John J.

Campus Student Bike Shop

Some people may have read the previous review by "Lisa" and wondered how it is possible to go through four bike locks in Ann Arbor -- it's not exactly New York City, after all. The solution to the paradox, I think, is that the Campus Student Bike Shop sells bizarre objects that look vaguely like parts you would buy in a real bike shop, but don't actually function. Off-brand locks made of pot metal, pumps that fail after three uses, and so on.

The shop also sells reconditioned used bicycles. Since there isn't much of an alternative market in the area, this is a useful service, although the prices are higher than what you would pay in Boston or San Francisco, and the repair work is dreadful.

Going into this shop is an unpleasant experience. Lots of bike shops have surly staff -- that's nothing, really, just part of the fun. But ordinarily they're at least *into* cycling in some form or other. This place seems to be less a labor of love than a mechanism for extracting money from indifferent college students who buy junk to ride a few blocks at a time.