Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop

I wish I read the one other review here prior to going to this shop.
My review is centered around renting a premium road bike.
Wanting to bike around the beautiful Acadia National Park (1000% recommended!), I researched bike rentals in the area. I didn’t want to break down and ship my road bike.
I looked at the website and saw that this shop rented high end bikes. They DO state that if you bring your own pedals, they will put them on the bike. Sadly, I didn’t have the right tools to get my pedals off and couldn’t get it in time, so I didn’t pack my pedals.
I call the shop while we are driving there and ask: do you rent out high end bikes (ie carbon frames)? The first thing they reply with is:
We don’t have any women specific frames
OK. I get it. I’m female. But I’m also 5’10″ and don’t need a ‘women’s specific frame’ (which is pretty much just a smaller frame). I tell them that so we can move on with the dialogue. I tell them the approximate frame size I have, and they say they have a few on hand.
***IF YOU PLAN ON RENTING A HIGH END BIKE IN ACADIA PARK AREA, RESERVE WAY AHEAD OF TIME**
I show up at the bike shop and wait around for someone to help me. After about five minutes, I finally ask an employee who was wandering around the area I was standing in, and he directs me to the front desk.
I go to the front desk and the girl seems pleasant, but knows nothing about bicycles.
Me: Do you have cleats?
Her: We have all sorts of things like that, like water bottles!
What?
After trying to ask her a bunch of questions she couldn’t answer, she brings over another employee to assist me.
I requested a female specific saddle and was told they do not have a female specific saddle (they asked me if I brought my own saddle. why would I do that? I guess now I know). Do they not get enough female cyclists to just suck it up and have one female saddle on hand?
The employee was like ‘Oh you won’t even notice the difference’. Uhm. Yeah. YOU do 50+ miles on a male saddle. Ouch!
I was also told they don’t have any clip pedals. Just the cages. To be fair, the employee went back and forth between the store manager and myself (I should have just talked to him directly). He talked pretty loudly and had to have been aware I could hear him — and let me tell yah, he wasn’t polite about my situation OR to the employee. Uncool.
The high end all carbon bikes are $ 50 a day, but why rent a $ 6000 bike just to have a crappy saddle and CAGE pedals?! So next down is $ 28 aluminum frame.
I filled out all the paperwork and took the bike. But I was so unhappy with my experience that I started calling other local bike stores.
Found another bike store that had SPD pedals AND would try to dig out a female specific saddle. Well, hell. My fault for not calling around first and wasting everyone’s, especially mine, time.
Went back to this bike store and dropped off the bike, they tore up the paperwork, and now I know better.
And hopefully you do as well. Don’t rent from here if you are a serious cyclist. Nuff said.

My bike was at Acadia Bike shop having a flat tire repaired. The mechanic there noticed I had a busted spoke, but he didn’t have the right size. He went over to Bar Harbor Bike Shop to get one from them, which they had, but wouldn’t sell it to him because he was from «the competition.» Bar Harbor is a small town and, in my opinion, doesn’t need such stupid small mindedness. Take your business to Acadia instead.