The Pine Mtn. Blog

Pine Mountain Sports is committed to the Central Oregon outdoor community and is proud of our decade-old Trail Ambassador Program…

While most bicycle shops in town sponsor a cycling team, Pine Mountain Sports chooses to empower riders who share our goal of giving back and actively making a difference in our outdoor community.

In place of matching cycling kits and racing bikes, our team of Pine Mountain Sports Trail Ambassadors is supplied with extra tubes, tools, current trail info, 1st aid kits, and trail knowledge that they share with any trail users in need.

Our small army of Trail Ambassadors can be found leading our group MTB rides, spreading Trail Love, teaching riding and maintenance clinics for new riders, and volunteering at trail work events and fundraisers for Central Oregon Trail Alliance and our outdoor community. Yes, some of our ambassadors race as well, but our goal is to assemble an effective team of individuals who are focusing their time (and our resources) on maintaining the trails and other trail users.

Potential ambassadors are largely identified by their peers. They share a commitment to enhancing every trail user’s experience by their long standing commitment to the Central Oregon cycling community, and by their countless hours of volunteer trail work. If you see someone wearing this Trail Ambassador patch, make sure and say hello and give them a high-five.

This is a recent photograph (below) of the pack belonging to Jeff Newman. Jeff is still sporting one of our original Trail Ambassador patches as he’s been doing his part for Central Oregon trail users since the very beginning.

Thanks, Jeff!

The well-used pack and Trail Ambassador patch of Jeff Newman.

Ben Farver of Argonaut Cycles…

As a bicycle and ski retailer that’s staffed year-round by around 25 residents of Bend, Oregon we’ve long been proponents of shopping and spending our outdoor recreation dollars locally. We think we’re all aware of the dramatic impact that shopping and spending locally has on our economy and everybody that lives here.

From buying groceries at our local farmers markets and locally-owned grocery stores to giving our local retailers an opportunity to earn our (otherwise) on-line shopping business to moving all of our banking to a local credit union – there are many things we can do to keep our hard earned dollars in Bend.

At Pine Mountain Sports we seek out amazing vendors who provide us with the best bike and ski products from all over the world. And, more and more, we’re incredibly excited at the number of bicycle and ski hard-goods vendors we buy from who are based right here in Bend, Oregon!

When we all buy our new gear from these businesses (and via a local retailer) then we’re greatly magnifying the impact that our cycling and skiing dollars have on our economy.

Here’s a list of cycling and ski companies that we encourage you to consider when making your next purchase. When we support these local manufacturers via our local retailers we are investing in our community on many levels…

Argonaut Cycles

Robert Axle Project

Spurcycle

Abbey Bike Tools

SnoPlanks

Hope Technology USA

Knight Composites

CushCore

Fatback Bikes

Terrain Control Industries

Project 321

Know of a Bend based Cycling or Ski manufacturer that we’re missing? Please send your suggestions to Henry@PineMountainSports.com

Bri, Jody & Kyla (one of our summer interns) with worn out tires headed for the recycling center.

Bring your old bicycle tires to Pine Mountain Sports and we’ll recycle them for you at no charge!

The service department at Pine Mountain Sports replaces a lot of worn out mountain bike tires on a daily basis. We know that a full service bike shop like ours creates a lot of waste, so we’re always looking at ways to minimize our trash and recycle as many things as possible.

Did you know that most of the Deschutes County disposal and recycling centers will recycle bicycle tires for $1 each? When you get new tires installed on your bike at Pine Mountain Sports we save your worn out treads and we pay to have them recycled for you at the Knott Landfill.

The staff at Pine Mountain Sports is happy to recycle any of your old bicycle tires for you at no charge! It doesn’t matter if you bought your new or old tires from us. Please don’t throw them in the trash! Just rinse and wipe away any sealant that’s still in them and then bring them by the store. Our staff will add them to our tire recycle pile for our next recycling run.

Got tubes? Our friends at REI Bend collect and recycle old inner tubes! You can bring us your tubes and we’ll take them over there for you, or drop them off directly to the bicycle service counter at REI in the Old Mill.

Let’s all do our part to Rethink Waste in Central Oregon!

Shipping your bike someplace? Pine Mountain Sports highly recommends using BikeFlights.com

In addition to being the least expensive shipping option for almost any bicycle and destination, BikeFlights lets you enter your own shipping details, and even allows you to schedule a round trip ticket for your bike (choosing both the delivery/pickup dates at once).

If you need Pine Mountain Sports to box your bike for shipping, we usually charge $75 for packing. This includes packing materials and a box, but does not include shipping costs. For that, we will work with you so that you can easily arrange your shipment via BikeFlights.com

Here are a few steps to follow to ensure that our bike shipping process is as seamless as possible.

1. Drop your bike off to our service department for boxing and shipping. You will receive a notification via email from the Pine Mountain Service Department when your bike is completely packed and ready for shipment. We’ll provide you with the bike box dimensions and the final weight.

2. Once you have received that information you will be able to go to bikeflights.com to setup your account and arrange your bikes shipment.

3. When processing your shipment please be sure to select the ‘pick-up’ option and enter a date. (The carrier does not receive any notification that your bike needs to be picked up if no pick-up date is entered). Please select the next business day (the day after you’ve received notification that your bike has been boxed and is ready for shipment). Pickups can only be scheduled Monday through Friday.

4. Once your shipment setup is complete please forward the BikeFlights shipping labels to sr@pinemountainsports.com. Our ship/receive department will take care of the labeling, and BikeFlights.com will send you notifications directly once your bike has been picked up. Easy! Got questions? Call our service department at 541-385-8080

Posted Nov 1, 2017

Thanks for buying your mountain bike from Pine Mountain Sports! If you’re riding on a newer Trek, Santa Cruz, or Juliana mountain bike then we know that many of your bikes are equipped with the latest SRAM Guide or SRAM Level hydraulic disc brakes. You can look on the master cycling and see if they are labeled as such (see pic).

These are excellent brakes, and (like us) our customers have been very happy with the braking power and feel of these latest offerings from SRAM. That said, the Pine Mountain Sports service department has been in contact with SRAM regarding some issues that a few of our bikes with these Guide and Level brakes have been having this summer…

These handful of problematic brakes only had issues when the bike is ridden while it’s very, very hot outside. This summer, when the temperature was in the triple digits, a few of you who were still out on the trails brought your bikes in to see us because your brake levers started having issues with sticking or gradually locking up in the heat. We started asking questions of our friends at SRAM and were able to work with them so that we could repair or replace any of our customers Guide or Level brakes that were problematic.

The brakes that had issues had a common scenario, 100 degree temps outside, mountain bike left outside and baking in the sun (like parked on an exposed rooftop rack), and then immediately taken on a trail ride in said 100 degree temps. The extreme heat would cause a very slow lever return due to the piston swelling internally. Not a common scenario, but a scenario that shouldn’t regularly cause problems with a quality hydraulic brake like these.

Please be aware that there is not an actual recall on these brakes from SRAM. That said, we want to give you a heads up that we are already working with SRAM to make sure our service department will be among the first to get the information we need to determine if any our customers brakes are possibly affected. If needed, this can be determined in the future with a potential list of serial numbers of affected brakes.

If you’ve experienced issues, we can easily identify any brake that might be problematic by running the serial number on the underside of the brake caliper. This will require removing the brake caliper, which we’re happy to do the next time your bike is in for routine service.

Again, unless you are riding in triple digit heat, your Guide and Level brakes should still be working awesome! And most of us were floating the river when the heat wave came to see us, which means that most of us in Bend have not experienced any issues at all. And, since it’s November now, we’re not going to see any issues (while riding in Oregon) any time in the near future. So keep calm, and carry on. And definitely keep riding your bike!

In the meantime, if you have any concerns, or have had any hot-weather braking issues, please call our service department and we’ll be happy to assist in making sure that your SRAM hydraulic disc brakes are working as awesome as the Pine Mountain Sports service department and our good friends at SRAM always intended them to. As always, we’re looking out for you and your investment, and we’ll be here to take care of you and any related brake issues now, next season, or for as long as you own your bike that we built for you!

Thanks! We’re always here when you need us.

The Pine Mountain Sports Service Department