Brick Lane Bikes, summed up in one exchange

Have'nt heard many good things about BLB.I wanted a pair of Velocity V's on Dura Ace.But i won't go there.Have to think of an alternative wheel set up i can purchase some where else.

or buy yself the hubs and rims and ill build them for you????

^^ better idea

BLB may not be the perfect LBS, but it is getting a bit tiresome hearing people slate BLB while eulogising Bike 14. Surely they are both basically bike boutiques stacked high with depending on your point of view expensive or over priced exotica, but can't help feeling that on balance BLB does it better.

Can understand your being miffed with BLB for selling you the wrong lube, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that Bike 14 doesn't sell lube at all, can't remember ever having seen any in there, no tools either for that matter. I've found BLB to be pricey in the past, but in my experience Bike 14 are even more expensive, couple of weeks ago I needed to grab some bar tape on a Sunday, didn't like the stuff in Evans or Cycle Surgery so headed first for Bike 14, then BLB to see what they had. Bike 14 had the more limited stock and were selling Fizik Micropore tape for £20, when everyone (including BLB) seems to sell it for £13-£14. Jan, seeing they didn't have what I wanted on display, invited me behind the counter to rummage through a box of all the other tape they had to see if I could find what I wanted there, which I did, some nice thick padded tape by Salsa, which was £7.99, very competetively priced.

Also can't help feeling that Bike 14 loses in the exotica stakes, Bike 14 has Lee Cooper make their frames (no bad thing, he's a good frame builder) but BLB have had Bob Jackson make some nice non-standard frames for them and have Orlowski build frames for them. Difference is BLB are much more open about who they get to make their frames.

Bike 14 stocks Sugino 75s, Profile, Phil Woods (I think), Goldtec, Royce, Miche and the admittedly very exotic Chub hubs, but BLB have a wider range of different coloured Sugino 75s, Phil Woods, Paul, they're the official distributor for H Plus Son, have some real gems like Ambrosio's Isis taper track hubs and a whole heap of classic and retro bike bits like Cinelli Alter stems and all sorts of NOS Campy and Dura Ace bits, some of this stuff at first glance can look a bit pricey, but not sure it's a lot more than the top end of what this stuff typically goes for on ebay with a retail mark-up added.

BLB is also the only place in the UK where I've seen the Schwinn Paramount, for my money (if you can stomach this years yellow colour scheme) probably the best otp there is. So BLB definitely have more bases covered than not. I'm not trying to rubbish Bike 14, I really like the store and like a lot of what they do, but it seems a bit strange to rubbish BLB for being expensive and in some ways a bit niche, but then to unequivocally praise Bike 14, who are more expensive and even more niche. I've also had some of the younger assistants in Bike 14 speak as much rubbish as anything I've heard in BLB, it seems to be all about building the stores mystique, had one of them try and convince me that they were responsible for getting Goldtec to start manufacturing chain-rings, which is funny because I swear they (Goldtec) were making them before Bike 14 opened. In my experience the treatment you get from Jan is totally dependent on how you treat him, treat him with respect and he's a real gent and can't be more helpful, can't help feeling that the problem is that if he feels you're treating him like a muppet he reciprocates in kind.

I think BLB and 14's prices are the same (ie. mostly overpriced). I've had good and bad service in both BLB and 14...

BLB is for hipsters, 14 is for hardcore fixed hipsters trying to get out of the mainstream fixed hipsterism

let's just pretend that I made some comment slagging of BLB. I'm too tired to be clever this morning. And you should all just get martin (broken 77) to build your wheels for you.

I think BLB and 14's prices are the same (ie. mostly overpriced). I've had good and bad service in both BLB and 14...

BLB is for hipsters, 14 is for hardcore fixed hipsters trying to get out of the mainstream fixed hipsterism

I see that as the other way around tbh. 14s bikes generally look much more like a generic hipster nightmare than the often elegant and understated builds of BLB. Do 14 even sell non-deep-v rims?

Either way, when I went into BLB the staff treated me like a cunt, and when I went into 14 they were super cool. Result: I spent £1000 in 14. You pay your money and take your choice innit.

you spend £1000 in one day?? blimey.

i wish i had £1000 to spend on a bike / parts.. it would go on my road bike though..

Oh don't get me wrong, it was a cyclescheme voucher. I don't have a grand to drop on a bike normally.

Watching the tour on TV does make me wish that I had a grand to spend on some deep section carbon wheels.

Looks like I'll have to dust off my house breaking tools and find out where Fiddy lives though, as having looked at my bank account I did not find a spare bag of sand.

There once was a Rabbi named Keith
Who circumcised men with his teeth
T'was not for the leasure or sexual pleasure
but to get to the cheese underneath

Gold.

Last time I went to BLB for pedals, they seemed a bit pricy so I went somewhere else. Seems to me that's the whole point of shops, you get what you want at the price you're willing to pay or you go somewhere else. Buying an unlabeled bottle of anything from a shop seems a bit random.

On a recent visit to London I popped into 14 and asked if they knew Oscars whereabouts as I used to skate with him when I lived there (and showed him how to skid a fix:)) The ginger girl behind the counter spoke to me like a piece of shit and when I asked pancake his eyes never left the computer screen and was given a less than hospitable answer.........BLB have always answered any q's with a smile.

i just was in there and saw a white unipack frame? whats going on with that

I have experienced BLB twice.

On returning a low-stack headset (which I was assured would fit..... not even close.....far too keen to take ££££), no refund was offered, only credit note - swapped for a brake, had £3 credit left. Polish dude chucks a couple of tyre levers across the counter, and says "there, you're done".....clearly deciding how I would spend my cash.....& he walks away from the counter.

2nd visit was simply to show a friend, a v. accomplished cyclist new to fixed bikes, the range of stock available. After 5 mins of his newbie browsing, without prompting, he said "not very friendly in here, can't tell who works here, & if they even give a shit......"

Decent product range, shite service.

People will vote with their money.

well as they are " so overpriced " you wouldn't have got much for your three quid anyhoo would ya
geezer was doing you a favour save you having to ask how much the valve caps were etc...

Didn't elude to them being overpriced, & as for some Dylan deciding how & when I'll spend my cash.......

I fucking love an akward form of 'service' in a shop.

Makes you feel like charlie bucket from the original charlie and the chocolate factory (gene wilder og version).

Your not sure whether they want you to be there, i mean you haven't got much money, the rich kids go first, and don't appreciate it. Apart from almost dying on 'fizzy lifting drinks' it's exactly the same*

*it's not exactly the same.

I see it more like little shop of horrors the main guy who works there being like audrey rose fee.......................................*

*i'll shut up.

just slap a big wad of 50's on the counter.... you'll get the attention you crave !

now... where to get that big wad of 50's..?

Dean's sock?

now... where to get that big wad of 50's.. and an endless supply of weed?

Dean's mink sock?

Fixed.

i like your thinking.. now where to get that fiddydorrah for that sock..

Fiddy Dorrah?
Don't be silly, you can't get a mink sock for less than 2K these days.

fiddy dorrah, 2K, same thing, bloody exchange rate