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| - I was looking for a new single speed and after not getting the right fit at MEC, decided to try Urbane Cyclist after reading the "blogto.com" article on "Best bike stores in toronto" as they gave them real high marks. Their site talks the "Bicyclist run Collective" talk, however I found the service needs improvement. The buying experience was quite pleasant, and the sales floor staff were quite nice. I would say however that my post sales experience was a little iffy. I decided to get a custom single speed "Urbanite" in the right size which they had to build. I was told that it would have the exact same parts as the "reference build" that they did have in stock. The bike was built in a day or so, so that was great, however when I came to pick up the bike I noticed they had put on a cheap saddle on it. When asked, the sales person I had been dealing with tried to brush it off saying "oh it's the same price and we don't really have that kind of saddle in stock anymore." (Huh?) ... I requested that if it was all the same to them I would take the saddle on the reference bike.
I took the bike home and rode it for a while after which my palms started to hurt. At this point I noticed that it didn't have the padded grips but instead, they had put on the cheapest grips in the shop (!) ... I am really saddened to see this coming from a shop which claims to pride itself as serving the needs of bicycle enthusiasts and claims to be a "collective". I would have expected a little more integrity and attention to detail than this. I did let them know I was a "newbie" and trusted their judgement that they would put the right parts on the bike. After this experience, I'm not sure what other parts they put on which are cheaper quality parts??? I'm even afraid to ask them to replace the grips because I don't expect a friendly response. They charged me EXACTLY the same price that the reference build bike had but gave me cheaper parts. I'm still going to call them to see how they respond.
I think it is sad that blogto is promoting this shop as "the best in Toronto", and they themselves tout themselves to be a "Cyclist Collective" while the product I received was sub-par and left me wondering about the integrity of the shop. I gave it two marks because the floor staff were super friendly and patient and let me fit the bike and ride various models. However they need to improve their product delivery and make sure the customer experience is not tinged with bad memories due to sloppy workmanship lacking in commitment to quality of end product.
I don't know if I will go back to even get it tuned over there. I spent nearly 1000 on a bike (that's half or one third of what you can get a working automobile for on Kijiji) so they really need to take a look at their outlook on bicycling as they may be destroying the goodwill of the bicycling public by trying to cheap out on certain parts.
UPDATE1 Aug 12/2012: Asinine Build quality I've reduced my rating to 1 "star" -- AFter riding the bike for about a week, I left it alone for a week or so. When I went for another ride the previous weekend, I noticed the front tire had gone flat! Completely FLAT!! and the back tire had very little pressure left. I did have the pump with me so I pumped it up to pressure, crossed my fingers and went for a ride. The ride was fine and I didn't have a blow out even though I did about 50km that day. However After I came back and left it for a few days, I have noticed that the tire has lost all it's air AGAIN! By way of comparison, my other roadbike (a devinci I got from Cyclepath almost a decade ago) has maintained full pressure on both tires since March 2012! And I've ridden that one for about 150km this year ... (not that much, but still). And it's been at my place since but I have not had to pump it up at all. This again points to poor build quality and a half-ass job that they did putting the wheels one. They probably pinced the tube while installing it. Great job guys. /sarcasm
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