Two Wheels One Planet - Great Experience!
I discovered this bike shop (Lake Forest location) at one of the checkpoints during the Rwanda 50 mile ride - they helped me fix my 4th flat tire by finding out that the strip on the inside of the rim was exposing several spoke holes that were eating my tubes up (perhaps a reason to go tubeless?). Since I was pressed to leave before the cut-off time, they took the same rim strip and re-laid it on the rim - this allowed me to finish the ride.
I took the bike in a week or so later for a tune up and they immediately noticed that my bottom bracket was all messed up - probably from riding through the river crossings during the Rwanda ride. I was also having problems with chain skipping in spite of getting a brand new cassette and chain from another bike shop.:?:
The mechanic noticed that the previous shop I went to put a 10-speed road bike chain on my 9-speed cassette so I got a compatible chain and voila - no more skipping! :clap:
On the very next ride I ended up getting ANOTHER flat on the rear tire! Out of desperation I took the bike to another shop that was close to my place and asked them to replace the strip on the inside of the rim. I also had to purchase two new tubes. On my very next ride, guess what - ANOTHER REAR FLAT! In frustration I decided to take it to Two Wheels One Planet and have them check it out.
As soon as I took the bike in and explained what happened, the mechanic immediately took out the tube and inspected the rim, noticing that it was cracked to hell all around the valve stem. He also noticed that the other shop did a shoddy job putting in the rim strip which didn't allow my tube to settle properly. They started the process of getting me a warranty replacement, but there was a chance that the new rim wouldn't be available in time for me to participate in the Over the Hump race on May 22 - I was all registered and ready to ride so I was really nervous that I wouldn't have a bike. I called my brother who has an old 2003 Trek hardtail so I was starting to make plans to pick it up and use it for the race.
Yesterday I get a call from Two Wheels One Planet and they told me that they were going to take a rear tire from a demo bike, put a tire on it and let me use that until the warranty came in. They had the bike ready that day, I picked it up and took it for a great ride on Quail Hill/Serrano Ridge. Thanks to the shop going out of their way I've got my bike to ride for the OTH race! Also the owner (Kristen) kept in contact with me through email - something that I haven't seen any other bike shop do.
All the shop workers went out of their way to set me up so I don't have to wait weeks for the manufacturer to send the warranty replacement rim. They also do a great job inspecting a bike to really understand the cause of the issues I was having and I never got a sense that they were trying to find extra problems to make a quick extra buck. I've been bouncing around to several different bike shops. Some of them are great shops, but I think I'll be a loyal customer to Two Wheels One Planet from now on! :bang:
