The wave of new London bike shops

Plans for a new Vaidas in Blackheath. (Just as I'm moving to Plumstead but it's still closer than Honor Oak. Yay!)

machine.bike in Bromley; tip by @Sparky

Never seen it open. Remember they had a shop on Tower Bridge Road which actually did good coffee and sourdough sandwiches. Don't think I ever used the mechanical services...

Not particularly new wave, but balfe bike have opened up in Chiswick and by all accounts a few other locations.
Perhaps taking advantage of general boom in cycling and plenty of space on the High Street.
Still huge shortage of LBS in the outer zones 5/6 especially out west.

My mate lives in Bethnal Green and needs his tandem serviced. Where's good out East?

Paradise Cycles on Roman Road or SBC
Cycles near Shoreditch Park are both great.

Excellent, thanks very much!

Also Frankenbike in Hackney Wick.

Chiswick High Road:

https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/1423977932645613574

They've had quite the investment eh. Big warehouse and a bunch of new shops.

Great to them expanding. We have a new one in Angel which has loads of good equipment that I’d be happy to use myself which is saying something. Need to get Islington to install some Sheffield stands outside for parking though.

I saw that yeah, past Islington Green. Nothing further east. 7 shops now I think.

Can anyone recommend a shop that has experience in removing a seized seatpost? Ideally, east/central but doesn't matter too much. Have tried a few lbs' but it's not something they could do/wanted to. Cheers.

Bikefix maybe

If you want to attempt it yourself and it's a seatpost you can deal with losing, I've got a 36" stillson wrench in SE1, never let me down yet...

Thank you but think it’s a bit beyond me. Not sure my boyarms will cut it.

Cheers

Not sure if this is the right place to post but just got an email saying East Central Cycles on Exmouth Market is closing down. Shame, I used to use them quite a bit when I worked in Clerkenwell.

Did see they had a big sale on the other day. There is a thread of London bike shops closing though I think.

Ah so there is, somehow didn’t find that when I searched for where to put this!

Just saw this, shame been in there a few times when they 1st opened, really solid operation and have recommended them a bunch over the years, can assume its purely down to landlords being exactly what you expect them to be and trying to run a decent bike shop on those rates just isn't possible/worth it. They might snag a deal somewhere else but despite the massive number of shops disappearing from high street in general I'm still surprised to see landlords jacking the prices up.

https://theseatpostman.com/

Have used John at the seatpost man a few times. First class.

I've got an old frame that needs the seatpost unstuck. I wish there was someone like the Seatpost Man in London!

Likely worth stripping it and sending frame out in the post to someone like that. Recycle your bike in Stirling do this too, have a hydraulic puller and an experienced operator to pull them out as gentle as possible (especially suitable for folk with alloy post stuck in alloy frame, where chemicals cannot be used).
In my shop we have a go at seatposts, usually get customers to set a spend limit 1-4 hours and then stick to that limit. Kroil, heat, cold, impact, rotation, rinse and repeat over a few weeks gets good results without going insane on the time spent. Also make use of a 2 kg slide hammer with blind bearing puller works wonders (need to chop top of post off).