The Radavist

Now that Golden Pliers has settled into their new Portland, OR location, it was time for us to make another visit. Just a few days after the MADE bike show concluded, Spencer Harding stepped into the welcoming arms of the Golden Pliers crew for a much-needed decompression from all the bike show hubbub. Below, let’s look inside one of our favorite bike shops that is filled with beautiful bikes, nice things, and wonderful humans…

For nearly ten years, La Chouette Bike Shop has been serving Paris, France – and an ever-growing online customer base – with a finely curated selection of bikes, components, and products from some of our favorite brands. In a continuation of Reportage from his time visiting Paris earlier this month, Josh checks in with La Chouette owners Pierre, João, and Jacob, who are on a mission to add a bit of international color to the streets of their fine city…

The last 20 years have seen seismic changes to brick-and-mortar businesses of all kinds, especially bike shops, yet Mock Orange Bikes endures. Mock Orange and its owner, Charles Van Isenburg, have remained a pillar of Winston-Salem, NC’s bike community for two decades with a relationship-driven, neighborhood-oriented, very much offline, and old-school way of conducting retail business.

On one of his frequent swings through his native North Carolina, Andy Karr stopped by his favorite hometown bike shop to chat with Charles about what’s changed in 20 years of owning a shop and what hasn’t.

If you stop in at Absolute Bikes, a bike shop in the mountain town of Salida, Colorado, Shawn Gillis, with his welcoming grin under a distinct ginger mustache, will likely be there to greet you. Whether you need a flat fixed on your commuter or the brightest bike light money can buy in order to finish the 2,745-mile Tour Divide, Gillis will lend a hand and have you riding again in no time.

But what he really loves is setting someone up on their first mountain bike, hearing about the adventures they want to tackle, and giving them tips about which local trails to start on.

When Maverick Cycles opened its doors in my neighborhood last April, it took me a minute to get over my disbelief that such a place had sprung into existence here on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.

Here in the Quaker City of Philadelphia, we’re blessed with a number of reliable shops in just about every corner of town. Shops for very serious racers, shops for mountain bikers, shops just for anyone in the neighborhood in need of help getting around on two wheels. We’ve got ‘em all and plenty of ‘em. Keystone is one of Philly’s newest shops catering to all kinds of bikes with an emphasis on everything rando, touring, and bikepacking.