Mt. Airy Bicycle Company

Reviews 3

JA

Jason Sauders

I made the two hour trip to Mt. Airy Bikes as it came highly recommended to me. I called two days ahead of time and indicated I was looking for a used recumbent in the 1,000 dollar area. They said they had quite a selection to choose from. This made me feel good as I wanted to make sure that if I drove two hours to get there Id have more than one bike to test ride and consider purchasing. Two days later I arrived. After 15 minutes of waiting I was finally able to talk to somebody, at which point I said that I was there to look at their used recumbents. The man I spoke to said "okay, well, youll have to give me a little bit to dig them out. If you had called ahead I could have had them ready." The tone was rather rude and already an immediate turn off, but at this point I indicated that I actually did call ahead and said on the phone Ill be there Saturday around noon, but this wasnt well received it seems. After a while, the gentleman I spoke to brought out a few recumbents. I test rode each one for a little bit. After that I tried to locate the man I spoke to since, as a new recumbent rider, I had a few questions. I had trouble finding him, so in the mean time I just kept test riding the recumbents in the parking lot. Eventually he came out of the shop and was moving boxes from a van to the store. The majority of the conversation was him walking away from me yelling over his shoulder his responses. I felt this was rather poor, as every other bike shop I had been to the bike tech there had always taken the time to discuss certain things with me, such as general maintenance, tips, FYIs, fit suggestions, adjustments to the bike, etc. With Mt. Airy, there was (literally) none of that. This was a major frustration as the bike I was most interested in felt strange and I wanted to get a few things adjusted to see if it would be a better fit. After a while I decided I was interested in purchasing one of the recumbents. There again, I was having a hard time locating the gentleman I spoke to. Finally he emerged again, but this time with another man and a camera. He said "Ill be right with you" and began speaking to this other man. They ended up having small talk in the parking lot about a unique bike from the shop for the better part of 45 minutes. I wish I was exaggerating, but yes, I stood there for 45 minutes waiting to talk about buying a bike. In the mean time, I decided to do some Googling on my phone about the bike I was about to purchase. I had found a few used ones of identical make/model online. In fact, there were 4 of them closer to me than what Mt. Airy was. What was even more disturbing is the prices for all of these bikes was 400-450 dollars, meanwhile Mt. Airys price was 1,000. I get that businesses need to make a profit, but this premium price wasnt something that sat well with me given the terrible amount of customer service I received. I found this to be a strange experience, as I had heard great things about Mt. Airy. I ended up leaving empty handed and just accepted the fact I drove 2 hours there/2 back and test rode recumbents for the better part of 4 hours with extremely little interaction with a "recumbent expert" as I had hoped to achieve during my day. In the end, I ended up going to an entirely different recumbent bike retailer from New Jersey and received exponentially better service there than I did at Mt. Airy. The only positive out of my Mt. Airy trip that day was the magnitude of historical bike related items mounted on the wall that I was able to look over during my extensive wait periods to speak to somebody. Other than that, I can say with an absolute fact I wont bother considering Mt. Airy into the future for any of my recumbent needs. My 1 hr 20 min trip to New Jersey was far, far more worthwhile.

SA

Sam M

I actually drove 30 miles to get a bike here. Reason being was that I wanted to support a local business instead of a big chain like performance bicycle. Larry definitely keeps a lot of bikes in his shop which is nice because you can try different models and youre not limited to a handful of bikes. The number of bikes he had was really impressive compared to the local chains. Even though the Larry is a knowledeable guy, at the end of the day he is a businessman and a crook. It is my fault for lacking the experience, and knowlege to know what to look for as well as my fault for putting my trust into a businessman. I was getting my first real road bike and I was ready to spend big bucks. I guess somewhere in the midst of excitement I allowed my self to become a dumb buyer. I was told the bike model I was getting was a 2012, when it fact it turned out to be a 06. This so called new bike was actually a used bike. I eventually noticed marks on the bike that could only be created from a drop, which I have not done even until this day. I eventually had to replace both tubes because they blew before the psi in the tires even reached 100 psi. These are 120psi tires by the way. Though the front and rear blew at different times, with weeks inbetween them, they were both tubes that had been repaired and it was the repair that had given away. Also the tires are not what the manufacturer shiped the bike with. After a couple months the buttom bracket started making noise and now has to be replaced. I havnt even ridden the bike enough to put the wear needed for that. 20 dollar BBs have lasted me longer than what this one has. What kills me the most was that after a lot of friendliness, that I now realize was B.S. he sold me this bike for the new MSRP price of 1300 which I though was a good deal at the time. Boy was I wrong! Im not here to make you feel sorry for me or anything. I just want to throw out the facts for other potential buyers to read so they can see what kind of business this is. This isnt exactly your friendly local shop, if you ask me. And if you do plan on buying a bike here, then its your choice, but Id be very careful. Atleast take a phone with internet service with you so you can price shop before you pull the trigger. Id also highly advise looking over the entire bike very carefully. I am just going to bite the bullet and call it a learning lesson. I never want to deal or see this guy again. I hope money buys him happiness because im not sure how he can do this without guilt.

A

A Private User

Ive lived in Mt Airy for over 10 years and had always managed to avoid going to Larrys shop. Ive known him for over 25 years from when I first made the mistake of doing business with him in College Park. After a quarter century, I decided it was time to give him another try. I checked out his web site and found a very interesting bike. It was a Vitus 979 from the mid-80s. This was a unique frame even in its day and I had always wanted one. I sent an email asking for details and received some very encouraging replies. It was in Mt Airy (supposedly), was priced fairly, and was brand new (supposedly). I went over to the shop in the middle of the afternoon to avoid crowds. There was one other couple in the store, so they were certainly not busy. I asked one of the employees about it and he said that Larry is the only person who can find anything there, and he would be back soon. Now, in case youve never been to this shop, Larry has at least 500 used, POS bikes that he puts out every morning. The place looks like a bomb went off and bikes were blown everywhere. There are at least 200 more bikes and frames hanging from hooks in the ceiling. Back to the my story. Larry arrives about 15 minutes later and I ask him about the Vitus frame. He tells me it isnt there. I ask him to confirm that. He actually asked me if I was deaf! I then showed him the emails I had exchanged with someone purporting to be him, saying the frame was at Mt Airy. He didnt deny that he wrote the emails, but maintained that the frame was elsewhere (location apparently unknown as he wouldnt nail it down for me). When I asked how long it would take to find, and how much it would cost (remember, I already knew what he had quoted me in email) he said it would probably be a few weeks, and would be $400 MORE than he had quoted me. This makes me think he was going to buy one of the many frames I had seen on-line elsewhere and pass it off as his own. He certainly didnt have the frame we had discussed in email. Larry is just as crooked as he was 25 years ago. Unless you are interested in buying one of his over-priced tandems or recumbents, he doesnt want to spend time talking to you. When you do get his attention, be careful. Like the old saying goes "When you shake his hand, youd better count your fingers."