I had a really bad experience with this shop several years ago.I am new to bike blogs and would like to know If anyone else has had a similiar experience. I brought in my bike for an overhaul and conversion to a single speed. Right from the beginning the proprietor was rude and arrogant. He gave me an argument about every detail of the way I wanted it done. This bike is a Surly Crosscheck so converting them to single speed isn't exactly a complicated task. These bikes were designed for this kind of thing. Still, this was a task that seemed to be beyond the skills of this bike shop owner because he did an awful job. Everything he did was wrong. For starters the rear gear was tiny and would have torn my knees apart if I had tried to ride it through the Winter. He had a week to get my bike done but it still wasn't ready when he said it would be. When I finally was able to pick it up a few hours later It felt nearly unrideable. I rode a few miles and got a nasty surprise. The shop owner hadn't put on my rear tire correctly. I got one of those massive exploding flats that caused my tire to wrap itself around the rim. I couldn't even walk my bike back to the shop. I had to carry it part way and then get a cab back to the shop. This is where things get bad. At 2 pm when the shop was supposed to be open there was a note in the window left for us customers informing us that since it was such a nice day today that the owner/only employee decided to go off and take a nice bike ride. I wasn't the only customer waiting. At one point there were six people waiting outside his door. Among them was a woman who had come to pick up her bike which was supposedly done. Another customer had to have his derailer readjusted since the shop owner had done a disastrous job of that. We waited for hours. I finally gave up waiting. finally when I came back at 7pm the shop was open and the owner grudgingly changed my tire. I haven't been back there since.

TL;DR.

Dwight is a grumpy gus, but he's also a super duper nice guy.

He may,indeed, be a "super duper nice guy". I wouldn't know. What do know is that as a shop owner/ bike mechanic he is irresponsible, treats his customers poorly and doesn't seem to have much more skills as a mechanic than I do. ( that's Bad!) Look, I'm not in the habit of running down small businesses, especially bike shops. When I first moved into this neighborhood I was really psyched to have shop so close to me. I would have made this my regular bike shop if he had treated me right. There are so many good shops in this town. (hello Hub, Freewheel, Penn Cycle, Calhoun Cycle etc.) How does this guy stay in business in this economy? Is it just because he's a "super duper nice guy". Am I really the only one who feels this way? To follow up my story I took my bike to the Hub the next day and they corrected the job in about 20 minutes. did I mention that I love the Hub? ( and the other bike shops I mentioned)

I was in this shop once last year: I skidded through my tire playing polo and borrowed someone else's bike to quick buy a new tire and tube so I could get back to the court, fix the flat, and get back in the game. He seemed reluctant to help me out, like I almost had to convince him he had what I needed and that he should sell them to me. Granted it was close to closing time but it still took way longer than it should have. In the end I got what I needed but Nokomis will not my first choice of shops if I can help it.

I live real close to that shop and have gone in there a few times. They did fine selling me a spare tube and they had some accessories that my partner picked up. Both transactions were fine. The owner has come out and chatted as well when I locked up a "nice" bike and got a coffee at the coffee shop next door and he was really nice to me. Nokomis feels like a little neighborhood shop that does kids bikes and casual riders more than anything. I use them as a convenience store more than a full-service bike shop, and take my serious business to Hiawatha, Freewheel or the Hub in that order.

Behold! I am zoom reincarnated with a new user name. Long story but my old username and password stopped working. At any rate the bottom line is that the owner is the owner. The wonderful thing about being a small business owner and your own boss is that you can do whatever you want including being incompetent and irresponsible. The great thing about being a customer is that you don't have to give this person your business.

"Box of chocolates" - Gump

I also live in the neighborhood and stop in the shop on a regular basis. It is not your average bike shop, but I really like having it near. Eventually, I've learned what certain shops are good for and how they fit in to my needs. I spread the wealth as best I can.

I will be getting my girl her Stryder there in the spring.

While Dwight can be a little grumpy I have stopped in there many times just to BS and he always gives me his time even when I'm not buying anything.

Stop and think what small businesses are up against these days and be thankful there is a small business there instead of an empty, rundown storefront bringing down your property values.

Howdy neighbor! If you live only 2 blocks from Nokomis Bike shop than you don't live too far from me. I appreciate your feed back. I'm actually surprised to see anything new on this topic since I haven't noticed anything posted here for a while. It felt really good to publicly vent my deep disatisfaction with this shop. Having done this I'm pretty well over it. That being said I stand by everything I said about this place. In fact,I think I was quite temperate in my comments. This place ruined my day off and those are precious to me.
The consensus I've been getting is that this shop is fine if you just use it as a store and don't get any work done here. I'm sure that's true. You can't really go wrong with any shop if you just use it as a retail outlet. Unfortunately, I didn't have the intuition or common sense that you and others possess. I made the fatal mistake of getting heavy work done here. I wrote about what happened already. Re-read it. I think I've got a pretty legitimate beef here. If it had just been a matter of rudeness and bad work that would have been enough reason for me to not give any more business to this place but not enough for me to post my disaproval online. It's the fact that the owner decided to randomly close his shop and go off on a pleasant bike ride while leaving myself and several other customers high and dry and unable to ride our bikes that made me want to write about this experience.
I'm sorry If I offended you by criticizing the business practices of some one you find personally likeable but I am not assailing this man's personal character.I don't care that "he can be a little grumpy". Congratulations on getting your little girl her first bike. May she grow up to win the Tour De France !

Mrs. Snak Shak had a good experience here today. She got a flat on her cruiser today and brought it over to Nokomis. They replaced the tube and inspected her tire while she waited, then she found out that she was low on cash and he let her ride the bike home and come back with a $10. She's not a regular customer there, so I thought this was kind of exceptional.

Holy shit! Never thought I would see a post on this thread again. "They" ? I only ever saw one guy. This certainly does sound like a neighborly experience. After my experience I with my exploded tube I wouldn't trust this guy to change it but it sounds like yours is holding fine.Good for him.Maybe I just brought out the worst in him. I have no intention of finding out. I stand by what I said about Nokomis Bikes.

I stopped in last fall with a friend to get some spare tubes for our mountain bikes before a ride and the proprietor acted like we were inconveniencing him with our purchases. Won't be going back.

Well, you obviously have a real nerve inconveniencing the poor guy with your annoying demands to buy something. What kind of shop do you think this is?

I saw boards over the windows the other day. Is Nokiomis out of business or remodeling?

It's just remodeling. All of those stores are getting new windows.