the replacement;world’s longest photo caption


Image by coaxeus
This is a product shot and not mine, obviously. Mine has a couple upgraded parts and although I’ve only had it for a day, it is already covered in mud, sticks, grass, etc

Specs www.gtbicycles.com/usa/eng/Products/Mountain/Adventure/#5717

I spent a couple days going to all the bike shops in north van & researching online. We’ve got at least 6 shops within 10 minutes of us that specialize in serious mountain bikes, as north vancouver is one of the top spots in the world for this stuff. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Vancouver#Attributes It was great being able to talk to so many experts in a short period of time, many of them pro riders with lots of experience riding on the same trails and streets as I’ll be on.

All the shops had great bikes, ranging from low end road bikes and mountain bikes for a few hundred bucks all the way to custom built mtn/downhill bikes costing ,000 or even ,000+. Some of the shops were bit snobby about my sub-00 price range, some had a bit of a sleazy salesman vibe going on, but most were pretty good. Cove was quite good, On-Top was quite helpful, John Henry was a bit of a disaster but helped a bit, and Steed had nice gear but felt a bit sleazy and seemed pretty focused on the stuff way out of my budget.

The shop that really stood out from the start was North Shore Bike Shop on 16th ave. and Lonsdale www.northshorebikeshop.com . It’s a small shop filled with all manner of mountain, road, bmx, etc. bikes, and I dealt with the owner, Matt, who was extremely helpful. I was only interested in something from the lower end of his range of bikes, but he spent hours showing me all the options and giving me straightforward, no-BS advice and tips. Just a very non-sales, great service, enthusiastic/genuine guy with really good bikes. He quickly made time to put together an ideal bike for me to test ride. The first time I went to the shop I found him oddly familiar, I later realized this is because he is a pro rider and is in mountain biking DVDs and videos that I’ve seen. In fact while he we building my bike another celebrity stopped in, "Digger", who basically invented north shore style mountain biking (which became huge here ( www.nsmb.com/trail_tales/its_the_shore_09_00.php ) and now worldwide), building the first trail 28 years ago and is still building trails today. He has made about 10 DVDs himself as well, so it was cool meeting him in person.

I re-visited all the shops again and test-rode several candidate bikes that I liked. High end dual suspension is out of my price range, I don’t want low-end dual suspension, and I’d settled on looking for one bike that would be great for trails, commuting (two very different things), and not getting stolen. All of this lead me to higher-end hardtail (front suspension only) bikes, so I ended up looking at/testing what each company offered in this range. GT, Giant, Brodie, Trek, custom, etc.

They were all fairly similar and worlds better than my last bike but I think the GT from north shore bike shop felt best and has the best quality components, and of course dealing with that shop for service and sales in the future will be great.

Ed was on the market for a mountain bike as well and was leaning towards a different shop and brand, but after we both visited all the shops and did some more brand research he was similarly impressed with this place and he ended up getting a GT bike there too.

Within an hour of us finally deciding deciding, the owner had our two bikes built, customized, fit, tuned, and ready to go. We’ve now got a few hours off-road and street riding on them and are very happy (and muddy). I am super relieved and impressed that this bike seems to out-perform my old dual-suspension in every way. The old one was a 2001 and things have come a long way since then apparently. Lockout suspension is new to me and makes a huge difference in efficiency, disc brakes are new to me and the premium hydraulic brakes on this are awesome, and the whole package is very lightweight, tough, and has great size/geometry for what I’m riding.

Wow.. I’ve written more about this than a car or motorcycle or any other type purchase, but I just found the shopping to be a fun experience and am really pleased with the bike and the shop that I decided on. In no way is this any sort of official endorsement for the shop, I just was really impressed and had a great experience and thought I’d share.

I’m hoping a lot of my time this summer will be spent on the bike playing and commuting which will be a lot of fun, whip me into much better shape, and save me a lot of money as any time I’m tooling around on the bike I won’t be paying for parking, fuel, or more expensive hobbies.

And since I’ve now gone through an expensive BMX theft (by spiderman) and now this recent theft (looking into if insurance claim is worthwhile), this one won’t be locked up outside, ever. It will be in my locked office or at minimum in a bike cage.

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