London bike shops closing

Yep. Warranty is a massive PITA.

One advantage of selling a smaller, well-understood, and tested range of stuff is you can cut out anything that starts to show high warranty rates.

Everything at max RRP is pretty lols, you’re almost expecting a multi-buy discount to kick in at the end.

Called Elswood Cycles in Putney to ask them to look at my brake. Instead the guy advised me on how to fix it myself as I had everything I needed already. Only went and worked! No upselling no nothing. Has definitely won a customer. Really really nice guy.

@Mikenetic, what's the typical margin for a complete bike? It's probably very different depending on brand, but what's the rough range?

I'd guess that would be Harry! He's a bit of a legend....

+/-30%, 40 if you’re lucky.

In my opinion a service based model is only sustainable with minimal overheads, servicing is labour intensive, requires decent staff, space and tools etc... with inner city overheads going the way they are, I can’t see how you could survive on servicing and the odd P&A sale. I agree about providing a curated selection of products, but (IMO) if things carry on as they are, folding bikes and ebikes are the areas where growth and profit will occur. You’ll still sell the odd road or gravel bike, but ebikes and decent folders are to today what the MtB was to the 90s and the road bike was to the 10s.

Those margins sound about right.

I do agree with your point. It is very hard to make it work, especially with London levels of overhead.

Servicing and P&A is dependent on your customer profile. It's the same amount of time to replace a Super Record or Dura-Ace mech as a Claris one, but obviously the profit is way bigger.

E-bikes are an interesting area, but not one I feel very qualified to talk about. Anecdotally, I am seeing a lot more about, and I suspect it's not a saturated market. How long that lasts for, who knows?

I agree on the overheads - Workshop based models can work if the overheads are low - i.e non high street location, and word of mouth/reviews are good.

We've seen a steady increase in E-Bike sales, they seem to be either a fun + 1 for people who own lots of bikes, or a decent commuting option if you travel around to meetings and don't want to get sweaty etc (I've had customers buy e-bikes over scooters/motorbikes)

I've always wondered if someone like Canyon should do a Rapha Clubhouse-esque model - Small store, few examples of bikes but not full range/sizes like a bike shop, jig for basic sizing service before ordering, then a full bike fitting option that costs extra £, extra £ option to get delivered to store and built by mechanic. Then 'club' you can join for £ and organised rides etc.

Essentially a showroom

Ribble seem to be doing it now but no idea if it's commercially viable

Excuse my ignorance, but what's p&a?

parts and accessories

I work in retail design/consultancy and that limited range/small format offer is becoming very popular for car brands. It works extremely well for them.

For example

https://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/volkswagen-open-store-bullring-center-birrmingham-22-06-2017

There are lots of other brands who do similar. If you're going this way then you need to have control over lots of steps in your supply chain, which is why I do think for a Direct To Consumer (DTC) operator like Canyon it'd be viable. Offering services like pre-purchase fiting, bike loan when being serviced etc etc.

Condor do it to some extent already, although they obviously have a larger retail premises. No reason why they couldn't do a smaller format in other parts of the country, or even do a mobile tour, like Speedvagen. https://www.speedvagen.com/fitting-tour/

The original Moore brother store in st.johns road Isleworth is closing.
Now called Moore cycles it's been open for 4 decades and still family owned after 3 generations.
Was fantastic place for me as a child especially with the bmx track round the corner, also long gone.
The other stores in teddington and twickenham will stay open.

This is the reality sometimes, you get bikes with absolutely no brakes left, then when they get it back, instead o being delighted with their new found brakes you get back lash, because "they weren't that sensitive before!"

I..e today had someone asking for a quote to put a bolt in their mudguard to stop it rattling. Gave bike a once over to make sure wasnt a death trap, brakes felt ok, gave it an indoor test ride (I try and ride every bike before and after work to verify what I've done), promptly rode into desk as brake pads resembled closer to concrete than rubber and did what you'd expect it you rubbed concrete onto a rim.
Little to say. They weren't interested in getting the brakes to work, only sort that annoying rattle.

Not london per se but always riding ceasing doing online retail

AW Cycles in Merton appears to have closed, been a Bike shop at that location for over 100 years but looks like that’s it now.

Immediately, or soon? I noticed their website was having problems earlier today. Pity - they were always good to deal with on the occasions I bought stuff off them.

They are just changing their business model, but yeah it’s a shame, I really like them and they really do remember regular customers despite never met them (me),m. They have always walked the extra mile for me when I need my orders on a particular day / time without extra cost etc etc...

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Just got an email from Richard Balfe to say they're closing their Kennington workshop. Very sad.

transferred it to Cyclefix two weeks ago

It doesn't seem like there is any job lost though. Spoke to them a few weeks ago and it sounds like the other 2 shops kind of welcome more hands from their Kennington store so they can get more done.

Noooo I bloody love that place. The guys in there are great. Have helped me out loads of time.

Action bikes in east sheen has closed.. never used the place but still sad it's gone.
Had a huge supply of kids bikes in the window.
The branch in whitton closed years ago.
Sad as west London is now a waste land for bike shops.
But there is still some great places providing excellent service.

Do you know if that's the same company as had a store on embankment just opposite the tube? Good guys in there.

Yup. They also have(had?) a branch in Wimbledon - where I bought my first UK bike about 13 years ago. East Sheen shop used to be my local LBS. All experiences were very good.