Ride On

These guys are incredible. They have helped me so much, I so recommend this bike shop. Genuinely amazing service, and they are humble — NOT bike snobs.
Check them out, great prices too!

I took two bikes here to get tuned up before going on a 10 day tour, you know, to make sure I’m not going to have any major road problems during those 10 days. I had told the cashier this when I dropped it off, hence why I was getting a tuned up and safety check, and also pointed out the my rear dérailleur was acting up on one bike.
They did a quick check of the chain and break pads, and said to replace the chain/​cassette on one, and the break pads on the other. The labour cost for the new chain would be included with the $ 50 tuneup, which was cool and was just paying extra for the parts. I picked up the bikes two days later, and was an unexpected labour fee for sliding Kool-​stop V-​pads (you know, the ones that take 5 minutes to slide out, back in and do a quick adjustment on), which was strange, considering the tuneup already included the break pad adjustments, and they didn’t charge me for the labour for the new chain on the other bike. All in all an additional $ 40 on-​top of the $ 50 tuneup for two of those slide-​in pads (ouch!). I had to argue with them to drop the additional labour costs, which they eventually did, and just paid extra for the pads. That was annoying and all, but is not why I’m writing this negative review (I would’ve just left it at that if that was it).
I’m writing this, because:
A) While they were adjusting the break pads for the wheel rim, they failed to notice how severally pitted my wheel rims were from break pad friction. How they didn’t notice this when starting right at them and adjusting the pads is beyond me. I was only one day into my tour when my rear rim blew out and had to take my bike into a shop in Victoria to get a new rear freewheel. I’m just really lucky this happened in Victoria, where there was a shop open on a Sunday that had a touring freewheel I needed, plus was generous enough to make time to install it quickly, so it didn’t ruin my whole bike tour. They also pointed out the my front rim was badly pitted too and warned about doing a long tour on it, but said I’d be ok for the 10 days, but wait. wasn’t this the kind of thing I was paying Ride On to check when I took it in to get inspecting for safety on my tour?
B) I had asked Ride On to look at my rear dérailleur on the one bike as it was a bit sticky, but noticed the day after picking it up that it was still just as bad as when I took it in, plus the cable didn’t seem to have the cap on the end of it, and was fraying, so I wonder if they even bothered to look at it?.. I didn’t have time to bring it back to get looked at again before my trip, so was going to have to deal with it for the duration of the tour. BUT, while I was in Victoria, getting my blown out rear wheel changed, I asked them to have a look at my dérailleur and see if it needed to be replaced. Amazingly, they fixed it just by replacing the cable, and tuning it up! Wait. wasn’t that also what I was suppose to be paying Ride On to do in the first place!!! Oh, and to add insult to injury, the labour cost of fixing my rear wheel and tuning up my dérailleur was half the cost of my lack-​lustered tuneup from Ride On.
So there you have it. Was really looking forward to having such a close, convenient, reliable bike mechanic in the neighbourhood, but learned the hard way that this place is not going to be it for me. I’d be especially cautious if your going bike touring.

Everyone that came in after me was seen to, I saw they were busy so gave them a chance but after hanging around for 30 minutes I gave up. This was my first and last time visiting this store

Had a great experience bike shopping here. April looked after us like we were old friends. She was very helpful and patient. It took us two days and multiple test drives to make up our mind. No pressure selling and got a great deal too. This is my new bike shop moving forward. Thank you

Just spoke to them and they said they’re all ready to go (as of beginning of March), but they’re just waiting for the go-​ahead from the City to open officially. They said it should be in the next couple of weeks.
Perfect time of year to consider dusting off my bike and going for a spin!