Kitten, how far are you willing to travel if you can't or don't find a good bike shop in Syracuse????
I visit all the bike shops that I can, just to get the lay of the land so to speak, and then make decisions upon how they treat other customers and what they do and don't do. I am willing to travel, heck, I traveled almost 2 hours one way to get the shoes and pedals that I wanted because they actually had a wall of womens shoes to choose from.
There is a bike shop in Geneva, which is what , an hour or so west/south west of you... I have no affiliation with this shop so that is not why I am plugging them, but I went there as an observer and just meandered for at least an hour in the store. The womens selection of bikes was the most impressive section that I have ever seen ( a whole floor dedicated to womens bikes, clothing and tri stuff). Granted the clothing was too small for me but what the hey, they at least had the stuff...They were very courteous to all the women that came to the store and they measured and tweeked the bikes for them. One lady said she had no intention of buying, she was looking, the saleman said he didnt care he wanted her to enjoy the ride anyways to see if it was something she liked.
HOpe that helps, and good luck