Best Bike Store

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Alexa Cude

With its latest gold win for Best Bike Store, Cyclesmith enters the Best of Halifax Hall of Fame

GOLD WINNER & HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE

SILVER WINNER

BRONZE WINNER

Andrew Feenstra has seen it all at Cyclesmith—from starting as a bike mechanic in 1994, to becoming a partner six years later, to taking over the business in 2016. A first-generation Haligonian whose parents emigrated from Holland, cycling was already part of his blood—“I was always chasing my sisters on a tricycle,” he tells The Coast—but in Halifax’s north end, bikes have made Feenstra and his colleagues a part of the city’s fabric. And now, they’ve cemented Cyclesmith in the Best of Halifax Hall of Fame. The Coast’s readers have voted the Agricola Street bike shop Halifax’s Best Bike Store 10 years running. Feenstra credits Cyclesmith’s staff, and implementing a living wage policy 2021, as two contributors to the bike shop’s success. “We've done a lot of things in the business that when other companies are zigging, we’re zagging,” he tells The Coast. Plus, Feenstra adds, it’s not a bad industry to be in. “We’re selling fun,” he says. “And that’s also what makes our clients coming in a lot of fun… COVID showed how much people want to get out[side].”