How good are Performance Bike Shops?

Thinking of buying the Iron Horse Maverick 5.5. I heard they might go out of business.

Performance was bought recently. I doubt they are going out of business. Where I live, they've put all the competing shops near them out of business.

HTH

Back in the early 80's I needed to buy a set of panniers for a bike tour. At the time, Performance was a brand new mail order bike shop operated from a spare bedroom of the owner's house in Chapel Hill, NC. Due to town ordinances, I couldn't pick the product up at his house, so the owner told me to meet him down the street. I gave him the money, he handed over the panniers and I've been buying stuff from Performance every since.

Performance is now a huge company. In 2007 they were acquired by a big investment firm called North Castle Partners. The cool thing is they are still very customer centered. In the local store, they have friendly sales people, good prices and will take back anything you are dissatisfied with. In fact, they once exchanged a set of year old pedals because they had stopped stocking the cleats.

On the downside, I don't think much of their bicycles and I think they are pretty weak when it comes to selling bikes. In my humble opinion, your best bet is to buy a bike from your local bike shop. They are tops when it comes to clothing selection, water bottles, tools, parts, tires, etc.

In any case, Performance is backed up by a tremendous amount of money. They are not going out of business any time soon.

Hope this helps.

Performance used to be pretty good -- they had a variety of lines and were primarily a mail order shop. Now they've got a lot of retail shops that put the locals out of business by selling their private-labeled chinese-made parts at cut-rate prices (this is their Forte, Spin Doctor, etc, lines). No local guy can compete with them on these prices, so they have to (and and some can do) compete based on knowledge and service. I'd suggest trying your local bike shops first, and if they can't help you, go to Performance. And to answer your question, no I don't think there is any chance of them going away soon -- just give your local guys a chance to compete for your bike purchase.

I never bought a bike from Performance, but I have bought lots of parts from them. They usually have a larger selection, and their prices beat all of the other shops in town. Check their website before you buy something though. A lot of times they have a lower price advertised there than what they do in the store. If you let them know, they'll look it up and give you the Internet price.

The one that I shop at in Gaithersburg MD is ok. It depends on which salesperson you get, as some are just not very helpful. The one thing that annoys me is that they are very pushy about buying their house-brand products over name brand. Go in looking for a tube, tire, whatever, and Forte is what they will offer up first.

As another person said, make sure you check prices on the website before buying anything in the store, as the net prices are often better. I save about $20 on a Terry saddle that way.

performance has been around for as long as i have been riding. thier storebrand products are usually good, and i dont really expect them to go anywhere. i'm lucky enough to have one of thier outlets in town here and that is normally where i shop. they have the selection and stuff that small, ordinary shops just dont offer.

Better than a box store, much worse than almost any independent local bike shop.

I would shop at Performance if and only if that is your only local options. Individual stores may be fine and some may have good service. But with so many great LBS why go there?????

They are just like any other bike shop- some locations are better than others with regard to sales and mechanical talent.

They represent a good line of products.