Centre Ski & Bike

Every time I go here, if the older guy (possibly the owner) is there he is sooo cranky. I wish East Coast Alpine wasn’t going out of business, this place needs some competition.

I just bought my first pair of boots + skis/​bindings from Centre Ski & Bike. Bos, the sales guy, was incredibly helpful. He took his time to make sure I got the perfect fit with my boots & the best set of skis for my level of experience. I learned a lot about skiing and the equipment in the process! He didn’t try to upsell me or pitch me on anything unfair. When faced with the choice between two brands of skis, I was leaning towards the (slightly) more expensive ones but he was honest with me and said there really was no difference. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience — and I can’t wait to go skiing!

awesome place. went there to change a tube on my kid’s bike, and Dino was great! Helped me get back to my car, and better price than other shops to boot!

Extremely knowledgeable, friendly, helpful staff. Felt like I got exactly what I needed and learned a ton at the same time!

Just called to inquire about a bike trailer rental as we want to test or out before buying. The man on the phone answered all my questions, and I found out it will only cost $ 30 for a daily rental. He suggested that we call or come in ahead of time to pay and reserve the trailer, which was an appreciated tip. Looking forward to breaking out our bikes soon and bringing the kids along!

Came here with my mother on Saturday afternoon to look at getting her a new used bike. Even though the used bike selection for women wasn’t overwhelming she was able to find what she was looking for (with a coaster break). Brandon who was helping us, answered what seemed like a hundred questions and was very patient with her. I was very impressed with his knowledge and willingness to help. After 30 or so minutes in the store, after a test ride, she was not completey sold. He gave us some great advice and went above and beyond. Two days later, she went back and bought the bike! Thanks again Brandon for all of your help!

Had a really great experience with boot fitting! The sales person was super knowledge and willing to go the extra mile to make sure it was a good fit, even stayed late. Did not push the sale at all, and was really friendly and nice. This is the first time I’ve had boots that didn’t hurt/​make my feet fall asleep in 15 years.

I had a good experience renting skis here for a weekend trip with friends up in sugarloaf Maine. The staff are friendly and they have good hours. The grandfatherly looking staff member helped me to get boots that fit right and skis and poles that were right for my style of skiing. He did scold me at one point when he didn’t like that I put a level 3 skier when I was really a 2. I didn’t take it personally and found it quite humorous. Would definitely come back.

I am happy to say that the credit we had to accept is use-​able for anything they sell. I mis-​understood and thought it could only be used for ski/​board rental, which I knew we weren’t going to do. But now we’re going to buy a good pair of gloves for winter.
Also, I should say that they showed us a small sign saying there was no refunds on rentals. When my wife had it pointed out to her, she told them that w/​out her reading glasses she would have never seen it, and the guy behind her commented «that’s small.»
I would suggest that they make a couple of changes, and if they did, I’d raise my rating to three stars
(1) FILE RENTALS BY LAST NAME: They do it by your order number. If you lose your receipt, you’ve lost everything. There’s no easy way to find your rental by your name!
(2) STATE THE NO REFUND POLICY ON THE RECEIPT: It feels kind of like a «caveat emptor» situation when they surprise you w/​the no refund policy based on a difficult to see sign that no one ever tells you about.

Just bought boots. Great service by experts. They really took the time to get us the best fit possible. They are very busy this time of year. I’m glad that they have a sign-​in/​first come first serve system, which I appreciate. I recommend this place and would avoid going to a big box sports store or online retailer to buy ski boots.

Good service. Helpful and patient. Highly recommend.

This place is great. The staff is extremely nice and eager to help you. I’ve gone in for snow boots, ski goggles, rollerblades, snow shoe rental and its always a pleasure!

Employees at this place don’t seem to care about customers whatsoever. I got my skis tuned here and when I picked them up a couple of weeks back week I had to wait 20 minutes before an employee finally acknowledged me. They have an idiotic sign up system where an entire store full of people queues in to be serviced by 3 or 4 employees. When they finally brought out my skis they went through a whole song and dance to read me the legalese about bindings adjustments and then asked me to verify that the settings on the work form matched the settings on the bindings. When I pointed out that one side of the binding was off by half a click the guy scoffed at me and mumbled some stuff about it being difficult to adjust exactly and that I’m seeing things, which sounded like something he’d make up on the fly.
The overall customer service was pretty awful, especially the indifferent attitude towards the customers so I don’t think I would be coming back here either to make a purchase or tune any equipment.

It took us 2 hours to get get fitted for skis and boots. Very inefficient and annoying experience — the grumpy old man is not fun to deal with and the other staff are not customer service friendly either. Pick up is equally bad — my first year experience with them was very unpleasant, second year is equally bad. My mistake for using them twice!

I’ve been to this store three times this year. My sense is they are a nice neighborhood store most of the time. But, they are under staffed at the peak times of the season, especially on the weekends. During peak hours, expect to be there about an hour or more if you need to do anything that involves a salesperson– including simple pick-​ups. The customers are frustrated, and the staff is running around in circles. It’s happened to me twice. Give the staff credit, they’re trying, but they can only do so much. They should have someone dedicated for pick-​ups so those can go faster.
On one of my visits, I went right at opening before the line had built up and had a great experience. So, I suspect most of the time this store is probably a good experience. But, during peak times at peak season, it can be frustrating. And, unfortunately, that’s usually when I need to go.

A couple of years ago, when we started wanting to get into mountain biking, we decided to check out some bikes. First, we looked at international bicycle center, but we decided their cheapest mountain bike, at $ 400 was too expensive. That was before we had any idea how much proper mountain bikes cost. So we went to look at centre ski and bike, which was apparently cheaper. When we got there, the staff there seemed like they were very knowledgeable and helpful. They seemed to know quite a lot about sizes of mountain bikes and the one right for me, and the position I should be riding in and how I should adjust the seat height based on that. So we got a diamondback outlook there for $ 200, which they told us could be ridden off-​road and it seemed to us like a great deal on a mountain bike. So then when I got home and onto my computer, I decided to read reviews of the bike. They all said the bike was nothing more than a commuter bike in disguise as a mountain bike, and could not be ridden properly off road. We thought it must still be ok, because we thought there was no way on earth that I needed a more expensive bike. I started biking with it. It could handle easier trails fine, but it couldn’t ride properly on singletrack, due to having barely any suspension travel, too much weight, bad frame geometry, and slow shifting. I thought it was fine once I got over the bad reviews I had read. I thought it was my skills, not my bike, that was keeping me back from enjoying singletrack trails.
A year later, I browsed bikes on the web again. It was still the same. Real mountain bikes were not as cheap as the diamondback. But we still thought there was no way I needed a bike twice the price of mine. That was until I really got serious about the sport. I bought a real mountain bike at a real bike shop, and it was a full suspension cannondale. I realized I could ride over sections I couldn’t even think about riding on the diamondback. Suddenly, with a bike that much better, I realized how we’d been wrong about the diamondback. We are now going to sell the diamondback and we will never shop at centre ski and bike again.
Centre ski and bike may be a good deal for ski stuff and for those who just want a bike to ride dirt roads once in a while. But for serious mountain bikers, this is not the place to go. From now on, I will always make sure I am buying a good bike before I buy one, and I will not trust a bike shop that doesn’t sell good bikes. Just because they seem to understand sizing for a bike doesn’t mean they are a good deal. Once I realized how they’d disguised themselves by sounding professional this way but selling rubbish bikes, I realized this is not a shop for serious mountain bikers. I am glad we learned our lesson about cheap bikes, and I will never ever shop here again.

Don’t let the outside or the appearance of the shop fool you. No I am afraid it is not sleek and modern nor does it have the feaux timber outdoorsy look of the new LL Bean store near the Bedford Mall. In fact the place looks a little disheveled.
Do your self a favor and ignore all of that (if indeed it even matters to you). The shop was recommended to me by a friend that instructs paras at MT Sunapee (in New Hampshire)
I went in to replace my 20 year old «Straight» Atomics– and, I admit, I was looking for cheap. The owner was right there on the spot (I cannot remember his name) and spent about 30 minutes talking through my ability (with hints about my age and perhaps taking that into account) — then we talked skis. I ended up buying a pair of Nordicas for about $ 150 more than I planned.
But the fitting was perfect– the skis really did change my skiing experience. Did I pay more than I would have at a big box? Sure I did. Would I have purchased the Nordica? Probably Not– I probably would have gotten a cheaper brand of skis– which would have been a mistake.
If you enjoy skiiing– and want to improve your experience– short of lessons this is the best place to go. I highly recommend it. The extra money buys you better service and the right product.

After biking 10 miles away from home and familiar surroundings, of course, I got a flat tire. I looked up the closest bike shop, which happened to be Centre Ski & Bike, and gave them a quick call to make sure they were open and could fix me up.
I showed up with my old, rusty, hand-​me-​down bike, and John was nice enough to quickly fit a new tube and a new tire since mine had seen better days. It was about a ten minute process, all done while we were exchanging skiing and mountain biking stories and laughing about the lovely conditions of the roads in the city.
All in all, I couldn’t think of a better place along the bike path to get a flat! I’ll be back to get my skis P-tex’d this winter.

Great little ski shop (I can only speak for the ski end of things here). Went here last December looking to get my first pair of skis because I’d read that they carried a used inventory (didn’t want to invest huge when I’m still getting back in the swing of things). As soon as a salesperson got a chance, I was attended to. He meant business though, wanted to make sure I was serious, which I was fine with because it helped me commit to my purchase.
First things first, he got me in a pair of used boots that were comfortable so that I’d be wearing them the whole time I was there and would be very sure I’d be happy with that purchase. Once boots were determined, he brought out a couple choices of skis. And here was where I was hooked: he actually recommended the less expensive of the two pairs because he thought as an aggressive and athletic person, I would enjoy them longer as my skiing improved. That definitely sold me on coming back to this place.
I’m not terribly sure how their pricing compares to other places, but I was very pleased with the service, and I’m very pleased with my skis and boots. The boots are VERY comfortable and the skis were great all last season. Totally recommended for great old-​fashioned personalized customer service.

This place is jumpin! I guess it is ski season but man the place was packed this Saturday when I went with my gf to get some new ski boots and skis tuned up.
The owner, whose name I never got, did a great job of multitasking and helping as many people as he could at one time. He was very pateint with me in figuring out what size boot I needed and helped me find a really nice pair for a decent although slightly pricey cost.
It’s a small ski shop but the prices seem competitive with the bigger places. The ski tune-​ups are actually cheaper then ski market. I am actually a novice skiier but this is what my gf tells me.
I heart my new, comfy $ 200 ski boots and hope they improve my skills on the slopes this winter. Centre Ski is def. a good place to go– if you are ok with a wait. They also sell discount tix for local mtns!