We are open 360 days a year. Weekdays 11-5, weekends 11-5. We are closed on 1 January, 4 July, the Non-Canadian Thanksgiving, and 25 December. We close at 2pm on December 24th and 31st.

I want a bike. I haven't ridden much in years. Should I bring my partner who is an avid cyclist to act as a translator and guide?

We'll do our best to divert avid types while we explore choices with you. We're not a shop for "avid cyclists" any more than most shoe stores are focused on avid pedestrianism, or golf, soccer, or rock climbing. We think almost everybody in a city can benefit from one or a few bikes. It's not about joining a club or subculture. It's another pair of shoes. The shoes you are wearing are bike shoes in our book. We'll help you find a bike that works for you: your test riding is the first and best instrument in this process, certainly not chattering about the latest bike technologies, or how many grams.

What if I buy something and decide to return it? By mail?

We've got your back. All purchases (excluding sale items, underwear, helmets missing tags, special orders, and bicycles shipped via freight) are returnable within 30 days for an exchange or refund. All items being returned via mail (or some other method where you are not there in person, e.g., hologram, telekinesis, poltergeist) must have a return authorization in advance; please email us for instructions. Items need to be in new condition. Returns must include original packaging and receipt, unless defective. To recover the finance charges we incur, a fee of 2.5% may apply on all refunded credit card payments, whether for deposits or purchases. We may charge labor to remove any accessories or reverse modifications made to returned bikes.

Sale items are returnable for store credit or exchange only. Sales of special order items, and of all bicycles that we ship via freight are final, unless defective.

What if I buy something and it goes on sale right afterwards?

If we have a sale or lower the price within 30 days of your purchase, just bring back your receipt and we will issue you store credit for the difference.

Speaking of service, do I get special deals on service if I buy my bike from you?

We offer priority discounted service on bikes purchased from Clever Cycles. We also perform a free safety check-over on your bike around the 30 riding day point, and we'll perform simple adjustments on your bike for the first year free. Schedule online to make an appointment for your safety check, or stop in for quick adjustments.

I think this thing might be broken

We honor manufacturer's warranties on items we sell. Warranty claims made within one year of purchase will not incur labor or shipping charges. Email us if you're having a problem with your product that you think might be covered under the warranty.

Everything I want is online. Is my info safe if I buy through your site?

In certain areas, such as the payment information entry page, we use industry-standard SSL-encryption to protect data transmissions. We may store your payment information in electronic encrypted format for up to two business days. If you love our stuff but hate making purchases online, all of our products on the online store are available in our physical store, so come see us in person!

Do you offer financing?

We do! Quality bikes, especially electric bikes and electric cargo bikes, are not inexpensive. Take advantage of our financing options to spread out the costs over a period of up to 12 months.

Do you ship to Canada?

No. Somebody should totally open a sister store in Canada. We'll call it Brilliant Bikes.

Is there a safe place to test ride your bikes?

Yes. Most inner Southeast Portland streets are very calm. We usually send people south a few blocks into an industrial district with some gentle grades, or through leafy Ladd's Addition to a longer climb up Harrison, east.

So you sell cruisers?

We don't sell "beach cruisers" or the like, defined as bikes with swoopy lines designed to resemble early motorcycle frames, usually with coaster brakes, single speeds, and heavy tires, no. The large majority of our bikes do have handlebars that are neither straight nor dropped, but swept back. Some people call these cruisers, but we wouldn't. Swept handlebars support a relatively upright posture with a natural "slack hands" wrist position, for comfort at a plain-clothes pace and visibility in traffic. They are also ideal for a stem-mounted front child seat for the smallest children. Swept bars have always been and remain the norm worldwide for bikes used for transportation as opposed to sport or recreation. 

Tell me about Dutch bikes

When we opened in 2007, most of our inventory consisted of Dutch bikes imported from Amsterdam, the real deal. We brought them in because they were spectacularly functional as plain-clothes urban cargo and family bikes in a rainy city, and supremely comfortable. Not fashion pieces, but utilitarian, for strong bikers with enough experience to appreciate the value of their exceptional durability and feature sets. That's still how we present and sell them.

At the time, Dutch bikes were beginning to come into fashion in the US, in the narrow sense of being trendy lifestyle accessories: twee, charming, retro. While this fad lasted, we found that most of the people asking about our Dutch bikes were put off by their cargo-class heft and prices, while less interested in their capabilities to replace car trips carrying stuff for many decades. For these many, we have less expensive, lighter choices available, but they're not actually Dutch.

These many years later, we remain inspired by the way bicycles are woven into daily life for people of all ages, classes and genders in the Netherlands, but the large majority of bikes we sell are not Dutch, and often better suited for non-flat Portland.

Do you sell used bikes? What about trade-ins?

Maybe. See Sell or trade-in your used bike, or our current inventory. Try also Community Cycling Center or Sellwood Cyclery. 

What size bike fits me?

A bike fits you if you find it comfortable when its saddle can safely be set so your knees are almost straight when the pedals are furthest away. Every other factor of fit is a matter of fitness for special needs or purposes, which we can discuss. We'll guide you toward likely candidates when we see you, and validate with test riding while tweaking other things like fore-aft weight distribution.

Fit is often a matter of compromise between comfort when riding at low intensity, and performance when ridden with more athleticism. Most bikes we stock are skewed somewhat toward the former, as befits transportation in a city like ours only 8 miles on a side. This means most of our bikes are pretty upright, and this, in turn, means that they often come in only one or a few sizes instead of many very small increments like sport bikes do. Just because you ride a 52cm frame of a particular model of road bike doesn't mean that a "one-size" of a much more upright bike won't fit you as well.

Do you do fittings?

Yes and no. If you are an athlete who already rides a lot, and who is experiencing intractable pain or trouble hitting specific performance goals after trying lots of common adjustments, we will refer you to a professional fitter. If that's not you, we can help.

Upon seeing you riding, we can adjust your bike to fall within norms for your proportions and the style of riding best supported by the bike. This is generally free and casual. We can also suggest adjustments or part swaps if you tell us how you're uncomfortable, or it looks to us like you might soon become uncomfortable. We even know a few tricks to help you ride faster or further while avoiding injury, if that's your thing. But it always starts with you telling us your goals and issues, and letting us watch you ride. We have a problem-solving, rather than prescriptive approach outside of basics like saddle height (too many people: too low). We can't tell you how to adjust your bike if you can't tell us what hurts, unless it's something super obvious.

What we don't do is take body measurements or video of you riding on a specialized stationary "fitting bike," possibly in a wind tunnel, and plug the results into a formula or program to calculate how you're doing it wrong or what parts you need to buy. This approach to fitting, offered for a fee, is helpful when the findings of the program happen to overlap, or can be made to overlap, the intuition of a good listener who rides a lot. We do without the formulas.

What's the discount for floor models? What's the discount on accessories if I buy a bike? On 2 bikes?

There isn't one. We are not a discounter. Our prices are pre-haggled as marked, without exception. We do offer haggling as a service at just $60/hr, but only on Wednesdays by appointment with our bookkeeper. Profit margins and typical pay in bicycle retail are much lower than in most other enterprises. We want you to get a bike you love. We want to pay our awesome staff. We want to be around for many years to support your purchase. Thus, our prices are calculated precisely to keep all parties happy.

We observe no distinction between floor models and new stock, with very few exceptions. The bike you test ride might be the one you ride home. Everybody is encouraged to touch and test everything, gently. Only if an item is plainly shop-worn might we clear it, in which case the marked price will be lower.