Cambridge Bicycle

I went back to get some more help with gears slipping. I had great service, did not wait in line and got free help for services they normally charge for. Very different than my first experience.

My second year renting a bike here while visiting Cambridge. They address any problems quickly and don’t nickel and dime you. If you’re going to ride around town a lot it’s a great deal!

Great place! Got me set up with my new track bike in no time. Made me feel comfortable and confident about my purchase. Knowledgable and friendly staff and a great mechanic team. I will be going back for all service and future purchases of gear. Highly recommended!

I love this place. The guys are friendly, knowledgeable and super helpful! I have had to go there for a few reasons and they have taken care of all of them. If anything happens in the future I will go straight there because I have confidence that they will help me.

I’m pretty upset with this place. I’m going to start by saying the mechanics are wonderful and every time I’ve had an issue with my ride these guys have taken care of it at a fair price in a timely manner. They’re pretty much the only reason they even get two stars. I absolutely can’t fault them for that.
However, I was most recently in there to purchase a Mission Workshop backpack. I’ve done extensive research, since my Chrome citizen bag just turned 10 and I’m starting to outgrow it. I needed a larger bag that was still waterproof and geared towards cyclists so I popped in a few times over the summer to look at their selection so I could examine it in person. None of the times I was in there was I helped by any sales associates, and I more or less had to flag them down to ask questions.
I eventually settled on the bag I wanted, and I returned to purchase it. As a bicycle advocate it’s incredibly important to me to support local businesses, especially since the majority will use physical locations as a showroom only to walk out empty handed and order goods online. I am more than happy to pay more to make sure money goes in the pocket of local business owners.
That being said, I purchased the bag for ~$ 340, rather happily. Mission Workshop does not include waist straps on that bag, however so I asked a sales associate who rang me up that day to put in an order for me. It would’ve been trivial to order this from the MW website but I wanted, again to make sure that Cambridge Bicycle got a cut of it. He happily took down my information and told me he would put it in their next purchase order and he would call when it came in.
A month later I called them to ask about it and the person on the phone had no idea about any purchase orders and he said that the associate that handles the MW orders was with a customer and he took down my information again and have him call me back in 5 minutes.
That call never came, so I called again today to check in and spoke to a different person, who again, went to grab the person who does the MW order, who proceeded to not understand what I was asking for in the slightest, and also had never heard of a product that is listed very clearly on their website so I hung up in frustration.
Having worked in customer service for most of my adult life I understand on one hand, but also I made a fairly big purchase, and as such I kind of expected followthrough and excellent customer service. I would absolutely understand being written off if I had just stopped in for cheap consumables and spent like $ 15 but I made a conscious effort to make a large purchase from a local business and I’m frankly quite upset with that decision. I will not be shopping here in the future and I would strongly encourage others not to support their retail here.

Josh & the Ace Mechanic team really did a great job for me today.
I had a mildly traumatizing event — my bike was molested at Copley Square by thieves who tried to take it apart while it was locked outside of Sugary Heaven. I took it, in pieces, to Cambridge Bicycle today and Josh & team fixed it right up. No wait, and no cost. He had extras of the pieces that were missing, and I had purchased the bike from them 2 years ago.
I thanked them profusely, and felt this was an experience worth writing about. But this is nowhere near my first great experience with them.
This place is right near my house, which is why I started going there years ago. If I ever move to any other neighborhood in Boston, though, I will still make the effort to continue to use Cambridge Bicycle. The manager, whose name I can’t recall, has also been great and helpful.
I can’t thank Josh & Cambridge Bicycle enough. If you’ve ever had people mess with your bikes, or steal them, you know how much it sucks and how bad it affects you, especially if your bike is a part of you, like it is with me. They really came through for me and helped me out on what had been a pretty shitty week.

I haven’t bought a bike here, or had them fix my bike, but I’ve discussed bikes and parts with them, and they’ve been helpful and knowledgable.
The thing I really like about Cambridge Bicycle is that they are friendly and not pretentious about bicycling, which is something you find often at bike shops. They were also open about me being able to get a specific part/​bike at another place, which I was really happy about, and made me wish I could buy the bike from them.

I just went in here to buy a helmet. They had a good selection. I looked at the helmets for a while and knew what I wanted. I was the only one there and the guy at the counter clearly didn’t want to get out of his chair to help me. So I go over to ask for help and he couldn’t have been more unpleasant. His attitude toward me was as if I had asked to borrow money. He begrudgingly went in the back to get me a helmet. Handed it to me so I took it to the counter to buy it. Just got home and realized he handed me a women’s helmet instead of the men’s. Thanks bro. I guess I should’ve checked to make sure you could do your job. If you’re gonna work in customer service at least try and be a halfway pleasant human being. When I come back in to exchange for a men’s helmet I’ll be sure to be as rude as he was.

I had a good experience here. I bought a bike from them, and they were kind and knowledgable throughout the process. They offered me 50% off accessories and I bought a helmet with the discount. They offer free tune ups for a year (others are typically 6-​months) and I felt comfortable coming in and getting little issues fixed as I worked through the kinks of a new bike. I popped in to get my wheel trued and deal with some odd noises — each time they were quick and attentive. I got a standard tune up and the bike came back in good shape. I would recommend this shop, but like most shops, I think you have the best experience if you are already knowledgable about bikes. I have been riding as a commuter and casual distance rider (40 – 60 miles) for about 4 years, and I do most of my own bike maintenance. Solid shop — nice folks.

The confusion of the staff is astounding, staff contradicts each other. They are fairly rude too, they don’t use common niceties like please and thank yous’. I keep stopping here because of its awesome location but man its just a let down each time. I have had repairs that cost way more than their original quote. Even buying a tube is never straight forward.
Advice to staff be nice be knowledgable. Use some etiquette it goes a long way.

I don’t really care that much about bikes: I don’t care about bike culture, I don’t care about bike parts. And I don’t like those little hats that bikers wear. What I care about is having a bike that I can use to get to work occasionally and hit the town on weekends wid ma gurl. And I want it to look somewhat cool because if you look like a tool with something on your person it doesn’t matter how «pro» it is.
I went in with an old bike that was a hand-​me-​down from my dad (old hybrid bike from the early 90s with a lot of issues). I got a few years out of it, but it felt like I was constantly investing money into, what seemed to be, a dying bike. It felt like it was going to kill me one day. So my girlfriend encouraged me to head over to Cambridge Bicycle with her and ask them what they thought.
Bud (who I believe is one of the managers?) was incredibly helpful, giving me the pros and cons of my current bike. He explained that the manufacturer that made many of the parts on my bike is no longer in existence and it would be pretty pricey to replace things on it. The good news, he told me, was that my tires were awesome (thanks WheelWorks for putting good tires on it a year ago). He didn’t try to pressure me into buying something, he just gave me the story.
Based his assessment of my current bike and that I, admittedly, was «looking to spend,» I asked if he would show me what my options were. I assured him that I wasn’t a «biker» (that was pretty obvious by disrepair of the bike I brought in) and that I wasn’t looking to break the bank.
He showed me a couple different bikes well within my price range ($ 500-​$ 1000), ones that the tires from my old bike would work with. I tried out a Jamis hybrid as well as a Linus Roadster.
I tried out the Linus Roadster and decided I wanted to go with the 3 speed version. He said they would assemble one in a day (they had 2 colors in stock in the large size that I needed) and take the good tires from my old bike and put them on to my new bike. They’d also take the tires that came with the Linus and put them on my old bike, so I could sell it (I was looking to get a few bucks for it on Craigslist if possible).
The staff was really friendly and efficient despite it being a chaotic sunny Sunday. I’m sure if you love bikes you will love this place. And if you like bikes, you will love this place also as evidenced by my testimony.
It’s weird: after I left, I got excited about bikes. I still don’t like those little hats but I think I will very much enjoy the coming summer months, riding in the city.