text: You know I want to support my LBS I really do But Tempe Bicycle has left me with a bad taste in my mouth time after time nnFirst Their part selection is awful Do not go there looking for a specific part because you will not find it Tempe Bicycle stocks only the lousiest no name parts they can find and then mark them up or more above what you would reasonably expect to pay anywhere else Sometimes I am amazed they even carry the crap they do I do not know where they find it Even little things they sell like bicycle racks and saddles are of unusually low quality It is freaking sad Once my poor girlfriend went in there and they charged her bucks for this awful generic rack that I could barely get onto the front of her bike I would expect to find something like that at Walmart When I found out how much she paid for it I really felt bad for hernnSecond They are outrageously stingy For example once I was looking for a set of handlebars for a project bike I went to the back and I found a rack of oddball used and overstock My friend was on a budget and he did not have much to spend I saw what I thought would be a great pair They were some very generic handlebars that were very scratched up and had clearly come off of some used bicycle They had the brand name KHS stamped on them so they were certainly a take off of a stock bike they had sold previously I picked them up and they weighed a ton They were perfect They could not possibly cost much I turned them over looking for a price tag and what did I see dollars When I brought them to the counter and asked the woman there if she would sell them to me for a little less she snapped at me insisting that the price was fair Needless to say the handlebars are still therennThird If you are looking for actual competent advice there are only a few employees there I would trust The rest of them are inexperienced and dismissive For example once I was building a fixed gear bicycle for a friend of a friend He had bought all the parts he needed except for a lockring for the rear hub It was late Tempe Bicycle was the only shop open and I reluctantly decided to go The same woman I mentioned above was working again I should have walked out then I asked her for a lockring and she came back out with some flimsy part that was clearly not a lockring for a fixed gear hub When I told her it did not look right she got rude with me and told me that It was not meant to be a lockring but it would fit just fine I grumbled but agreed to buy the dollar thing Well I rode all the way home and guess what It did not fit at all There is not a hub in the world that thing would have fit I think it was actually a lockring for an old long obsolete bottom bracket assembly Not only was this advice a waste of my time but it was also ridiculously unsafe as well Keep in mind this is only one occasion of bad service advice I have had to correct their technicians at least three times that I can think of off the top of my head The lockring incident above is one Once some guy tried to sell me the wrong size tubes I had to look the tires up online and prove him wrong before he would sell me the right ones And another time a friend was sold a c rear rim a inch front rim and two c tires nnAnyway there are some good things worth mentioning They have a good selection of inexpensive cruisers for the college kids Their selection of mountain and road bikes is okay They carry KHS Haro Trek Masi and a few other brands If you are looking to just throw down on a brand new bike you might get a decent deal There are a few guys there who are great Joe Easy is a good mechanic and nice guy There is this one jolly fellow with a thick Mexican accent who works at the University location during the week who is a fantastic mechanic and a wonderful ray of sunshine His young son comes to work with him sometimes and it is really cutennBut as a general rule Tempe bicycle is run by unmannerly crap peddlers who could not care less about the bikes they sell or the community they sell them to All they care about is selling their cheap garbage at the highest markup possible of their employees are rude beyond acceptable and interacting with them will probably just make you feel sad and awkward Personally I am sick of this place I am restricting my purchases from them to inner tubes only