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| - You know, I want to support my LBS. I really do. But Tempe Bicycle has left me with a bad taste in my mouth time after time.
First - Their part selection is awful. Don't go there looking for a specific part because you won't find it. Tempe Bicycle stocks only the lousiest, no name parts they can find and then mark them up 33% or more above what you would reasonably expect to pay anywhere else. Sometimes I'm amazed they even carry the crap they do. I don't know where they find it. Even little things they sell like bicycle racks and saddles are of unusually low quality. It's freaking sad. Once my poor girlfriend went in there and they charged her 40 bucks for this awful, generic rack that I could barely get onto the front of her bike. I would expect to find something like that at Walmart! When I found out how much she paid for it I really felt bad for her!
Second - They are outrageously stingy. For example, once I was looking for a set of handlebars for a project bike. I went to the back and I found a rack of oddball used and overstock. My friend was on a budget and he didn't have much to spend. I saw what I thought would be a great pair. They were some very generic handlebars that were very scratched up and had clearly come off of some used bicycle. They had the brand name KHS stamped on them so they were certainly a take off of a stock bike they had sold previously. I picked them up and they weighed a ton. They were perfect. They couldn't possibly cost much. I turned them over looking for a price tag and what did I see? 58 dollars! When I brought them to the counter and asked the woman there if she would sell them to me for a little less she snapped at me, insisting that the "price was fair!". Needless to say the handlebars are still there.
Third - If you're looking for actual competent advice there are only a few employees there I would trust. The rest of them are inexperienced and dismissive. For example, once I was building a fixed gear bicycle for a friend of a friend. He had bought all the parts he needed except for a lockring for the rear hub. It was late. Tempe Bicycle was the only shop open and I reluctantly decided to go. The same woman I mentioned above was working again. I should have walked out then. I asked her for a lockring and she came back out with some flimsy part that was clearly not a lockring for a fixed gear hub. When I told her it didn't look right she got rude with me and told me that "It wasn't meant to be a lockring but it'd fit just fine." I grumbled but agreed to buy the 4 dollar thing. Well, I rode all the way home and guess what? It didn't fit at all. There isn't a hub in the world that thing would have fit. I think it was actually a lockring for an old, long obsolete bottom bracket assembly. Not only was this advice a waste of my time but it was also ridiculously unsafe as well. Keep in mind this is only one occasion of bad service advice. I've had to correct their technicians at least three times that I can think of off the top of my head. The lockring incident above is one. Once some guy tried to sell me the wrong size tubes. I had to look the tires up online and prove him wrong before he'd sell me the right ones. And another time a friend was sold a 700c rear rim, a 27 inch front rim, and two 700c tires.
Anyway, there are some good things worth mentioning. They have a good selection of inexpensive cruisers for the college kids. Their selection of mountain and road bikes is okay. They carry KHS, Haro, Trek, Masi and a few other brands. If you're looking to just throw down on a brand new bike you might get a decent deal. There are a few guys there who are great. Joe Easy is a good mechanic and nice guy. There is this one jolly fellow with a thick Mexican accent who works at the University location during the week who is a fantastic mechanic and a wonderful ray of sunshine. His young son comes to work with him sometimes and it's really cute.
But, as a general rule, Tempe bicycle is run by unmannerly crap peddlers who couldn't care less about the bikes they sell or the community they sell them to. All they care about is selling their cheap garbage at the highest mark-up possible. 90% of their employees are rude beyond acceptable and interacting with them will probably just make you feel sad and awkward. Personally, I'm sick of this place. I'm restricting my purchases from them to inner tubes only.
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