Broad Street Cycles

 Broad Street Cycles is a full-service bike shop in Victoria, BC. 

We carry unique and hard-to-find brands like Bianchi, BMC, Campagnolo, Cinelli, Felt, Focus, Naked and Yeti. 

We sell, customize and repair the bikes, components and accessories that we ride, trust and love.

At Broad Street Cycles we:

• believe in bikes and the people who ride them;
• ride, race and test the latest bikes, components and products;
• promote cycling by hosting weekly road and cross group rides, organizing  races and collaborating with community groups including Stuckylife.
  

 

 

Broad Street Cycles has expert staff who:

• race road, cross, track and mountain bikes – we know what works!
• build and customize bikes to suit your style – we live and breathe bikes!
• build frames and provide tech support to the Canadian Mountain Bike Team!        . We know bikes!
  

 

Check Out Broad Street Cycles Review of Our Unique Products

BMC Arrives at BSC – Read BSC’s Full Review

The latest new arrival at Broad Street Cycles is the Swiss bike company BMC. We’ve drooled over the very few Time Machine and Team Machine bikes we’ve seen around on the streets, so we’re pretty happy to be bringing them in to Broad Street Cycles as the only dealer in Victoria. Headquartered in Grenchen, Switzerland, BMC’s are designed and tested in the heart of the European mountains by some of the biggest names in the sport. On the road, BMC Racing Team is a WorldTour ranked pro team, crowned Team Time Trial World Champions in Richmond, VA in September 2015. In the dirt, BMC is led in the XCO World Cup circuit by Julien Absalon, 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, and most recently, 2014 XC World Champion. Most importantly, BMC’s are great bikes that just happen to look incredible too. So come down to the shop and check out the first arrivals of this Swiss designed magic.

Broad Street Cycles will be carrying a range of BMC road bikes, primarily from the Team Machine ‘Altitude’ road and Time Machine ‘Aero’ road series.’ While they’re best known for their top of the line, high end bikes, BMC offers the same frames in a range of build kits, from Di2 to mechanical shifting, including the much more reasonable Team Machine SLR03 in a couple different build options. These have already started arriving in store, are built up, and out on the floor for you to try. Look for their mountain bikes to be arriving in the future, including the revamped Trail Fox series, but for now, check out some of what’s already arrived in store:

 

 

 

 

Bianchi Oltre XR-1 – Read BSC’s Review

To say we’re excited to be carrying Bianchi at Broad Street Cycles is a bit of an understatement. Bianchi’s place in the history of cycling covers the bike-nerd angle, and the bikes themselves look amazing. Not satisfied just having the celeste dream machines in the shop, Renny and Parker have both built up Bianchi Oltre XR-1’s of their own to ‘test.’

Here’s a closer look at Renny’s Oltre, including Campagnolo Eurus wheels and Chorus drivetrain for a very Italian feel.

 

 

Bianchi Infinito CV – Read BSC’s Full Review

Bianchi bills the Inifinito CV as the top of it’s ‘endurance’ line of road bikes. Far from being a cruiser aimed at the randonneur crowd, the Infinito is what World Tour team Lotto-Jumbo used to tackle the infamously rough Paris-Roubaix. Bianchi has made subtle changes to the geometry of the Infinito that separate it from their pure race bikes, the Oltre and Specialissima, giving the it slightly slacker head tuble angles, a longer fork rake, longer chainstays, and a slightly taller head tube. Combined, these changes make the Infinito more comfortable for all day rides on less than perfect roads. Victoria fondo loop, anybody? To further increase comfort on rougher roads, Bianchi’s added countervail technology into the Infinito CV frame to reduce road vibration. Countervail is, in Bianchi’s words ” incorporates viscoelastic, vibration cancelling properties into the carbon fiber layup process.” I can’t explain to you what exactly this means, but it’s been getting surprisingly good reviews already for both the Infinito and the Specialissima. While the Infinito targets the rougher roads of longer ‘classics’ races, Bianchi’s redesigned the frame with aerodynamics in mind, making this a great bike any day.

                        

Infinito means ‘never ending.’ In case the translation was tricky, they’ve put the infinity sign on the shaped top tube

 

The nicely shaped back end of the Infinito and Bianchi’s are proudly hand made in Italy. They’ve even put a sticker on to remind you.

2016 Focus Mares CX Disc Ultegra – Read BSC’s Full Review

The 2016 bikes are arriving including the Focus Mares CX 2016 model. Ultegra hydro discs from Shimano, fancy new Ultegra drivetrain, OEM exclusive gumwall tires and a host of other nice details are hiding all over this bike.

Focus has put their Rapid Axle Technology (R.A.T.) system on the Mares as well. RAT gives the Mares the stiffness of a through axle system, which is also key to centering the rotors to prevent brake rub, but with the speed of a quick release axle so mid-race wheel changes are still competitively quick.

Focus uses 15mm front axle and a 142x12mm rear axle standard, which means you can use a mountain bike hub on the Mares, if you already have a fancy set sitting around. That being said, Focus ships the Mares with DT Swiss’ rather nice R 23 Spline Disc wheelset, which are 18mm wide, 23mm deep and a very reasonable 1655gr. Definitely not a wheelset to turn your nose up at.

 

 

Focus Mares CX – Rapha-Focus Team Edition – Read BSC’s Full Review

It’s never to early to start thinking about Cross season.  This Focus Mares CX may decked out with full Dura-Ace gearing now, but a quick conversion and it’d be ready to slay the Speedway for SSCXWC15 then get right back to the front of the pack the next weekend’s COTR race.

This Focus Mares CX is the Rapha-Focus Team Edition from a couple years ago when Jeremy Powers was still flying their colours. While it’s not this newest edition of the Mares CX, Focus’s German engineering combined Rapha’s stylistic sensibility is a pairing that’ll never go out of style. The neopolitan and navy blue colourway gives a more modern look to the Euro styling of canti brakes and double chainrings. There’s a reason Euro pro’s are stubbornly holding on the classic Cross set-up: they’ve proven it works over years of racing. And set up with the Dura-Ace build on this Mares CX, it’ll work really, really well.

Rapha and Focus have combined their relative strengths to make this Mares CX an amazing bike, and write their names on it everywhere possible

   

 

Yeti ASR-C – Read BSC’s Full Review

Yeti has a long history of making awesome mountain bikes. They’ve been around pretty much from the beginning, and have a very loyal following among owners.  Just looking at their most recent foray into the XC side of dirt racing, it’s easy to see why. The ASR-C is, to be straightforward, a beautiful frame. It looks great.  Since it’s a Yeti, it also rides incredibly well.  Parker’s 3rd ever ride on this bike was the 40+km Gearjammer race in Squamish, where he placed 5th. This is not a bike that you need to ‘get to know,’ it just rides really, really well.

Here’s some basics about the ASR-C. It’s a 4″ rear travel, carbon XC race bike, but one designed to be as fun as it is fast. Frame alone, the ASR-C weighs in a hair under 2kg, partly due to the simplicity of Yeti’s one piece ‘swoop’ stay’s – the characteristic one piece chain and seat stays that form the bikes rear triangle. It also has other smart features, like internal dropper post cable routing, integrated downtube protector, tapered headtube, and a few other details hiding in there. On top of Yeti’s pretty all-out build, Parker’s made a couple changes – like XTR wheels, brakes, and pedals.

Yeti’s awesome head badge. And smooth lines of the lovely shaped carbon frame. All round goodness

 

A Fox’s Float CTD keeps the ASR-C floating along nicely. And, if you look close, Yeti branded hardware

   

Nice wide Easton Haven Carbon bars show Yeti’s intent to make the ASR-C fun when pointed downhill and SRAM XO1 drivetrain. It looks like SRAM also put some time into making their chainrings look nice

Felt Nine 3 – Read BSC’s Full Review

Felt makes good bikes. They fly under the radar. They can sell their bikes for a really good price, because they don’t do things like sponsor huge ProTour factory teams. Instead, they like to sponsor smaller grassroots teams, continental teams, and Women’s UCI level racing (they sponsor Twenty16 Sho-Air, including top Women’s pro racer Kristen Armstrong). They also have a sharp eye for parts spec, nailing a pretty sharp balance between cost and performance. For example, the Nine 3 has a full Deore level Shimano build, except for the upgraded XT ‘clutch’ rear derailleur. Smart. These factors combined result in a bike like the Nine 3, which I have been thrashing around mountains and race tracks across the Pacific Northwest for the last 8 months with little to no complaint from the bike. From ‘spring’ XC races on the Island, to the burly NIMBY 50 course in Pemberton, to the 100 mile beating of Oakridge’s Cascade Cream Puff 100, the Nine 3 has taken everything in stride.

While the stock build is pretty sharp, there are some changes that I’ve made. XTR cranks and XT pedals that I saved from an older bike. The wheels have been bumped up to a tougher, racier combo of XT front wheel, and XT hub/Stan’s Arch EX rim out back. Both sporting Maxxis’ stalward Ikon rubber. And that beautiful, moto inspired 120mm Fox 32.

 

Fox’s 2016 mtb theme is 1970 motocross. No idea what MX felt like in ’76, but this fork is great

Felt Edict 1 – Read BSC’s Full Review

Renny’s been riding around the back woods of Victoria on a Felt Edict 1 frameset he built up this spring. The Edict 1 borrows Felt’s TeXtreme carbon layup previously only available on their top of the line FRD bikes (like the Felt AR FRD) to make this 29er frame race light, yet still strong enough to take the abuse of West Coast trails. Parker has definitely pushed the definition of ‘xc racing,’ taking his Edict 1 everywhere from Vancouver’s notorious North Shore trails to the steep and loose Pemberton trails of the Nimby 50 course.

 

The Edict 1 in it’s natural environment. Rockshox’s Reba fork sits up front to match the Monarch shock.

 

Felt Virtue 50 – Read BSC’s Full Review

Felt’s designed the Virtue as their ‘trail bike’ line, which means 130mm travel out back, a 140mm fork and a really fun bike to ride. While everyone is just so excited to offer a carbon super bike, Felt’s kept your options open by offering a full aluminum frame option for the Virtue. For a bike that’s all about fun, this makes sense. A little bit of extra weight, and super durable. With an all aluminum frame, the Virtue 50 isn’t as svelte as say, a carbon hardtail xc race bike. Not that you’d expect it to be, that’s not at all what you would look to a bike like the Virtue for. But given that Victoria is short on shuttle accessed runs, and even the ‘down’ trails here tend to have their share of ups, we’ve been happy to find it does ride surprisingly well uphill, handling better on the techy up’s than a bike that’s this much fun on the downhills should. Felt would like to say this comes down to their Equilink suspension, designed to separate drivetrain forces from suspension action via that extra little bar you see behind the seat tube on the Virtue. And yeah, it’s really fun to ride downhill. Aidan was kind enough to let me take it on a trip up to the South Chilcotin mountains this August, where it handled the extended downhill’s like a champ. Even though the frames a bit small for me, it still felt like I was sitting in the frame, not tottering around above it, giving the sensation that you can take corners as fast as you’d like and still stay in control.

As is usual with Felt, the Virtue 50 shipped with an admirable selection of parts for it’s price point. Shimano Deore drivetrain for the most part, but bumped up to SLX on the brakes and an XT Shadow Plus clutch derailleur once again demonstrate Felt’s knack for putting in money where it counts while still keeping costs down. The Virtue 50 gets 130mm of rear wheel travel courtesy of RockShox’s Monarch RT, including climb, trail, and descend settings, appreciated over prolonged climbs. Up front, a RockShox Sektor silver gives 140mm of travel, including a remote lock-out switch. Not a standard feature on a fork with that much travel, but again, nice when you’re riding out to the trail or on long climbs. Felt also shipped the Virtue 50 with a KS eTen dropper post, featuring an odd, non-remote lever function. I’m sure this saved money, and keeps one more lever off the bars, but taking your hands off the bars to drop the seat isn’t always what you want to be doing while riding. That being said, remember a few years ago when you had to stop and get off your bike to change your seat height?

   

Felt keeps costs down on the Virtue 50, leaving more room in the budget for socks

 

 

Cinelli at BSC – Read BSC’s Full Review

 

 

 

 

 

While they have a relatively large presence in the world of track bikes, Cinelli remains a comparably small company. Instead of expanding to cover every kind of riding, they’ve kept their line-up of bikes small and narrowly focused on what they’ve always done, and what they know best. You won’t be seeing a Cinelli 27.5+ enduro-fat bike anytime soon. Instead of expanding their line, they’re constantly working on refining what they do offer. This is how you get a company that produces several different track frames – from classic track throwbacks to cutting edge street racing machines – through slow refinement and incremental changes. They’re one of the only companies to adapt their different track frames to the specific demands of track racing vs. fixed street racing. Oh, and style. Always with style.

On top of design and Italian flare, with Cinelli you also get a strong focus on quality materials. They’re owned by the same parent company as Columbus tubing, so you always get the legendary quality of Columbus tubing.

At BSC we have several new models in store waiting for your dream build:

 

Custom Build: Soma Smoothie – Read BSC’s Full Review

Soma Fabrications are a small bike fabricator out of the San Francisco Bay Area who focus on making bikes for people who ride every day, who love to ride bikes, but who don’t really care about making their bike look like a team replica bike. In fact, the  minimalist aesthetic on their frames intentionally eschews the billboard style graphics of ‘pro models’ in favor of a design they describe as simple, and “easy to cover up with stickers.”

While they may not be keen on using the WorldTour as their design starting point, Soma is still very focused on making a high quality bike that is really fun to ride. They just want that bike to last longer. To that end, they’ve built the Smoothie using Tange Prestige butted CrMo Steel to achieve their balance of durability and ride quality.  Soma wants a bike that’ll make you want to ride it every day, and that can stand up to the abuse of years of every day riding.  Sounds good to us!

 

New Kit – Read BSC’s Review

We recently received the long awaited new version of the Broad Street Cycles kit, and while you may have seen the BSC team wearing it at races for a while now, we thought we should do an ‘official’ launch. Well, as official as we’re going to get. As far as technical details go, it’s made of Pearl Izumi’s ‘Elite’ line of cycling kit, which is sort of like their Ultegra level kit to use the Shimano hierarchy. Fancy features include expanding volume rear pockets, breathable side panels to keep you cool, and Pearl’s ‘climbing’ feature: just pulling the jersey apart at the collar unzips the front zipper so you can quickly open the jersey when you’re overheating on Hurricane Ridge, or when you just want to do a really good Hulk Hogan impression.

Fabian and Rachel were kind enough to spend the morning drinking coffee, modelling the new kit, and practicing their trials skills. Check out the pictures below, then come down to the shop and see it for your self. Race in it, ride in it, cruise out to a lake in it, the new kit works for whatever you want to do.

 

 

Felt TK FRD – Read BSC’s Full Review

Track bike’s are usually quite straight forward race bikes: one gear, no brakes, standard fare. Rachel’s Felt TK FRD, however, is anything but standard. The ‘FRD’ means part of Felt’s ‘Racing Development’ line of bikes. On the TK, this means not only does it get the checkerboard UHC Ultimate TeXtreme Carbon layup, but a host of other changes that separate it from your normal or ‘classic’ track bike. Like, for instance, Felt’s ‘Bayonet 2’ integrated fork/stem combo. It also has full ‘track aero’ tubing, and titanium surfaced horizontal dropouts in place of standard steel dropouts.