Goldstream Bicycles

Bike to Work Week is back for 2013! It’s an event that keeps getting bigger, with more participants and more companies supporting it. Goldstream Bicycles has been involved since the early days, and continues to support it. This year we’re donating a Kona Dew commuter hybrid, complete with our Lifetime Tune-Ups and Flat Insurance service offerings, as a prize for a lucky BTWW participant.

For a third year in a row, we’re also co-sponsoring a BTWW Celebration Station! The past two years it’s been at Veteran’s Memorial Park across the street, but it wasn’t the best location for commuters returning to Langford in the evening. Ours is at “Crossroads Park”. Not sure where that is? We weren’t either, at least not by name. It’s right beside our bike shop, at the intersection of Goldstream and Veteran’s Memorial Parkway, nicely located on two busy streets bike commuters use, and not far from Atkins Rd. (which also has a lot of bike traffic) and the E&N Rail Trail.

We’re excited to move this event to Crossroads Park, in conjunction with BTWW, the City of Langford, and Don Kim (who owns the grassy land adjoining Crossroad Park). It’s this Thursday from 4-6pm. Thanks to everyone who’s participated in making this event happen.

Grant and Steven H. will both be joining other local groups and small businesses at the Goldstream Nature House tomorrow for the second annual “Conservation Funk”. This year’s event includes:

Event Partners
- RLC Park Services
- Habitat Acquisition Trust
- Metchosin Farms
- Norwex Cleaning
- Compost Centre
- Goldstream Bicycles
- Little Elf Garden Centre
- Western Forest Service
- Boston Pizza
- Victoria Story Telling Guild

Silent Auction Prizes
- Adrenaline Zip Tours
- Set of Hand Quilted Place Mats
- Acu Health gift certificates for a variety of treatments
- Birding Art Work
- Goldstream Chess Set
- Birding Books

Activities
- Crafts/Face Painting
- Guided Walks
- Unveiling the ‘Goldstream Family Fun Challenge’
- Bike Demoing with Goldstream Bicycles (that’s us!)
- Story Telling
- Live Music

Also, from 11:30- 1 there will be a BBQ (by donation).

Grant will be demonstrating his Penny Farthing riding, and letting members of the public join in. More modern bicycles will be there for test ride as well. We hope to see you there!

Also, as Goldstream Bicycles is open for all spring and summer stats, we’ll be open Monday (Victoria Day!) from 9-6, and will have both mechanics and sales staff available to assist you.

Summer is just around the corner, but our summer hours are already in place. Effective immediately we’re open 8-7 weekdays (Monday through Friday), and 9-6 on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). We’ll have sales staff available to help you all of those hours, and we’ll typically have mechanics in from 9-6. We’re still open seven days a week, as we are year round, and still open for all statutory holidays from February through September. These are the longest opening hours in the twenty-four year history of Goldstream Bicycles. Thank you to those who have responded to past polls about our hours on our website, that helped us guide our decisions about our summer 2013 hours. Please take the time to tell us how these hours work for you the next time you visit the store.

In other news, I’m pleased to announce that Read the rest of this entry »

For those who don’t know, GST/PST comes back on Monday. That means bikes go from 12% HST down to 5% GST. We’re open all Easter long weekend, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are great days to test ride (perhaps leaving a deposit if you find the perfect bike), then picking it up on Monday for 7% less.

We’ve brought in several high-end full-suspension mountain bikes that we’ll be putting on sale, several of them just in and not yet on our website, so keep an eye on here or visit the store to find out more.

Speaking of the store, the expansion and renovation is not quite finished but it’s definitely getting there. There’s a lot more space for product, and for staff and customers to mill around it. It’s definitely been a better experience.

We’re open our regular hours all long weekend, and we hope to see you soon.

We’re renovating our store to increase the size of our sales floor (the final piece of the puzzle in incorporating the new space we added on to our store late last summer), and we’ve uncovered some things during the reno that we thought people might be interested in.

Kona “Tim Hunter” Mountain Bike Poster, circa 1990s. Tim Hunter was an NHL player at the time. The poster has the caption: “A tough guy needs a tough bike”. He’s sitting astride a Kona Mokomoko, and wearing a hockey jersey with an early Kona logo on it. The poster’s faded quite a bit over the years, but still looks pretty good.

This poster is for the 10th annual “Bicycle Days”, a festival I had never heard of before seeing it. This poster actually predates the shop, as we opened in 1989 and the poster says it’s for 1983. The penny farthings aren’t so unique, they’re still common in bike festivals today, but seeing people do freestyle BMX tricks on race BMX bikes with number plates… now THAT’s got the ’80s written all over it! As do the shorts they’re wearing.

Here’s an even older “Bicycle Days” poster. 1978 in this case, and apparently either put on by, or sponsored by, “Hillside Shopping Center” (they go by “Centre” these days). We’re not sure when or why “Bicycle Days” ended.

The reno is going quickly, and we look forward to having more space for customers to mill around in soon.

Goldstream Bicycles is not only open 7 days a week, we’re also open all spring and summer statutory holidays. This Monday, February 11th, is the first annual BC Family Day stat and, while Family Day is technically in the winter, it’s already starting to feel like spring out there so we’re declaring Family Day an honourary spring stat! Getting out on a family bike ride is a great way to celebrate BC’s first Family Day, and we’ll be open 9-6 to do whatever we can to complete your daily cycling plans. Both mechanics and sales staff will be on hand, and we’d love for you to come by.

A few months ago a couple, who wish to remain anonymous, won a bicycle from Market on Millstream and donated it to CFAX Santa’s Anonymous. That started a process that led to Goldstream Bicycles donating over $1000 in helmets and locks (plus an Opus Scout kids bike).

We learned from the CFAX Santa’s Anonymous team that the need has grown and that they are now operating year-round. We also learned that they have need for bicycle accessories such as helmets – donors will often give a bike, but rarely helmets, locks, and other things necessary to complete someone’s cycling experience. Should anyone wish to participate we can accept donations on behalf of CFAX Santa’s Anonymous towards this programme. We intend to donate more helmets and locks to CFAX Santa’s Anonymous in the weeks to come, to help make sure kids that received bicycles for Christmas have what they need to ride them safely as we go into the spring.

Click for our Boxing Week Sales

Join us Boxing Day and all week long for sales, specials, and other deals. New wrinkles to our BOGO (buy one, get one free deals), one last chance to pay the bottom price of our Community Buy deals, and much more is on offer. Click here to see all our week-long specials, plus visit the store any day during Boxing Week, mention you’re on our mailing list, and receive a free gift just for swinging by. Hope to see you all soon!

We’ve been running two “Community Buy” promotions, escalating discount deals that drop the price for everyone as more people buy into them. Tomorrow (AKA Monday, AKA Christmas Eve) is the final day to participate. Every one we sell not only drops the price lower for the next customer, but also for everyone who’s bought in so far. Everyone who has participated wins every time another person buys in, so if you’ve already participated you have one last opportunity to burn up the social networks encouraging friends to get involved and save themselves, and you, more money.

Check out our two “Community Buy” offers (the 2012 Hei Hei, and the Joytrax 2-child trailer) and contact us Monday if you wish to participate. We’re open 9-2, closing early so that the staff can go home and be with their families. Thank you to all our customers for making it so nice to work at Goldstream Bicycles.

Still stuck on finding that perfect Christmas gift? We have gift card promotions running until Christmas Eve where you can earn bonus free gift cards when purchasing gift cards, whether as a gift for others or as a gift for yourself towards that bike you’re planning to buy in the spring. Click here for all the details on our Christmas gift card promotions.

Have you got your bike in for a tune-up yet? Even if you’re not riding your bike much right now, bikes don’t come out of tune being stored, only when they’re ridden. Why wait for a spring tune-up when you can get it done now, and get entered in a draw to win a $100 gift card at the same time? You get an entry whether it’s a paid tune-up or a free one; refer a friend, and both you and your friend will get entries in the next draw.

Remember that we do Christmas layaway all the way up to 2PM Christmas Eve. Please arrange to pick up all your holiday purchases by then.