Real mountain bikes at SportChek?

Hi, my name is Steve Jackson and I am the new General Manager of SportChek Penticton. I just moved out here from Ontario speciffically to take advantage of all of the outdoor activities this beautiful part of the world has to offer, with mountain biking at the top of my list. My fiance and I are both into XC and DH riding and we jacked to start enjoying the Okanagan and are interested in joining this club. As I am sure you know, SportChek is not traditionally a retailer of high end bikes but we are starting to break into the market with better quality product and significant investment in our service shops and technicians. SportChek Penticton has been allocated several quality bikes from Mongoose ranging from XC race bikes (Canaan Team), to All mountain bikes (Khyber Super) and some really value packed trail bikes like the Tiocalli. Starting on Wednesday May 11 all Mongoose bikes will be blown out at 30% off which is a huge discount for high end bikes and I am hoping to get some interest from the local mountain bike community. We also have some great Tri bikes from Jamis and new softgoods from zoot your members may be interested in.

Cheers,
Steve

Steve,

Welcome to the area. I've always maintained that one of the best things that could happen to the sport is to see more truly affordable mountain bikes hit the market.

What the sport needs are more [real] mountain bikes that cost under $1500.00, tax. incl. (or less). I, like so many others in BC, ride quite expensive bikes, but that's only because the sport is a priority to us, and generally our main recreational activity during the warm months.

Most folks have family / mortgages and other fiscal responsibilities to deal with, and the prospect of blowing 3+ grand on a bicycle is a bit of a reach. A lot of guys that I know would love to ride a decent bike, but if a 3k bicycle showed up on the monthly VISA statement, they'd be living in the doghouse for the season! The main problem with that of course is that the flat-screen doesn't fit in the dh, and there's no place to plug in the beer fridge :-)

Does Sport Check offer any local sponsorship programs? As the president of the local bike club, I'd love to see your company sponsor a trail maintenance day or signage or something along that line in the coming years. We have been working with local land management agencies a great deal over the past few years, bringing the concept of 'trails as a recreation facility' to the forefront in the valley -- and dragging it out of the "secret trails" BS of the past.

This movement has begun to take mountain biking out of the darkness of "its something that a fringe group do on illegal trails in the mountains", to "its a legitimate recreational activity that we actively welcome others to join us in".

To that end, we welcome anything that you might be able to do to assist us in promoting the movement, and invite you to join us on our PACA group ride days. Our next one (posted on the main www.bikepenticton.com site) will be to WARD1 in the Gillies Cr. watershed this coming Sunday. I think that you'll really enjoy the ride, its intermediate, flowy and will allow you to see some of the other Gillies Cr. trails at the same time.

Andrew D.
250.486.2443