Bay Cycle and Sports

Having been an avid cyclist in the past, I’ve always loved that there were local bike shops where you could talk to the staff who were just as enthusiastic about the sport/​gear as you. BCS is somewhere in between that local shop and Canadian Tire, if you can imagine that.
This was our second visit to BCS since moving out east (I used to frequent Silent Sports) and albeit being somewhat crammed and disorganized, I like BCS for what it is. A good little local shop. The staff are friendly but somewhat stand-​offish when you ask for advice on gear which I find a little odd.
We went in looking for a front mount child’s bike seat (ibert) and an infant bike helmet. Having called a day ahead to check on availability of the seat, I knew that they would have the seat in stock and since I was told the seat was $ 140, that’s what I expected to pay. We spent some time looking at the infant helmets and checked out the seat and when we went to pay for the merchandise, we were told that the seat was $ 160. I was a little put off by this but you can chalk it up to someone’s honest mistake. We were also looking for a new bike to accommodate the child seat and we received no help with this from the staff.
With a tired babe in arms, we did not have the patience to wait longer than 15 minutes for someone to help us, we ended up leaving without a bike. Sure, I’ll probably revisit BCS to check out their sale in June but for now, I’ll hop on over to Pedal Performance and see how they stack up.

In September 2012 I came to them with my old mountain bike which was in pretty beat up shape. They gave it to me straight… that the bike was going to need $ 200 worth of repair, and maybe another $ 100 the following year… so with that, they helped me to get a new bike… because clearly it was the logical choice. I thought about it overnight, and the next day I was back in the store.
I picked out a very nice 26″ NORCO bike with off road tread, as I was buying it mostly to ride in Haliburton Forest. I also bought some accessories to go with it, including safety gear like a new helmet, bell, etc.
The sales staff were friendly, and even helped me get the bike onto the carrier rack on the back of my van.