Great Northern Cycle & Ski

Name: Great Northern Cycle & Ski
Address: 328 Central Avenue, Whitefish, MT, 59937, US
Telephone: (406) 862-5321
Price range: $$$$

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Whitefish, MT
Great Northern Cycle & Ski

We are a bike and ski shop specializing in exceptional service and expertise.

We are a specialty bike and ski shop with products and services best suited for the terrain of the Flathead Valley. We are known for our performance level mountain and road bikes, high end rental bikes, timely and meticulous service, and high quality espresso. Swing by our 100 year old brick building pre or post adventure to get your caffeine fix and chat with our friendly and knowledgable staff.

06/10/2026

When we purchased the shop in 2016 I was 23, Willie was 25. It felt like a massive commitment.

I remember shrugging, telling one another,

“Its ok. If we decide we don’t like it in 10 years we’ll be in our mid 30s. We can always just do something else!”

And here we are.

Today marks 10 years of our ownership of GNCS.

It was the simplest choice to dive in and has been the easiest commitment to follow through on. Not many 20 somethings get to pour their heart and soul into a project they believe in and feel it succeed. We recognize the freedoms the shop has given us. The freedom to play on equipment we love, the freedom to live in a town that supports us and our interests, the freedom to surround ourselves with staff that become family, the freedom to pursue passions adjacent to the shop. It’s allowed us to work side by side and to build something powerful together - and that might be the greatest gift of all.

Year 10, mid 30s, and we’re not going anywhere. We’re still just a couple of kids showing up for their dream job.

Thanks for showing up for us.

Photo 1: Fall 2025
Photo 2: Summer 2016
Photo 3: 2026
Photo 4: 2016

05/28/2026

This is Noah. He came into the shop last year asking about group rides. We talked a little about worlds, the ladies ride… and he wanted to know cool, but when is the chill ride? I said we would LOVE to support one, but we’ve never had a dedicated ride leader.

Here we are a year later and Noah is ready to kick off our new Saturday Family Friendly Ride.

Meet time: Saturdays at 9:30
Location: shop
Distance: 17 miles
Pace: mellow
Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/3484644698204583404

A note from Noah:

Family and beginner friendly gravel ride starting at 9:30 at GNCS Saturday May 30th. The ride is 17 miles and has a great mix of pavement, gravel, flats and climbing. This is a very fun ride. We make space for kids and have no problem riding slower and adjusting to our children’s needs. This is great for families and beginners! Bring your bike trailers and seats and meet us at Great Northern Cycle and Ski at 9:30 Saturday, May 30th!

If the weather is downright terrible we will be happy to accommodate a coffee/hot coco hang out instead. 😎

05/27/2026

About damn time we had a GN sock refresh up in here.

Come and get em.

$20 for the black and cheetah
$60 for the aero. Of course we did aero socks.

Also available for purchase online

🧦🧦🧦

05/23/2026

Are we there? Is this the beginning of “go time” in this little town?

Historically, yes. Memorial weekend kicks it all off and we jam from now until sometime around Labor Day.

Sophie (and the crew) are ready for it. Open doors, ideally decent weather, all the daylight, and lots of people on bikes. We love it.

Current conditions within these brick walls:

🔧We are about one week or less out on bike service appointments

🎿 We will take in ski work only until the end of the month

🚴🏽‍♀️ The bike fit schedule has lots of availability through June

👗 The shop is chock full of good looking things to wear while riding your bike. About 1/3 of our logo merchandise is in store. More to come!

🚴‍♂️Wednesday Worlds is alive and well, complete with a B group

🚴🏽‍♀️The Women’s weekly gravel ride is up and running on Tuesdays at 6pm

🚴🏼NEW Saturday Family Ride to begin next week. More info to come.

🦶Yes! We make cycling specific footbeds!

To celebrate Memorial Day we will be closed Monday 5/25. Come see us for all of the above and more Tuesday 😎

05/11/2026

ANNOUNCEMENT

We’re shutting down the ski shop for summer at the end of this month. So, if you want your skis tuned before setting them aside for the summer bring them in before the end of May. We cannot take in skis for tunes after the end of the month as we do not have room to store them through the summer months.

We’ll have the machines up and running again in the fall.

⛷️🎿⛷️🎿

05/04/2026

We became an ENVE dealer at the beginning of 2025 and after sending another custom build out the door last weekend we thought it would be fun to share a bit about how these builds come together.

is a smaller but mighty brand based in Ogden, UT. They make high end carbon products including cockpits, wheels and three different drop bar bikes and we have loved getting to know the ins and outs of the products.

One of the unique features of an ENVE build is that every bike is custom. We help you pick your dream bike and build kit to match. We press send on the order, the bike arrives a few days later as a bare frame and we assemble it to about 80% in what we call a “fit ready” build. Then we schedule you a bike fit and meet you at our studio with your new steed. We spend the time needed to make all the little adjustments to fit your needs and goals and then the bike goes back to the shop to finish the build (run brake lines, cut steers, wrap bars). And then it’s ready for you and all your adventures.

We’ve done 15 of this style build since becoming a dealer and it is really dang cool to see the process play out.

Curious about an ENVE? Or about our fitting process? Hit us up. We’ve got success stories and all kinds of ideas.

Photos of some of our favorite ENVE builds the past year.

04/08/2026

“Spritely”

The new REYA from is here.

In stock: S3 T1 in Golden Brown $10,499

04/04/2026

Sometime back in 2020 enough of our staff got covid that we pulled the rip cords and closed the shop for 2 weeks. We all fell like scattered dominoes, which meant that our negative tests came around similarly and after 9 days we realized we had enough of a crew in the clear to reopen the doors a few days early. When we communicated with the team about coming back in I was told that Ben might not message back and probably won’t be there early because he was in the woods given the freedom of the two weeks.

This turned out to be true. Ben was out. Way out. But returned back exactly on time according to the original schedule we had set.

There may be no better articulation of the deep reliability combined with the impressive desire for adventure and freedom that Ben possesses. It is this combo that gives him a sense of presence and purpose that has made him an absolute joy to work with for the last 6 years. When in the shop, Ben is in, and on. A true bike/ski shop asset with years of experience and expertise with the technical side of every piece of gear we sell.
But when the doors are closed or Ben’s name isn’t on the schedule, he’s out. And we couldn’t respect him more for it. What could be more commendable than someone who can live and breathe solitude in the wilderness and bring a bit of that magic to his human interactions on the other side?

Today is Ben’s last day (for a while) before he signs out and goes on another big adventure. On 4/20 Ben will start his hike of the Pacific Crest Trail from Campo, CA. He’s got around 5 months to hike the entire 2650 miles before reaching the Canadian boarder with a goal to average around 17 miles per day.

We honestly couldn’t be more excited for Ben to take on this challenge. We’ve always created an experience that allows people to get outdoors, and damn if this isn’t completely in line with our greater mission.

Ben, thanks for the consistency, thanks for sharing your experiences to make us better, thanks for meeting the ridiculousness of retail with humor, thanks for finding a very best friend in Abe, and thanks for singing really, really loud. We will see you on the other side.

The trail awaits ✨

01/01/2026

Happy 2026 from the dream(y) team!

Work and play have always been intertwined at GNCS and it is truly an honor to get to do both with this crew. We’ve been absolutely sending the last two weeks and we are more and more grateful for their attention to detail, work ethic and good humor every day.

In 2025 we brought on two new team members, launched a bike fit arm of the business, got through her first season of , mounted over 525 pairs of skis, tubelessed over 730 tires, and rang up just over 1400 coffees. It was smooth and consistent and most of the time really damn fun.

We’re rolling into 2026 with the doors closed today so that these people can celebrate all their hard work properly. But you bet your ass we’ll be back tomorrow ready to keep dishing out all the expertise, some of the snark, and as much coffee as you can drink. Onward!

✌️💛✌️💛

12/15/2025

So good, even in the rain.

The Canvas is here.

A dawning of a new age from one of our favorite brands, the Canvas hits the slopes with an entirely wood core, a super versatile shape with lots of early rise in the tip and tail and a wicked playful shape that wants to party no matter the conditions. Time to get creative with the Canvas.

It comes in 3 waist widths: 100, 108 and 118. We’ve got an early run of 108s in stock in all lengths. AND THERE IS SNOW IN THE FORECAST!

#❄︎

Address

328 Central Avenue
Whitefish, MT
59937

Telephone

(406) 862-5321

Website

http://www.gncycleski.com/

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