By George I think they got it!

I was getting a haircut the other day, chatting with the hair stylist and mentioned I own a bike shop. She said "oh, my son is looking for a trick bike, how much are they?" I said "a good one is around $500". She says "oh, I was looking for something around $200 do you have anything in that price range?". I said "nope, the cheapest is $385". She said okay and kinda dropped it. But then after a little discussion about the skatepark the city is building down the street,she starts to tell me about the department store bikes he has broken lately and they cost $300 each and have no warranty or anything. Well I said for the $600 you spent you could've got a good BMX with a lifetime warranty on the frame. It clicked, and she got it, buying one good bike costs less in the end.

The same day, some dude that looks like one of the standard ruffian's that roams the area comes in. He does a lap of the store and heads straight to a pretty expensive bike. He asks to see it, rides it a little around the store and says yeah, I'll take it. So cool, but while I am doing up the bill, buddy starts telling me his story (everybody has a story). He wanted that bike since it came out and he was about to order one online. But figured before he hit the confirm button he would do a little local search and found my little shop. Checked my price for the bike and it was cheaper than ordering from the US would be. How can this be you ask? Buddy figured out that the shipping, duty and taxes added to the US price it would put it over my price and he would be without a warranty (Any bike shipped over a border automatically loses its warranty). He is a big guy and doesn't plan on babying the bike and wanted a warranty. I was very impressed and said I wish more people thought their purchases through, not only would they get the warranties and service they deserve but they would be helping a small business stay open for a little while longer.

Full time baby!

I REMEMBERED MY PASSWORD!!!

I've been trying to update this, allot has happened since August and I finally remembered my log in stuff.

So, the racing was as fun as ever and there is even an Urban Menace race team now! The team consists of Austin, Erin, Ethan, Ray and me. I had jerseys made by Artrageous in POCO pretty much at the end of the year but we'll look slick this year. And just recently added a bunch of park/street riders to the team that will be ripping it up at a skatepark near you.

We have some new bike lines available and are even an exclusive dealer for COLONY bmx bikes... complete bikes anyway. We also now have Kross bikes in stock, made in Europe with all Shimano & Suntour components. And have a whole bunch of SE racing products in stock... my first real race bike was a SE racing "P.K. RIPPER". :)

And last but certainly not least. If you have tried to call or come down and noticed the very limited hours it was because I was also working full time. Well, no more! I quit that job and I am here from 12 - 7pm most days. I also answer email, messages and whatnot starting at 7:30 am and usually until 11pm. I'm not stalking, just a little bit of a workaholic. ;)

BMX RACING!!!

So at some point between the snake (which is now back in the wild thanks to the Burnaby Wildlife Rescue) and now, I started BMX racing!

It wasn't a whim or a feeble ploy at getting some business, I have actually been planning on getting back on the track. I say get back to the track because I raced for pretty much all of the 80's. The shiny chrome and pastel colors are gone and the track looks like it wants to do you some serious bodily harm but it is still as fun as ever. I now race the 40 & over cruiser class, yes that's right 40 & over and there is usually riders in the 45 & over class too!

The store is slowly transforming to a one stop BMX shop but I will still fix anything that comes through the door. I am a Red Seal certified Commercial Transport mechanic so it's kind of an oath that I pledge to repair whatever people bring me. ;)


Just a note: Urban Menace bikes is proud to be the only bike shop to carry made in Canada Yess BMX frames, chain tensioners and the only place to get a complete Yess BMX!

There's a snake in the shop!

One of my more "colorful" regular customers was in the shop earlier this week and left behind a box which formerly contained chocolate covered almonds.
I was closing up and picked up the box off of the floor and it felt like something was in there. I opened it up and expected some chocolatey treats but in the box was a snake! Yes a snake. I closed it up quickly and put the little box into a bigger box then put them in the sink for some reason. Thinking he would come back the next day, I rushed to the shop to check on the snake and it was gone!
So I had a snake roaming freely about the bike shop for the better part of the week. Then yesterday after my "I'm coming home" phone call, I turned around and there is the snake. He reared up and was trying to pick a fight. I quickly retrieved its former home from the sink, threw it on the floor and somehow coaxed it into the box. I then taped up (made sure it could still breath) the almond box so it couldn't escape again, then put that box in an even bigger box (about three feet high... it's not getting out of there) and locked it in the washroom.... after turning the heater on so it will stay warm. So once again the shop is safe and snake free (almost).

Oscar the grouch in human form!

I thought I was getting surly, I'm not even close to someone that came in to the shop the other day. Apparently his spawn races BMX bikes.... Yay .... and has a $1000 serious race machine with a stretched chain. Mr. G was not at all impressed by having to spend $10 on his spawns bike and after taking every chain out of it's box and closely examining each link of every chain (all the while mumbling to himself) decided $10 was far too much money for a chain for a $1000 race bike and marched out with the spawn behind. They jumped into a beemer and sped off. All I could think was, poor kid. The look of terror in the spawns eyes when asked a question was heart breaking. If I ever have another spawn it will get any chain it wants.

What the ????

Started out with a bang and it has dropped to the point of why bother. Quickly becoming one of the hoards of surly bike shop owners which I was striving to not become. It has gotten to the point where I had to get a full time job to support the bike shop. And have people making smarmy comments about my hours, such as, "oh, it must be nice to only have to work 2 hours a day" to which I reply " I've been up since 5:30 and have already put in a 9 hour day at my first job, but thank you for supporting small business" Most of the public are not aware but most of us independent bike shop owners do work another job, some even live inside their shops after hours. Why you ask? Because we are bike people, we live, eat and sleep bikes. So please do some research before coming into an actual bike shop and know what it is you are looking for, chances are we already put in a full day somewhere else and could snap at any moment. Thank you for your support.

Urban Menace

The little shop in the French neighborhood is plugging along. Lots of support from the community, mostly well wishes and whatnot. I've mostly had inquiries aboot mountain bikes and skateboards in my new neighborhood. So you have to give the people what they want to stay afloat yes? I'll be featuring mountain bikes from Asama and other more comfortable bikes for the ladies, all of which will be under $1000. The mountain bikes are hardtails with front suspension and disc brakes on the front and rear and are in the $700 range. The comfort bikes have suspension seatposts, front suspension, adjustable stems, lots of gears and are in the $300 range.

The big news is I was just approved for an account with Centre Distribution, which is a local skateboard distributor!!! The shop will start out with Santa Cruz skateboards and see where that takes us. And since there will be more than bikes now, I will slowly be fazing out bikes in the name of the store.