[Bent] Recumbent Friendly Bike Shop in Manhattan???

[Joao de Souza]

Yeah, stay away from Habitat.  I've known the owner for many years,
and since we are somewhat friends and they do a lot of good stuff for
the cycling community, I gave that place lots of chances to become my
local shop.  But their service sucks, their sales stuff are clueless,
and the chief mechanic is quite openly hostile against recumbents.
Even when I stopped by there on one of my bents to buy some parts, Hal
went on a rant about recumbents and recumbent riders.

Other stores to avoid specially with recumbents are Bike Renaissance
(Columbus & 81st) and R&A (Park Slope, Brooklyn).

I do all my own work on my bikes, but two stores where the staff are
usually quite friendly towards my recumbents are Toga (64 & West End
Ave), and my favorite by far is a little one that I forget the name at
77 just west of Broadway.  It is a one-man shop, but the guy was the
senior-most mechanic at Toga who decided to go into business for
himself.  He is a very good mechanic, and really gets a kick out of my
bikes.

Conrad's at 41st & Tudor City Park is also very good, and the manager
usually test rides my recumbents when I stop by.  But you must keep in
mind that they deal with top-of-the line equipment only, and their
service is quite expensive.