Yeah, most of the complaining about MEC has come from people who work from a shop or are sponsored by the shop and hence pay way less for parts than the general public. They all ride these $6000 bikes they prodealed, and of course everyone else is jealous. If they really cared about their LBS, they would pay full price, instead of taking stock off the shelves (that could be sold for MSRP). Also as someone else said, no one is preventing the bike shop from applying for co-op status. Unreal prices on those bikes, should start seeing a bunch of them around. LBS's are going to have to step it up go the extra mile in terms of providing a service if they want to stay competitive against co-ops. That means having knowledgable staff who can get you the right stuff, not some greasy kid behind the counter who knows nothing. There are some quality bike shops in Edmonton that provide great customer service and have a great variety of product (something which MEC doesn't really have: only 2 lines of bikes!). I wish I could say the same thing about ski shops...

I think it's sad how much of the land around us is private. Land that should have never been sold. It's just sitting there. Occupier's liability laws need to change!

It blows my mind how rad people got back then on what were essentially today's cyclocross bikes (in terms of geometry, tires, bar setup, etc...). They were hitting stuff that pretty much everyone nowadays would go grab their 6"+ fully and some armour. I also think that today's trails have been tamed down for "sustainability". I think mountain biking is more fun now with the new gear, but I think the average rider was a lot better back then in terms of skill.

solid introduction, describes the purpose and need of dropper posts. personally, I have only ridden a couple of rolling super technical trails and don't race on anything super gnarly, so I will lets these dropper post companies beat the shit out of each other even more as the product improves. good to see a 400mm+ length. I mean, most people undersize their bikes a little in the 6"+ range (or at least I had to because the max size was only 19") for better handling and it's a shame there aren't more longer posts out there!

Romo: too cool for clown suits/pajamas

AM is XC for cool people

okay, I'm obviously exaggerating, but you haven't rode sulphur springs, tom snow, etc...

Moose is pretty fun, but it definitely is a cattle pasture. You don't have to crash to eat shit at Moose. I look forward to riding there more next summer!

Pumped to be hitting up that area next summer for sure!