// Shop Review: Street Level Cycles
Posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Street Level Cycles
84 Bolivar Drive
Berkeley, CA 94710
General impressions:
Street Level Cycles is a unique shop. It’s part of the non-profit Waterside Workshops, which is located, as the name implies, at the waterside of Berkeley’s Aquatic Park. Waterside Workshops includes Street Level Cycles as well as Sew Your Own, and the Berkeley Boathouse. These three projects aim to strengthen the East Bay community by providing a place for people to work on projects.
Street Level Cycles is really an amazing place to work on a bike project, in my opinion. The shop offers more than just a place to do the work–it has a great selection of tools and a selection of miscellaneous parts that will blow your mind. And the parts are organized. They kept apologizing to me for the mess while I was there snapping photos, but I assured them that if what I was seeing was their version of a mess, then their version of not a mess would be a sight to behold. The filing cabinets you see here were all labeled, and all held a huge selection of whatever part their label said would be there. Everything from friction shifters to brake levers was available. And the cables. There were so many brake cables and shifter cables….and they had their own organizational system. They were hanging–so they wouldn’t get kinked up or tangled in a drawer. Brilliance.
What I liked most about the place though, was that it’s a non-profit that wants you to be able to do your own bike work. To have a sense of accomplishment when you ride your bike home, and to know that if anything goes wrong, you can fix it yourself. I think it’s a great community-building idea, and it supports sustainable transportation in a low-cost way. I wonder how many more people would ride bikes as their primary method of transportation if they knew they could learn to repair and maintain them themselves? And if they could acquire a decent bicycle for less money than they thought. One guy was so happy with his new ride, that he took a polaroid of it and insisted that it be displayed at the shop. I’ve included it here, for your perusal. You too could be this happy about a bike–if you built it at Street Level Cycles.
The Ratings:
Friendliness: 8.5/10
Street Level Cycles is a really friendly place. Not only the guys running the place, but also the people who were hanging out working on their bikes. It was easy to chat up most of them about their projects and get and give advice. It seemed like a truly fun place to hang out, and get your work done.
Equipment Knowledge: 8/10
Because Street Level Cycles is a non-profit, they get a lot of donation bikes and other various used parts. So it’s probably pretty hard for them to stay on top of what they have in the shop, right? Wrong. They were pretty well aware of what they had, and what was right or wrong with each frame, wheel, fork, or other important bike part.
Mechanical Knowledge: 9.5/10
I didn’t give them a ten because I can’t imagine what a ten would be…someone who knew everything about every piece of a bike…amazing. These guys are close though. They have to be. The shop allows anyone to come in, use the facility and the tools, and build or fix a bike. A fair share of those people don’t know exactly what they’re doing. But the guys at Street Level Cycles do know what they’re doing, and they’re willing to help.
Merchandise Selection: 7/10
Everything is used, and mostly in pieces. So you have to put it together, or get someone to put it together, in order to ride it. If you can do that, then your options are really close to limitless. But if not, well, then you’re out of luck. The shop does have some new items–lights, saddles, grips, baskets, and a few other miscellaneous things. They have seat covers that are made by Sew Your Own, a sister project that’s also part of the Waterside Workshops non-profit–those are a cool idea
Potential for Satisfaction: ?/10
I’m not going to rate this shop in this category, because your potential for satisfaction has solely to do with you building the bike. For most people, it’s pretty high. You pick each part with loving care, and install it with a gentle touch. Everyone is happy. Unless you don’t know what you’re doing and your crank falls off in the first mile. But like I said, that really depends on you. And really, I don’t think the guys at Street Level Cycles would let that happen to you.