The wave of new London bike shops

If you bring some beers, it can be a party.

skinny erics in hackney wick are looking to take on a new mechanic
really nice guys in the shop and lucky for me, my local bike shop

a great little place and worth a look if you are passing

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/267677/#comment12272382

Being utterly theft-proof works in its favor.

22t?

Less.

What's the weird 'Bike Curious' in the old pub on Rodney Rd?

Imposibru! etc.

That's cool though, not much that will stop you with that kind of gearing.

17t.

High end (I read dentist's) bike shop coming to Regent Street

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/the-bike-rooms-come-to-london/017657

Also interested about this.

Scoured Twitter for more info but nothing came up.

Looks like they sell only Pinarello. Which can also be bought from Halfords just up the road.

Curious.

London as a tourist destination for buying bikes?

I imagine that there will soon be improvements in airline protocols for bike carriage ...

Oh wait... Yea I know Bikerooms, they sold me some pedals for cheap once in Swindon.

Went and banged on the door at Bike Curious. Poor guy looked like he thought a hoody had come to rob him.

It's going to be a bike shop and will open in the next few weeks. Looks like they're still in the process of ripping out the old fittings and fixtures.

Did you tell him you were bike shop curious?

He could see it all over my face.

There's a bike workshop/coffee/fuck only knows what thing opening on Exmouth Market this week.

I can't really see a high-end brick and mortar bike shop being economically viable. Even in the moneyed west end, how many people are really going to be interested in purchasing a £5-10k road bike? It certainly doesn't have the same cachet that an expensive suit/handbag or similarly extravagant car does.

I'd have said the same about a shop selling cycling clothes in the West End but Rapha seem to be doing quite well.

Yeahbut kinoko

I dunno, the volume of 'cycling is the new golf' type press stories in the past couple of years suggests there's a market. They just need to pitch it right.

True, I guess the difference is that Rapha sells a unique product (even if you can buy it all over London) where as, like Howard pointed out, presumably this place will just be selling the same high-end bikes that you can buy at a number of other stores already. Also the market for high-end bikes may already be saturated where as Rapha was able to find an under-served niche

but yeah who knows, could take off and make £££

Every time I went in Kinoko the staff were more interested in chatting each other up than being useful. They seemed nice enough, but not very good at actually selling.

A few members of staff said the shop was viable, just that the owner was not interested in carrying on with the shop. I do not know if this was true.

I can't really see a high-end brick and mortar bike shop being economically viable.

Velorution (who have just opened a second outlet in Selfridges).
Bikefix.
Bon Velo.

how many people are really going to be interested in purchasing a £5-10k road bike?

The same people willing to spend £500 on a "cycling suit jacket". Or buy Paul Smith/Ted Baker cycling gear.

London is increasingly dominated by people with silly money to splash around. Cycling is more fashionable than ever. In this city, it will work.

I think their biggest problem will be finding staff who can make it work.

On the assumption that they do have to make money, and they, like most shops, will make the good chunk of that from accessory and repair / servicing work, they have to get some pretty savvy and approachable staff in to off-set the image of it being a shop for roadie douches only.