Bike shops that support touring - a list?

[cgarch]

We recently completed riding Seattle to Santa Rosa, CA on a tandem and BOB by way of the coast. The one thing I really wished I had was a list of shops that support the touring cyclist. Fortunately we found the Bike Garage in Astoria that had a tire we desperately needed (and wore out by the time we made it home). The La Vogue shop in Hoquiam was an adventure into the strange. Maybe I've missed something somewhere else here in ACA land. A list of the shops that have touring tires, other touring related gear, internet access (a plus) would be useful info. Or maybe not. Bike Newport (Newport, OR) kind of fit this profile but was lacking products I really prefer to use (e.g. Boeshield, Clif Shotbloks). I'm certainly thinking of starting such a list for the shops in my area.

My second wish would be for ACA maps with shower symbols - that is probably another discussion.

Craig
Santa Rosa, CA

[ACA_clubs_shops]

Thanks for your feedback on the shops along the route!  Unfortunately, it's not possible to monitor the shops inventory and specialty super closely.  Many of the products that you were looking for are highly specialized and many of the smaller shops in the little towns along our routes do not carry items that specific.  One way to find shops that may be more aware of the needs of a touring cyclist would be to look in our Cyclists' Yellow Pages (http://cyp.adventurecycling.org:8080/4dcgi/index.a4d?action=cyp.us).  You can click on the state that you wish to look at and the first two sets of listings will be for ACA member clubs and shops.  These member shops will probably be more familiar with Adventure Cycling and touring in general.  Sorry that I couldn't be of more assistance.  I have passed your comment along to our routes and mapping department as well.

[cgarch]

Thanks - actually I happened to receive the Cyclists Yellow Pages right after I posted my comment. In looking over the listings, I noticed that in many case a shop listing did not include what city it was in. For example, in Oregon, The Bike Garage was simply just a phone listing - pretty much useless unless someone wants to spend a lot of time on the phone. Having bought a Schwalbe Marathon tire at their shop in Astoria, they were a most useful shop. I would propose that the listing at least be sufficiently comprehensive to list a location. I fully understand how difficult it would be to capture all of the other items - certainly anecdotal info could be cribbed from the forums.

As someone involved in club activities in my neck of the woods and having to answer similar questions, I'm looking to develop a listing of what the LBS in our area do provide and finding a way to post that on the web. After having completed our first long trip I can see the value in this information.