Al’s Cycle Solutions

I bought my beloved Cannondale CAAD9 5 from Al’s Cycle Solutions back in the summer of 2009. I’ve been going to Al for service and parts ever since even though he’s clear across town from me. There are plenty of local bike shops on the East side but I don’t get anything close to the level of service I get from Al.

Wandered in looking for lights and not only found rechargeable lights at a good price, but after 35 years of NYC riding, finally learned how the white headlight can be a real lifesaver. It makes the cyclist visible and can save you from getting doored. And there is also the wonderful dog Lance!

Al’s cycle solution outfitted me with the perfect bike. I do triathlons, and love the road … So Al set me up with an amazing combination… A Bianchi Infinito at a super price! Ready for hills… Ready for speed!!! Bonus… His awesome brand of carbon custom wheels… Just as good if not better than wheels 3 times the cost. He has the Hyp-​Performance wheels on his own bike… So I knew they would be fantastic … 5 triathlons later… And they have proved to be light, fast, responsive and smooth as butter! The shop has everything… The mechanics rock! And it’s always nice to see Lance… Your friendly neighborhood bike store doggie. Hands down… Favorite bike shop in NYC. This guys knows his stuff!!!

Let me tell all you Unilocalers, Als is the place to go.
1. There is a dog named lance who greets you upon entrance.
2. All the boys who work here are super nice. Shout out to grant from Baltimore!
3. I have never been disappointed with a price here. I did pay $ 10 for a bell after my 2.50 $ bell from China BROKE! but I think long term it’ll be worth it
4. Usually, there is wiggle room, Al is a fair guy and if you are looking for a certain product in a certain price range and he doesn’t have it he’ll usually order it for you.
I have a golden oldie bike. Seen plenty of miles and yet every time I come in for a repair I get nothing but friendly service and a great feeling making me want to return **someday** to buy a new shiny road bike.

Have been going here for years– friendly, fast, reliable, reasonably priced, and always feel that they give it to me straight vs many other places that will upsell parts/​services that you do not need. Use my bike every day and use these guys anytime something pops up!

UPDATEEE !!! Bernardo is great but the bike service part for the shop itself might be lacking. I purchased a bike cannondale caad 8, received a second fittinf from Al (the owner) which was great. He basically put the wheel back on from the fitter to the Bike and sent me on my way. ONE WEEK later, I take out my bike and FLAT. THEY DIDNT EVEN PUMP UP THE TIRES TO THE RIGHT PSI !!! What type of crap is that!!! 1,000 bike and you can’t check tire inflation before sending customers out!!! The worst part is that the OWNER himself gave me the bike and sent me on my way. He needs to care a bit more about the business. Gave it a 5 star but i take it back. Bernardo and the right of the gang are great but there is only so much you can do with a owner who doesn’t care about customer service.

Great experience renting road bikes from Al’s to train for a century ride up and down the West Side. Made a reservation via phone a few days before and the bikes were waiting for us even though we showed up 30 minutes late. Kind, courteous staff were very helpful in setting up our attractively priced rentals! Hope you’re an animal lover though if you’re renting from them as they have pets in the store!

I love this place and fortunately it’s around the corner from where I live. Rented a bunch of bicycles last year when I had relatives visiting and everything went smoothly — and they have the best prices around. Yesterday, my chain came out and since I just had a manicure, I didn’t feel like messing with it myself. I stopped in and they fixed it. It didn’t take long but there was no charge. Very nice touch.

The owner is friendly and general prices and low but he might overstate his knowledge. I went in for a bike fitting and he skipped over several parts of the fitting process.
Some people get quite sick from dogs? he has a large dog that lives in the shop. I can’t stay there for more than a few minutes.
if you go be sure to request a receipt and check what he charges you for — he’ll tack on small additional expenses without checking with you first.
I’ll stick with the other bike shops around the area — a bit more expensive but they are more transparent and clean (no pets in residence).

Great store… Great service and Great prices.
Did I mention the prices?
We bought a bike for our 5 year old and we got the best price in the neighborhood by far.
Special shout out to Bernardo for his excellent service!

Stopped in looking for a lock and a rear basket for my bike that was removable. After being helped first by one of his friendly employees I was taken to Al to explain what I was looking for in a removable rear basket. In about 2 minutes Al knew exactly what I needed and had the parts pulled. He Even offered to install the items for free if I could not handle it myself. The whole transaction took 15 minutes. An excellent Experience. I am sorry I did not buy my Bike from them. But I will Buy my next one for sure.

A little rough around the edges this guy but I don’t give a sh! t about bedside manner. Good prices, service, explanations and no BS. Nice shop, even for us non-​experts. With a cat and a pooch roaming the store, the most pet friendly shop in NYC.

Stopped by today after a crash and the guys fixed my bike right up, and even tightened my breaks, all for a fair price. Being 20 miles from home with a broken bike, I really lucked out. Thanks for the help!

In what seems like a never ending quest to obtain all the bits and bobs I need for the bicycling portion of August’s NYC Triathlon, I set out to the wilds of the west side to hit up Al’s Cycle Solutions.
First thing that happens when I walk in the door? Greeted by a kitty. Already I know I’m going to enjoy shopping here! Unfortunately, the cat had a hard time reading my list of stuff to buy, so I opted to speak with the human working there instead.
I showed the guy my list and explained that I was nice and clueless on all things biking, so he took me through all the options available to me and before long I had checked off everything I needed. The prices were all in line with just about everywhere else (believe me, I’ve done my research).
If I’m ever riding the west side and need something for my bike, I’ll be sure to pop in here!

Bought my bike from Al’s.
Staff is friendly but maybe a bit pushy. Said I wanted to spend $ 1000.00 and first bike they showed me was $ 2300.00. Kept talking about how I’d upgrade in a year and should just spend the money now. The bike was nice but still way over my budget. That went on for a awhile until Al stepped in and told the guy to knock it off and stick to my budget. And they did. I’m not gonna fault the guy for trying and applaud Al for letting him and then saying enough is enough. Just stick to your guns and you’ll be fine.

Al’s Cycle Solutions is a small place. With that being said he amazingly packs a lot of stuff here. A lot of the bikes he has on rack are old and outdated and he sells them at discounted prices. He will order any newer bike you want.
With that being said… I have found that you can’t really haggle a lot on price (on the bike). Haggle your heart out! I got the bike I wanted at the price I wanted. You too can probably get what you want. The accessories are a bit pricy; even though he offers a discount. I also found some of his wares to be a bit dated…
As far as the staff are concerned. They are really nice and try to be helpful. No offense to Al. But I found Al to be a bit cankerous and rude on numerous occasions. I once asked his staff for discounts on pedals (after buy a 2k dollar bike) and one of his staff replied… «you can ask him… if I ask him he will get mad.» At this point I really did not want to give him any more of my money and bought my pedals online.
After he got me measured up and fitted me on my brand new bike. I handed him the rest of the money in cash in hundred dollar bills… He carefully inspected each of the hundreds with a machine and look at each one to see if the hundreds had serial numbers and watermarks…
Gees! I guess I look like someone who would rip-​him-​off with fake hundred dollar bills…
Anyhow, if you don’t mind dealing with that then it should be okay.

I stumbled upon Al’s on Google maps. I was riding around town trying to hit every Cannondale dealer in the city. I could not find the model I wanted to test anywhere. But Al told me he could give me a great price if I ordered one, so I did.
When I came to pick it up a few days later the bike was awesome and ready to go. I got some accessories for it that needed installation so the bike guys in back got it done for me right away for an awesome price.
Lastly came the fit session. Al sat me on my bike and told me to pedal while he was taking all kinds or measurements and angles. I’ve never had a proper fit session before and I gotta say the outcome was amazing. I feel super comfortable on my bike and I don’t get tired riding it. Al’s been a rider for many years and really knows his stuff, he’s also got a sarcastic sense of humor which I enjoy.
Definitely recommend.

This place is small, but packed with everything for biking. A decent selection of bikes and bike goods. I walked in and maybe Al was right at the door working on biking shoes. He asked me right away what I needed help with. I wanted a pump and he went over all the pumps on the wall without stopping his work. He most certainly knows his stuff. I think you might be able to find anything bike related here.

Once bitten, twice shot.
First time went in for a simple rear adjustment. Charged me 10 $. Left the store adjustment was worst. Went back, mechanic said it was the hangar was bent, so they straightened it out. Charged to adjust the hangar and AGAIN for the re-​adjustment of dérailleur, due to the fact his mechanic was incompetent, not noticing the bent hangar in the first place.
Second time went in for rear dérailleur cable replacement. Paid, left the store and rode couple blocks and noticed the chain was missing bottom cog by 2 places. So knowing that they were going to double charge me for the non-​included adjustment with cable replacement, decided to visit that store for the last time and head right to City Bikes on 38^th for the adjustment.
In over 100 visits to City Bikes (315 West 38^th St.) I’ve never left with adjustments even a hair off and at half the price of anywhere else. Al’s is 0 for 2, never again.

I’m going to have to agree with Mog that doing business here was an excellent experience.
Long story short, I had someone run over my locked bike when it was chained to a street sign and it taco’ed my front wheel and my carbon fork developed some surface cracking/​splitting in the fiber. It looks okay if you’re not looking closely, but I not taking any chances over a couple hundred bucks.
I ended up buying the parts I needed online (seriously it was a steal) in an effort to DIY and I soon remembered how I’ve tried to install one in the past and that the amount of money and time I’d spent to acquire tools and would probably cost the same as supporting a local business. Plus, I don’t have the room to store tools I would only use once. Ask me how many times I’ve used my crank puller or bottom bracket removal tool.
After the LBS right next door to me has let me down so many times, I had to search for another one and I found Al’s on Unilocal.They were the closest to me and I could have walked the 10 blocks home if it turned out they would need to keep my bike to repair it.
I walked in yesterday at about 3:30 and it took maybe 5 min before someone came out of the back to greet me. I felt like this wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience, but I was very surprised about the whole ordeal. I asked the sales guy (Gio) if they were able to install my carbon fork with carbon steerer and he said no problem.
I had to ask again to confirm if they had the tools. I’m not sure since this store looks even smaller than the other shop that said they couldn’t work on my bike. He looks at me like, «Why wouldn’t we be able to do that? We’re a bike shop.» Then he asks me when do I want it done by, and of course I said ASAP. He says «how about we install it right now?»
My bike was wheeled to the back and Gio hands off my bike to their mechanic to work on immediately. They said I could come back tomorrow, but I insisted on just hanging out and checking out their store while I wait.
After about 30 min and $ 35 bucks, I had a my new fork and replaced brake cable on my bike and I was on my way.
Many times I don’t bother going to the small local shops to buy parts is because they usually don’t carry enough stuff I want/​need. Carrying inventory is expensive and can kill a business. Al’s is a big exception. I was really impressed with how much stuff they have here. Floor to ceiling bikes, bike parts, bike accessories all ready for you to purchase. I saw one of FDNY’s finest walk in here and asking for a cog for his fixed gear bike because his rear wheel was stolen. Gio goes to the back and he brings out 2 different (black and silver) ones to choose from! Incredible. I’ve been to a few shops that say, «sorry, we don’t have it. We can order it for you and you can get it in a few days». I’m glad they have the philosophy of «we can’t sell it if we don’t have it!»