- ONLINE RETAILERS who service the tri-specfic community.
- F.I.S.T.-CERTIFIED tri bike fitters.
- CONTACT INFORMATION for the dealers below.
- GUIDELINES for these pages.
- INDEX of all retailer profiles.

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Belmont Wheelworks in Belmont, Mass—a suburb of Boston—is a 500 pound gorilla. If you were to pick a half-dozen one-store retailers in North America that exemplify size, breadth, professionalism, economy, and influence, this would be one of them. Owner Clint Page's shop is a bee hive and at any time of any day bikes are being sold and serviced and their owners are being measured and fitted. They speak tri and road fluently, and are well versed in both men's and women's needs (they service a lot of women here, and women are on staff). (Contact information for the above dealer).

Pros: They sell just about everything, and are at or among the top dealers nationally with Serotta, Seven, Independant Fabrication, Cannondale, Trek, Specialized, and Bianchi. Tri specific? They sell QR, Cervelo and Kestrel. They sell Zoot and Garneau apparel, and QR and Ironman wetsuits. They stepped in two years ago when the New England Triathlon Series lost its title sponsor, and took over that position. Now they're its presenting sponsor. They also sponsor their own Wheelworks Multisport team—ninety strong—and they're the official shop for the Monster Challenge, and they'll expo at all these events listed above.

What's most impressive about this store is its ability to sell a truly remarkable number of high-end custom bikes. Belmont Wheelworks will sell more custom $5000 titanium Sevens and Serottas than most other stores will sell in production Sevens and Serottas (they sell a lot of production ti as well). This ought to tell you something about this store's ability to properly fit and size a person to his or her theoretically perfect bike. They have a phalanxe of custom fit specialists headed by ex pro cyclists Thom Norton and Greg Oravitz. Many of this store's personnel are sent away for training at great expense to make sure the fit specialists and their equipment remain top notch.

This attention to bike fit detail is not only evident in bikes, but in footwear. This shop carries a wider and deeper selection of shoes and pedals than any store you'll ever visit, and the fit issues extend past the bike to the shoes.

Cons: This is not the easiest shop to get to if you're coming from out of the area. They aren't right off any freeway, and are inland a ways from downtown Boston. The flipside to being out in the North Forty is that it's easier to test ride a bike right outside Belmont Wheelworks' door than at most other Greater Boston shops. Otherwise, not much to criticize. There may be a degree of a Eurocentric bent on tri bike fit. Our publisher (Dan Empfield) is likely to jack you up to 80 degrees of seat angle if you can handle it. Wheelworks' expert fitters are generally from a road background and the shop philosophy is perhaps a bit conservative.

International Bicycle Centers (Mar, 03) has two stores, one in Boston and one outside of Boston, in Newton. There are two stores in the entire metro-Boston area that seem to be the big gorillas when it comes to road and tri, Wheelworks in Belmont and this one here in Boston. International always employs a triathlon specialist, and while that is not always the same person, the position is usually filled. As of this writing it's Craig Gaulzetti, and it's always comforting to buy an expensive skinny-tired bike from a guy whose name ends in "etti" or "otta" or something like that. (Contact information for the above dealer).

Pros: Craig knows triathlon, as does longtime purchasing agent Paul. This shop also does a pretty good job of acquiring distressed but nonetheless desirable merchandise. Case in point: when Lew Wheels was sold to the company that also has the majority interest in Reynolds Composites, that company decided to make some changes in the wheel product before it was comfortable slapping a Reynolds decal on it. The existing Lew Wheel inventory all went to International Bike. Therefore, if you wanted a Lew for a fraction of what a Lew used to cost, there it was.

Cons: It's always nice when the owner of the shop himself has a passion for triathlon (whether he's a triathlete or not). That's the case with Bill Linneman, John Cobb, Tom Demerly, Cid Cardoso, Hank Iglesias, Craig Turner and a dozen or two other owners of high profile shops. That's not really the case here. Not that you can blame Harold for having some other things on his mind, as this is a mega-store that sells an awful lot of things that don't revolve around triathlon. You can't be passionate about everything.

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Fast Splits (Mar, 03) is one of an interesting new breed of shops popping up. Like Enduro Sport in Toronto this shop is part retail store, part coaching center, part mail order seller, and part ex-phizz lab. There are two shops in Greater Boston—both just off #95—one in Arlington and one in Newton (Newton is slated to open in June '03). Both stores have full fitting stations with Computrainers, and the Newton store is just finishing up installing its Endless Pool. There is a third shop in the chain in Maine. (Contact information for the above dealer).

There is a lot of talk this year about John Cobb's Bicycle Sports, about how this store is elbowing its way into a national market with a lot of money, ambition, and big plans. Fast Splits would be much bigger news were it not for Bicycle Sports, and as such it's flying in just under the radar. But it's almost as ambitious. The retail store is more a multisport store than a bike shop. It's got eight lines of running shoes, lots of soft goods, a fully stocked swim section, and of course tri bikes and accessories. It's already the best full service multisport shop in New England, both in Maine and in Boston (though it's far below International Bicycle Centers and Belmont Wheelworks in terms of being a full service high-end bike shop).

Pros: This company just hired Karen Smyers to be its president. How's that for a name catch? No, Karen's not going to be adjusting your rear derailleur. Her concentration will be on the coaching end. Speaking of coaching, if you're a New Englander this is probably a place you'll want to check out before you make your final decision regarding coaching and camps. Their online coaching is rumored to be robust and desirable, but it's still in beta and not quite ready for prime time. They carry Cervelo, Guru, Felt, Litespeed and QR bikes, though not all brands in every store. They carry T1, QR, XTerra and Ironman wetsuits, and a lot of apparel (and of course the running shoes, etc.).

Cons: Everything we've seen so far appears high caliber and professional. No real cons yet. But then they're just shoving off from shore. As time develops we'll see how much of the high promise is realized. This is absolutely a store Bostonians should check out—choose what suits you from their cafeteria menu of sales and service options, and pass on the rest.

ATA is a full service shop specializing primarily in road. It does not have the size or breadth of shops like International Bike Center or Wheelworks in Belmont, but if you like a shop with a European flavor, here's the one. It's leveraging its road expertise toward the triathlon market, and having Felt and Guru speaks to that. There are three FIST-certified fitters in the shop.(Jan, 07) (Contact information for the above dealer).

Pros: If you're a Europhile, how about Fondriest, Colnago and Wilier? They'll also have Giant, Guru, Felt and Kestrel, if you'd like to stay stateside. They offer discounts to Team Psycho, and they back the Boston Road Club (a beginner to intermediate road race club) and the Hawley-ATAbike.com team at the elite level.

Cons: No wetsuit, tri apparel, they don't expo at triathlons. But they're making serious noises about getting more tri-specific, and they're on this list because of that, and because they're Eurocentric and a lot of triathletes like that. We'll see how they progress.

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Landry's Bicycles (Feb, 05) is a 4-store chain, and over the past couple of years has undergone renovations and relocations to beef up an already formidable presence in Greater Boston. Used to be the Westboro and Framingham (now Natick) stores were the two that were tri specific, but now the managers of every store are F.I.S.T.-Certified as tri bike fitters, and fit studios and inventories are geared for the triathletes. Landry's has a long pedigree—it was founded in 1922. This was a place for triathletes to go in the early 90s, and when triathlon swooned so did this shop's commitment to tri. Then two things happened. Triathlon was reborn at the turn of the century, and so was Landry's owner Tom Henry (athletically speaking). Tom is now a triathlete himself, since 2001, and there's nothing like an activist owner to vitalize a retail store's focus. (Contact information for the above dealer).

Pros: Bike brands include Quintana Roo, Litespeed, Aegis, C'dale, Trek, Specialized, LeMond, and Seven (lots of customs sold). Wetsuits by QR, tri apparel by C'dale and Sugoi. Landry's has its own tri team, 90-strong, and also sponsors the Minuteman Road Club's triathlon adjunct, with about 70 tri members. The new Natick store has 17,000 of floor space and storage, and matches Westboro and Danvers in tri specificity. The following are all F.I.S.T. certified, and notice this includes the chain's owner Tom Henry: Andy Palmgren, Mark Gray, Mark Vautour, Alison Dewey, Scott Gerstl, Tom Henry. One other thing. These are good people. Tom Henry is known throughout the industry as an owner who takes care of his people. Many employees are long-term, and the care Henry pays his folks is notable and rare. Also, Henry sees the big picture, and is ardently involved in projects to make cycling a better, safer, more prevalent activity in his community. He is not shy in joining his business competitors in these efforts.

Cons: Landry's picks its battles. Its stores sit on the edge of greater Boston, and so does not have the compacted populace available to International or Wheelworks. It also has four stores to stock, so each store may not have the quantities of inventories on hand, per store, that you'd see in one superstore. But these shops are by no means rural. Think of something in between Wheelworks and a shop out in Western Mass.

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Bicycles Unlimited is out in the North Forty (as they say). This shop is in the rural part of the rural part of Massachusetts. But no fewer than six 2004 Kona qualifiers (via IM Florida) ride out of this shop. (Contact information for the above dealer).

Pros: This shop carries Softride, Kestrel, Giant and Orbea. It's also got a bit of tri-specific apparel, chiefly from Pearl Izumi. The shop also sponsors and largely produces the Greenfield Triathlon, the local multisport event.

Cons: No tri wetsuits, not heavy in apparel, and lacks many big tri bike brands (Cervelo, QR, Felt, etc.) and the flagship road brands as well. But, for a shop this far out of any major city, Greenfield and its surrounds are lucky to have it.