With little money and even less knowledge, how you despise the thought of entering a bike shop to repair that rhythmic clunk emanating from the chunky tubes of your battered beater!
As you approach the front door, the sweat beads on your forehead, your breath quickens in your constricted chest (maybe you shouldn't have worn that harness today) and you want to dump the bike, run home and stuff your head under your pillow until the last rays of daylight have receded from between the cracks in the aluminum foil covering your bedroom window.
If only there were a bike shop where the repair people didn't look at you like an idiot when you thrust your two-wheeled friend into their arms, a tear of bafflement simultaneously dislodging from its glistening perch at the corner of your eye and then didn't go ahead and recommend a bunch of fixes that amount to more than the original price of said POS.
Here's your answer:
Though not entirely the idealized always-friendly-and-completely-free bike shop of your sweet vermouth-addled dreams, Box Dog Bikes comes pretty close.
- Box Dog is a worker-owned cooperative.
- There is a "community bench" that anyone with basic bike-repair knowledge can use sans charge.
- A 10% discount is given to members of the SF Bike Coalition.
- Free bike-repair classes are offered every few months.
- A couple file cabinets stand full of used components, organized by type.
- Most everyone there seems attuned to the needs of those not wanting to spend gobs of cash to fix every small thing on an older bike.
Box Dog Bikes is located on 14th, between Guerrero and Valencia. It is open Monday-Friday (closed Wednesday), 11-7; Saturday, 10-5; and Sunday, 12-5.
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