Boulder Cycle Sport: Best new bike shop

Dwayne Bergeron and Brandon Dwight of Boulder Cycle Sport.

Bicycle Retail and Industry News will present its Best New Bike Shop in America award to Boulder Cycle Sport in Boulder, Colorado on Tuesday. I asked part-owner Brandon Dwight how his shop was selected.

   "One of our primary goals is to make everyone feel welcomed and comfortable when they walk through our doors. We treat every customer with the utmost respect and strive to offer the best customer service possible. From riding, racing, sports medicine, wrenching and advocacy, each member of our staff has been integrated in the cycling community in some capacity for more than 15 years each. People come to us for advice because we offer the honest truth about products, training and more. From bike and components to nutritional products and apparel, we believe in all the products we carry and pass this along to our customers.

   "BRaIN asks industry reps to vote, and apparently some voted for us!"

Although Boulder boasts about a dozen bike shops catering to a population of about 100,000 people, the team at Boulder Cycle Sports felt there's plenty of business for another bike shop. This has been born out by the level of business they've seen since they opened.

The shop has a nice selection of high end bikes and components, and their location on north Broadway Street in Boulder is ideal for the hordes of road cyclists who daily ride past their shop on their way to U.S. Highway 36 for their training and recreational rides into the mountains or toward the plains. Many start their rides at the coffee shop adjoining the bike shop, and of course they stop in the shop for last minute schwag or repairs. Boulder Cycle Sport sees the casual recreational cyclists as well as many of the professionals who call Boulder home.

They don't cater just to the high end, though. When I was at the shop, a woman dropped in to pick up her cruiser. The service manager, Dwane Bergeron, was professional and pleasant in working with her. Brandon tells me, "We try to offer a little bit of everything for everyone. Plus, we try to treat everyone as an equal and not alienate anyone. Whether they are a professional rider or a first timer, everyone gets the same level of respect and service."

Boulder is already famous for the level of cycling that occurs here. Transportational cycling is amazing, with over 10% of commuters regularly biking to work in Boulder. Miles of trails provide plenty of fun for the active mountain biking community. On nice weekends, there are literally hundreds of road cyclists covering many of the mountain roads and highways in Boulder County.

Brandon expects even this high level of cycling to grow in 2006.

   "I think with the increase in gas prices and people becoming more educated about cycling’s great benefits, we are going to see more individuals pedaling to work and school, as well as using the bicycle to run daily errands. Once people learn how easy it is to get around their neighborhood by bicycle, they use their car much less. I also see road cycling to continue to grow. The area in and around Boulder offers some of the most scenic and memorable road rides in the world. Road riding is safe, easy to do, low impact on your body and great way to exercise, as well as socialize with your friends."

See related: lbs, local+bike+shop, boulder, colorado, cycling