Okay, some of my experiences with Habitat. A couple of things to keep in mind: I knew the store's owner (Charlie), and my girlfriend at the time was a friend of his. And we were living just a few blocks from the shop at the time all of this happened. And keeping in mind that Charlie published an article as his on several bicycling publications, that was about 75% mine, with some contributions from other participants of the <a href="http://ebikes.org">ebikes.org</a> mailing list, and that he had absolutely no input on:<br>
<br>These are just my personal experiences. And I personally know a few other locals with similar experiences, two of them recumbent riders.<br><br>This sums up every single visit I ever had at Bicycle Habitat.<br><br>- Since I knew the owner, and a lot of people on <a href="http://ebikes.org">ebikes.org</a> gave it great reviews, I decided to check what all the fuzz was about. I was living in Brooklyn at the time, and had just finished assembling my first recumbent. And since my first ride was going to be in the dark, I needed a good light. So I walked into Habitat looking for some NightRiders, but I had forgotten the name. But I remembered what they looked like, so I was confident to be able to describe them. The salesma....saleskid? was about 14 years old. I told him I was looking for some high-powered lights, and he directed me to a rack by the front door with a bunch of AA-batteries-powered lights. I said I was looking for the ones that are a black cube, halogen, the remote battery in the same shape and size as a water bottle with a wire running to them, and the kid kept on insisting the little ones on the rack by the door where the best lights money could buy. So after I said "forgetaboutit" and started to walk out the door, another costumer who had heard the conversation said: "He's looking for nightriders". And I said "Yes! That's the name. Nightrider". So the kid started "Oh, if you wanted nightriders, why didn't you just say so?", and kept going on and on on how I should have said the brand name instead of just describing them. So he showed me several boxes of Nightrider lights. All of them opened. All of them missing some component. A bulb here, a battery there, mounting hardware on another one, and so on. So I left, and got the light I was looking for somewhere else.<br>
<br>Second time I went in there, I had just ran out of tube patches, and someone hadn't returned my tire irons. So I just wanted some glueless patches and tire irons. They tried to charge me waaaaay too much for the patches (forgot the exact amount, but it was nearly 10 times as much as they really cost back then), and the tire iron they tried to sell me was a single one, heavilly worn down, epoxy-glued to an old screw driver. Once again, I walked out empty-handed and got my supplies somewhere else.<br>
<br>WARNING: FOR THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT SUCH THINGS, THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS CUSS WORDS. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.<br><br>Third time: I forgot what it was I needed, but I believe it was a chain. I just needed the part, and wasn't looking for any service. I rolled in there with my Haluzak, and before I could reach the front counter to ask for the part, Hal saw me and right away started with "Oh, no! Not a fucking recumbent. You better not want me to service that thing. What the fuck is wrong with you guys that you have to ride such ridiculous things?..." and he kept on ranting for a while, as I turned around and walked away, once again empty handed.<br>
<br>So I emailed Charlie, giving the details above, as well as my friends'. He apologized, told me he was going to have a very stern talk with his staff, and that I should really give them another try.<br><br>At first I was hesitant to give them another try. But when I got my Bacchetta Strada, and the rear brakes were completely useless due to them being V-Brakes with caliper brake levers, I called them and asked if they had a single flat-bars V-brake lever. They told me they had "tons of them". So I went back in there. Right off the bat, they wanted to sell me a complete XTR braking system for several hundred dollars, even though I was insisting on one single lever. As I was about to walk out, the sales guy asked me to wait, headed down to the basement, and after 10 minutes came back with a single MTB-style brake lever. The lever seemed okay, but it looked like it didn't pull quite enough cable for V-brakes. So I asked him if he was sure those were V-brake levers, and he assured me they were. He turned around to the mechanic and asked what kind of brakes those levers were for, and the mechanic agreed those were V-brake levers. Once I got home, I played with the levers a bit, and wasn't convinced. So I went to the Shimano website, typed in the model number, and right on top in big red letters it said "CALIPER BRAKES ONLY". I tried to returned the levers only to be completely ignored by their staff as if I was an invisible entity, and left without being able to talk to anyone for nearly 1/2 hour. I have never gone back.<br>
<br>And I should point out that my ex's experience is much worse than mine. She lost quite a lot of money thanks to their incompetence.<br><br>So yeah, stay away from Habitat.<br>