Bike Shops in St Louis, MO

I am pretty sure that Freedom Concepts does and Ambucs might too. We have had both and both were nice. Freedom Concepts has a nice way to steer from the back for those walking and helping the rider.

Rifton. Here's the website. http://www.rifton.com/

Freedom Concepts is the best place I have found so far.

I've not gotten any service from them, but the South Side Cyclery runs a great group ride monday nights, with free pizza afterwards. The ride is a fun distance (basically two 10 mile sprints through the city with a stop in the middle for the B and C groups to catch up) people involved are pleasant. Here is a [list of group rides](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1 u6 g9Kk9UX1 ayJOanPCpVqwTEhJa0 pwDVnRqn-z7 urdg/edit#gid=0) you might want to check out, to meet some people and put something on the schedule to get out for.

I also just moved here and had similar question. My brother got lifetime service for his bike at cyclery in Illinois and I got lifetime service at big shark on the missouri side. We got identical bikes only difference is his had all the reflectors, mine did not.

The Hub in Webster Groves. Group rides on the weekends with bagels afterwards, awesome customer service and they can fix ANYTHING in a very short amount of time. Will order anything for you and acknowledge when something they carry may not be exactly what you’re looking for so will either order it for you or understand that ordering somewhere else makes more sense instead of pushing what they have. When you buy a bike there, you get 15% off everything else you buy that day and they have a warranty period, I don’t remember if it’s lifetime or not. A short story: We once watched a couple in there who came in a few minutes before close to “buy” a bike. A total car sales gimmick people use. They were being super pushy and the staff were all very helpful, offering for them to try out this or that while this couple tried to push down prices on a bike for him and for her. The staff was just so chill and nice to them even though they were being obvious bullies. I wish I knew if they bought a bike there or not.

I know it might be a little bit out of the way. But Granada Cyclery has always treated me very well.

I'm partial to the HUB in WG but have used Big Shark & Maplewood as well for various things. I'd say you can't go wrong with any of those. HUB does lifetime service if you buy.. I think Big Shark too. If you're competitive & race at all and occasionally have fit issues, Maplewood is where you wanna go for that. Tim Ray is the best. But really the bike shop culture here is pretty great in general. Lot of the smaller shops are good. You'll probably do just fine picking whichever one is closest to you and making friends with the staff. I forget the name but there's supposed to be a great one out in the Ofallon, IL area as well. Bike surgeon i think. I've had mixed results with South Side/City cyclery (guys in the country were kind of dicks, city not as much). But this was years ago so I don't want to judge them all that way bc I know some people love South City cyclery. If you haven't seen it yet https://trailnet.org/ will be your friend.

I feel like they are all good. We should post the bad ones to avoid instead.

Most bike shops offer some level of free service if you purchase the bike there. My preferred is Big Shark, Richmond Heights location, although any of the three locations offers good service. The service level offered for free is seldom much beyond simple maintenance so best to learn how to wrench your own, it isn't very hard especially with all of the You Tube videos available. But if you need real technical support Big Shark is a strong contender. I also like Hub and Des Peres.

There was one in kirkwood I loved but I can’t remember the name for the life of me

Big Shark offers lifetime tune-ups free and great trade ins when you buy your bike there. They host a ton of rides and social events as well as sponsor several community clubs and teams. They carry Giant, Salsa, Raleigh and Cannondale. (Maybe a few others??) Staff are friendly, knowledgable is hit or miss since they expanded several years ago. South Side has great socials but terrible service. I know they carry Trek but not sure about others. Staff are not knowledgable and they are difficult about returns. Also I have several friends that they have sold the wrong type of bike to. Among other issues my friend bought me pedals for a present and they talked her into MTB pedals for my road bike then gave me trouble about exchanging them. Maplewood Cyclery is amazing - they deal mostly in Trek and also offer lifetime tune-ups if you purchase there. Service is top notch and every one of their staff are super knowledgable. There are a million small shops in different parts of the city. These are the ones I have experience with! Good luck!

Maplewood bike shop is as good as it gets

Big Shark does the same: free lifetime service if you buy your bike there.

The Bike Factory in Edwardsville is my home shop but I work next door to Urban Big Shark and have always had a great experience with them.

Big shark or Maplewood bike shop

Thanks for all the advice! Yesterday I went to Maplewood Bicycle and bought a new bike! They don’t offer lifetime service (but the owner was genuine and pointed out why it’s actually an unreasonable business practice if you pay your mechanics right) but they do have a few free tuneups for two years. See you all on the trails!

Big Shark is great. I also had really good service/maintenance at Cursed Bikes in Clayton.

Big Shark, hands down. They've got quite a few locations in the metro and the staff is amazing!

Mike's Bikes in the CWE. Super knowledgable and friendly staff, the other week I had an accident on my bike and my front wheel became wobbly ever since. Matt was very kind enough to try his best to repair the spokes on my old wheel to see if that would fix the wobble before ending up replacing the wheel and even gave me a discount on parts while during a basic tune-up on my bike for free. Big Shark is very popular too and does lifetime service on bikes purchased there apparently, but when I searched this subreddit regarding best bike shops in the area virtually everyone warned against using Big Shark because of a hit/miss ratio regarding people who actually knew what they were doing apparently. Ironically there is one technician named Mike to watch out for, who always did a subpar job.

Been to Maplewood Bicycle a few times, mostly just to get my tires trued or basic maintenance. Never had any issues, fast service.

FWIW, I've had the following experiences at Big Shark: >After taking off my own cassette, I wanted to check if I'd put it back on alright. Went in on a Tuesday night (wintertime). The guys took my cassette apart, and said "Yes, you did it right," and put it back together. No charge. >After adjusting my brakes, I took my bike in to ask if my brakes looked okay. They weren't quite right, so the guys adjusted them for me and showed me how to do it. No charge. >I adjusted my rear derailleur once. It wasn't quite right. The guys fixed it and showed me how to do it. I think it was $5. Granted, I've spent a shit ton of money there on real things, but I like it. They also don't bullshit you on how long repairs will take.

Big shark is an electra dealer. Electra has the best easily available cruiser/ dutch bikes. Should note that I do work there. But we don't do commission or anything.

What part of town are you in? I think it's a good idea to find a shop that's somewhat nearby to develop a relationship for service and sales,etc.

The Bike Center in Des Peres sells [Linus bikes](http://www.linusbike.com), very similar to the [Pure City bikes](http://purecitycycles.com/collections/pure-city-bikes) that Big Shark has and slightly more expensive (and lower sales tax), but it may be worth a look.

I just picked up a Giant Escape City from Big Shark and like it a lot. They have a women's version called the Alight City that looked nice as well.

South Side Cyclery