Gallatin Alpine Sports, LLC — Hotel in Big Sky

I have a Niner carbon bike that had a suspect crack in my rear triangle. I took it to my local bike shop and two bike mechanics thought it was indeed a crack but they weren't a Niner dealer so they couldn't do very much for me. I had to travel 200 miles to the nearest Niner dealer which was Gallatin Alpine Sports in Big Sky. I mistakenly took it to the wrong shop in Big Sky and the bike mechanic there thought it was a crack and when I realized they weren't the Niner dealer they sent me to the correct shop. Anyway, when I took it to GAS two people there claimed it was a scratch from a rock and wanted to charge me to take the triangle off, ship it to Niner and then charge me to reassemble the bike. They never mentioned anything about Niner paying for the repairs and shipping on a warranty issue. From the way the two people acted and a comment one of them made, I just got a bad vibe from them and didn't let them touch my bike, essentially wasted trip to Big Sky. I was able to find a bike shop in Bozeman that offered to take the triangle off for $20 so I could ship it to Niner. That mechanic thought it was a crack and we confirmed it because there was another crack in the same area around a pivot point. So, that is four total bike mechanics that thought it was a crack when GAS thought it was a scratch from a rock??? When I contacted Niner about my conundrum they were baffled as to why GAS tried to charge me what they were going to do when Niner would cover the costs. Ultimately Niner sent me a new triangle after I submitted photos of the crack so if they didn't think it was a crack, they wouldn't of replaced my triangle! I suspect that GAS wanted me to pay for the labor and shipping and they also would of gotten payment from Niner also and I'm not so sure that GAS would of reimbursed me. All I can say is that Niner is an awesome to deal with, GAS, not so much and I would never recommend them to anyone. There are bike shops that are in the same area that will give you...

The Gallatin team: Experienced, kind, and above-and-beyond helpful.

Gallatin was exactly the shop I needed when my bindings busted at Big Sky haha! I needed to get bindings to finish my trip but was also interested in a new board if it made sense. Spoiler... I walked out with both!

When walking in, I was immediately greeted by a very nice woman who walked me over to the snowboard section and began showing me around. Next, she enthusiastically introduced me to Michael, another Gallatin employee, who took it from there.

Micheal was incredible. He's been boarding since the '80s, has a collection of ~10 boards himself. Also, I could tell he's super active on demo days to stay up to date on all the latest trends and styles.

Michael got a download of what I was looking for and took me through all of the options available at the shop (and some that weren't there as well). We discussed 10+ boards just 1:1 and he knew the ins and outs of every one (mostly from personal experience.)

Even though the team knew I had a busted binding, neither of them were ever pushy or impatient. They let me take my time, gave me space when I wanted it, let me do some of my own research, and they were always back over to help talk through questions when I needed it.

After a couple of hours, I ended up walking away with a board (the 2024 Limited Never Summer Nokhu) that I'm incredibly excited about, some new Union STR bindings, and it didn't completely break the bank.

To put the cherry on top of this review... I called back later that day (right before they were closing) to ask them for help getting my old bindings off my board because the screws were stripped and I couldn't get them loose... they didn't hesitate to say "come on in and we'll help you out!"

Phenomenal...

Kind staff. Love the dog friendly atmosphere. Their packages do not include rest days as do some other rental shops. They didn't have my needed boot size and still charged full gear rental price even when using my own boots.

I had two unique experiences, and they were unwilling to compromise: (1) My ride fell through causing me to miss the drop off time, but I needed a rest day anyway, so figured it all worked out (I called to make them aware), yet was still charged (even though they had enough inventory and didn't have people waiting for rentals). Explicitly stating their policy would be helpful for customer awareness and decision making. (2) I started the trip by skiing, yet decided to switch to boarding. I tried to set up a boarding lesson online via Big Sky, yet couldn't secure it (website wasn't cooperating). I had hoped to keep my skis and borrow a board on the way up the mountain since I was unsure whether a boarding lesson was available (& so I wouldn't have to turn around/come back down the mountain), but they wanted to charge again)...

A local described their shop as being much more flexible, understanding, & accommodating than what was experienced in reality, so them not meeting my expectations isn't exactly their fault... I guess policy is policy... I'll likely try another shop in the future that is more flexible and supportive of customers' unique needs. I get that we live in a world where money is required to function... But it is a cost to other valued qualities, to be sure (which may deter repeat customers)... Oh well, to each...