American Cyclery: About Us

Our History

American Cyclery, established by 6 Day racer Oscar Juner in 1941, is the oldest bicycle shop in San Francisco. For over 65 years American Cyclery has passionately provided the finest quality bicycles, parts, and accessories for the demanding and selective Bay Area customer. We continuously strive to deliver individualized service, mechanical excellence, and professional fit to our customers. American Cyclery has in its long history been the forerunner of many legacies of cycling history and we are proud of the long list of bicycle industry luminaries who pay tribute to the American Cyclery Oscar established decades ago. Many components used for the early development of the original mountain bike movement were purchased from our shop in the early 80’s. Today we continue to honor that tradition by carefully selecting bicycles and products that will outlast the endless waves of marketing hype.

Oscar

Nationally recognized for expertise in vintage, classic, and technologically advanced in bicycles, our staff was honored to curate a show on bicycle culture history at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 1999. (A description of this widely attended program can be found at here)

American Cyclery currently carries a comprehensive selection of modern, Road Racing, Road Sport, Touring, Cyclocross and Fixed Gear bikes. Our inventories include often difficult to find imported bikes and parts from Europe and Asia as well as the most current technological wonders by companies like Waterford, Bianchi and Specialized.

Our second shop, American Cyclery too, located directly across the street from the original shop, opened in 1999 and provided us with room to expand our selection to include Hybrids, Comfort bikes, Performance Flat Bar Hybrids, Hard Tail and Full Suspension MTB. Here, you will also find a carefully selected offering of accessories for both the recreational and serious rider.

Our Staff

We are proud of our great staff that come from a wide range of the cycling disciplines and make American Cyclery not only a bike shop, but also a good friend and valuable resource in the bicycling community in the Bay Area and beyond. We are not the biggest, cheapest superstore you can go to. Our staff of racers, commuters, mechanics and historians of cycling strive to give you honest practical advice. We truly are a family, trying to “keep it real.”

Our staff is a composite of cultural diversity of the San Francisco Bay Area bicycle community. Because of this, we believe that fit and tailoring to client's individual needs are the core mandate of customer service. People are confused about customization and fit. Every rider, from the casual, family comfort rider to the “uber geek” where price is no object, approaches the market with different needs. Each should be fitted, with the optimal bicycle and gear. We offer 3 levels of fit for bicycles:

1. Production Fit. For riders budgeting less than $1300 for a bike, we assess rider’s needs, comfort, riding goals, and assist in focusing the selection between Road, Flat Bar Road, Comfort, Hard Tail or Full Suspension MTB. We take into consideration - riding style, flexibility, price range, and the uniqueness of everyone’s body dimensions. This is followed by short test rides to gain feedback in order to assess the balance of comfort and efficiency.

2. Build to Suit. For riders willing to push the $1300 + envelope, we offer Production framesets built and specified by the customer and our shop, customized for the specific needs of each rider. Although we cannot specify angles, tube set, or exact tube lengths, this offering allows for much more tailoring than any major brand can deliver with an “out of the box” model.

3. Full Custom. For those who have worked hard enough to treat themselves to a bike valued at $2000 +, we can achieve an ultimate level of fit that we pride ourselves for. Here, clients are carefully interviewed about their cycling needs and goals. A secondary appointment is then made to have one of our expert fitters measure and size each rider specifically. We then discuss the specifics of your frameset, target a price range, and assist in making the choices for the aesthetic finishes for the custom bike. These gems generally take longer periods of time to create and require patience from our clients. Custom US made bikes are artisan level products that are not for riders on a timeline. It takes patience to ride out customization's attention to details. The riding results on these bikes are amazing.

American Cyclery has everything bike you will ever need - all ranges of stock to "build to suit" to pure custom to hard to find parts, our staff is passionately dedicated to offering the finest quality bicycles and cycling products being made today and yesterday.