For many of us getting our bikes maintained is simply making sure that we make it from point A to point B as safely as possible, and for many of us: we are willing to pay some money to make sure that work is done properly. I own a few bikes for different purposes; touring, commuting, and off road bikepacking. Montlake silently operates only on bikes they want to work on regardless of what you’re told over the phone. So you’ll head over to have work done so you can safely start riding again, and can be turned down immediately if they don’t feel like working on it (even if the service you need done is on high quality parts they actually sell in the shop like Magura MT5’s). Their level of business seems to be going well enough that they can pick and choose the jobs they take, but what I experienced was nothing short of weird and aggressive. Most of the staff are actually pretty cool; a dedicated bunch of cycle heads that want to help you out (and the front of house customer service is pretty solid), but a few of the techs are downright pretentious, aggressive, and their egos seem to supersede their wrench turning ethics of making sure people get from point A to point B safely regardless of what type or brand of bike that you, the customer, chooses to ride.
There is a full service bike shop exactly 1 mile from this location called Recycled Cycles. They are filled with knowledgeable, dedicated, and friendly folks that do not have an ounce of pretentiousness in them. I highly, highly recommend saving yourself the time and heading there instead of Montlake Bike Shop. Their service prices and parts are cheaper, their storefront is staffed with more folks with less wait times for general questions and help picking out parts for whatever project you’re working on, and they straight up don’t care if you’re making a frankenvehicle with used bike parts (they will literally go dig in the parts bins with you to help you find what you’re looking for). I’ve never had a single bad interaction at that shop, ever.
With a solid full service bike shop a mile away from Montlake with cheaper prices, nicer sales and service staff, and overall better experience without weird marked vendettas: there is no reason for me to ever recommend Montlake Bike Shop again for any reason. A lot of the staff at Montlake are friendly and nice, yet some of the techs seemed to have graduated high school but their egos never actually left.
Save yourself the time, hassle, money, and look elsewhere for your bike needs; you genuinely aren’t missing anything.
