Tag Archives: bike shop

Inside Bike Carson-Tahoe

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Last week I got a chance to tour the newly opened Bike Carson-Tahoe bike shop.  Owner Chris Huber gave me a full tour, and showed me all the bikes he had out on the floor.  While there is still work to be done to finish up the shop, it’s really looking good in there, and there’s a wide range of bikes to suit most riders.

Bike Carson-Tahoe
Bike Carson-Tahoe, Sales, Rentals, and Service

Right now the primary brand in the shop is Cannondale, a company founded in 1971. Cannondale has always been about innovation and trying new things. Not everything they have experimented with over the decades has turned out to be fabulous, but many of their innovations have definitely driven and shaped the bicycle industry. I remember when I started seeing the big fat aluminum tubed Cannondale frames on the trail back in the late 80s. Most of us were riding steel bikes, and these new frames made the bikes look and sound so cool. Today it’s hard to find a steel framed road or mountain bike in a bike shop. Cannondale continues their spirit of innovation today. The Cannondales Chris has in the shop are most impressive, both to look at and to ride!

Bike Carson-Tahoe
Chris Huber, Owner, with Flash 29er

Chris let me ride a carbon framed Flash 29er with a Lefty fork. The Lefty fork is strange to look at, but you don’t think about it while you’re riding. This bike is basically the same size and shape as my steel framed Surly, but the carbon frame gave it a totally different feel. It made me really want to get it up on the trails to see how it climbed.

Bike Carson-Tahoe
Jekyll

The Jekyll is another bike that got me drooling. This bike is part of Cannondale’s “Overmountain” lineup. This is a bike that rides like an XC bike to the top of the mountain, and descends like a long-travel bike back down. A flick of the handlebar control totally changes the personality of the rear suspension system.

Bike Carson-Tahoe
EVO

Also in the shop is the full carbon Cannondale EVO road bike. At just 13-14 lbs complete, it is unbelievable to pick up. I picked it up and put it down about 5 times. My brain just couldn’t believe what it was feeling. I can’t imagine what it’d feel like out on the road!

Bike Carson-Tahoe
SL3 29er Single Speed

If you’re going to ride a rigid single speed, a 29er is the way to go. Chris has an SL3 in stock right now for the rider looking for a fun simple mountain bike that requires little maintenance. Spend more time riding, and less time fiddling with the bike.

Bike Carson-Tahoe
Full range of bikes, mountain to road, entry level to exotic

While there are many high-end bikes in the shop, Chris also has bikes at a more affordable price for people looking to get into the sport. For cyclists looking for something other than Cannondale, other brands to be featured in the shop will be Ibis, Argon 18, and Leopard.

Also unique to Carson City, Bike Carson-Tahoe offers bicycle rentals. While I was there, a runner came in to inquire about renting a nice road bike for her upcoming triathlon. She said she wasn’t really into bikes, but wanted something more competitive for her race than what she currently had. In addition to helping out the locals, bike rentals will help tourism in Carson City. Our city definitely has what it takes to become a bicycle travel destination, and having bike rentals available is definitely part of the equation.

Bike Carson-Tahoe
Ibis

Bike Carson-Tahoe is also a full service tune and repair shop as well. Chris has worked in many pro shops, has raced mountain and road bikes at a professional level, built frames, and even once set a world speed record in a human powered vehicle at 68.73 mph! With many years of training people, fitting people to bikes, working on bikes, and designing and building frames, Chris has a wealth of knowledge and experience to offer the customer.

Bike Carson-Tahoe
Accessories

Chris has plenty of accessories in the shop now too. Tires, tubes, pumps, bar tape, lube, water bottles, sports supplements, and more. Everything you need to keep you and your bike going.

More Info:

Bicycle Authority in the NV Appeal

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Having grown up in Carson City, I have known Dan Turner, owner of the Bicycle Authority, for many years. My neighborhood BMX gang would often run into his BMX gang out at the jumps in an empty lot somewhere around town, and he was always out at the BMX track too. When I got my drivers license at 16, I gave up on bikes for a few years. I’d be driving down the street in my chick magnet, a Datsun B210 station wagon with a dented up driver’s side, and there would be Dan, riding his BMX bike down main street. He’d be bunny hopping, jumping off curbs, and I remember thinking, “Who would be caught riding around town on a bicycle? How nerdy!” And now look at me today…

Dan Turner – Photo by Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal

The Nevada Appeal recently did a “Meet Your Merchant” feature on the Bicycle Authority. Here’s a snippet of the article from the Nevada Appeal:

Dan Turner said his post-secondary schooling wasn’t spent buried in books deep inside a library, but toiling away in the back of a bike shop.

“That’s all I had done was work at bike shops,” said Turner, 44, owner of Bicycle Authority. “I got to learn from owners of bike shops … that really helped getting my foot in the door. That was my own form of college.”

Turner is a one man show at his North Carson City bike shop, spending six days a week inside his spacious store that is covered in bicycle paraphernalia that includes posters of the Death Ride, a 129-mile trek along the California Alps, to former rides mounted on the walls.

Movie Night at Bicycle Authority
Bicycle Authority Memorabilia – Skyway BMX

One thing that makes Dan’s shop unique is all the memorabilia displayed throughout the store. Most bike shops tend to live in the now, dazzling the senses with the latest and greatest. In the Bicycle Authority, though, you will take a walk down memory lane. There are a lot of old bikes and other items throughout the store that aren’t for sale. Brian Duggan, the writer of the NV Appeal article, looked around the store and noticed the old Death Ride posters. I suppose everyone’s eyes focus on something different. For me it’s the old Skyway BMX frame up on the wall. It stirs up memories of the endless summers back in the 80′s when my friends and I would just sit on the lawn, talk about BMX, and think of what kind of trouble to get into next. There was so much free time back then! A Skyway just like the one on Dan’s wall was the last bike of my childhood, the bike that led me on so many cool adventures.

Continue reading the Nevada Appeal article, Meet Your Merchant: BMX kid at heart made bicycles his life’s work over on the Nevada Appeal website.

More info:
What: The Bicycle Authority
Where: 1501 N. Carson St.
Hours: Weekdays 10 a.m. to
6 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to
5 p.m. Closed Sundays.
Contact: 775-884-1555
Online: www.bigdansbikes.com