America’s Best Bike Shops
Six Wisconsin shops made the NBDA's list of top bike stores in the nation.
I feel good just looking at this old photo from Ben’s Cycle on the South Side, which was my local shop when I lived four blocks down the street in Lincoln Village.
Ah, I love the smell of rubber tires and Tri-flow in the morning! Part of the reason I fell in love with cycling was allure of the local bike shops, filled with shiny new bikes specially designed to help me have a great time riding. Even though I now have a bike for just about any kind of riding I want to do, from road racing to touring to pedaling across frozen lakes, I still enjoy walking into a bike shop and inspecting the latest offerings almost as much as I did when I got my first real bike at a local shop.
I am lucky enough to have a job where I get to frequent local bike shops across Wisconsin. I bet each of you have a favorite and a host of good memories from that shop. No wonder then that the National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA) has selected six Wisconsin retailers for their list of top bike shops in the country.
Each year the NBDA selects America’s Best Bike Shops in North America and in 2014 Wisconsin had six bicycle retailers recognized for their excellence, including the following shops:
- BicycleWise & Sports Fitness – Whitewater, WI
- Erik’s Bike Shop – 21 locations (7 in Wisconsin)
- Stadium Bike – 2 locations
- The Bikeshop at Southport Rigging – Kenosha, WI
- Wheel & Sprocket – 7 locations (6 in Wisconsin)
- Wildside Adventure Sports – Baraboo, WI
The NBDA selected nearly 300 shops for it’s annual list of America’s Best Bike Shops. The list, now in its second year, was unveiled just before the Interbike trade show, and retailers were celebrated at an annual reception held during the show.
Congratulations to our Wisconsin shops for being recognized as among America’s best! While these are certainly great shops, we all have our reasons for shopping where we do. What shop do you go to, and why do you like it? Do you have a favorite memory from a local shop? Share you thoughts in the comments section.
This story was originally published by the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.
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Disappointed Emery’s not on the list… I believe they beat Wheel and Sprocket hands down in Knowledge and customer service. not that W&S is bad… but just always liked the service at Emery’s better. Wonder if they didn’t apply, or if they just didn’t get enough points to make the cut.
Ben’s, Truly Spoken, Vulture Space.
Milwaukee’s Vulturespace.org deserves mention for schear chutzpah.