Yesterday evening I scrambled over to my local bike shop, Campus WheelWorks, for a quick tune up on my new road bike. With the triathlon coming just a few days from now, I wanted to make sure everything checked out and make some minor adjustments before the big day. So far my bike has preformed fantastically, and I had no real complaints.
While on vacation on Cape Cod, my dad had some minor work done on a Bike costing just ten or so bucks. Nothing major done, and a fair price. When I took my bike into Campus WheelWorks, I expected the same type of quick tune up fee. Instead, one of the guys worked with my bike for a good half an hour, adjusting this and that, working on the line tensions and letting me know I had put on my toe-clips incorrectly to boot. He even took a quick spin to make sure everything rode smooth for me. I also wanted to grab a couple of water bottles that wouldn't slide out of my holders. The Poland Spring bottles I had been using were not quite a good fit, and I had several drops that would be disastrous during the race.
By the end of this all? I was charged for one of the two bottles, one was free because I had bought the bike there. All of the quick tune ups and service ended up being free of charge too. This far exceeded my expectations of what was going to happen. When I was headed out of the store, they all wished me luck with the Tri, and I left a pretty happy customer. While riding home everything transitioned smoothly, easily getting up to 20+ mph and rotating through all my gears with ease. It felt brand new again.
I'm a huge proponent of shopping local, and keeping the money earned in Buffalo, circulating in Buffalo. It would be way to easy to drive out to the burbs to a big box store and pick up a bike, and then pay 60 bucks for any service needed. The guys over at Campus WheelWorks really made this decision pretty easy for me, and have continued to do so each and every time I visit. If you do live in the Buffalo area, I would highly recommend them for any biking needs, and I imagine for any winter-ski related needs to.
For another reason why it’s an awesome shop with good workers, read this quick story . . .
http://buffalorising.com/2013/07/campus-wheelworks-gets-a-gold-star/