At Giant Bikes, they take pride in hand build bikes from the ground up.  The family owned business strives for quality over quantity, and this principal shows in their bikes. Take a look below at this behind the scenes video featuring their factory operation.

Pinkbike.com published a new feature on the 2017 Trance Advanced, claiming the modern trail bike with a composite mainframe and 140mm of Maestro suspension “showcases what Giant does best.”

In his review, Pinkbike editor Richard Cunningham talks about the mountain biking culture at Giant USA’s Southern California headquarters, and how that passion helps to create bikes like the Trance Advanced.

“You’ll be hard pressed to find fitter or better bike handlers,” Cunningham writes. “Here, where climbs are sustained, the soil is sketchy, and speeds range from switchback survival to eye-watering ridgeline descents, the Trance is their weapon of choice. These are the men and women whose job it is to mix it up with Giant’s pro athletes and develop their next enduro, downhill and cross-country race bikes, so it should come as no surprise that the crew regularly updates their favorite trail bike with lessons learned on the professional racing circuit. So, the Trance Advanced is literally Giant’s

When selling a mountain bike or simply talking upgrades with customers, one of the most common topics we cover is pedals. Pedals can be a tad tricky to choose: first there are myriad of brands and models many of which have fairly specific biking purposes. Second, there are two major camps in the mountain biking world which can be occasionally fanatical; the clipless vs. flat pedal crowd. But what we’d like to point out that at the end of the day we don’t feel one is better than the other, both have their distinct advantages, and the key is finding the right solution for your needs.

Clipless pedals is one of the one of the more confusing terms in the bike industry, as they are the pedals with specific shoes and cleats which clip into the pedal. For clarity sake we often refer these at Start Haus simply as “clip-ins” when discussing pedal options with customers. The term “clipless” derives from the pedals with straps around the foot, which were referred to as “toe clips” (not a pedal option

Start Haus is pleased to announce our partnership with Norco Bicycles! Norco is an innovative Canadian bicycle brand that has been building excellent bikes since 1964. Norco builds everything from urban/townie bikes to some of the meanest and fastest downhill bikes around. They’re best known for their sweet mountain bikes.

Come in and check out the all mountain Sight in both 27.5 and 29” wheel size.

Or this enduro beast, the Norco Range, also available in the 27.5 and 29er variety.

Hungry to hit the Truckee Bike Park? We are excited to announce we have some beautiful Dirt Jumpers from Norco as well! Available in both 26 and 24” wheel sizes the Ryde 26 and 24 come in at the unbelievably low price of $499!

Along with Giant, Liv, and KHS we feel that Norco is a tremendous addition to the Start Haus bike offering. Come on in today and see what’s new in the bike world or take a test ride. We love to answer all your questions about bikes and gear!

The bike industry is ever changing. It seems like every year a new wheel size comes out making your beloved bike less valuable by the minute! For many it is unfeasible to upgrade to a new bike every other year and at a certain point it’ll probably make more sense to replace components to make the bike perform more to your liking. At Start Haus we’ve had the pleasure of upgrading many bikes installing more modern components on and making them more fun to ride!

One of the common upgrades we’re doing is converting drivetrains to 1x11. By converting your bike from a two by drivetrain to a one by achieves several significant benefits:

• Weight loss. Obviously by taking the front derailleur off the bike eliminates weight, but don’t forget that the front shifter and cables also get eighty-sixed. Depending on what the component spec is the bike is usually losing ¾ of a pound!
• The cockpit gets significantly cleaned up. With the advent of dropper posts we find one shifter on the handlebars is all we

Swing by Start Haus to check out the Giant Celebration Sale!  Select bikes are up to 20% OFF.  Featuring both mountain and road bikes, men's and women's, this is the kick off sale not to miss.

More details on Giant's site here.

And for a complete list of our IN STOCK and ON SALE bikes, click here.

Join us every Tuesday for a free guided group MTB ride!  We'll offer tips, training, and more to help you better your biking experience.  Each Tuesday we'll host a trail ride- free mountain bike demos available for the ride!

Tuesday's All Summer- TRAIL RIDE- 6:00PM - FREE BIKE DEMOS

We'll meet up at Start Haus at 6:00PM.  Get fitted and reserve your bike.  Then at 6PM we ride over to the trail.

More rides to come!  Check out our events page on FaceBook here.

Here is a collection of the bikes we reviewed for the week of 4/11.  2016 is going to be a stellar year for Giant bikes!

Here at Start Haus, we like building bikes.  So much so in fact, we've starting building up Tahoe dream bikes just for you.  Starting with a stock Giant bike, such as the Trance Advanced 2, we add and mod how we like to ride em.

First off, why keep all that extra weight on your crank?  With our custom built bikes, we like to git rid of the front derailleur and shifter hardware, swap out the cassette in conjunction with upgraded Shimano X1 components, add a RaceFace narrow wide chainring, thereby making an 11 by 1 drivetrain. But why stop there?!  We swap out the stock fork for one of our all time favorites, the Rock Shox Pike.  In either a 150mm or 160mm, the Pike is one killer fork.  Excellent damping, perfect travel, and amazing durability.

Beyond that, we might swap a stem, or throw on an upgraded wheelset like Stan's TR Flow's.  All this makes what we think is the perfect Tahoe trail bike.  Swing by and check it out!

This Saturday at 12PM Start Haus is hosting a women specific demo ride with Liv bikes!  Come on out and try some new bikes, meet some new riding buddies, and get 10% OFF Liv bikes!  Please bring a helmet, valid drivers license, (and a credit card for a security deposit).

For more info, check out the Facebook Event here.

There are many gear lists floating around the interwebs.  What to pack with you on your mountain bike is really a personal decision, but its one that should be well thought out for your particular ride.  We sat down with our master mechanic and avid rider Aaron Breitbard and asked him what his take is.  He broke it down into 3 nifty categories depending on the ride.  (And of course, longer rides should include the items listed in the previous categories.)

The Basic Short Ride

The "short ride" is one not too far from your garage.  This is the ride when you just need to hop on the bike and get out there without too much thought as to where that might be, and what you should be taking with you.  These short rides don't need to be complicated.  If you break down on a short ride, suck it up and just hump it home.  No big deal.  Ultimately for these short rides, there are only 3 things you really need to take with you:

1)  A bike !  I mean, without that, what are we talking

There are many retailers out there, and we fully expect any potential customer to do their homework.  But its not just about the price, but everything else that comes with making a purchase.  We want every customer, new and old, to walk out the door with the same great feeling that drew us into this industry to begin with.  We don't want the customer to be simply satisfied, we want then to be elated.  And we wont settle for anything less than that perfect experience.

So why should you buy gear from us?

The Staff:  Everyone one at Start Haus lives what they sell.  We all ride, ski, paddleboard, and live to do it.  We work where we play, and that's no accident.  That passion blends right into the sales floor.  The experience we each have while enjoying the sports we love in the place we love keeps us on our A-game, not because we need to, but because we can't help it!  This passion inevitably helps you, our customer, to make the right choice- not because we have a quota