While Dave Deans’ store North Star Cycle has been a staple of Port Hardy for 25 years, Deans himself has lived on the North Island for over 60 years.
Deans was born in Alberta before he moved to Coal Harbour when he was only one-years-old.
After 10 years of growing up in Coal Harbour, he moved to Port Hardy where he has been ever since.
“Living here so long you know everybody,” Deans said. “I like it, I’ve got no choice. I’ve got four grandkids and they’re here”.
Dean spent time working in logging and fishing before he decided to open his own business. “I worked at Safeway when they had that here,” he said, adding Safeway “got into renting videos, and when they closed down I just took it over and moved it downtown.”
After owning the store J and L Video for five years, Deans bought North Star Cycle. “In those days, buying new movies was over a 100 bucks so you had to rent it out quite a few times.”
When the video rental business began to decline, Deans decided to move on. He bought North Star Cycle not because of his love of bicycles, but because he was interested in baseball, hockey, and other sports equipment.
“Hockey, baseball, we order jerseys, basically anything to do with sports, if you don’t have it we can get it,” Deans said.
Deans added he’s seen his fare share of interesting cyclists that pass through town.
“You meet lots of people,” he said. “One guy was from Germany and he started in the most southern part of South America. He biked to here and was going to Alaska, and then he was headed on the trans-Siberian railway back to Germany. I had a lady in here the other day and she was going to Alaska, she wanted to go to all the states, and that was her last one.”
Deans said his daughter Leigh is a big help to him at North Star Cycle. “If I want a weekend off or if I have to go away she can work Saturdays for me. She’s worked for me since she was probably ten-years-old.”
In his spare time, Deans keeps himself involved with local sports in the community. He organizes the Port Hardy Slow Pitch baseball tournaments, and is busy getting ready for the Port Hardy Slow Pitch Father’s Day Classic.