what: bike shop
where: Sacramento and Woolsey
When I was shopping for a bike, I found a great commuter posted on Craiglist down in South Berkeley. So I went, met with the woman who was selling it, and ended up getting it. It’s a great bike – super comfortable and well-suited to the area – but it didn’t come with a rack or a kickstand. And the front light was a bit wobbly. This was easy enough to fix, as I’d walked right past a bike shop on my way to meet the bike seller. So I brought my newly acquired bicycle by total chance to Recycle Bicycle, and I’m really glad I did. They specialize in used bikes and obviously really know their stuff. Besides the shop crammed full of bikes and parts, they have a wonderfully helpful and kind staff who were polite enough to overlook my obvious unfamiliarity with pretty much absolutely anything bike-related. I bought the rack, saddlebag baskets, and kickstand from them and one of the employees immediately put my bike up on a mount to install everything for me. They were extremely busy, with customers constantly coming in to buy accessories, drop their bikes off for a tuneup, or simply to say hi. It’s clear they’re well-established and well-liked in the sometimes strangely snobbish Berkeley bike scene. A whole squadron of teenage boys were hanging out front, trying out bikes and spinning in the endless circles and popping wheelies as boys that age are wont to do. I thought this was a really nice gesture for the community – the shop could have easily shooed the boys away as they clearly weren’t going to be buying the bikes, but instead they gave them a place to hang out and occupy themselves. After installing my new accessories, the store employee thoroughly checked my bike over and even fixed my wobbly light. He really put a lot of time and effort into it, despite the fact that the store was kind of swamped. I certainly didn’t expect that level of service – I was just planning on buying the rack and being done with it. So thanks, Recycle Bicycle, for going the extra mile!
