Evans Cycles

Yup, Madison used to do them but they only do the ones for hybrid tubes now and not the road ones.

Still works but not as tidy i.e. 20p sized instead of 1p.

I mostly use Tip Top Rema, but also used (and still carry some in my kit) a large patch from Weldite, which you can cut to whatever size you need. Good for temporary repair of tyre side walls when you get a cut or then the threads start to tear apart. I use it with the Top Rema glue, it has a very similar vulcanising (?) orange layer under the black rubber. It doesn't have the thin edges obviously but, cutting the corners of a square patch, I never had issues. Very economic to use...

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talc! you monster!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/johnson-talc-baby-powder-sales-b2143690.html

That look pretty good!

I have to remember to refresh my patches, last time I didn’t, it was 2 years old and the patches have deteriorated badly that I can’t use them.

Modern arkose, how difficult is the internal routing to the RD? Can it be done easily without special tools?

I've got an older model without this internal section and the downtube is easy to route but no idea about the rear triangle.

just popped into the local evans (no other local lbs in town unfortunately) for a chain and some bar tape for my commuter.
only 11sp chain was a dura ace shimano for £47 and they only had blue bar tape...

maybe it's a vicious cycle (no pun intended) of no stock ordered because nobody goes in for stuff / nobody goes in for stuff because they have no stock?

Asda sell bike stuff like that now and the range if you have one.

Hopefully Evans will go down the shitter sooner rather than later. Fucking mikes bikes.

things have gone pretty wrong if you’re at the stage of patching a tube at the roadside

If the weather is nice and I'm not in a hurry then I usually patch by the road side. It's better to do that than bung in another tube if you've got the time. It's handy if you flat in a nice sunny spot :)

Yeh but its dark up north by 2pm at the moment . Other cyclists will think your worse off than a deliveroo courier !

Asda sell 11 speed chains?!

Sadly no
https://groceries.asda.com/product/bike-accessories/one-23-bicycle-chain-7-8-speed-114-links/1000304470596

But this should get you home which is cheaper than a taxi.

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ORLY or can I see the pixels?

Context? HQ switching hands?

Aren't these just photos from 2 and 4 years ago respectively?

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It’s just Evans Cycles old HO now Balfe’s Bikes for the last several years, nothing new.

Hence my query for context.

Evans increased its portfolio of physical stores from 48 to 57 between
2021 and 2022.

In its 2022 accounts Evans also reported a dramatic fall in employees
from 829 in 2021 to 490 in 2022

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/evan-cycles-losses-deepen-to-over-pound5m

Retailers stocked up during covid, sales boomed, then supply chain issues and trade dropped off.

not sure if there's a consolidated 'huge bike chains going out of business' topic anywhere, but following on from recent discussions on various threads here...

i popped in to my local evans at lunch to pick up an item ordered online.
it's a big store, there was nobody at the desk so went over to the mechanic stand.
it turns out that he's the only one on the shop floor as they've binned off the managers and a lot of the other staff.

i felt really sorry for the guy, although he seemed pretty chill about it.

Ooof. That’s not good news.