Brick Lane Bikes (BLB) Bike Shop

I went to BLB to ask some questions tonight.
A nice guy answered every of my questions very kindly. Nice.
I went around the shop and at one point I asked another guy how much it would be for them to remove the bottom bracket from one of my bikes. He said 40£. And he was not joking.
Hahahahahaha, wonderfull.
I was about to buy a shit load of parts from them as well as buying a new bike but now I am kind of hesitating. And that's the same every time I go there: coming to buy some parts and leaving so disapointed by the service that I get nothing.
It's crazy how many clients them might loose because treating people like stupid.
BLB, people are not cash machines.

Are you sure the £40 wasn't to replace the BB? That's what they quoted me once, still expensive, but much less than just removing it.

They were a bit aloof sometimes with me, but for the most part they have been really helpful, friendly and interested in what I'm up to.

I'll admit the change seemed to come from them when I went from the "I want to turn this piece of junk into a fixed wheel bike" to "can you show me what spokes I need for this wheel build".

I just think with the MASSIVE popularity of fixed bikes around Brick Lane they must get fed up of people asking basic obvious questions all the time. As soon as you show you're keen and interested in bikes and not just fashion their attitude tends to change.

So all in all, they could be nicer to everyone, and certainly charge less, but they are definitely not the devil incarnate that they are always made out to be.

They did once fuck up an antique 4 speed 1/8th freewheel that I asked them to remove once though grrrr!

Yeah, BLB are sound in my book... Quit whining like a pussy-puss and HTFU! Vote with your feet my friend, don't moan about it here...
BTW Do you wet the bed?
Jeeeeeeez!
edit: Don't wanna sound like a cunt piling in with everybody else, I posted this from my phone after I'd read Matt's post... And it's true, as other folk have already said, that if you don't wanna stump up the cash, just learn to do it yourself...

I paid them about 75 altogether including a Surgino messenger crank, new BB and labour, to be honest i thought that was a reasonable cost (including chain too).

Are you sure the £40 wasn't to replace the BB? That's what they quoted me once, still expensive, but much less than just removing it.

Fair enough. You could be right right, maybe the guy missunderstood my question (which was clear).

I paid them about 75 altogether including a Surgino messenger crank, new BB and labour, to be honest i thought that was a reasonable cost (including chain too).

That is indeed more than reasonable.

So why? I don't get it.

So why? I don't get it.

Tarck crunch...

+1 to what matt said. there's not a huge margin in parts so I don't mind spending an extra few quid there.

Did you look like you'd pay £40 to remove a BB? what was so special about it? All work in london is expensive (except smallbrownbike mat) but otherwise cough up or buy tools.

That is indeed more than reasonable.

So why? I don't get it.

probably cause they recognised me cause I'm probably the only deaf bloke who visited BLB? or that I'm generally polite and didn't ask stupid question? etc.

Bought a painted chainset on Wednesday and it has a dodgy paint finish which I didn't realise until I got home and removed from the packing. Hopefully they'll swap it and I can hang my hipster head in shame at buying a painted chainset in the first place.

probably cause they recognised me cause I'm probably the only deaf bloke who visited BLB? or that I'm generally polite and didn't ask stupid question? etc.

What stupid question?
The cost for removing a bb?
Next time I'll guess.

+1 to what matt said. there's not a huge margin in parts so I don't mind spending an extra few quid there.

Did you look like you'd pay £40 to remove a BB? what was so special about it? All work in london is expensive (except smallbrownbike mat) but otherwise cough up or buy tools.

Thankyou once again!

From working in workshops, the thing that normally really gets to me is when you are explaining to a customer the pricing and time scale and then they say - thats too much/too long for a quick 5 minute job... at this point most mechanics will glaze over and not bother spending time with the customer anymore. I know quite a few wrenches that are like that and has happened to me a few times.

I don't think i have ever posted on a blb thread, never had anything to really say about them. But look at it this way - they set up a shop to be part of what they love. They are one of the only places in London with that amount of track/fixed specific stock... and that is what you are paying for.

If you are going to complain about service from shops and mechanics then just go out, take a course, buy the tools and do the work yourself.

They removed a BB for me this week (cottered spindle), I asked them to stop trying to get it out if it was going to cost more than £15... no probs.

If you are going to complain about service from shops and mechanics then just go out, take a course, buy the tools and do the work yourself.

+1

What's the plan, online shop, or has this always existed... Velocity USA said they'd be passing on rims via this (BLB's) online distribution in the UK v. soon?

http://www.blbbigmama.co.uk/

Yes!!!

Now I can pay over the odds AND postage. Winner.

Yes!!!

Now I can pay over the odds AND postage. Winner.

actually you pay over the odds and they make you go and collect it!

A good move for them but it'll mean less stock for the regular walk-in customers and probably even higher prices.

I think blbbigmama is just the distribution company that is attached to the shop. I guess you can only buy by bulk.

That is correct.

Oh fuck, if it's not bad enough that some people think I took my username from cheap but over-priced rims, now they're going to be even more prevalent.

That's it, I'm changing my username.

Didn't your username used to be different. Wasn't it David_K at the start?

How about H+SonBoy? MavicBoy?

Er yes... though the point of changing it was so that I couldn't be found by Google, so... thanks for that! :)

'illustriousleader'?

How about H+SonBoy? MavicBoy?

MavicBoy makes me sound like a Japanese cartoon character. I quite like.

My username came from Velo + City (as in, the city is my cycle playground) and a twist on Primal Scream's Velocity Girl single. And not the rims. Sadly this passed a few people by, including the one who PM'd me last year to say how cool it was that my username is VelocityBoy as he has orange Deep-V's on his bike... part of me died that day.