Southwest Cycle

Wonderful bike shop. The owner Bob was very personable. The prices were very reasonable. I wish we knew about this shop earlier!

We rented from here today and were very pleased. We got good advice on bike routes and the bikes were in good shape. We were properly fitted, received helmets, maps, a lock and a repair kit. A very friendly chap helped us out. We paid 16 dollars each for a hybrid for a half day. Recommended.

A friendly, expert little bike shop. Bob seems to be the boss, but he’s very hands-​on with the repairs. They are way into bikes here, but in a happy, enthusiastic way, not in a snobby way like some race shops. They want you to enjoy your bike as much as they do. I came in for a repair and they did it on the spot, saving the bike part of my vacation. I’m a recreational rider, not a bike maniac, and they treated me fine. If the store is not super busy they will give you loads of advice on where to ride. I wish his was my local bike shop.
I trust that their rental bikes are well maintained and safe. You want to rent bikes with good brakes on Mount Desert Island
I visited in the early season, so it is possible they can’t do repairs while you wait when they are in the thick of the summer season. Still, it is a great little shop with personal service.

Extremely helpful place. I had several bike rentals on different days and then had to change everything. They gave me a call later t o make sure I had what I wanted. Bob lent me pedals after I forgot mine. They were busy but they always made sure I had help. Make a reservation to make sure you get what you want. If you are on mdi and need a bike, this is the place

These guys were pretty darn good. Even though there was a huge, mostly clueless and just a bit obnoxious group of 14 ahead of us, the staff did their best to get to us as quickly as possible. My 11-​yo daughter and I got two well sized bikes, helmets, a lock and a carrier for less than $ 40 for a half day.
About two hours later, I got a flat while coming down one of the carriage roads near Upper Hadlock (just dumb bad luck as far as I could tell). We brought the bikes back, and they swapped me out a duplicate bike right away, and offered us the bikes free for another day.

Bad attitude and bad service will haunt this place. They’re way into bikes and don’t seem to care about serving the customer. Fortunately, there are several bike repair and rental places in the area to go to instead!

Southwest Cycle was very helpful and accommodating in renting us bikes for the day. As far as I know it’s the only place in SW Harbor to do so. There are a couple other shops across the island in Bar Harbor, but it’s much more busy over there.
We got there a little after opening and were the only ones in the shop, so we had our choice of bikes. The guy who was helping us set us up with two hybrids since we planned on doing the carriage roads in Acadia. He even attached a bike rack to our car so we could get them over there. For the day, the bike rental cost $ 22 (road bikes cost more) and the bike rack was $ 10, I think. They close at 5, but said it was no problem to just drop the bikes in back if we got back later than that. The price also included helmets and locks.

Rented a FUJI aluminum bike with carbon components here. The store found a few women’s specific saddles for me to choose from, and popped on SPD specific pedals for me.
Fair price and loaned me a CO2 cartridge (since you can’t bring them on planes). Pleasant folk and a good experience.
**CALL AHEAD TO ENSURE YOU RESERVE A BIKE*** I have found that the bike shops in Acadia are very busy in August and you will want to ensure you get the bike of your choice by calling ahead.

This is a teensy weensy bike shop close to Acadia National Park and Seawall Campground, right smack in the middle of Southwest Harbor. It’s not particularly notable, but it deserves 4 stars for being the only game in town, providing friendly service, and having what we needed to do some serious cycling in Acadia.
A huge group of us were camping, and only 3 of us had brought road bikes, with 2 more who wanted to come along for the ride. So we set off on a mission to rent more road bikes so that we could do a zippy exploration of the 19 mile Park Loop Drive in Acadia National Forest.
We came upon Southwest Cycle and asked for 2 road bikes. We were shown… mountain bikes. So we clarified, no, we want road bikes. We were shown more mountain bikes and a few hybrids. I must say, I think these dudes are used to people walking in with no clue what they are talking about, who just want to explore the carriage trails, and have no clue what they need. We, however, knew what we needed, and after a few minutes of being like, dude, we’re going on paved roads, give us road bikes, they finally showed us two very nice Redline road bikes that fit their riders like a glove. Sweet.
The bikes held up great, and cost a reasonable $ 30 per day, including helmet and lock. (Mountain bikes were $ 22 a day). And even though the shop closed at 5:00pm, they were fine with us returning the bikes later and locking them up out back.
They also provide free maps of the area, as well as info on the shuttle bus. They also have a small selection of other cycling accessories like jerseys, gloves, water bottles, locks, pumps, tubes and tires, and they sell a small but nice looking selection of bikes. You could even buy the new Schwinn fixed gear bikes here!!! Not bad for a small town shop. If you’re in the area and need a bike to rent or buy, this is your spot.