The second part of the inspiration for The Tree took over when the owner brought the bike home.

“A bike is designed to sell, it is made to look good on the showroom floor,” said Darcy McCord, the knowledgeable  service manager at the shop.

Much like anything, manufacturers up-scale parts on the bike that the consumer can see, and to save money downscale parts that have less visibility.

“It is really problematic from a service perspective, because we see a lot of bikes that are relatively new, and some of the better parts on the bike are in great shape and some of the less good parts are in really bad shape after not too much riding. In particular one of the worst cases of that is the hubs, which often they (manufacturers) will use off-brand hubs that are one, not very good quality and two, when they do fail you can’t get replacement parts for them.”

BOTD also found that manufacturers were trying to edge out each other in weight of their mid-range consumer bikes regardless of the quality of the Components in the bike.

“We decided to favour robustness over weight for the tree,” replied ilan.

BOTD decided to go with Shimano Deore on the entire drive train and many components because of the high degree to which component parts can be replaced and serviced. In short, a great balance between durability, performance and price.

“When your bike does need servicing, all parts are either repairable or replaceable,” said Darcy.

The headset is a FSA conventional headset with pressed-in cups as opposed to an integrated headset, which is harder to service and harder to replace.

“So instead of up-spec-ing some parts and down-spec-ing others. We went medium specifications on everything, and in the long run it will be a much better deal for the owner,” said Darcy.

One of the benefits to living on the West Coast is the ability for the general commuter to bike year round to work, but with all the wet weather we are used to in Vancouver over the winter the rims can take a real beating from the constant braking as a result of mucky/wet brake pads. The disc brakes upgrade does come as an option and is completely upgradeable after the fact. But we have included this opinion because over the long run it will save you from replacing rims.

BOTD also requested that the bike be painted by powder coating as opposed to spraying because it has a longer lasting finish and it is gentler on the environment. All the unused powder can be reused on the next bike.

“Power coating is a long lasting finish process than a liquid paint,” according to ilan. “It is a much better process for the environment.”

Category: Story

Tags: bicycle, Canadian, commuter, False Creek, handwelded, Shimano Deore, sustainable