I had been coming to this shop for some time now, for nearly as long as they have been open. They did a great job of taking care of any repairs I needed with a quick turn around time on my previous bike and the prices were very reasonable. I decided that since they seemed very down to earth and like all around good guys, I would purchase my next bike from them.
My concerns began when I took my old bike in to get the brake adjusted, which one of their guys did quickly and for cheap. But as I rode my bike home from the shop, I could smell a burning rubber odor and realized, once I got home, that the pads of the brake to my bike were lined up on the front tire, not the front wheel rim where they should be. Even as someone such as myself who isn't particularly advanced at bike repairs knows that is a pretty glaring error. But I decided it was an isolated incident and didn't think much of it.
A few weeks later I asked one of their employees for a new bike recommendation and I told them I wanted something that could handle the wear and tear of riding in the city all year round, since that is how I commute to work. They recommended one of the Pure Fix single speed bikes they sell so I went home and decided to do some research on them. I couldn't find any good things to say about the base model of the Pure Fix bikes online, but I did find one good review online from someone who had purchased a Pure Fix Premium model single speed bike, specifically that the chromoly steel frame was worth the price of the bike (about $500). So I decided to go with that, 1) because I wanted to buy a bike from Let's Roast to support their business and 2) because one of their guys implied that the premium model was much better than the base model of the Pure Fix line. So I bought the bike and when I came to pick it up after it had been shipped to Let's Roast and they assembled it about a week later, the guy who sold me the bike told me to ride it for two weeks or so and then bring it back to make sure everything looked ok, which sounded great to me because it indicated that they cared about the products they were selling to their customers.
I brought the bike back two weeks later and one of their guys gave it a look to make sure everything was fine and all he needed to do was adjust my brake and I was on my way. I personally hadn't had any issues with the bike up until that point and was enjoying riding it.
Two weeks later I noticed that one of the spokes on the front wheel was coming loose, so I planned to take the bike in to get it looked at later that week. The next day a spoke on the rear wheel snapped and I could obviously feel a change in the feel of the rear wheel. When I inspected the wheels more closely, both the front and rear wheel had loose spokes, some so loose that you could easily pull them out by hand. So the next day I took the bike into Let's Roast to get it looked at and told them I had a problem with the wheels because one of the spokes snapped and several others were loose. One of the guys became defensive and I was promptly told "welcome to riding your bike in Chicago." I said, in 7 years of commuting every day by bike to work on several different bikes in Chicago, I had broken a spoke just once and that something seemed off to me about the wheels, since I had only used the bike for four weeks at that point. I was then told "shit happens" and that I didn't need to worry about it since I was under warranty and they would take care of it. I left my bike there while feeling frustrated since they made me feel like I was at fault for these loose/broken spokes.
I came back a few days later to pick up the bike and they told me that they tightened the spokes, but that I should understand that the wheel set on my bike was a cheap one and that I should consider upgrading the wheel set once the current one wears down. I said I didn't have a problem with that. They also said that the loose spokes were due to a manufacturer error. I don't doubt that, but it concerns me that no one who assembled the bike or gave it a second look when I brought it in after using for two weeks noticed any issues.
About a month later, I got a flat on my way home from work so I decided to stop at the closest bike shop to me at that time, rather than traveling much further to Let's Roast to get it fixed. This shop promptly fixed my flat and asked me about the bike. I told them I bought it about two months ago and they said, "You do know your frame is bent near the rear hub, right?" And I said, actually, no, I didn't know that. They then assumed I had paid about $250 for the bike and I said, no actually I paid twice that. They were very surprised by this and recommended asking for a replacement frame.
Needless to say, I think I'm done with Let's Roast. They're not at fault for my purchase choice, but they either have poor attention to detail, or they just don't care very much. read more