuff. Levis mound would be worth the drive. Copper harbor is best in the midwest IMO but so far away it pretty much has to be weekend thing.

A bit outside of the city, but Trail This in Mt. Horeb specializes in mountain biking. Great owner btw.

If you have access to a car, Blue Mound State Park is where you'll want to mountain bike. The mountain bike trails in the city are fine and all, but go out to Blue Mounds.

You're asking the SASY group so I would hope that you'd keep it in the 'hood and go with REVOLUTION!!

http://yellowjersey.org/

The Cargo Bike Shop on willy st... as another option.

There's Motorcycle Performance on the west side: http://www.motorcycleperf.com/ I've always had good interactions with the staff there, although not pertaining to maintenance on older bikes. What kind of work do you need done?

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i took my 1977 suzuki gs550 to suter's speed shop on the east side recently and was really happy with the service. i thought i needed a carb adjustment because i was losing power at higher RPMs after replacing the PO's after market exhaust with stock. turns out my only issue was with my clutch slipping due to the cable being too tight and fixed it with a minor adjustment. dude i worked with knew all sorts of cool stuff about the bike and really seemed to like working on it. i don't think i'd take it anywhere else at this point.

Michael Flores will send photo

Might be worth your time to call Dream Bikes. They fix up donated bikes, so maybe they would be in your price range.