eddyz

Hey guys, new to the forums, and this site is really helpful. I'm in the market right now for a Nitto stem and soma toe clips and straps, but it seems it is nearly impossible to find a bike shop that carries these parts here in Vancouver?!??!

What is some sites you guys know that would ship to Canada which carries these parts? I tried ebay, but the shipping price is way over my budget already lol.

If I can't get these parts here, I guess i will have to wait 2 months as I will be heading to Tokyo. Which BTW, 1 more question.... Are there any fixie bike part stores around Shibuya/Shinjuku area? I am only gonna be at Tokyo for 2 days, and I will be around that area most of the time. So hopefully I would be able to find some JDM parts there haha.

Thanks

Eddy

oneredstar

I believe that the Nitto stem will be distributed by QBP, and that Soma is distributed by KHS. You should be able to go into most good bicycle shops in Vancouver and order these parts.

mander

Dream Cycle on Commercial Drive carries Nitto and Soma products. Darren the owner gets a lot of cool stuff in there. I'm surprised you don't know about it, they are one of vans best stores (OK, one of van's only stores) for fg stuff.

ephkappa

If you can hold off 'til the first week of june, Super Champion, will be opening up. It's on main and cordova across from the cop shop and provincial courts.

It'll be vancouver's first track bike specific shop. And probably the only bike shop in vancouver not run by *******s and/or gouge you on prices. They may even serve free espresso!

If you wait 'til japan, there's Carnival which is between shibuya and harajuku, there's also Kalavinka in meguro. I'm not going to be anymore helpful on japan tip b/c I think you should go support Super Champion when it opens! (^_^)

eddyz

wow thanks for the help guys.

I know about dream cycles, I even called them up one day to ask if they had any nitto stem. They said they didn't have any left .

ephkappa

let's see, for the wheelset, that'll be $600 and your right arm and 3 of your toes. but darren will do it with a smile and make you feel good about overpaying, unlike ed from mighty.

basically right now in van, there's two options, get ****ty service and be talked down to at Mighty Riders but you'll get a decent price (if ed decides you're good enough to buy from him), or get really happy friendly service but get gouged at Dream. It's common knowledge.

wait for Super Champion.

mrwhite

Whinge whinge.

I think you are confusing YOUR experiences with 'common knowledge'

I've never had any trouble with Ed OR Darren, Darren at Dream Cycle even had fyxomatosis shirts at one stage.

I'd bet my house on the quality of wheels built by Ed who has saved my skin on many occasions.

But you're right - go the 'new' shop in Smacktown.




Who are you again?

Retail is a tough game, and it's VERY easy to slag retail prices until YOU have to pay wages and rent.

Put yourself in their (Dream/Mighty) shoes. Would you like someone slagging 'Super Champion' because you didn't drop to your knees, grab your ankles, give 50% discount, and free coffee?

If 'Super Champion' is the NEW place and premier place to go, then people will go there. Word of mouth is retails best friend.

If the likes of Mighty/Dream weren't satisfying customer needs, they'd be out of business.

Good luck with 'Super Champion'

*tc

baxtefer

I'll vouch for Ed at mighty.
Sure he's a bit of a surly bastard, but he knows his **** and is a damn good wrench.
He's taken parts out his personal stash for me when i needed stuff *right away* and couldn't wait for an order to be shipped. and i'm not exactly one of his preferred customers. Just a guy who happened to walk in off the street one day.

megatron

Ed is mean but he knows what hes talking about. He wont upsell you and he is frank and to the point. He hires pretty knowledgeable guys but they tend to be a bit surly too. Not really a hang-out-able type of shop. Darren is nice and builds a good wheel, and helps out alot with races and such (prize wise). Super champion is gonna be sick... in a bit of a dodgy part of town though.

ephkappa

hello.

i never said that the quality of work is not superb. i think both darren and ed does excellent work.

in fact my wheels were built by darren. i have absolutely no complaints about the work. it's the prices. i chose darren over ed b/c darren had better service and i felt more comfortable in dealing with him. at the time there were no other choices except darren or ed. between poor service and paying more, i chose to pay more.

as for ed, he is a huge fount of inexhaustible knowledge if he's in a good mood. anytime someone asked before, Mighty was always the first recommendation simply b/c he knows a ton and he's got better prices. Unfortunately a lot of people i know has vowed to never step into that store after the treatment they got. i think it's a bummer that you have to go to a shop and hope that the owner is in a good mood so you can get good advice and service.

Uhhh... where did the 50% discount come from? free coffee yes, but you get that at Budget Brake and Mufflers too, really not that special, i'm sorry i mentioned it.

Not asking for a discount. Just decent prices. $120 for one deep v rim isn't that decent, is it? If it's legit, than I'm sorry I said anything.

I fully appreciate that retail is a tough game. I think it's great that Dream and Mighty have stayed open running things the way that they like. Dream, has excellent friendly professional service but charges more than Ed. Ed has better prices, expert work but lacks good customer service. I'm sure they've stayed opened b/c they appeal to a certain clintele. Those have been the two choices in vancouver. With Super Champion, you get a 3rd choice, is that so bad?

I'm not trying to slag anyone off. This is just the word of mouth you were talking about. It's not okay to give an honest opinion of what I think? Once again, if I misunderstood what word of mouth means, i apologize.

It's like voting Democrat or Republican eh? Actually I wouldn't know, I'm Canadian, but from what I've heard, it's not much of a choice and it kinda sucks.

I am Andrew. I ride bikes so i guess that makes me a cyclist? Sometimes I buy cycling stuff, so at those times i guess i'm a customer of bike shops. I'm a graphic designer by profession. I'm chinese-canadian, 26, 5'4 about 110 pounds. Super lightweight, so if you don't like what I've said and you feel so inclined, you can definitely kick my ass. Ummm what else... wait... why? Do you know me?

Roam

If you want to talk about service at Mighty, we can talk about one-hour emergency wheelbuilds, last-minute pre-race Italian chase-n-faces, or how Ed has helped me out with BMX crank issues that Ride-On and 3Ride couldn't even begin to deal with.

Bring Kilkenny.

That said, Dream is a fine purveyor of bicycle componentry as well, and both shops will not hesitate to "support the local scene," as it were. My liver is still cringing from the last time Darren came out to show some love.

lyledriver

Are you sure you want to talk about that?

delicious

i was in vancouver two weeks ago and happened to wander into dream cycles. made jealous, being from sarasota, fl where no bike shop has any fixed stuff. by the way, nice city. my introduction was the critical mass on the last friday of april. i was the guy with the bright orange shoes, if anybody from vancouver on these forums was there.

delicious

oops - i'm signed in as my roomate, delicious. the previous post was actually written by ))<>((

mander

vancouver bfssfg represent!

Darren's prices can be a bit high *but* he risks bringing in all kinds of awesome, solid stuff that other shops haven't even heard of, he has been good to me and I have seen him do extremely nice things for others, and you have to appreciate the redonculous hours he puts in behind the counter. There's no way that dream isn't a Good Thing (TM) for vancouver.

delicious

dang autologin with shared computer

ephkappa

you know what...

vancouver is tiny. i'm happy that we have two shops that sells us parts and we'll have a third soon. forget about the prices, and the attitude and what not. i still gave them business and eventhough i was bummed at the stuff i mentioned before, i would be even more bummed if they weren't around. i'm grateful that we have them and that i live in a beautiful city and i don't want to start any **** talking. i'm sorry if did. it was unintentional and i honestly was just giving my opinion.

so i'm making nice. if i offended anyone with my above comments, i'm sorry. i still stand by my opinion but i could've worded it more nicely.

it was beautiful today. ripped around d/t and the beach with a big group of friends. good times. ride bikes. i love everybody and so on...

definitelymaybe

come ride with us... Tuesdays, 7pm, the Gazeebo... but maybe you already do?

Or come out Saturday for this:


'Miss and out' (the track event) done in the dark side of town...

ephkappa

thanks for the invitation. we actually thought about swinging by on tuesday but decided to go for a japadogs, gelati, beach run instead. will try to make it on saturday if it's not raining too hard. thanks for letting me know.

Shiznaz

okay so I'm flying into vancouver on friday with my touring bike in a box. I'm probably going to need to have some last minute work done on the bike. I really don't know vancouver at all. What bike shop would be best for tuning up my gearie, while being in a fairly central location so I can walk to shops/hostels etc. while its being worked on? Also if the owner would let me stash their bags there I'd buy them beer.

lyledriver

Hrm. The hostels are all downtown, and the good bike shops are on the east side in the Broadway corrridor, and on Commercial drive.

I'll PM you. We'll roll.

moki

I'm not from van, but having spent too much time in my LBS, I can relate to surly shop owners.

During my last visit to the shop, I witnessed:

-a customer pushed his krunked-up dept store "m"tb into the repair area, wanting to know why his chain was squeaking, and what to do about it. I lubed his chain and jockeys for him ( I don't work there btw; the shop is just good to me), and recommended that he buy some pro-link. He left without buying a thing.

-two older ladies aboard $300 cruisers came in wanting their bikes boxed up for a plane trip. Of course, they had no previous mechanical knowledge, wanted to know how everything would fit back together, couldn't remember a thing, and refused to take notes. This free service took the better part of an hour. No homemade cookies, no pie, no nuthin. I suppose that when they arrive in Dublin, they'll assume they can waltz into the first bike shop they find, and have their bikes reassembled by a courteous Irish mech. good luck.

So before y'all slag shops and owners by name, consider the crap they have to put up with every day, for years on end. If I owned a bike shop, it would probably have a bouncer.

AnnaMossity

This is an old thread I know, but I had to put my two cents in anyways. I was leery of going to Mighty Riders because, in the past, any inquiries I've had were met with "give us your number and we'll get back to you" the "don't call us, we'll call you" of bike shops apparently. So now that I'm in the market for some good wheel components to build up a wheelset, I've had to go to them for their expertise. Not being a big fan of going in to a shop, cap in hand, and saying "please sir, might you impart some of your vast wisdom upon me for I am in the market for wheel components" I did it anyways and they (after probably 45 minutes of waiting to be helped) advised me on suitable components and ordered them. $400 total and 3 weeks of waiting and I still have no idea when I'm getting those wheels. My bike is my primary mode of transport and having little to take it's place puts me in a difficult spot. While Ed may not have been overtly beligerant in dealing with me this service makes me extremely unsatisfied and says to me that Mighty Riders does not need my patronage.

Darren, on the other hand has always recieved me warmly despite the fact that I rarely buy anything from him worth more than a few dollars and I've (oh my GOSH!) disagreed with some of his opinions on maintenance (oh my temerity!). In the future, I'll just go to Dream Cycle, thanks.

Even Ed would have to agree that his good service is given seemingly arbitrarily. Having a website that states you will get what you want now if you bring them "baked goods and fine deli meats" says it all in my book. Retail may be tough but I'm sure the coin they charge for their products leaves them with enough to avoid dumpster diving for food.

Pfft!

krusty

Since this is indeed an old thread, I'm curious how the new shop that was mentioned is doing.

_hollister_

It's still around...

Perception is that you pay a premium there.

https://www.fixedvancouver.com/Forums...ead.php?t=1939