COMPREHESIVE RECOMMENED SHOP LIST

[Krash]

Jumping on this thread for some shameless spam for my Breckenridge business.

Breck Velo/Carlsted Fabrication has acquired much of the old tuning equipment from the now defunct Colorado Freeride, formerly A Racers Edge.

I have relocated my shop to a year round location on Airport Road directly across from the free skier parking. I am set up for bicycle service year-round, welding, fabricating, small engine repair, and now SKI TUNING as well.

I am using the original Wintersteiger from A Racers Edge, this machine produces a beautiful structure and is responsible for many many fast grinds on World Cup and Olympic speed skis for the past 2 decades. The only downfall is the stone width. Currently I am limited to tuning only skis, no boards, and the skis have to be under 120mm in the waist for me to put out a good finish. We will soon be upgrading to a wider stone to accommodate any width ski.

Skis can be dropped of at Mountain Outfitters, Breck Ski & Boot or at my shop on Airport Rd. Come out to the shop, mention TGR and get 20% off any service.

I always appreciate the support form the TGR community. Thanks Mag's!

Kristofer

Call us for any questions 970-453-VELO(8356)
or breckvelo@gmail.com

[whyturn]

Docs Ski Haus Southern CA
Fluid Ski and Sport Southern CA

[nickwm21]

Please delete Granite Chief from the list. No one in there right mind would enter that shop with all the other great shops in truckee..

[skinipenem]

Of you live in North Idaho, or the Eastern side of Washington

The Sports Creel, Spokane, Wa

Best products and staff there. Sure they cater to a younger crowd but the owner (Herb) has been around for almost 40 years, he knows his stuff

Sports Creel
Spokane Valley, WA

They don't do AT gear, but otherwise they are great. Family business. The owner Herb bends over backward to help people. They sell gear that is appropriate for people instead of trying to sell them the most expensive stuff. They even have a trade-in program that lets kids ski very inexpensively. I was referred by a friend and have referred another friend. We are all very pleased.

[js44jack]

3rd on Mammoth Mountaineering
Great shop and great guys!

[Bandy1080]

Just bought a pair of BRO 183 FATs from Pat and I need to buy some bindings for them. Looking for a good recommendation of a shop in the Park City area that sells Marker bindings and knows how to mount them on some fat skis.

[Imz]

Best ski shop in the SF bay area is California Ski Company in Berkeley. In particular for boot fitting.

[Imz]

Worst attitude at a Mountain Store in the Bay Area (Interestingly also in Berkeley) Marmot Mountain Works.

+ Good selection of gear (skins, axes, etc)
- expensive.
- Terrible attitude.
- VERY limited ski/ AT knowledge.

Great place to go if you know what you want and have to pick it up immediately...

[otto parts]

Just had a great experience at Marmot Mountain Works-methodical intuition mold/fitting from Paul. Went there because although Cal ski guys are nice, they
used a blower on a different boot last year and didn't reach the toes, which then required lots of touch up. $60 for 2 hours work and didn't even buy the boots there.

[splat]

Please delete Granite Chief from the list. No one in there right mind would enter that shop with all the other great shops in truckee..

Agreed...

[powtario]

Thanks for putting this up Marshal, super helpful.

[GoldenBear]

I am disappointed in Wheatridge cyclery. I have brought my bike there twice now. First to bleed my brakes. They were bled but there was a bubble in the line when I got the bike back. My first ride ended up with me loosing all rear brake power half way through.

Today, I got the call that my fork was rebuilt and should be good to go. However, when they took the fork off the bike, the oil from the fork soaked the brake pads and I am going to have to replace them.

ME: "So you got fork oil on my brake pads?"
WC: "Well, when we took the fork off, the oil soaked the brake pads."
ME: "Are you going to replace my brake pads then?"
WC: "We can. The pads will cost you $18 plus labor."
Me: "But you guys ruined them by getting oil on them when you removed the fork so why should I pay for that?"
WC: "Your fork was leaking oil and it got on your brake pads when we removed the fork."
ME: "When YOU removed the fork, YOU got oil on the brake pads. This wasn't an issue before I brought the bike here"
WC: "We can install the new pads for free but you will have to pay for the pads."

At this point I am so frustrated. I can replace the damn pads. That is not the point!

So now, I get a rebuilt fork that I am iffy about, a contaminated front rotor, contaminated calipers and useless pads. Thank you Wheat Ridge

[Brianskis]

Spokane Alpine Haus

Spokane, WA PNW

I have worked at the Alpine Haus since the closing of Lou Lou' sin spring 2004. Much of the former Lou Lou's crew works or is still associated with the shop in some way. Fred Nowland is still running the tune shop and can provide one of the best hand tunes in the industry as well as second to none mounting and ski repair. Our bootwork has improved and I thinks it's safe to say we offer the best cutom bootwork of any shop in the Inland Northwest. We currenty do not offer any boot planing but can provide great custom beds and any shell modifications you might need. The product selection is getting better every year as the longtime owner finally listens to his people. We are very dedicated to testing product, and try to ski as many models as possible, whether we carry it or not, to know whats out there in the market place. We are definitely a shop you can hang-out and be treated as a fellow rider, not just a customer. Come tell ski stories, bring some cold one's and get to know us...

[FormerKnuckleDragger]

Please delete Granite Chief from the list. No one in there right mind would enter that shop with all the other great shops in truckee..

Thirded. They drilled a brand new pair of skis for bindings, then forgot to use half the binding screws (heel piece, two forward screws) which resulted in a cracked set of bindings and water damage in the skis.

[other1]

Midwest - Columbus, Ohio - Aspen Ski and Board Co.

Unparalleled selection for a Mid West shop and a great source of collective knowledge from the staff. Great boot fitting with Chad or Chris.

[spindrift]

Been a while since I looked this over.

As a matter of housekeeping, Gerk's Alpine hut is now Gerk's Ski & Cycle in Redmond WA. (the new Issaquah shop is only bikes) Still trusted.

How is Evo in Seattle not on the WA (and Internet for that matter list)? Major omission at this point.

[flyman683]

Long-time lurker and figure I'll make one of my early posts useful...

I've been doing all my own tuning work & mounts so haven't need a shop since my move to AK, but I've got some new skis on the way and needed some background on World Cup in Anchorage/Girdwood... but I came from the unfortunate NJ/NY area and didn't see any shop info for that area in the thread:

Recommended:
East Coast - Heino's Ski & Cycle in Pequannack, NJ - like 30 min west of NYC.
Great bootfitters, do tons of race tunes & hadn't blown the few I'd had them do... best shop I'd found in the area if you can't wait till you get up to the new england shops.

For the NY/NJ area it's much easier to list shops to AVOID:
Paragon Sports - New York City - The good part is that sometimes they don't know what they're selling, so you can sometimes buy crap that had the price tag fall off nice and cheap... The bad news is - they don't know what they're selling, had no idea how to fit a ski boot, and in my limited discussion with their techs (two/three years ago?) I'm not even sure those guys skied.

Pelican Sports - Morris Plains, NJ - Needed a tune, and told them what bevels I wanted on my skis (.5/3). The guy at the service desk had no idea what I was talking about... Needless to say I didn't leave my skis. Maybe it wasn't his normal job or whatever, but it was scary enough I didn't chance it.

[Malazan]

Steamboat Springs

One Stop Ski Shop

Awesome boot fitters, good people. Take the time to really get to know you, and help you out

[telelebowski]

Why isn't this stickied?

+1 Wilson Backcountry. Absolutely babied my DPS through last year, very detail-oriented, quick to jump in from the Pass. Down-side: opening hours and travel from the Village if you're visiting JH.

+1 Pepi's in the Olympic building. The easiest go-to place for tunes, mounts, always have had very good experiences, located right in the Village.

[bern43]

East Coast.

Recommended:

Ken Jones in Manchester, NH. The ski tech there (Lonnie) knows what he's doing. Always a good experience.

Not recommended:

Avoid Summit in Framingham. Just pulled off a pair of bindings to find that all of the previous holes were seriously volcanoed. Looks like there might even be some delam around the holes. Metal ski. Seems they did not tap and/or used a power drill to screw the bindings on. The tuning shop, which is run by a different guy, is supposed to be good (but expensive) so this un-recommendation excludes them.

[Premier71]

Bump.......

[flyman683]

Bump - cuz lots of people asking questions with orphan threads. Marshal - maybe with the lack of snow you want to update the list on page 1?

I'd delete World Cup in Anchorage, b/c its now "Ski AK" and I haven't had good luck there. On the bright side a newer shop right next to the magic carpet in Girdwood/Alyeska sprung up and appears to be quite good - PowderHound.

As an example, I got to ride the 13-2014 Atomic Automatics last year (fresh from the Atomic rep) as a demo ski out of there... Good people, love to ski, and nice to talk to. Several buddies have had mounts/tunes done to no ill effect. The tuner used to work for World Cup & knows what he is doing.

[Flyoverland Captive]

So who's the go-to shop in Spokane these days? Looking for alpine boots.

[shroom]

that was covered in the inland pnw thread at one point this fall. i dont think there were any negative reviews to be had. between sports creel / alpine haus / mt gear i think youre safe. i prefer the former two.

[Flyoverland Captive]

Thanks; mtn gear is more AT - focused. Don't some mags own a shop here?