London bike shops closing

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  • Take care of yourself mate. Only got one body. Last Friday I was in auto zombie mode without realising it was Friday. I went in the next day and opened up. Realised an hour later it was Saturday.

    Don’t burn yourself out. It’s a paradoxically good time for bikes, but they’re fucking bikes, not life or death work.

  • Taken me 6 weeks to realise this. The wave of work is going ti stretch for a while yet, waiting for evans/halfords to open up a bit more and take some of the crap job slack.
    Our shop is positioned in a very residential area, so we have the luxury of not having to (usually) deal with walk in shit bikes and endless punctures. But since lockdown we've often been the only shop open/answering the phone to our demise.
    Spending more time looking after repeat customers and locals, those that rock up in a brand new leased white audi/merc/bmw and then projectile vomit a collection of mangled parts from an Internet bike/halfords bike are getting less time spent on them as will likely never see again. Not a way I like to be, but can't fix everything all the time constantly.

  • Totally empathize and echo this. The amount of 'first time out of shed in a decade' amount of bikes is astonishing. Had a family of three today with bikes that just saw the light of day. Every. damned. thing was rusted.
    It was a tough call, accept and get them running again, or refuse them on grounds of 'fuck that'. We try to be accommodating and human to every customer in this store even though we're a chain, but at times it's hard to do so and you have to say no.

    Ironically, we're never been busier even though we're destined to close. Go figure.

  • Heh. A friend bought a cheap bike in a box from Halfords when the lockdown started and did the assembly herself.

    1. Front tyre pointing backwards
    2. None of the break pads properly aligned (either wearing holes in the tyre or only half touching the rim)
    3. Handlebars loose
    4. Saddle much too low
    5. Left pedal constantly falling out because she didn't know about the left-handed thread and just tried to force it in (amazingly, she didn't destroy the thread)
    6. Kickstand not properly tightened
    7. Misaligned kickstand was pinching the gear cable so that she couldn't change gear

    Unusually, she was suitably embarrassed. Most people seem unwilling to accept that there's some skill to assembling and maintaining a bike and that they didn't put the effort in.

    Nearest bike shop has closed its doors and is only doing pre-booked repairs/maintenance/bike-building this week, to cope with the demand.

  • waiting for evans/halfords to open up a bit more and take some of the crap job slack.

    Now with Cycle Republic gone and Evans shutting up shop in London (Fulham one appear to be closed permanently), doesn’t seemed like it.

  • Front tyre back to front or fork back to front though?

  • Halfords have decided bricks and mortar is not profitable and are moving online (tredz) with limited support provided via Halfords storesS

  • I know, despite the fact we were funnily enough doing better than Evans.

  • Maybe its time to take the workshop to the people if the Shop business model doesnt work . Surely businesses like this are in high demand at the moment . You buy and get it delivered then i come round with my cordless dremel and hammer to fix it.

  • Nah, mobile spannering is really hard work. You need a big set-up and loads of spares to cover every eventuality. I tried it for a while and it wasn’t worth the effort. I ended up trying to bodge things with what I had with me, and that’s no way to work.

  • Just the tyre tread. Forks backwards was almost the only mistake she didn't make.

  • Maybe its time to take the workshop to the people if the Shop business model doesnt work .

    Hard fucking no.

    (Even if you’re jesting).

  • Good to see you again man! Didn't notice ya when you popped in, otherwise would have had served you instead!

  • This, you'd need a large cargo bike + trailer to even cover the every day things. As soon as you get into once a week type jobs your stuffed. For me its always having a massive pile of used parts and scrap bikes available to pilfer stuff from, without that constant pile of junk i'd get stuck (then have to have a phone call, estimate increase, and a 1 week wait for cust to get their bike back) about every 6 hours.
    We do mobile stuff for uni/college/big businesses onsite, but its a short 2-4 hour RECABLE ALL THE THINGS sesh and you aren't expected to be gettting seized BB's out.

    At this time its tempting to start stocking a few bikes (we're workshop/service only, smattering of consumables and useful parts in for retail, no apparel etc) but this is a bubble and it will burst. A sad looking collection of cheap hybrids has probably been the deathnell to many a small shop, got to be careful not to get sucked into it.

  • For a while I was looking at setting up a mobile knife sharpening business. Travelling by bike.

    I considered getting mechanic trained and adding bike servicing to the offer, but realistically only puncture repair, re-cabling, brake fettling and saddle height would have been feasible. I still think that just those things would be pretty useful to a lot of family bike situations. Although just the weight of all the new chains would be quite a lot!

  • There was a mobile bloke near where I used to live. I know this because I once stopped to help him put the wheel back on his trailer after it fell off. He gave me his card.

  • On the subjects of mobile repairs / having a pile of beaters to fillet parts off: Anybody remember that guy who trolled about on a crazy two bike four wheel junk raft thing? Was his name Mario or I did I dream that?

  • Heh, nice you were impressed by the new (NOS) bar tape. For a while I thought the woman in front of me in the queue was eyeing me up, till I realised she couldn't believe how unmacho my bike is.

  • Yeah man, put it this way, it's fresh and yeah bang on for summer!

  • Cycle Republic sent out an email notifying of their website closure on June 8th.

    On the 25th of April, we made the difficult decision to permanently close all Cycle Republic stores. Today, we write to you to make you aware that our website, cyclerepublic.com will now also close. The website will be unavailable from 9am on the 8th of June.

  • Not much of a thread for this I guess, but the question is will the £50 be enough from the government do a lot for people who wants to repair their old bikes they haven’t use in a while? Personal experience says no.

  • Hmm. £50 is what we charge for our basic service so that’s the labour covered by the govt, so that’s something. I’ve had two NHS staff friends contact me today about it already.

    To be fair we’ve had some absolute shitheaps bought in that need a lot more than £50 but it’s a start.

  • Yeah I guess I never really thought of the basic charge of servicing the bike. In my head I was thinking people who bring their old bikes in which they haven’t touched in ages and that £50 wouldn’t really cover a fraction of the repairs.

    But if it gets them to ride their bike I’m all in for this scheme from the government.

  • £50 is what we charge for our basic service.

    Ditto (well, £45).

    It will go a long way, it mean they get a “free” service, or can pay for a general service for only £30 instead of £80.

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London bike shops closing

Posted by Avatar for Oliver Schick @Oliver Schick

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