Dave’s Custom Bikes

Anthony does NOT give up! My electric bike conversion took over a month with many restarts.
Excellent communication, follow through and result. He was diligent and even open to letting me help! Fun working in a bike shop!
The bill with all of the parts included was LESS than I had expected.
Go talk to Anthony at Dave’s Bikes and form your own opinion.

Anthony saves the day! I don’t usually write Unilocal reviews (this is my first), but I feel so compelled to write about how wonderful the service is at this place. When all seemed lost, Anthony put a smile on our faces. I needed an electric bike quickly due to recent knee surgery and he knew everything and anything about helping me find the right electric conversion kit at a very reasonable price. He has an unparalleled expertise and it seemed he was willing to help anyone that walked through the door. He has a fast turn around and does a top of the line job… Even offered to work overtime to get me my bike in time. We will be back and will certainly recommend him to all our friends!

Yes I can vouched for Reed V. this guy Anthony is a thief, took my money and it has been almost a year and he never converted my bike to an electric bike. He basically says «I DON’T CARE!» to me on the phone and hung up on me! Unbelievable! Now I will have to come buy and pick up my bike unmodified, and I hope he does not hold my bike hostage because of his attitude. Yes he does knows his bikes, but he only treats certain people right!

I love this place. Anthony is the Pope of Bikes. I love how helpful and unprentious they are. You can often get help right away. Other shops you can wait for week to get your bike repaired. I have many bikes repaired and purchased here. Keep it up!
Allez!

Had a gear emergency on my old mountain bike but Anthony took it in and fixed everything. The gears are better than they’ve ever been. I’ve gotten a few things here over the years. After this great service add perusing the great selection of bikes I will definitely be back many more times.

I purchased a new bike from Anthony and he was awesome. I recommended him to a friend in San Jose and she purchased one from him this week. Great customer service and selection. Very knowledgable about the product and on-​line competition, knows his stuff. Thank you for my great new wheels.

Pedro is an honest bike mechanic, and the shop has really great rates. I first took my mtb to Bicycle Trip across the street when I was having problems with the gears shifting on me irregularly — their guy said my cassette was damaged/​bent and needed to be replaced (and this bike was only a few months old). Went to Dave’s after instead to price compare on that and Pedro checked it out and caught that a couple of my chain links were in fact wonked out. He replaced the chain and it was good as new. He could have sold me this or that, but instead he really looked at it and recommended just what it needed. Can’t ask for anything more of a mechanic.
Bu as far as BUYING bikes there… I don’t know about that. A friend of mine said he was ripped off here buying a couple of new bikes. I can’t say, I just go for repairs.

We have not dealt with the repair shop… but we have made several purchases here: panniers, three bike seats, an odometer and an adapter for our bike pump. They have great prices and we have been very happy with the quality of our purchases. My husband went in and they did him a solid that relied on trust of the customer. Refreshing in this world to see there is still small town trust. As a budget-​consious consumer, I will always check with Dave’s first.

Finally a place that can properly fix my bike! It rides like brand new. Plus the price is always reasonable. Everyone is really nice too!

Commuter bikes aren’t all alike.
A few months ago, I started looking for a suitable commuter bike, online and in local shops. I had a few opinions and requirements that were a little out of the norm for most off the shelf bikes: disc brakes, CX/​touring geometry, dynamo hub, internal geared rear, double chainrings and the regular commute accessories: dynamo lights, rack that could support 80lbs, fenders, leather saddle.
There are a few stock bikes that do most of those things but all of them… not within my budget.
So I asked around at all the likely spots in Santa Cruz, all but one wanted to sell me what they had or could get (stock bikes that satisfied some of the requirements but not all), they hadn’t mentioned selecting components and building it from scratch. k
I know it would have been a different kind of adventure had I built it myself at the BikeChurch but life moves pretty fast and my daily time is limited with job and family. But the BikeChurch would have been my only option had I not stopped in at Dave’s one day and talked with Anthony.
He was the only bike tech interested and intrigued at what I was looking for so much so that he wanted to build it! He added that second experienced and professional opinion that I badly needed, his expertise has also shown through in the finished bike’s appearance, ride, and budget. This is the right equipment right now, with room to grow and change. Had I done it on my own, the final product would not be as well thought out and assembled.
Some tech details:
Soma Double Cross DC
Shimano Alfine wheel set: dynamo front, 8 speed rear
Shimano Alfine double chainring crank
Avid BBDB brakes
Brooks B-​17
Vittoria Randonneur tires
Sunlite Woodgrain full fenders
I really love the whole bike!
Thanks Anthony!

These guys always have what I’m looking for. One day, i searched every bike shop in town searching for a 26.0 road handlebar, omg, didn’t know these are extinct, but daves had 3, and the stem I needed to go with. They are awesome, friendly, have used good parts, and are knowledgeable. They like to barter too!

Bought a Great KHS MB here a year ago and love it. Got my tuneup here recently and rides even better than when i bought it. I plan my vacations to SC to include a run to Dave’s.

This place deserves their 5 star rating. They built me a sick road bike for $ 500 and I couldn’t be happier with it. They answered my dumb questions kindly and even kicked in some extra gear at the end for free with out me even asking. Ummm yeah… These guys are awesome!

So my bike got stolen from my house, like some dude cut my lock and jacked some bikes from our house, in the middle of the day. Guess where I found them? Yep the crooked fuckers at Dave’s STOLEN BIKE EMPORIUM had it. This guy sell’s stolen bikes, don’t buy bikes from him, and if your bike is jacked here’s where to look. Screw this asshole he’s a thief and a liar. When I was in there he first told me the bike was in for repairs… pulled out my receipt and caught him red handed!

About four years ago, I was spending as much time working on the legnano that I had ressurected back in 1980 as I was riding it and started shopping around for a bike. The problem was that nobody made quite what I wanted.
I stumbled into Dave’s and Anthony helped me spec out a bike that was pretty much exactly what I wanted, for a lot less than I could have built it by buying off the shelf and modifying it myself.
When I highsided the bike and taco’ed the rear wheel about a year later he even had the wheel rebuilt for me, IIRC, at cost.
Sometimes the personal service that you get causes things to take a bit longer, especially when what you want is pretty weird and they can’t just point to a catalogue and say «that’s the brand and model that you need».
I’m very happy with my Soma double cross frame, with ridiculously wide gearing range, suspension fork, inline brake levers, two sets of wheels (for road and dirt) and all of the other quirky bits I wanted.

Great place to pick up a used bike at a great price! With so many overpriced snobby shops in town its nice to come in to this place. Pick up some good used parts and still have some dough left in my pocket. Anthony and Pedro are great! (caution, if you call Anthony «Dave» he will choke you out in the back of the shop)

I love this place… they are friendly, knowledgeable and fair people.

Full Disclosure: The owner’s a friend of mine
It may say Dave’s Recycled Bikes, but I think Anthony’s going by Dave’s Custom Bikes these days. In any case, Anthony and his crew have a great deal of bike knowledge and there’s a regular set of folks from road racers to DownHillers (along with a cast of wacky locals) who frequent the shop. It’s certainly more down home than the foo-​foo bike shops that cater to the $ 8,000 TI frame set. However, the shop specializes in two things:
–great stock in used bikes – both «serious» frames (he’s got some original Bontrager frames from when Kieth was in the area), as well as «get me around town» stuff
–Great connections to local frame builders and the ability and patience to sort through your needs if you want to build new
Pics of my buildup are up top.