New Queensboro Plaza Bike Store

Just opened: L.I.C. Bicycles. 25-11 Queens Plaza North.
(718) 47-BIKES
I bought a few small things from here. You can't beat the location, just off the Queensboro Bridge bike path. He said Andres at the wonderful Bicycle Repair Man Corp isn't too happy with him right now. But I think Astoria/Southern Long Island City can support two good bike stores. I won't be too sad if one of these guys replaces one of the two not-so-good Greek bike stores.

Do tires matter?

Yes.

Thanks for asking.

I purposefully don’t write much about bike components for two reasons: 1) talk about bike components makes most people less likely to ride bikes, and 2) I don’t care.

I can’t even tell you what components I have on my own bikes. On my 10-speed, my derailleur works very well. I know it’s Shimano. But I couldn’t tell you more than that. I don’t care.

But I am into tires for two reasons: 1) they keep you from crashing, and 2) they keep you from getting flats.

Who wants to ride a bike if it doesn’t get you where you’re going? Or even worse, leaves you stranded. Or really worse, leave you in a bloody heap on the ground. Of course nobody wants to crash. Roads are slippery and it rains, but in general most tires do a very good job of keeping you from wiping out.

But flats happen to everybody. If you can remember the second-to-last flat tires you got, you get too many. Tires go bad from time, use, and sun. There’s no better way to prevent getting flats than to buy a new tire.

Tire liners aren’t bad either. That’s a thin strip that you put between the tube and the tire. In fact, most tires should have tire liners (I don’t have them in my high-pressure thin tires). Will tire liners help you? Well, I think of the punch line from the joke about a man who was hit by a car. A crowd gathers and from the back an old lady shouts, “Give him an enema!” “Lady, he was hit by a car, how is that going to help?” There’s a brief pause before the lady quietly notes, “It can’t hurt.”

Anyway, last time I bought a new tire, Andres at the wonderful Bicycle Repairman Corp bike shop (42-11 35th Ave in Astoria/Long Island City (718) 706-0405) downsold me on a Michelin Speedium. I’m always charmed with businesses that downsell you. I think this tires costs $20 as opposed to the $50 I was willing to spend. He wanted me try it out. I did. He thought I’d like it. I didn’t. I was hoping to. Because maybe I have been wasting money on expensive tires.

This tire was on the rear wheel of my blanch road bike. Eventually I noticed that when breaking hard, my rear wheel was losing grip with the pavement and going in a (controlled) skid too quickly. That can actually be kind of useful. The skidding sound quickly alerts the pedestrian who just walked in front of you. And skidding a rear wheel sounds much more dramatic than it is. But still, I prefer more stopped ability.

I was back in the bike store because my rim was dented from a previous incident. Nothing major, but a noticeable bump when applying the rear brakes. When it comes to man thwacking your wheel with a old hammer, nobody does it better than Andres. I mean I’ve got a hammer, but he's got the finesse. I told him to switch tires while he was at it.

I went back to my preferred tire and am going to put the Michelin on the rear wheel of my fixed gear. That’s the one place where you actually may want a tire to skid quickly. One part of breaking on a fixed gear is being able to lock the rear wheel. It’s not easy to do (and hard on your knees) if the tire won’t let go the road.

I’m sure there are lots of other good tires out there, but I’ve stuck with Continental since my fixed-gear building friend recommended them to me way back in the 20th Century. They’re good tires and they’ve always been good to me. I like Continental Grand-Prix 4000s (formerly the 3000). I would also be happy with the Continental “4-Season.” But the bike store stocks the 4000 so that’s what I got (size 700 x 23). Very good puncture resistance, good grip, fast, light. That’s what you want in a tire, in that order.

The downside is they cost $45 each. But new tires will pay for their cost if they prevent just a few flats. And the hassle of a flat is far greater than just the cost of fixing it.

For non-racing bikes, fatter, lower-pressure tires are cheaper, anyway. Part of the expense of tires goes into making the skinny tires withstand 120-pounds-per-square-inch pressure. For most bikes, you can nice new tires for $10 to $20 each. If you’ve got the money (and already have a comfy seat), it’s the best thing to spend your hard-earned bike money on. It can’t hurt.

Bicycle Repair Man

I was buying a bike tire at my favorite Astoria/Long Island City Bike Store (Bicycle Repair Man, 40-11 35th Ave, tel: 718 706-0450. Open 10 - 7, closes around 2 on Sunday). And was eyeing the Continentals 3000. They're expensive ($45-$50), but I've had good luck with them. He only had yellow. I didn't want yellow because they make the bike look fancier and more attractive to thieves and vandals. I told him I wanted all black. He said he could order it for me, but then proceeded to downsell me on a $25 Michelin tire. I think it's a classy business man who successfully downsells a customer.

A new, no-longer-new Astoria bike store. What joy!

One year ago I reported on the opening of a new Astoria bike store. A good one. One in whose hands I would trust my nice bikes.

Unfortunately, it opened right after a spend a lot of money building two bikes. So I didn’t actually have a need to go there too much. And when I did go there during the day, the main man’s wife was often manning the store. And neither her English nor her bike knowledge is too great. The main man worked for another bike store during the day.

I was always afraid the place would close. It was never that busy. And if you went there during the day you might not know a brilliant bike mechanic would be there that evening.

Anyway, it did close… but reopened a block away in an improved space. They lost their lease. But now have a five year lease in a store with more space! And they even specialize in Bianchi… my favorite bike.

The store is the Bicycle Repair Man, 40-11 35th Ave, (718) 706-0450. Just East of Steinway, near the 36th Street and Steinway St stops on the R/V/G.

The main man, Andres, says starting next week, he’ll be there 7 days a week. They’re open to 10pm on weekdays. And if you ask him nicely, I’m sure he’d love to show you his spoke making machine.

A new Astoria bike store. What joy!

One of the problems with New York is there really aren’t many good bike stores. A good bike store has two qualities: 1) they know more about my bike than I do, and 2) I trust their mechanic with my bike. A lot of bike repair is simple, but time consuming. It’s easy to imagine pressure on somebody being paid by the hour to finish an adjustment faster rather than spending the time to get it right. And it’s not surprising that you’re going to care about your bike more than an underpaid mechanic.

There are two bike stores is Astoria. Neither is that good. They’re very similar. Both are run by friendly Greeks. Both have younger kids working there that I trust with neither my bike nor my girlfriend. Both specialize in kids bikes and BMX bikes. They really don’t know road bikes. I buy some parts from them. But if they don’t have it in stock and have to mail order it, then I’d just as soon order it myself and save a lot of money. I’d like to support my local bike store. And I miss Turin in Evanston, Illinois and Ace Wheelworks in Somerville, Massachusetts. I never actually went to Harris Cycles, because Newton isn’t that close to Cambridge, Mass.

So Zora and I were biking to Sripraphai last night and past a bike store very nearby on 35th Ave. Could I have never noticed it before? Well, no. It’s been open about a month. The man who runs it, a Hispanic man named Andres, was very friendly and, get this, knowledgeable!

He was quick to tell me his experience at working for 12 years at City Bikes on 9th Ave (one of the better bike stores) and his expertise with wheels. I love wheels. He also loves tools: “with tools, you can do anything!” I like tools, too.

He then showed off his very expensive spoke cutting and threading machine, happily wasting a spoke in the process.

Then he looked at the Bluebird, of which I am very proud, and told me I built the wheels wrong. Oops. I laced the spokes wrong. You’re supposed to go over (or under) the first two spokes and then on the opposite side of the last spoke. I’ve done this before. Well for some reason I got into a wrong habit and did all the wheels and Zora’s and Katie’s bike wrong. I went over over, under, and over. It means the spokes are bent too much around the other spokes. I like to think that I’ve invented a super strong wheel, but I doubt it. What a pain in the ass. And potentially expensive as well, since four wheels of spokes will cost about $125.