Tuesday Treats 61: Cyclehighlands

 Your once a week dose of retail therapy from Singletrack’s Premier Dealers, stockists and advertisers.

Tuesday Treats gives you a quality serving of independent bike retailing and a chance to win big in this week’s prize draw.

This week, we introduce Cyclehighlands.

Chipps spent some quality time with these guys for a big feature in Issue 83. Richard Watts at Cyclehighlands talks us through what makes them a very special bunch of bike fettlers.

Formed in 2004 by Liz and myself, Cyclehighlands is now Aberdeenshire’s largest independent cycle retailer.

Located in Ballater (only 8 miles from the rather upmarket Balmoral) and surrounded by hills, forests and the Cairngorm mountains, we also benefit from great local coffee shops, restaurants and MTB friendly accommodation. Local trails (still a big secret from the masses) include little rippers like The Caulston Glen and Heartbreak Ridge to all day epics like The Capel Mounth and Lochnagar. Our trails immediately from the shop are generally XC but with plenty of climbing and altitude, technical and more rocky stuff is pretty close to hand too. We even have a little bit of beginner “north shore” in the shop grounds.

How are you guys set up, what do we really need to know?

We stock a wide range of quality bikes of all types, but specialise in MTB and children’s bikes. We are number one dealer in Scotland for Santa Cruz and Rocky Mountain and the biggest in Northern Scotland for Cannondale.

Our business is the only full time MTB guiding outfit based in the north east of Scotland and we run run regular day trips for individuals, corporate groups and schools.

Tell us something about your shop/staff that no-one knows…

Liz and I are supported by two full time staff; James Baldwin (Workshop Manager) and Will Stuart (Young Padowan Learner), plus two part time guides. James was once a Jeweller, is addicted to Pot Noodle and likes Star Trek. There is more but we don’t want to alarm our customers! Will is a great rider and shaping up well to play a bigger role especially higher level guiding.

What’s your current best-selling/hottest product?

The Bronson and Tallboy LT plus the Zesty from Lapierre have been best sellers this year with the Bronson especially causing quite a stir!

What was the last custom build you did?

Custom builds with Santa Cruz frames are hot just now with XX1 and XO1 beginning to get popular, even ENVE carbon rims are becoming regular fixtures on custom builds! The 27.5 wheel size has definitely landed and the current breed of trail/enduro bike certainly suits our trails and Scotland in general.

Lastly, what do Singletrack Premier Subscribers get from you guys?

With the biggest Santa Cruz demo fleet north of Newcastle (and all up to date 2014 models), Premier Subscribers benefit from half price demo days (£25 discount) for Santa Cruz and (our about to arrive) 2014 Rocky Mountain ranges.

Get in touch, we’re on Twitter and Facebook.

Tuesday Treats Prize Draw

Click here to win this week’s prize!