Naturally, given the Highland commitment to development, there are plenty of kids’ bike rentals as well. But if renting for the full day, you can switch it out for a total of 3 different bikes at any time (assuming availability), providing a pretty unique opportunity to test out some different DH bikes. Cost will set you back $109 for the day, which is pretty standard, and you can rent just for 2 hours for $40 if you just want a taster. Then when you roll-up at Highland, the bike is sat there ready and waiting when you – marked with a sticker with your name on it, so you waste no time getting out on the trails. There’s a cool reservation process for the demos - you reserve a bike online using the web-reserve system on the Highland website, and you can enter your weight and height, plus add comments like your own personal suspension setup or pedal preferences etc. Under the lodge, just outside the bike shop entrance. This setup basically spreads the expense and shares the risk as it enables the bike shops to reach more customers through Highland, and means that Highland does not have to purchase and maintain a high-end fleet of bikes each season. If you demo a bike and want to buy it, then you get that credit off the cost of the overall purchase price, as well as a free 1 day or 3 day lift pass for Highland, depending on the overall value of the bike. And the sales are made through the bike shop that provided the bike in the first place. At the end of the season, the bikes can be sold off nearly new with most of original unused parts reinstalled. When Highland gets them from the stores, they remove all ‘wear’ items from the bikes – grips, saddles, tires, sometimes even the whole wheel set, and replaces them with stock components. This means the demos could be any brand – depending on what the shops are carrying, so currently that’s Giant, Specialized, Transition and Trek. The bikes are actually supplied by 4 local bike shops - Littleton Bikes and Fitness, Gorham Bike and Ski, Belmont Wheelworks, and S&W Sports, as well as a few bikes supplied directly from Xprezo Bikes up in Quebec. Then there are the higher-spec demo bikes, with a rather unique setup for how Highland offers these to riders. And all this for only $99, with a 3-pack deal for only $267! Definitely a great way to get over the ‘barrier to entry’ of cost, that many consider to be an issue with mountain biking for first timers. After the lesson, you’re free to go at it at your own pace. The package includes lift pass, rental bike, pads and helmet, and a one-hour ‘park-ready’ lesson with an instructor. These programs are specifically designed for riders new to mountain biking. You can pick up a custom branded Highland ODI clamp for your grips, or a custom SDG Highland too! There’s a standard rental fleet of Specialized Status 1’s, which are owned by Highland and used by the Find Your Ride programs. Open 30 minutes either side of the lift operating times, there’s a good stock of retail goodies from Fox and Smith Optics, with various components, parts and tires from Specialized. The Highland Bike Shop Manager Greg Goldbach talked us through the hugely well-equipped on-site bike shop. The whole setup is like an MTB cult – without any of the negative implications of the word – this is all positive! Maybe 'culture' is more appropriate though. Well that’s exactly what it feels like at Highland. One online dictionary defines a cult as “a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc”. And yet we also understand that it represents a collective commitment to a cause, in an overwhelming and comprehensive way. Bad shit happens in a cult, we all know that. We’ve been wrestling with the term ‘cult’ as it generally has such negative connotations.
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