I have cycled cross-country, and I have used the services of bicycle shops in probably a dozen states. This is one of the best repair shops I have ever visited.
I visited this shop early on a Saturday morning. I had gotten a tune-up at a bicycle shop in the Greater Boston area in preparation of cycling Vermont Route 100, and picked up my bike on Friday night (the night before I planned to leave). When I brought it home (and after the shop had closed) I found that my bike's chain was making noise in certain gears. I tinkered around with the derailleur to try to fix the problem, but to no avail. I feared that my Vermont trip would have to be cancelled.
I decided to try to find a shop in Brattleboro, my planned starting point, and selected this one because it opened the earliest. I visited there early on Saturday, explained the issue, and immediately was introduced to a mechanic (I asked for his name but have since forgotten it, unfortunately). He kindly and patiently explained what he was doing as he went through his evaluation to diagnose the issue, and invited me to stand alongside him to watch and learn. Within minutes, he deduced that the height of the derailleur was incorrectly adjusted by the previous mechanic, causing the chain to rub in high gear. He made the correct adjustment and it worked perfectly. Amazingly, he didn't even want to charge me more than $10, although I insisted on giving him that and then some for his help (and for basically saving my trip).
I love cycling, but I know that visiting bicycle shops can be a frustrating process. Many bicycle mechanics seem to delight in making the customer feel ignorant. Here, the mechanic was not only skilled and instructive, but he was completely without pretension. It is a shame that I live more than two hours away from this shop, or it would be my default for repairs. As it turned out, the mechanic's adjustment on a Saturday morning ended up saving my cycling trip, and the bicycle has functioned perfectly since. read more