I was looking for some shoes to go with my clipless pedals that my new bike came with (the plastic clip-on "normal" pedals couldn't quite cope with the force I put into the crankshaft when going up Buffalo Street). After discovering that Cayuga Ski and Cyclery (who had so far been my one-stop shop for all bike needs) had a dire selection of shoes with prices starting at $90 for some trecking/cycling shoe and $130 and up for nice bike shoes, I was a little fed up. But then my coworker and bike pro Mike (he was on the Cornell team!) recommended Shawn Bikes to me. Shawn Bikes is a bike shop from another world.
To get to Shawn (I suspect that's the owner's name) you go up Mount Pleasant Road until you can't see any houses any more and then turn left into a gravel road. There is no sign to point out that there is a bike store about half a mile down that gravel road behind the trees and the pond. And then you are at the bike shop that is house in the barn and partly the main house of what probably used to be a farm. It's full of bikes and bike stuff at very very reasonable prices. And he has no end of shoes. I walked away with some very nice ones for $60 - yay!
What was funny about our visit is, that despite having no advertising, no website and no signage to point anyone to the store that is only open Mo-Thu 6pm-9pm, there were plenty of customers around while we were there. Shawn seems to have bags of reputation as the best bike shop in town (despite being outside town).
