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April 05, 2005
One on One Bike Studio Review
I know several of you have been to One on One Bike Studio in downtown Minneapolis and have said some good things about it. I’ll have to admit that they are interesting people, but to me not really attentive to customer needs. I got there and the most sociable of them all was the guy working in the coffee shop. I went into the bike shop to tell them what I was looking for, a British-made 3 Speed, and as I walked in not a single person looked at me. No eye contact at all. Some guy in long hair was working on a bike and did not look up at me. He looked at another guy who worked there and said a few things then went back to work. Several people came in and out and I was looking them right in the face, but none of them made eye contact. It was like I was invisible.
Then I said excuse me, and one guy turned around like he was surprised to see me there. He didn’t ask what I wanted, I just said, “I’m looking for a British-made 3 speed.” He nodded his head and said, “just leave your backpack with the guy at the coffee shop and go downstairs.” I said ok and proceeded downstairs. There were thousands of bikes and frames down there, and I hunted through them. I found several specimens to choose from, but I must have looked for an hour and not a single person came through there. So I went back upstairs and had trouble getting someone’s attention again. The long-haired guy working on the bike looked irritated that I interrupted him, and asked another guy to help me. The other guy came over and asked what I was looking for and I told him that I found several bikes to choose from, but none of them had prices on them. So he came downstairs with me and we looked at them. First of all, I did not know that some bikes behind the ribbon were off limits. They were part of a ‘private collection.’ So that limited my choices to one bike. It didn’t have a seat. I was told it used to have a brooks saddle on it, but someone took it for another bike. Then he looked at a few other bikes there and compared them, spun the wheels and said, “that’ll be $55.00.”
I said ok, sounds fair, because compared to the bike I was bidding on in eBay, this one was in very nice condition and would require very little work. I didn’t have any way to get it home, because I rode my bike there. So I might still go back there and buy that one.
After that I went back upstairs and decided to eat there and a have a small coffee. The food was good, and I had a good conversation with the guy making my sandwhich. He had an Xtra-Cycle there and he suggested I go out in back and try it out. He’s been riding it for about a year now and loves it. He said if I had had one of these, I could have carried that extra bicycle back home on it. That’s probably true. It was a nice bike that was stable and had lots of room to haul things in the side bags and on the flat board on top.
After I left there I took the Light Rail to Fort Snelling, then rode my bike home.
This trip gave me a lot to think about. I’d like to report a great experience at the bike shop, but really the best part was talking to this one guy about the Xtra-Cycle and test riding it. Oh I saw the person referred to as the Satanic Mechanic but he was sitting out on the back porch tearing something apart. He must have been tired of the basement. It was really nice outside last night.
I think think that bike shop is very disorganized with parts in buckets all over the place, junk on the floor toward the back of the basement, tools laying in piles on the floor, half buried by other bike junk, and poor customer service. I could have died in the basement and they might have found me hours later. Haha. Most other bike shops I’ve been in have seemed much friendlier. I probably won’t go back there too much, except I can say that I liked the coffee shop. At least there is one person who talks to strangers. I might just have to build an Xtra-Cycle too. Seeing it in person and trying it out is a really good sales pitch. My only concern in using it as a general transportation choice is that it won’t fit in the bike rack on the front of a bus or on the light-rail, so in those cases it would not be as convenient or flexible.
It’s funny how different people can have so different of experiences in the same place. I didn’t like it I think because they made me feel invisible. But at the coffee shop I had a totally different experience. In any case, it might be a good resource for an oddball part, but in the future, I’ll try other places first.
Posted by carl1236 at April 5, 2005 05:20 PM | Bicycles
Comments
I agree with your review. They're probably fair-to-okay with issues of a mechanical and retail nature...but the atmosphere is definitely above average.
I had the same sort of no-one-noticed-me experience. I wasn't in a hurry, so I didn't mind.
It's a unique place, though. It definitely has a niche in the local bike shop ecology. :)
Posted by: Dan at April 5, 2005 06:09 PM
If you need a part for that old 3-speed sometime, 1/1 will be the only place in town that can help you. I've had mixed experiences there. I've actually been there 3 or 4 times. Once it was right before Critical Mass and they were running around like crazy and not very attentive to me, which was understandable since they had many other customers at that time. The other times they talked my ear off (the long haired blonde guy Reed and the satanic mechanic Namond). It certainly isn't Freewheel or Erik's, where you need something, and they walk you to the rack and show it to you. You have to scrounge, but that's half the fun. I'd say you got the best experience possible, if Namond left you alone while you shopped. Otherwise you never would have found what you were looking for, though you would have heard some great stories.
Posted by: Jim at April 5, 2005 07:48 PM
I've been in there a few times and it was always exactly like you said. If I hadn't seen their web site, I would have had no clue there was a basement. Still haven't been down there. Place feels like the guys who run it have plenty of customers through personal contacts, don't really want street traffic, and just needed a place to "set up shop".
Posted by: b2 at April 6, 2005 07:21 AM
At the risk of coming off as 'hip' or 'in the know' i have to wonder if the things mentioned in the 'review' is all there is to it. i LIKE one on one studio for exactly these reasons. if i want instant service i can go to penn or eriks or someplace similar, but they usually try to steer me to things i do not want, and don't often understand anything that hasn't come out in the last 2 years.
one on one is the kind of place you can go to hang out and peruse things you may not ever have seen. i suppose if you are looking for someone to hold your hand and coddle you through the process, either out of legitimate ignorance or simply because you like to be stroked, then this isn't the place for you. but in that case there are plenty of options in the city. i'm glad to have someplace that isn't a waste of my time and one on one is that exactly because of their style, not in spite of it.
do we really NEED another carbon copy shop in Minneapolis/Saint Paul? I don't think so. One on one is a breath of fresh air.
Posted by: Tips at June 24, 2005 09:51 AM
So after spending all that time there, getting someone to actually give you a price, you decided you couldn't carry it? Didn't you go there prepared to buy and take home a wheel?
Strap it onto you messenger bag and go...
Instead, you wasted their time and yours. Maybe that's your explanation for "bad service" - they saw you coming - another scrounger that doesn't buy anything and simply wastes their time.
One on One is place where if you know what you need, you want it done right, and you're ready to pay without haggling you'll walk away a happy customer.
These are some of the best guys in the biz - (eccentricities aside) - they're not the kind of guys your going to find at a chain shop. I see that as a good thing.
Posted by: OneSupporter at June 24, 2005 02:20 PM
Actually I didn't waste their time because they barely aknowledged that I existed. To me that is poor customer service though. I can't imagine they can stay in business with operations like that. I was only 'another scrounger that doesn't buy anything' because that's the way they ran their business when I was there. I suppose they have a set of customers that are loyal like you who are part of the 'in' group, like one of the guys I saw there walk in and BS with the shop guys and leave without buying anything. Our world is too full of select little inner-circles that think they are somehow more special than others. Frankly I'm finding that there are better bike shops than One-On-One, not because of the bikes or parts they have or better mechanics, but because they treat their customers like real people.
I didn't waste my time going there either because I got food and coffee and rode an XTRA-Cycle. That was a good experience. But that wasn't even the bike shop was it?
Posted by: john at June 24, 2005 03:32 PM
I've heard similar things from other people visiting the shop. I bought a bike from their basement, but must have caught them on a good day, because someone asked within a couple of minutes of browsing what i was looking for, and when i said used, they pointed me to the basement. When i was there though, they complained that i came through the front door to get to the shop, like i was supposed to know that from the street. It seems like a good shop to be a regular at, but not the easiest to shop at for the first time.
Also, i'd say that if they were going to sell you a 3-speed that was ready to ride minus saddle for $55, you were going to get a pretty good deal. I paid them just over $100 for a nice steel Raleigh road frame w/o wheels that i ended up also having to replace the BB on. I would'a inspected and haggled more, but i was short on time and wanted the bike.
Posted by: billc at June 24, 2005 03:51 PM
You just look blonde, Reed, because of that MAHHHVELLOUS tan!!!
Posted by: Uno Rigido at June 25, 2005 03:46 PM
To the people worried about bad service: there are plenty of places you can go to get bad service, it just depends what kind of bad service you'd like that day. penn? average joe gets ignored for a time, then pushed to stuff he doesn't need. erik's? more of same. flanders? puh-leeze... That's as 'in' crowd as it gets. High priced and still ignored. But you never see a bad review of flanders.
To those worried about not being part of the 'IN' crowd: perhaps if you spent more time saying "I have a question" instead of getting pissed that they didn't fall over themselves to help you you would feel better. There are always going to be people who they know and say hi to. This is not the sign of a bad shop and it doesn't mean you have to be part of some 'in' crowd. Being 'in' and being badly served are 2 different things. Use your brain.
To everybody else: One review based on one visit to a shop, especially when the reviewer works for a shop that competes with the shop being reviewed, hardly counts as complete or even legitimate. This is not journalism, folks, this is the internet; it is founded on the idea of every person with a keyboard having equal opportunity to shout his/her opinion no matter ignorant or biased it may be. Please remember: diversity is a good thing, a healthy choice for communities and culture. You didn't like this shop? That's why there are choices. Use them. But don't bad-mouth the competition just because they don't meet the same preconceived expectations somebody else said were important. One On One has good stuff, good staff, and collects some of the top bicycle knowledge in the midwest. That long hair 'blonde' guy is one of the best wheel builders in the world. This is the opinion of many people, including employees of DT Swiss, who have made quite a name for themselves in the world by producing some of the best wheel components on the market.
Posted by: Tips at June 27, 2005 01:04 PM
You are right, see today's apology. But My 'review' of bicycle shops was not done as a competitor, because at that time I was just volunteering, fixing bikes for kids, the artbikes, the phillips neighborhood and other programs. The Sibley Bike Depot is a very different animal than any of the bike shops I've seen. It is a non-profit and there is only one paid staff position and that's not me. Well, they also have earn-a-bike program and some pay for homeless guys and kids to do small shop related tasks like cleaning and so on, but that's also not me. The Sibley Bike Depot doesn't even sell new bikes like most of the other Twin-Cities' bike shops. I just joined the board of the Minnesota Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance and I hope to help bring some focus back to their programs. I am just human like everyone else, and my approach in my blog was not very healthy to anyone, including me. I still had experiences in these bike shops that I'm not taking back or retracting, but they really are an incomplete picture of the human lives involved in those places.
As a customer of Multiple bike shops, along with the rest of the bicycling community, I'm still going to check out every bike shop I hear about. I'm still a year-round bike commuter and sports rider. Even though I'm a member of the St. Paul Bike Racing club, I've had Freewheel Bike do an emergency spoke replacement for me and I wrote about their great service on that occasion. I don't mind spending money in 'competing' shops, that is if I know about them. For instance I just heard about and visited Behind Bars bike shop and had nothing but good things to say about Chuck Cowen and his shop. He's a great guy and was attentive to his customers. (Not just me, but everyone who came in the door!) He has no reason to be afraid of competitors because he's doing a good job of treating people like real people instead of just dollar signs or aliens. I will probably stop in there again when I'm biking in the area, now that I know where he's at. I haven't been to Flander's or many other neighborhood bike shops, but I plan on going out of my way to visit the one's I haven't yet.
As a volunteer in the Minnesota Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance and Sibley Bike Depot, I'm going to try to help it do a better job of it's core missions of bicycle education and advocacy. Bike shops can be an integral part of community development (not just the mainstream cycling community but also everyone living in the neighborhood)
Thanks for posting your comments.
Posted by: John at June 27, 2005 03:58 PM
you rock, dude! i wish i could do all of the pro-societal work that you do. keep it up!
reed"some guy in long hair"stelljes
why is it that all the bike shops in the USA are fighting over the .009% of the population that already ride/buy bikes? let's collectively go after the big picture!
Posted by: reed at June 30, 2005 08:22 AM
I'm a bit behind on this one but the lesson here is simple. Different strokes for different folks. One On One is great shop for those who enjoy it, so is Erik's, so is Freewheel, etc., etc. Blah, blah, blah.
Be happy there are enough people actually riding for our shops to support. It's all good.
Best
Posted by: Dave O at September 17, 2005 12:10 AM
Thanks for your comments Dave. I agree. And One-on-one is well respected by those that use it frequently and the people that work there make a difference in the lives of the community who supports it.
One of my main beliefs in life is that we should treat each other like we want to be treated. Although I can't expect to be treated with love and respect from everyone I meet I can treat others that way. That includes the people who work at places I shop at. That was really the lesson for me in all of this. Even though we know the truth sometimes, we can still be blind. Since writing that 'review' I made a point of going in there and talking to the real human beings working there. Basically I was a 'consumer' before and dead wrong.
Posted by: John at September 17, 2005 07:50 AM