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Author: The BC Team



Cinelli Hobootleg Railway Touring
Posted on by The BC Team

Retrospec & Critical

For several years now we’ve been selling Retrospec and Critical Cycles for their line of affordable yet better quality single speed road bikes, and to a lesser degree, their city bike offerings as well. Year round we stock the Retrospec Mantra V2. We only stock the Critical Cycles Harper from late July until the end of the back to school season, usually into October. Once Critical stock is sold they become a custom order item for us. The remainder of models from Retrospec and Critical are custom order items for us.

We keep a few Pure Cycles city bikes and Pure Cycles Road Disc in our rental fleet and these are available for demo. We can order in any Pure Cycles models.

Retrospec Mantra V2

Retrospec Mantra V2

Posted on by The BC Team

Driving/Parking in Downtown Tempe/ASU is the pits!

Recently I tried to run some errands around downtown Tempe with my vehicle. Wow, that was an exercise in futility. Never again. Drive around in a circle looking for a place to park, find quarters, end up parking much further away than hoped, walk in the heat, repeat. No, thank you! And when ASU is in session, downtown Tempe’s streets are even more clogged, literally, mornings, lunch and closing time. It’s pretty futile to attempt to drive into, around or out of downtown during these times. It is definitely much simpler and quicker by bicycle. It’s also much cheaper, an ASU parking structure permit ranges in price from $210 to $780 per year! You can buy a pretty sweet bike and accessories for $780 and even $210 pays for 90%+ of a single speed road bicycle which makes great transportation and is pretty stylish to boot!

This short blog post isn’t really a place to get into why folks continue to use the automobile instead of the numerous alternative transportation options available, especially in downtown Tempe. I’ll just say that it’s an addiction, rife with all the habits and denials of any other addiction. If you’re interested in this topic, you might want to look for my friend’s book that’s forthcoming this fall, titled America’s Addiction to Automobiles, by Chad Frederick.

No, the point of this post is to talk about alternatives, namely the bicycle and a bit of public transit. The bicycle is the perfect vehicle for getting around downtown Tempe. A bicycle gets as many as 36.3 miles per burrito! If you don’t own one, you can even test the waters without having to purchase one, courtesy of Tempe’s newly launched GRID bike share. If you have any questions about using a bicycle for transportation or otherwise within the Phoenix metro area, come chat with us, we can advise! We’re transportation focused and we can help you find the right bicycle to suit all your needs!

As for getting to downtown, there are more than a few park & rides conveniently located along the light rail and others throughout the valley. Tempe also provides a free neighborhood shuttle service called Orbit. All buses have bike racks on the front, and bicycles can be wheeled onto the light rail trains. Even if you do use a vehicle to get closer to Tempe, these options help you ditch the car outside of the congested downtown area and let you move through Tempe with ease using the bus, bike or rail.

Posted on by The BC Team

DLMR Bike Tours Puget Sound Part 1

My (Alex) birthday was around the corner and I knew I wanted to celebrate it on a bike, touring some place. She Hulk (my 2004 Surly Cross Check) was already up in Washington from a previous trip . Unridden for over 2 years sitting in my friend’s garage collecting moss. Unfortunately, I had missed a trip up there the previous summer due to flight and scheduling issues. So naturally, I felt the need to make that up. Tom was itching for some bike touring himself. Between you and I, I also think he missed our old wrench Matt. So DLMR (Dark Legion of Midnight Riders) was back at it.

Wednesday April 26, 2017. De ja vu, I missed my flight again, doh! Fortunately, seats on a Delta flight 1 hour later were still available. Cheap! Didn’t break the bank. Blessing in disguise, maybe? I heard Frontier blew anyways. Turns out, Tom was on the same flight, haha! Arrived at 9:45am to be swooped up by our own personal unmarked shuttle. Matt owns a big white stupid van. Complimentary gift of fruit and energy gels were provided, hells yeah! Quick stop at the grocer for foods and beers and off to Matt’s to set up our rigs.

Thursday April 27, 2017. Happy Birthday to me! Let’s get this show on the road. Leave from Matt’s house in Bothell in route to Mukilteo to catch our first ferry. I love boat rides! Lets just get that out of the way. Snuck some whiskey shots with the bois. Snap shot here, selfie there. Quick boat ride later and we were on Whidbey Island. About 35 miles in, stopped for our second break at South Whidbey Island State Park. The park contains many mature specimens of Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce, and Western Hemlock. Some of the largest trees I’ve ever seen with an ocean view. Caught our 2nd ferry from Fort Casey to Port Townsend. Tom bought a round of IPA tall boy’s on the ferry. Who knew you can catch a buzz legally on a 20 minute ferry boat ride?

Port Townsend is a cool town for sure. Took a quick break at probably the world’s smallest park. Visited a couple local bike shops. The Broken Spoke was a mostly Trek shop with a little bit of everything and PT Cyclery was like stepping into a museum of classic road bikes from all decades. Even a Peugeot from 1951. Both shops were worlds apart different from each other, but were fascinating in their own right. Turns out Bob Chung over at PT Cyclery is good friends with our own local favorite Erick Cedeño of Bicycle Nomad in DT PHX.

After getting our fill of bike shops, we checked out Propolis brewing for some old world style beers. Really dig the ambiance. Post beer flight and bottle purchase we headed over to Sirens Pub to stuff our faces and eat all the calories. Little did we know the pub was up two and a half flights of stairs and we weren’t comfortable leaving our bikes outside with no way of seeing them. Matt investigated the option of carrying upstairs and discovered a large open hallway in which we could store our bikes.

Our evening was completed after a few miles of riding to Fort Worden Historical State Park to camp just off the beach. A former military installation, Fort Worden was built to protect the Puget Sound from enemy infiltration in the early the 1900’s. We were all pretty pooped after a 50 mile day. Set up camp, scored some free wood, kicked back some whiskey and prepared the night’s chow ;).

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”1″ gal_title=”Puget Sound Tour 1 of 2″]

Thumps UP Lifetime Warranty
Posted on by The BC Team

Kona’s Updated Lifetime Warranty Policy

When the purchasers of a new 2015 Kona bike register their new bike within three months of purchase, that original owner qualifies for a Lifetime Warranty*. That is, if their bicycle frame fails due to a defect in manufacturing 5, 10, or 20 years from now, we’ve got them covered. In our opinion, it’s a fairly huge deal, and shows how dedicated and confident we are in the durability of our bicycle frames.

It’s very important that consumers know that if the warranty is not registered within three months of purchase, Kona will only warranty the frame for a period of three years. Whether the bike is registered or not, Kona covers the parts on the bicycle for a period of one year after purchase.

Please encourage your Kona consumers to take advantage of this incredible feature. It’s easy, and only takes a few minutes by visiting our warranty registration page: http://konaworld.com/warranty.cfm. The link is located on the bottom right of our konaworld.com home page as well as under the SUPPORT drop down menu up top. The page is easy to navigate, and clearly explains all of the warranty details.

Moving forward, we’re working on some point of sale materials to help educate consumers about this great feature, but we really need you, our Kona Dealer network, to spread the good word about how we stand behind our bicycles.

*Note: this does not apply to Kona Carbon models. Kona Carbon bicycles automatically qualify for a three-year warranty on the frame, one year on the parts.

Surly Karate Monkey Ops
Bionx Electric
Posted on by The BC Team

Bionx Electric Bike Conversion Kits

Bionx abruptly shuttered and declared bankruptcy in early 2018. They did not emerge from the bankruptcy intact. The company was sold off in parcels. BX-Legacy still offers limited parts and we can still offer limited service.

Bionx electric bike conversion kits can have you cruising at 20 mph with zero effort! Interested? Come talk to us! We’re the premiere authorized Bionx electric conversion kit dealer in the Phoenix area! We can also update and troubleshoot your existing Bionx system. Bionx kits are top of the line. Bionx has invested significant engineering to develop one of the world’s most advance e-bike conversion kits. Bionx offers top notch products, service, warranty and support. Almost any bicycle can be converted using a Bionx kit. Bionx kits are available in sizes ranging from 20″ wheels all the way up to 29’ers. The only requirements are that the frame have 135mm rear axle spacing. Most mountain, commuter, cargo, touring, cyclocross and hybrid bikes from the 1990’s onward meet this requirement. Bionx kits are not intended for use on road bicycles.

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Kona Tika / Makena