Quality Bikes Lemon Grove: A Shop for Smart Cycling

I love cycling. A bicycle to me is perfect form and function. I still ride and feel very connected to my Panasonic Mountain Cat 7500, purchased 23 years ago for the princely sum of $800. Some say it was the best mass-produced mountain bike of the time. Mostly in life, you get what you pay for.

Quality Bikes Lemon Grove is aptly named because the bikes offered for sale are all top drawer. No junky stuff here. Just well-crafted, solidly built, long-lasting rides—something you can be proud to pedal on the boardwalk or mountain trail. Several of the beach cruisers even look like comfortable and very cool rideable art.

Master bikesmith Doug Small said that six years ago Quality Bikes was looking to expand from their existing Clairemont location. The company took over a former bike shop at this spot in the Grove as their second store.

Bicycle sales vary with the seasons. “Summer is a good time for BMX and beach cruisers,” said Small. The shop carries a wide variety of bikes, from the high-handlebar retro beach cruiser 3G line to the wave-of-the-future Raleigh 29er. There is also an extensive selection of BMX bikes in sizes from child to adult.

Small told me the bulk of their business is in repairs and sales of miscellaneous bike accessories. The most common repair they do is flat tires. “There are goat head thorns out here, so we repair a lot of flats,” he explained.

Here you can find all the accessories for your biking needs, plus friendly technicians who can do everything from tightening wheel spokes to a complete bicycle makeover.

Bikes have come a long way since I climbed on my Schwinn Stingray with the banana seat. There are some seriously styled rides available today. The art of the bike keeps redefining itself and getting better. I see a very bright future for one of man’s best inventions.

“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.” ~ Elizabeth West

is located at 7388 Broadway, between West Street and Harris Street. The shop hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; closed on Sunday. You can visit their website, or call them at (619) 469-9831.