January 2024 Updates

Hi guys, Darren here. 1st thing I’d like to say is Happy New Year to you & yours. I trust that all is well. Today Wednesday Jan/10th/2024 we’ll be open from 10-6pm. For the remainder of the month we’ll be open from Wednesday – Saturday. We’ll have a technician in the shop on Fridays & Saturdays.

We’ve got some new & exciting things happening in the shop for this year. A new website that have our product listings and possibly a custom size run of our beloved Sedgwick’s. More & more ‘frame up shops’ are opting for their own line of bikes. We’ve had 30 custom made Sedgwick’s over the years & it might be time to really push forward with this brand. More on that later. Who knew that back in 2005 when we were dreaming up the shop that it would inspire multiple new bikes shops to pop up all around the city. Ex Dream Cycle staff have gone on to open many different shops on their own. Of course Ed Tsui my original business partner moved back to Toronto & opened Liberty Cyclery back in 2009 & of course Josh William’s & I opened Kissing Crows Cyclery up on Main Street. In total, ten former employees of Dream Cycle have gone on to start their own shops or bike buisnesss. Not all have succeeded but most have. Recentley ex-staff Alex Ramon opened Calgary Bicycle Repair in 2022. Cheers mate! Really, I need to do a seperate post listing all the great folks who’ve come through the shop and update what they’ve been up to. 2024 will be our 19th year in business here @ 1010 Commercial Drive. I gotta say it’s been quite the ride. 

2023 was rough though, I’m not gonna lie. With all that has been happening in the bike industry & shops closing all around us it begs the question. What’s our plan @ Dream Cycle? Renovations that we started back in 2020 are finally looking to be complete. Our new ‘Handle Bar’ will open this year. I’ve laboured over how to best display handlebars in the shop & have been working on this design for a few years now & it’s almost done. We used all reclaimed Doug Fir & some live edge for the bar top. This is very exciting & I think it looks fantastic. Be sure to come in  check out the new BTP Woven cloth handlebar tape. https://btpbartape.com/product-category/bicycle-bartape/woven-ribbon-bartape-brbn/

January 2024 Hours

The Shop will be closed for a short break from January 2nd to the 9th & back open on the 10th & for the rest of the month of January we’ll be open from Wednesday to Saturday. Back to regular scheduled programming in February 2024

Closed Sunday – Tuesday

Technician will be in on Friday & Saturday

Darren will be taking a few weeks off for a vacation

Phones – Back On – Again – Thanks

As far as bringing your bike to us for service we need to inform you that we do work on a 1st Come – 1st Serve basis and we do NOT do offer appointments. More on that later.

If you purchased your bike from us then just bring it in & we’ll do our best to fit you in. If we need to order parts for you then we can discuss that when your here. Yay!

If we’ve worked on your bike in the past then it’s best to pop on by & see if we have the parts we need for your bike & how to fit you in. Again, we’ll do our best to help. If your bike is very old & needs extensive repairs then it might be best to schedule a consulttation to figure out exactly what you need. This could take a half hour.

Have an Electric Bike? Please do not bring it here. We don’t carry parts for Electric Bikes & just can’t serve this customer base. Check out Ohm Cycles or Velo Lifestyle on Nanaimo Street. Yes, I do believe there needs to be a shop that specializes in servicing these bikes, but it’s not us. Too bad, so sad!

Appointments? We have tried this in the past & frankly it doesn’t work. We go through all the trouble of working on the schedule & then people just don’t keep the appointment! Then, they still want to bring their bike whenever it’s convenient for them & expect us to just ‘suck it up & take their bike in when we’re super full. Ugh, how frustrating is that? Other shops have used a ‘Pay’ option on their sites to make an appointment where if the customer misses the appointment then they can book another appointment but who wants to pay twice just for an appointment?

Want to buy a bike from us? Great! We suggest that you come in to discuss this in person. 95% of our bikes are custom built & start at about $3500.00 and up.

Taking some down time

Taking Some Down Time

Dream Cycle Is Going On Vacation!

But don’t worry, it’s only for a week!

We think bike shop employees deserve some fun in the Summertime too, so we will be closed August 10th – 14th

(of course with our usual schedule that means we will be closed from the 8th to the 16th)

55cm Soma Grand Randonneur in Stock!

We see a lot of bikes at Dream Cycle, but the Soma Grand Randonneur is unique: The lightest Soma frame, it has the geometry of a vintage road bike, but is optimized to carry a front load.

Pictured above, the model we have in stock is the third version of the Grand Randonneur. With this new version, Soma has tweaked the steering to be extra smooth while maintaining the low trail geometry in the front of the frame. Designed for 650b rims, it can now run tyres up to a width of 47mm. In keeping with its classic aesthetic, it takes a 1″ threaded headset, but has been modernized to be through-axle.

We currently have one such frame in stock, a 55cm Grand Randonneur in Moss Green. We’re selling the frame for $1250—Come by the shop and check it out!

Bike Sales / Consultations $50.00

If you’ve scheduled a consultation with us, you should be prepared to help us out with the following information. Think contact points: Handlebars, Saddle, and Pedals. It helps us out if you have an idea of what style of handlebar you’d like on your next bike. You can find a comprehensive database of handlebars at www.whatbars.com, a site developed by a Canadian showing grid of most of the bars available to us from our suppliers. During the consult, we can show you some of these bars, and talk about the features and benefits of each bar. WhatBars is the only quality database of handlebars, so you should take advantage of it. For pedals, you may need to scour the internet. We sell pedals from manufactures like Shimano, MKS, Blackspire (Made in BC), Wellgo, and Exustar. You may need to do the same for saddles; we mostly sell Brooks Saddles in either classic leather or Cambium rubber. If there is a particular saddle you like, make a note, and we can include it in your quote. The more detailed information you can provide, the better and faster your consult will be. If you have some parts that you want to bring to the build, you should either bring them in for us to look at, or, at the very least, make notes about exactly what they are, e.g. if you have a rim or hub then we need to know the exact hole count to ensure we can match it up with the correct rim. Finally, let us know if you’d like any accessories, such as fenders/mud guards, or racks included with your bike.

Service News During the Pandemic!

We are definitely dealing with some challenges during these times on multiple fronts. One, with a 50% increase in cycling the demands for service work are at an all time high. So unfortunately we can no longer accept bikes in for service Tune Ups that we didn’t sell. That being said, we will however help you with small repairs like flat tires & minor adjustments. It’s best to bring your bike to us Tuesday-Saturday so we can see what your bike needs & if we decide at that point we can take your bike in for repair or possibly schedule a repair once the parts come in. We cannot guarantee that you can leave your bike with us as we are a tiny shop and we ‘Fill Up’ quickly. Two, increased demands for bikes & bike parts have also riddled us with availability. Suppliers & manufacturers all over are dealing with wait times up to 2 years on some makes and models. We recently heard that new Surly frames & bikes will not land until 2023. We do have a lot of product in stock & will offer whatever we have to get you rolling..

Hang in there, we’ll we’ll do our best, so keep your head up & rubber side down!

Love peace & bike grease for the Dream Team.

Darren, Ethan, Cam, Zed & H-E double Henry sticks

NEW SPRING HOURS 2021

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Closed Sunday – Monday

Tuesday – Thursday 12pm – 5pm

Friday & Saturday 10am-6pm

CLOSED all statutory holidays.

January Closure

This January we’ll be closing the doors for a much needed renovation.

We’ll be back in February 2021.

Stay safe!