Are traditional Local bike shops dead ?
- Thread starter ibbz
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I used to live on the edge of Islington/hackney close to dalston and shoreditch.
there were loads of shops catering for every sector of the market within 1-2 miles of my front door. From Mosquito on Essex road for the top (silly money) stuff to the london bike kitchen for repairs/training. There must be 20+ showing up on a google maps search, and that is not counting the chains.
I guess your bit of London may be shit and shop free, but it certainly isn't the case everywhere.
there were loads of shops catering for every sector of the market within 1-2 miles of my front door. From Mosquito on Essex road for the top (silly money) stuff to the london bike kitchen for repairs/training. There must be 20+ showing up on a google maps search, and that is not counting the chains.
I guess your bit of London may be shit and shop free, but it certainly isn't the case everywhere.
JeRkY":lna39vwx said:
Typical smart Alec comment from someone who didn't read/understand my original post and subsequent ones.
I'd 100% class Doleston and Whackney as such upperty trendy places which have a wealth of boutique and other types.
You've repeated parrot fashion what I originally wrote.
No such luck in Tottenham, Walthamstow Chingford Enfield Leyton and other 'shit' parts. A shame we're not all lucky enough to live in lovely leafy parts eh?
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The best one in my town, the one I bought my 1989 Tufftrax from in 1990 closed down last year after a 'concept store' said it was opening. Another shop that was around (in name) bitd is still here but was not very good then and isn't now.
Saying that, the mechanic from the good shop has set up in an industrial unit so that's the place to go although it doesn't really fit the lbs criteria.
The best one in my town, the one I bought my 1989 Tufftrax from in 1990 closed down last year after a 'concept store' said it was opening. Another shop that was around (in name) bitd is still here but was not very good then and isn't now.
Saying that, the mechanic from the good shop has set up in an industrial unit so that's the place to go although it doesn't really fit the lbs criteria.
the only thing i am finding with my local bike shops, is that they are not carrying much stock , so when i go to buy for example a fairly standard headset and they get on the computer and tell me it will arrive in 2 days and it will cost more than what i could of got it for online. i can't help but feel that i should of just order it online and not waste my time going to the shop.
i would definitely be happy to pay more to keep my local services, but i do want them to provide a service and part of that is not just to have pretty stuff in the window but to have parts in the stock room.
feels a bit like when you go to the doctors and he get on google to find out what's wrong with you!
sorry and thankyou i feel better for airing
i would definitely be happy to pay more to keep my local services, but i do want them to provide a service and part of that is not just to have pretty stuff in the window but to have parts in the stock room.
feels a bit like when you go to the doctors and he get on google to find out what's wrong with you!
sorry and thankyou i feel better for airing
ultrazenith
Senior Retro Guru
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I have 3 independent bike shops near me, in Porto. One is what I'd call the classic independent LBS. It was well stocked when I discovered it, and the staff are genuine cyclists and the store caters for entry level up to boutique level stuff and bikes. But I stopped using them after a bad experience with an obviously inflated bill for some mechanical work. Over the last 2 years the store has become gradually less well stocked, to the point that I expect it to close down anytime soon.
The second bike shop is run by a guy in his 60s, and looks like his shop has been there since the 1980s. His mechanical work is so awful, he's either shockingly incompetent (strange for someone clearly with a long experience running a bike shop) or else is deliberately sabotaging my rear wheels, perhaps as a means to generate sales.
The third bike shop sells only trendy urban bikes - their best selling lines are vintage-look town bikes costing around 800 gbp and upwards. And they have no products I have ever considered buying. However, they have an honest and competent mechanic, so I choose to order online when I need parts (usually from here anyway) and get the work done at this shop.
The second bike shop is run by a guy in his 60s, and looks like his shop has been there since the 1980s. His mechanical work is so awful, he's either shockingly incompetent (strange for someone clearly with a long experience running a bike shop) or else is deliberately sabotaging my rear wheels, perhaps as a means to generate sales.
The third bike shop sells only trendy urban bikes - their best selling lines are vintage-look town bikes costing around 800 gbp and upwards. And they have no products I have ever considered buying. However, they have an honest and competent mechanic, so I choose to order online when I need parts (usually from here anyway) and get the work done at this shop.
I live in east Manchester and there's one virtually on my doorstep, but it's a bit pricey and the last time I took a bike in there it took them two weeks to fit me in for a few small jobs (bar tape, bb and crankset replacement. I think it'd have taken longer if I hadn't gone in to enquire why my bike was still by the door, exactly where it'd been left two weeks prior) - I just wasn't experienced enough to do them myself then. Seems more geared towards new bike sales anyway - shop is full of them and there's been a Charge Plug 1 in the window for ages. They have signs up stating they offer set-up services for bikes bought online too. I heard on the grapevine that the shop had a mechanic that only visited once weekly but I don't know what to make of that.
The next nearest by I've used once - asked them to do some jobs including a chain, they said okay and quoted a price. They call up telling me my cassette needed replacing and they'd also serviced my bike (when questioned they said it wasn't a full service per se - if that's so why isn't my headset notchy any more?!), and they were now charging me £25 more than quoted. I said I didn't want that doing, okay, they took the cassette off again but I ended up paying for the service seemingly as the labour etc added up to the original quote. I asked for my old cassette back and it turned out they'd binned it when they changed it without consulting me, so I ended up being given a free new one. I decided I wasn't going back there again if I couldn't trust them to ask me before doing anything I hadn't really asked for.
Considering my experiences, what LBSs charge for labour and the lead time on jobs, I'd rather learn to service my own bikes, as I am doing.
A Halfords Cycle Republic opened recently in Manchester but I've no reason to go in there, can't comment on it. If they sell Apollos in there then I'm never going in on principle.
There's an EBC but all they seem to do is sell hybrids and such to Didsbury commuters on B2W and a few own-brands (I really don't see Revos that often, a lot less than I used to) - that said they were pretty helpful when I ran in one lunchtime on a Pug with a dodgy bottom bracket, more out of necessity than anything.
And Evans is just too expensive - bottom brackets are £10 or £15 cheaper on Amazon, and they're far more likely to have the right size, whereas Evans have about five on the shelf in any size combination at all. I seldom find what I'm actually looking for in Evans, either they don't have it or it's just too pricey.
I'll stick to DIY I think.
The next nearest by I've used once - asked them to do some jobs including a chain, they said okay and quoted a price. They call up telling me my cassette needed replacing and they'd also serviced my bike (when questioned they said it wasn't a full service per se - if that's so why isn't my headset notchy any more?!), and they were now charging me £25 more than quoted. I said I didn't want that doing, okay, they took the cassette off again but I ended up paying for the service seemingly as the labour etc added up to the original quote. I asked for my old cassette back and it turned out they'd binned it when they changed it without consulting me, so I ended up being given a free new one. I decided I wasn't going back there again if I couldn't trust them to ask me before doing anything I hadn't really asked for.
Considering my experiences, what LBSs charge for labour and the lead time on jobs, I'd rather learn to service my own bikes, as I am doing.
A Halfords Cycle Republic opened recently in Manchester but I've no reason to go in there, can't comment on it. If they sell Apollos in there then I'm never going in on principle.
There's an EBC but all they seem to do is sell hybrids and such to Didsbury commuters on B2W and a few own-brands (I really don't see Revos that often, a lot less than I used to) - that said they were pretty helpful when I ran in one lunchtime on a Pug with a dodgy bottom bracket, more out of necessity than anything.
And Evans is just too expensive - bottom brackets are £10 or £15 cheaper on Amazon, and they're far more likely to have the right size, whereas Evans have about five on the shelf in any size combination at all. I seldom find what I'm actually looking for in Evans, either they don't have it or it's just too pricey.
I'll stick to DIY I think.
