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| - Bateman's is the penultimate neighbourhood bike shop. They do everything a local shop should do. They can do repairs; install items like fenders, racks and lights; sell you things like locks and helmets and pumps; and, they can sell you bikes.
They have a tiny retail shop space which is more like a mechanics stand with a scattering of items for sale than it is like the shopping Nirvana of Holt Renfrew or Harry Rosen. In the summer they have a nice little buzz about them, as they operate a lot of their business outside - bikes for sale on the boulevard, a temporary tent on a driveway for repairs, and wheels and more bikes crammed in a tiny adjoining garage.
The staff are nice, not pushy and the shop has a vibe that it is owned and run by a couple of friends who really wanted to work with bikes all the time (I don't know if this is actually true...but it feels like it).
If you're looking at high end MTB or road bikes, they can likely order a couple of them out of the lines they carry, but they don't have a lot of eye candy on display to get the drool reflex flowing, and don't specialize in this area enough to represent a lot of brands, models and sub-category items (e.g. trials, triathalon, downhill).
They will however, offer you personalized service, and help with a decent selection of commuter, cruiser or low to mid-range bikes.
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