Silva Cycles

This is the best bicycle shop I have found in the South Bay. They perform high quality work and expert advice (I have been commuting by bicycle for 30 years).

Great shop. I found Silva Cycles on Unilocal as I needed a quick axle nut fix for my bike. Tahn helped me out and taught me a few things about bikes while he was finding the right part for me. As it was a small part and I didn’t have cash, they gave me the nut in good faith. I felt like a regular, not a first time customer. They now have a customer for life. Customer service perfected.

These guys are the best! They are friendly and are extremely professional. I took my bike in for a tune up. It’s by far the best tune up my bike has ever had, and the price was very reasonable. I cannot think of taking my bike anywhere else.

This is the place to go if you have a bike that’s out of the mainstream. I have a dutch city bike with a Sturmey Archer internal gear hub. Silva Cycles is the only shop I’ve found who will service the internal mechanism of the gear hub. Not only that, but they are incredibly knowledgeable about city/​utility bikes, and have tons of bags, racks, saddles and other parts and accessories appropriate for this type of cycling.

I go out of my way to do business with this shop.

Tahn not only excels is customer service but is also a very knowledgable wrench. He was able to accomodate my request to complete a crankset replacement within half a day. If you ride steel, love your bike and is looking for a mechanic who is passionate about both vintage and new, look no further!

After a lifetime of riding any-​old-​bikes, I finally discovered the most comfortable all-​around bicycle for commuting, shopping, and fun: large-​wheeled touring bikes. These include the French cyclo-​touring (randonneur) and porteur bicycles. This was also about the time I came across Silva Cycles. Not only are they friendly and easy to work with, but It turns out randos & porteurs are what they build and ride for themselves!
So, not yet having the cash to commission a custom-​made rando, these guys assembled a work-​horse for me from off-​the-​shelf components. It’s got over 5k miles on it and still going strong. Looking forward to the dream bike based on a Silva frame!

Very honest and fair prices. I recently bought a fixie online and needed a shop to verify that the bike was safe to ride and correctly assembled for warranty purposes. Went to few other bike shops before but I felt like they were just throwing prices at me before they even saw my bike. Finally, took my bike to Silva cycles who gave me a very fair price and got the job done in less than 30 minutes. Will definitely come straight to here for future bike work and highly recommend them for anyone else who needs a shop to verify their bike for warranty (mine was for Pure Fix).

Bronson has done some awesome non-​trivial work on my recumbent bike. He also takes the time to explain everything very well, which is a rare trait.

These guys a great. I had a very strange problem with my tire — makes noise, and they have invested lots of time trying to solve this. Unfortunately, this was one of those hard to chase problem — and, when I tried to pay for their time — the answer was «we did not solve your problem», and did not take even a token payment.
Combine this with very good nature of the guys, unique collection of bicycles ranging from circuis to unicycle to …, and I wish Unilocal had a 10 star option for a situation like this.

Tahn and Bronson are both fantastic at what they do. I originally stepped into Willow Glen Bicycles a few years ago where I had heard that Tahn was fantastic at building wheels. Ever since then, I’d go to Tahn for any help I needed with my bikes and he’d always be incredible at guiding me through any issues I had.
When I found out that he was leaving WGB to work with Bronson, I quickly followed him and have found that Silva Cycles is by far the best bicycle shop experience I can find.
This is a shop that deserves your patronage. They work had and make sure that you leave as a satisfied customer. They’re fair in their pricing and are always willing to work with you on any issues you are having with your bicycle. If only they were closer to Burlingame, I’d go hang out there every day if I could!

I used to work in a pretty high-​end bike shop in college, but that was a long time ago, so I «know enough to get myself into trouble». Now I race mountain bikes, commute regularly and do some other adventure rides — so I have a number of bikes. I’ve tried several other local shops and been disappointed in both prices and quality of work. I don’t mind paying $, but if you can’t tape a bar properly, replace a BB correctly, or adjust a drivetrain, you aren’t worth the grime lining my brake pads as a bike mechanic. Also, since some of my bikes are from online, I tire of getting attitude from shops about them. Basically, I needed some capable mechanics who won’t give me attitude, gouge me on prices and can get me rolling again quickly.
Silva’s provides this and much much more.
I’ve spent more money with them in 6 months than I have in 10 years at any other shop. Why? Tahn & Tony (I haven’t worked much with Bronson) are fantastic. I’ve had them build up a custom single-​speed MTB race bike, a new All City Nature Boy Disc Cyclocross/​Commuter with a unique 8 speed internal hub, two sets of wheels and many other jobs I wouldn’t trust to anyone else. If the bike knowledge in their heads could be written down, it would surpass — in miles — the number of Disney branded «Frozen» girls bikes that have been sold at Walmart in the last two years!
The prices are very good, the service is fast, they are fun to talk with, and my daughter loves pedaling their little clown bike (pictured) around every time we go. Every once in a while I bring them gifts to show my thanks. They are nice people who love bicycling of all types and are doing good for the community — support them if you can.
5 stars on: Technical Skills (ninjas!), Knowledge, customer service, attitude.

Sometimes one has a customer experience that one just –must– share, and my Silva Cycles experience is one such. My son has a no-​name bike from Target and after about a year of not riding it, he decided to use it to go to school. I did not have time to fix the brakes and tires, plus all the little things that needed to be done on it, so I’ve decided to find a bike repair shop in the neighborhood, Silva Cycles was close enough. I was a bit worried that they would not take it, what with customers that bring in super expensive custom bikes for assembly. The shop is hidden among several car mechanic shops, but is well marked by signs, so it wasn’t hard to find it. The guy working there was super nice, fixed everything that needed fixing in less than 10 minutes, oiled what needed oiling, adjusted brakes and made a new long term customer! These guys are real bicycle enthusiasts and super helpful. Thank you Silva Cycles, we love you!

I recently bought a bike online and needed to find a good shop to assemble it. Thanks to good ol’ Unilocal led me to Silva Cycles. Soo glad I came here, they did a great job assembling my new bike!
They had it completed within hours. The service is awesome and I will definitely come do more business with them. I encourage everyone to patronize this great local business!

Fantastic place to find high quality bike parts or, should you have a problem with your bike, they can fix just about anything. They seem to specialize in steel bikes and can make custom steel frames (and repair steel bikes, of course).

Tahn, AKA the bike guru, helped me with a prewar Iver Johnson build. One stop at this shop and I knew they were the ones that could help me with the project. I couldn’t be more satisfied with the quality of workmanship and service. Video of the completed bike:

Pros and life-​long enthusiasts will appreciate their singular knowledge, experience, and skill with ALL kinds of fine cycles. Beginners, and just-​need-​a-​tire types will find them to be friendly, super-​helpful and willing to engage without the superior attitude that a lot of shops can give off. At Silva, they don’t care what you are riding — they are just glad you are.
At their heart, they are a specialty shop, not really a typical local bike shop, so they don’t stock kids bikes or «cheap» stuff just for the sake of having an item in every price-​point, but they know which inexpensive parts are good, and are happy to recommend anything that gets the job done well. If you need to just get down the road, fine. They won’t sell you crap just because it’s cheap. If you want to design and build the most gorgeous, functional rolling piece of art your budget will allow, they do that better than anyone in Northern California.
Either way, they treat you well and make you feel like a regular. That’s the beautiful, if schizophrenic nature of Silva Cycles.
The shop itself is perfectly funky and tucked back in a non-​descript industrial complex. Totally worth the hunt.

This is a great shop. Owner is friendly and very knowledgeable. Doesn’t matter if your a rookie or a life long cyclist, he will take the time to inform you why what is what, needed or not needed. I felt comfortable here, unlike some other places that expect you to know about bikes as much as they do. I’m a fan and will definitely be back.
Side note: They’ll work on your beginner bike of course, but they also do some pretty sweet custom fabrications and designs. No snobs here, you’ll find people who enjoy the hobby just as much as you do, at any level.

After running over a piece of metal and gouging a huge hole in my tire and tube, I was heartbroken at the prospect of having to spend the long holiday weekend bikeless. Going down the list of bike shops in town, I found that almost all were closed today, if not the entire weekend.
Then I found Silva Cycles here on Unilocal and was enticed by the 5-​star rating. I called, assuming I would get the same outgoing message that I had gotten everywhere else, but was pleasantly surprised when a live person answered the phone! When I said I could be there within 30 minutes, the person on the other end (I’m assuming Tahn) said they’d keep the shop open for a bit longer for me. Sweet! I hustled over straight away.
Tahn was super friendly and helpful. Although I am a regular cyclist with a relative grasp of bike mechanics, I’m not a hardcore, super knowledgable biker bro. Sometimes it can be intimidating to go into bike repair shops… not here! It was very accessible and relaxed. Tahn spoke to me in a way that was neither condescending nor over my head. I didn’t feel judged bringing in my comfort hybrid. My tire and tube were replaced easy peasy, and now my weekend biking plans don’t have to change.
Some things to note: this is not a huge shop with endless parts and components. The tire I ended up getting is bigger than my stock tires (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, given the roads here) and I got the last tube in stock in the size I needed. So they might not have what you need on hand right at the moment.
If I lived closer to this place, I have no doubt that it’d be my regular bike shop, if not a place where I went to hang out. Bicycle Express has them beat on prices for parts, as they’ll admit, but Silva Cycles is definitely a place to check out. The bikes they build are beautiful!

I took my Walmart mountain bike to Silva’s after I allowed my 15 year old nephew use it.
My nephew broke the brake cable, gear cable, jacked up the front tire, messed up the hub and broke something on the back wheel… just after a week of usage.
The people at Silva said «dude…wtf happened? Sorry man but it won’t be fixed for 48 hours and it would cost $ 80 bux to address the problems and to give the bike a major tune up…»
$ 80 for a tune up and major repairs? In a short amount of time?!
SCORE!
Most places quoted me double the price and they required a week of work on the bike.
I took my bike snob bother (that believes a bike should cost at least 5 figures) to Silva after the 48 hours mark.
When I arrived in the parking lot my brother actually said «what is this place? A bike chop shop? Are we going to get shank in the parking lot?»
However; brother was quickly impressed about the inventory and the knowledge of the staff.
My brother spent time roaming the shop and saying «they have XYZ… and they have this… OOO…they have this part that I need…»
Unlike my brother I am not very knowledge about bikes.
What won me over wasn’t the price of the repairs or the inventory of the shop. It was the great customer service of Silvia’s.
I would really recommend Silva to anyone. They are honest with their prices, patient with their customer and they will take their time to inform non bike snobs on how to pick the correct bike. (Like myself)
They even offer free installation on items that are bought at their shop.
Silvia is a small company that deserves our business.
I will be a repeat customer in the new future.
Please patronage them if you can.