River City Bicycles

The Good:
They have a lot of product. Lots of bikes. Lots of accessories. Lots of apparel.
It’s all nicely displayed in a nice space.
Prices seem on par with every other bike store in the area.
The Bad:
Sales people sell what they have not what fits. I purchased $ 3,600 bike there, only to find out it was too small — but only after spending hundreds more there to get and extensive fitting. The bike was not returnable.
The repairs are unreliable. I spent almost a year taking the brand new bike back for repairs after nearly every ride. Finally, they realized the bike had always been missing parts. Up until that point the repairs folks tried to make me feel like I was a moron who didn’t understand how a bike works or how to ride one (luckily, racing in college and riding across the country without support gave me the confidence to ignore their veiled ridicule). I guess it was easier for them to dismiss me rather than reflect on their own shortcomings in resolving the issue properly. And still there was no apology for all he hassles.
I stopped going there for years and only recently tried again – hoping things had changed.
I spent hundreds on the maintenance of my bike – which I have not tried out as of yet. I asked some questions of the repair folks and they were less than pleasant — openly annoyed that I was asking questions they thought I should know the answers to.
While this is one of the most if not the most successful bike shops in Portland, it’s hard to imagine why. It seems like they are only here to sell. I would never say it feels like they are here to help you. .. get the right bike, answer questions, provide reliable repairs.
Hopefully, if you try this shop you’ll have a better experience. If not, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If you want or need anything bicycle related — this is the place. The staff is wicked friendly. The selection of bikes an gear is fantastic. The service folks are phenomenal!

Beautifully curated space, excellent selection of bikes and gear. Came in just to looky-​loo and had a great time with Stewart (Stuart?), very knowledgable, SUPER friendly and even had some tips to share since we were just visiting the area. Simply a totally welcoming, excellent experience. I work at a shop on the East coast and yet this shop had me wishing I was a local cyclist.

Late on Thursday night, my rear tire went down fast, the victim of broken glass in the bike lane. I was worried that I’d have to ride the bus to work the next day, lacking the tools oir tube to repair my flat tire. The nearest bike shop was River City, and they were open until 7pm — a mere twenty minutes hence. Throwing on my shoes and walking the distance quickly (a quaint experience I’d rather not repeat ever again) Iwalked in the front door with 15 minutes before close. It looked busy.
I spotted Kyle at the front register, and anxiously asked if Icould buy the tools and tube to repair the tire myself, assuming they wqouldn’t have the time to get it done that night. Kyle laughed, and grabbed my rim, disappearing in the back. He emerged just 5 minutes later with a perfectly inflated rim and tire, asking just $ 10 for the service. I had barely had the time to located the pannier section, let alone select one.
Tl;dr holy cow great fast service, lightening quick flat repair and huge selection. Central eastside location for your downtown exploring emergency repair needs.

I bought a new bike and had my old one tuned up at RCB. They have a pretty great selection on the whole spectrum of prices. The customer service is really outstanding. The team is attentive, but not pushy. If you know what you want to do with your new bike, they’ll help you find a great fit for function and your budget. They don’t pressure you into spending more than you can, and instead will help you get the biggest bang for your buck. When I took in my old book, I figured I was looking at spending a couple hundred, but they took a look and told me it was in good shape. They did a $ 40 safety check and cleaned it up a bit, so it’s both a better looking and smoother ride. When you buy a bike here, they’ll tell you bring it back as often as you need to for adjustments, but insist on at least one check-​up between 30 and 60 days to make sure everything is going well.

My favorite bike shop in the Portland/​Vancouver area. Reasonable prices, great service and very knowledgeable staff. Just purchased a Specialized Road bike marked down from $ 3,000 to $ 2,850…the only one left in my size. I decided to Google prices and found Specialized had the same bike for $ 2,500. They didn’t hesitate matching the price for me. I also had my bike fitted since I tend to have back issues and I’ll say it’s not cheap but well worth the money… Danni did an outstanding job properly fitting me for the bike and the money I spent was well worth it for her time and considerable expertise. They do get backed up in the service department but they know what their doing and do it right.

Whenever I visit River City Bikes, the service has been friendly and generally excellent. THeir selection is good (and if they don’t have something they will gladly order for you), and their prices are reasonable, Highly recommended.

I just bought my second bike from river city. They have a nice selection of bikes and the staff here are very friendly. Jessie helped me with a bike, I highly recommend him. He was knowledgeable, personable, professional. He took the time to understand what I was looking for and never made me feel pressured. He worked to help me get exactly the bike I needed. When I came in to test a ride, he had it set to my exact measurements from the bike fit I had there previously. I wanted to try another bike (a cervelo R3) so he had it assembled for me. I went 3 days in a row to decide between the two bikes, the cervelo R3 vs a Time bike. Jessie was patient with me the whole time. I can’t say enough good things about him, or river city. If I ever need a bike again (maybe a mountain bike next time!) I know where I will go. I also have found their service department to be very friendly and don’t oversell you things you don’t need. Very trust worthy establishment.

As a novice cyclist, buying bike accessories can be a bit overwhelming. Multiple staff members offered great insight on their products with giving their personal experiences to back up their knowledge. I would recommend this shop to anyone in the Portland area.

Good friendly service

Danny (Dani?) the lady bike fitter here is THE BEST! If you need a bike fit, come and see her so she can rock your socks off too and make your ride the best it can be!!!

River City Bicycles came to Mountain Bike Oregon in July. Master Mechanic Kelly (spelling?) did an incredible job on my bike. I brought my hardtail in just to get the brakes checked and he found a popped spoke, Then he true’d my wheels, bled my brakes, tuned my derailier, shocks, and even looked over my suspension remote cabling. He went above and beyond and checked everything without me even asking him to. Him and his team worked late into the night on bikes and were so nice and knowledgeable. Kelly was the most meticulous and careful person to ever look at my bike. I wish that I had someone as detail-​oriented as Kelly in the Bay Area for me to go to! I feel much safer riding my bike now. Definitely take your bike here to get it reliably checked.

First the guy tells me I’ll need a new chain (without even looking), presumably hoping I didn’t know any better and would just go along with it (just like at a shady car shop). This was absurd on its face, so I kindly expressed skepticism, and he relented (again without looking).
I was told they had only one level of tune-​up, an all-​or-​nothing complete drive train teardown and rebuild for $ 180, no a la carte. And that «maybe» they could squeeze me in for a couple of hours in about 3 weeks. All with an attitude dripping with condescension about how incredible they are and how lucky I am he’s even talking to me.
I don’t know why this place is so popular and packed. They may have technical skills and knowledge, but so do a lot of places. No amount of technical skill would make up for the above anyway.
By comparison, I ended up going to Citybikes Worker’s Cooperative instead, they were super friendly, provided a la carte with no upselling or ripoff attempts, total was $ 45 for EXCELLENT workmanship, and it was ready NEXT DAY (even though they’d said 3 days).

Our son had a flat tire, after 7 miles of riding, we called River City Bikes, and writhing minutes Alex came down to the Eastside Esplanade to repair our sons flat tire. He was very kind, efficient and thoughtful. We would recommend this shop for all your biking needs.

I recently purchased a new road bike from River City and was really impressed with their customer service and attentiveness. The guy who ended up selling me my bike was super patient, informative and even took me over to the Outlet store nearby to assess a different bike size they didn’t have at the regular store. Overall, they have one of the better selections in town, tons of staff waiting to help and competitive prices.
One caveat though, your experience will largely depend on who ends up helping you. I’ve been in there before and haven’t been impressed with the knowledge of the staff helping me but that’s only happened twice in about 6 visits.

Kyle helped us with purchasing our bikes. He went out of his way by giving a recommendation on where to get a bike rack nearby and came out and strapped the bikes on for us.
Alex was a huge help today by really spending time giving great recommendations on local bike trails etc. gave some excellent personalized recommendations for us.
One thing: we came in a week after purchasing bikes and they still didn’t have one of them ready to go so we had to wait around for TWO HOURS. Not cool.

THE BEST EXPERIENCE!!! My first time here. First off I want to give all the credit to Rick! He was absolutely fantastic, great customer service, good sense of humor, and never made me feel stupid for the things I did not know or for asking questions!!! I bought a brand new specialized road bike & I am new biking — Rick took hours of his time & worked with me… he helped me figure out what I needed/​didnt need, sized me, let me test ride the bike, and even special ordered the bike I wanted and had it here and put together/​ready in less than a week!
Rick’s customer service was off the charts good! I bought my 1^st bike from west end bikes and they sold it to me and literally sent me out the door with NO knowledge of the bike or biking in general (terrible). Rick, however, taught me about the components of the bike, how to ride/​shift properly, helped get me set up with the proper lights, lock & accessories I needed.
More than once he had a chance to up sell/​nudge me toward a pricier option I was considering and He didn’t. He was respectful of the price point I had given! I am just utterly IMPRESSED with the whole experience!!! SO HAPPY TO BUY FROM HERE THANK YOU RICK AND RIVER CITY BIKES FOR A FABULOUS EXPERIENCE!!!

After just one visit, I’m sold. I was immediately made to feel welcome upon entering the store, and more than one staffer asked if I needed help with anything — not in a pushy way, in a purely pleasant way. When I eventually did have some questions, a guy named Ryan dropped what he was doing and jumped right in. He answered all my questions and then some, really taking his time.
And not for nothin’, more than once he had a PERFECT chance to upsell me or nudge me toward the pricier of two options I was mulling. He didn’t. In fact, after hearing everything I’d told him about my wants and needs, he actually steered me toward the cheaper bike.
For the record: Though I ride mostly just to get around town, I’m not a cycling newbie. (Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s I raced road bikes and rode a bunch of 100-​milers.) But I got the distinct feeling that total newbies would indeed be welcome here. Which is not true of all, or even most, bike shops.
I haven’t bought a bike yet — as of this writing, I’m still in the research phase, and one brand I’m considering isn’t sold at River City — but River City’s customer service and overall good vibes alone are really working in their favor. Even if I ultimately go with a bike from another shop, I will definitely be back to give River City some business.

I am currently beaming after my first «real bike» purchase. Huge kudos to Graham. He was extremely helpful, kind and really took the time to make sure that my new bike journey was off to a safe and satisfied start.
Couldn’t have asked for a better experience and they served free, made-​to-​order espresso drinks!

Today was my first time in, and I’m fairly new to biking around Portland. I went in to grab a new bike lock and was really impressed at the cleanliness and organization of product. The shop was really well staffed and I had no problem finding someone to help me.
After buying my lock they even stuck around to help make sure I mounted it to my bike correctly.
Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful and I felt very welcome. I was worried as a biking noob that I’d be treated as an idiot, but I was pleasantly surprised with the kindness and knowledge of the staff!
Thanks y’all!