These Three Hot Bike Shops Won't Deflate Your Wallet

This week the city's been celebrating the 17th annual Bike Week LA.  Thursday was Ride to Work day. Friday everyone's encouraged to Ride to School. And, of course, the Blessing of the Bicycles was on Tuesday.

Bike Week is just one example of how Los Angeles has again become a hotbed for cycling reminiscent of its early 20th century past. The recent CycLAVia is another. It has multiplied ridership and awareness as the city plans to expand its bikeways.

Now, with all this bicycling going on, one starts asking questions like "Where do I get my bicycle fixed?" "Where do I get parts?" or even "Where do I buy a bike or get riding gear to match?"

Echo Park is at the forefront of fashion and innovation in Los Angeles, and the area proliferates with cyclery on those terms. Here are three cycling shops adjacent to Echo Park that suit all tastes, needs, budgets and aspects of the bicycle world.

In the pro-am category Budget Pro Bicycles in front of Eagle Rock Plaza is a full-kit everything you need shop: expert service and advice, fitting and kitting with warm friendly cheer. Budget Pro caters to the family outing rider as well as the serious racer setting out to capture the maillot jaune. The shop bristles and breathes with cycling. From straw cargo baskets to four digit "uberlichten", the floors, walls and ceiling are pasted in a love of two-wheeled human powered spirit. Originally the shop was located on Pacific Ave. in Glendale before moving to the current location at 2750 W. Colorado Blvd. in the late 1990s.

Owners Oscar and Michelle Quiroa purchased the shop in 2000 from Michelle's father when he decided to retire after 30 years in the bike business. It's served the Los Feliz , Echo Park, Silver Lake, Eagle Rock and Pasadena communities for 40 years. Certainly this shop takes the maillot jaune! A true candy shop one can afford that is close by.

If esoteric classicism is your musette, try Flying Pigeon in Cypress Park. Owner Josef Bray-Ali specializes in "working" bicycles"--the type of bike often found in European and Asian cities such as London, Amsterdam, Munich,Beijing and Singapore. They are heavy duty with a practical purpose. Brands such as Pashley, Pedersen, Linus and Flying Pigeon are featured as well as parts and service with a smile. This shop is truly unique in Los Angeles, as Josef brings a vital Old World flavour to our Euro-style landscape.

Travel back in time as you mount a machine that harkens of days gone by in a far flung foreign locale where the bicycle may be the most sophisticated form of transport for miles. Envision yourself in a quaint ancient city where just about everything is accomplished by the inimitable bicycle. Flying Pigeon can help augment, support and complete the traveler's fantasy without the hassle of a passport and evil customs officials.  Located at 3714 N. Figueroa, Flying Pigeon is easily accessible to Echo Park and surrounding areas. It is awarded il maglia rosa!

If you are new to cycling, down in the chips, want to learn how to do your own repairs, are scrounging for vintage parts, cycling is boiling in your blood and you need a fix for youthful camaraderie, Bike Oven is the place. Just two doors down from Flying Pigeon, it is another cycling uniquity in Los Angeles. Here you can connect with L.A's cycling underground and  sub rosa rides, as intelligentsia, art and mechanics all collide amid salvaged bike parts andscruffy tools in a Duchampian dadaistic diaphoresis. One can learn repair work, find no longer made parts, trade, swap, donate time and parts and get the buzz on all the hottest rides in town.

Chief ringleader in this gyroscopic circus is Paul Bacca, who helps youngsters of all ages learn the art of repair and customizing as well as far reaching philanthropy and philosophy. Scant little is new in this shop making it a great repository for restoration of an old machine or cobbling together something the world has never seen. At 3706 N. Figueroa in Cypress Park, the Bike Oven is awarded the polka-dot jersey for their support and dedication!

Happy Bike Week.