Nyc Velo

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CLOSED NOW - Opens at 11:00am

NYC Velo is a hole in the wall with bizarre, dishonest, and poor mechanics.It is true that people either love or hate a bike shop. I hate this one in particular as this is my bike and my money and my race time. Bike shop attitude is somewhat of a given.The other negative reviews about this place are correct. I bought a carbon race bike there and had a somewhat honest purchase experience. The guy Chris (apparently there a couple of guys named "Chris" there depending on when you call) was decent. The "lifetime brake and gear adjustment" never materialized as they neglected to put the sticker on my frame. Personally, I think it's a ploy for them to get some extra work done every time you bring your bike in. I believe this because a customer standing around waiting for an adjustment will never get sold any further merchandise. They'll just leave you standing there and prefer to charge you for miscellaneous bike work and keep the merchandise for further sale. The bike needed some work that I couldn't do at home and since I bought bike there and they are a dealer, I made a telephone 'appointment' with "a mechanic named Chris" after that I called the day prior and spoke to the boy-man and took my bike in the following morning. The front of the store is deceptively okay, but the mechanic area is this dirty little pit. (Like a restaurant with a clean eating area, but an unsanitary, greasy kitchen.) It's manned by these silly, unprofessional looking Williamsburg rejects. I naively looked past it. If you have a nice bike that needs real work don't look past that sort of thing. It's a huge red flag.In addition to the work, they snookered me into a FORTY-DOLLAR truing for one wheel (which I am still kicking myself over as an honest Whole Bike tune up is about $60 tops) and new cables to go with the fit. I think they never installed new cables and the new brake install they did was WORSE than the brakes that were previously on the bike. I will end up re-installing and adjusting them myself. Also, never store your bike with them. They'll put it in their dingy basement and it'll come back all dusty and grimy.The pretense of them being a high end racing operation is farcical at best. They pretty much stink and THIS ISN'T THE ONLY BAD EXPERIENCE I'VE HAD WITH THEM. It's just the final straw. Beware that just because a place has expensive parts on display doesn't mean they are actually competent to do high end work.On top of this, the boy-man lead mech behaved so strangely rude and erratic that I thought he had a chemical problem. I was literally taken aback. He was extremely temperamental and it was clear the other mechs were weary of him. When I came in he testily swore he had never spoken to me on phone - even though it was just the day before and I was having some very specific work done in a shop that is not very busy. The one other bike there at the time was in for minor work. Also, the printed work order taken over the phone had extra work on it. Nice. Also - If he honestly didn't remember why get so pissed about it? I'm a paying customer that is literally seeking to give business. Only when I offered to check my phone log did his demeanor calm down and reverse itself. I guess I'd be miserable also if I were him. Oh boy-man.I ended up paying nearly $200 for a mediocre job. It should have been about a $75-$100 job without parts. Complete bike assemblies generally run for about $100-150. The lesson for me here is NEVER support grungy, grimy little punk-rocker shops like NYC Velo when I can go to a big professional store and get a clean, working bike back at a reasonable price.FYI Bicycle Habitat is not the alternative here...