Salt Water Magic

A few years back took bike in with new chain to replace old one. They oiled the old one and charged us $ 75. I noticed it was old chain oiled and they were making excuses and wanted to see receipt and where did my new chain go? Didn’t trust them after that. I think they are out of business now. 0 stars deserved.

I just bought a bike and basket from here. Her prices are cheaper than anywhere else I can find. The basket was 4 dollars less than Amazon and she put it on for me. I was really surprised given that this is a local mom and pop shop.
The owner is very friendly. I’m kind of surprised at the other reviews. We had a great experience both when we went in to browse and when we came back a couple of days later to purchase.
At the end of the sale she made sure that I knew I could swing buy if anything loosened up after riding it around.

Don’t trust estimates given by either the owner or the other person working, even if it is stated «can’t be more than -» because when you do go to pick up your bike it will be more than what they had Said it wouldn’t go over,
Bernie in ocean beach always called if he was going to be going over the estimate so that if you dint agree w the price he wouldn’t do the work. That’s honesty.
I dropped my bike off during lunch one day said it’d be ready by the next day at the same time I take my lunch, waste it going there and it’s still not ready! I get off work early To pick it up only to be overcharged far more than the original quote, what she had originally quoted me double it both in time it takes to fix and price. I tried to tell the gentleman and his attitude was «though luck buddy» this is not a customer service driven establishment, from now on I’ll learn to work on my bike or drive it all the way back to ocean beach Bernie’s.

Took my bike into Salt Water Bike shop to fix my ruptured tube. The owner fixed charged me $ 20.00 and i parked it in my garage havent riden it at all and three weeks later
my bike is flat from sitting still I guess. But after reading some of the comments left on Unilocal it is a common occurrence from this bike shop. BEWARE!!!
Go some place else. Salt Water u should be proud of your work and stand behind it! Not yell at people for returning your crappy work.

The owner of this place needs to get a clue. I went in the other day with a few questions and ready to purchase some things for my new bike. The ONLY people in the store were my friend and I. Not wanting to leave our unlocked bikes on Palm we brought them inside and leaned then up against a water bottle display. The son (owner) yelled at his Mom (other owner) to next time leave cash in the till when she leaves so he can make sales. I ask a few questions and am ready to buy a few things. Then the son owner rudely says «can you park those bikes somewhere else». Nobody else in the store just totally uncalled for. So I just said thanks for your help took ours bike and left. This guy looked really butt hurt and barked at his mom «YOU DIDN’T SELL THEM ANYTHING?!» Actually she did bud, but your crap CS skills lost you the sale, not mom. You also blew me or any of my friends from ever stepping foot in your store again. Based on the fact that the place is always dead, I’d say good job sir! Just before we walked in my friend said to me” you know you can get all this at Walmart much cheaper.” I said yes, but don’t mind supporting local small business… and this was what I got for it. SMDH
The older lady was very nice and helpful, to bad she has to work with her punk attitude of a son!

They rock, fixed my bike on the spot, I was $ 10 short on a $ 20 repair and the lady said,“Pay me when you can, we are not going anywhere, we have been here for 20 years,
I paid her the next day, and she thanked me… they rock, love em

Saltwater Magic does not stand behind their work. I asked them to install new tubes in a bike I had bought at Goodwill that obviously had leaky tubes. I rode it on the nice clean bike trail a few times (never over anything rough or questionable in any way) but then got sick and it sat unused for a few months. When I went to try to ride it this morning both tires were flat. I took it back to Saltwater and the lady tried to tell me that they’ve never installed a bad tube, never forgotten to install tubes, and never in the entire 18 year history of the shop have they ever pinched or punctured a tube putting it on. She claimed if it had been bad it would have been flat before it ever left the store and that bike tubes can’t be expected to hold air just sitting a few months. BULLSH*T! I should have been suspicious when she had had to pump it right before she delivered it to me. Now I’m going to have to find a REAL bike shop that will stand behind their work and not try to cheat people by telling them they did work they didn’t do.

Went to get a wheel trued since I was too lazy to do it myself (or so I thought) and they said it’d be a couple hours and cost around $ 20 so I’d have to come back. So I went home and 20 minutes later they called and said it was ready (apparently I could’ve waited) and it was going to be $ 25 because they went ahead and replaced a couple spokes (without asking me). And then I took the wheel home and put it on my bike and it still wasn’t straight, so I ended up taking a spoke wrench and fixing it myself. I guess that’s what you get when you take your bike to a shop that doesn’t specialize in only bikes. Now I only go to South Bay Bicycles in National City and the Trek Superstore in Chula Vista. Both have way better service, are cheaper, and call you before they try to replace or upgrade parts. The only good thing about Salt Water Magic is that they work faster than their time estimates. Crappy work, but fast.