Denver area bike shops?

DouglasR

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Joined
Jan 9, 2019
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Location
East central, Il
Hi guys, my name’s Douglasr and I hate money.
On top of recently blowing most of my spare scratch on winter camping gear, fine French skis and a Finnish rifle, I’m thinking about saying yolo for the second to last time in my life (still need a packraft) and investing in a new mountain bike.
If I can survive like 13 more days of work and my 2nd covid vacc I should be in the Denver area to send steamboat/copper the 1st week of March and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for bike shops and or bike models to check out in that general area, including Denver

I’m looking for a bike that would work for like 1500 +\- road miles a year and maybe 500 or less of Illinois trail miles.
A good Saturday on the trail is 20mi, 2000ft of elevation gain.

I’ve been looking at full suspension because I’m tired of getting smoked by old dads.

Does it sound ridiculous to say that if I’m not gonna go full suspension, get another hard tail and limit myself to just Illinois trail riding that I’m leaning toward just getting a $500 diamondback from dicks?

For a budget, I’m gonna throw out a big number here and say $4k. (My right knee almost hurts, thinking about limiting high impact hammering so I can ski/hike as long as possible)
But with that in mind I just got 5 years of like no maintenance out of a $500 trek so this thing needs to be smooth AF, capable of going out west and hopefully last a little longer if I actually try to take care of it and don’t just pop it apart and chuck the pieces in the bed of my truck, spray wd-40 on it and mash the pedals.

is this a good time to be looking for a bike?
Are they like skis?
There are some crazy freaking sales on skis through the spring/summer and I would hate to miss out on any deals like that on a bike.
@neffa3 I know in the maintenance post I made you’d mentioned used bikes.
should I be scouring mountain town Craigslist’s?
I’m just get scared of buying a used one I won’t be able to see that was treated like my trek. 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

@rwc101 Thank you for the info in the maintenance post. Any other thoughts on full suspension entry level bikes?

@JLS @LuketheDog

Any ideas?
 
I'll sell ya my 2003 Specialized Epic FS for a couple hundred bucks, has thousands of miles on it, needs a chain and a serious tune-up!

Otherwise I've been to Pedal in Littleton and Elevation Cycles in Centennial. I'd say shop ahead online and see if they have a bike in your size, but with that top-end budget it might not be that big of a deal. I bought a bike last spring, and because of COVID and everyone being outdoors instead of at work it was darn near impossible to find a mid-priced Large frame anywhere in metro Denver. I didn't find any real deals on Craigslist either so I bought a new one. If you want to spend less than $800 or so I'd say forget the full suspension and get a hardtail...
 
If you're coming from out of town checkout https://www.bikesourceonline.com. The reason being they are one of the few shops around that keeps their website inventory up to date, and saves a lot of time calling around. Despite the shortages, my wife, son and I were all able to snatch up new bikes this summer just by checking their site every few days.

Craigslist is good too. Lots of awesome bikes can be gotten for a bargain.

If you have time to call around I'd recommend Wheat Ridge Cyclery. Since you hate money, it's pretty easy to have it taken off your hands there. 🤑

Turin, right in Denver, is good. I'll second Elevation too. They have a shop in downtown Denver also.
 
Drive up to Laramie and go to The Pedal House. Best bike shop in the 6 states I've lived in. They will get you on the right bike and won't oversell you. I ride rigid and have spent all my money on hunting shit for a few years so I'm out of the loop a bit. My next mountain bike will be a Salsa though.
 
@neffa3 I know in the maintenance post I made you’d mentioned used bikes.
should I be scouring mountain town Craigslist’s?
Yes. Because for even 1/2 of your price range you can get a used bike, that even if it needs a little work will last a really long time. Then you can save the other 2k and go mt bike tour Scotland (or really anywhere).

So you know, buying a bike of any kind anytime in the last year has proven to be difficult. Demand is very high.

There's a couple of strategies, 1. Like you said, look at mountain town CL. You will find the most inventory here and there are always guys with more money than sense (which you might actually be as well... j/k ;)) that are always wanting to upgrade and unloading an almost new bike. The next small town up from ours is kinda like that, same with my hometown.

2. is the opposite, look in the places where there's aren't any trails, and you'd never think there's a need to buy a really nice mt bike. People still buy them for tooling around the neighborhood, again, more money than sense. https://phoenix.craigslist.org/search/bia?purveyor-input=all&min_price=1000

If you're really wanting a "one-and-done" bike, then go to mt race/event and try the demo bikes. I'm sure there's plenty around Denver.

For me, I'd get a Santa Cruz
 
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So I should also add that I'm very jealous. 4k budget on the mt bike would be awesome.
I was also quite shocked to re-realize just how freakin' expensive mt bikes are. I mean....WTF
 
My brother has or had a Switchblade he was selling. What size frame are you? He is an XL.

For 4K you can get a lot of bike. I paid 4200 for my Pivot Mach 5.5 carbon. It’s an amazing bike. I’ll never be more capable than the bike is.
The used market is still tough but better. The bike shop down the street has about zero inventory. I’d definitely call ahead.

@rwc101 I bought my first mountain bike at the Pedal House in 1994.
 
Good thread. I have been considering a new bike for the last couple years. ...I mean do I really want to rebuild a 97 Kona hardtail a third time?
I go back and forth with the full suspension vs hardtail . HT are creeping back in to fashion with recent efforts to upgrade the concept.
So many bike options at huge cost variances. All I really know is I want a dropper post. The rest to be determined..
 
Good thread. I have been considering a new bike for the last couple years. ...I mean do I really want to rebuild a 97 Kona hardtail a third time?
I go back and forth with the full suspension vs hardtail . HT are creeping back in to fashion with recent efforts to upgrade the concept.
So many bike options at huge cost variances. All I really know is I want a dropper post. The rest to be determined..
I got my dads Kona Process 134 a couple years ago, enough travel in the back to make it fun but not make it stupid heavy on climbs, seat dropper, wider handlebars than my old Kona, it’s way more than enough bike for everything I want to ride.

IMHO there is a law of diminishing returns on bikes after a certain point it only matters if your racing World Cup and the guy behind you is in better shape. I would never be able to tell you the difference between a 10k bike and a 4K bike, I’ve ridden them I literally can’t... the 10k bike shifted slightly better as I slammed it into the granny gear while tipping over backwards after sliding out on the root? My hubs made sweet spinny noises as the wheels spun while I laid on my back in the sage brush?

I think MSRP on that model + component setup was $2800.

If your looking at a Kona the Mountain Peddler in Eagle, CO is a great place to shop.
 
Yeah, I think you can get all the bike you want to $2000-$2500 and still be set 10 years down the line with routine yearly maintenance.
 
You’re paying for component upgrades. They’ll be lighter and work better. Better shifting, better brakes, faster and smoother hub engagement.

The Santa Cruz Hightower is a great bike. My brother rode one for years. Pivot, Rocky Mountain, Transition, hard to go wrong with any of them.
 
Yep..certainly my crossroads in life with biking. Going up is as important(and fun) than going down on trail. More interested in consistent forward motion, flow, and normal mountain single track. My standards based upon on old bike. Hope to find something in the 2k-4k range.
 
I fought the urge to go full suspension for a long time. Now that I finally caved I can't imagine going back to a hardtail. It's just so much easier on my joints than being rattled all to hell on the descent. I mean my upgrade full still weighs less than my old ht did.
 
Yep..certainly my crossroads in life with biking. Going up is as important(and fun) than going down on trail. More interested in consistent forward motion, flow, and normal mountain single track. My standards based upon on old bike. Hope to find something in the 2k-4k range.
Pinkbike is your friend.




The frame geometry on the new bikes is pretty amazing. I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised.
 
I fought the urge to go full suspension for a long time. Now that I finally caved I can't imagine going back to a hardtail. It's just so much easier on my joints than being rattled all to hell on the descent. I mean my upgrade full still weighs less than my old ht did.
This is kinda what I’m hoping to achieve.
I’m hoping to experience a little key fatigue, this allowing me to ride longer on the trails.

Thanks for all the help, guys.

@wllm1313 i really like the looks and price point of that Kona.

what do you guys think of giants like this?
 
This is kinda what I’m hoping to achieve.
I’m hoping to experience a little key fatigue, this allowing me to ride longer on the trails.

Thanks for all the help, guys.

@wllm1313 i really like the looks and price point of that Kona.

what do you guys think of giants like this?

Giant has sold an awful lot of bikes in the Stance line. The components don't wow me, but I wouldn't say they are bad. Giant put their own fork on there, so kind of hard to provide an opinion on that. If the 30lb isn't bad for the price point.
 
This is kinda what I’m hoping to achieve.
I’m hoping to experience a little key fatigue, this allowing me to ride longer on the trails.

Thanks for all the help, guys.

@wllm1313 i really like the looks and price point of that Kona.

what do you guys think of giants like this?
I wrecked pretty good and broke my rear derailleur then had to down grade from XT to Deore because they don't make XT for my drivetrain anymore. The difference was much larger than I was anticipating. I would strive for SLX or XT.
 

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