Community > Muppets Threads! (And Anything Else)

Cycle to Work Scheme Impoverishes Bicycle Retailers

<< < (3/3)

martinf:
Here in South Brittany, France, my local bike shop  (less than 2 kms away from home) closed a few years ago when the owner retired. It had a huge stock of used spares and an extremely helpful mechanic who would let me rummage through them to either repair something rather than replace it or sell me a cheap but functional used part instead of new.  However, there are now 3 new "proper" bike shops. There are also some basic spares in local supermarkets and a large sports superstore with a bicycle section, but I don't use these.

One the three new specialist bike shops in town is a hybrid bicycle shop/coffee shop run by an enthusiast who seems to mainly do repairs rather than sell bikes or parts. Unfortunately he appears to have fewer tools than I do myself, though we did have a good chat when I went to ask about getting a bottom bracket shell refaced.

Another is focussed on electric bikes, with a few mopeds. I'm not yet in the market for an electric bike, and when I do need one I will probably start with a front motor kit fitted to one of my Thorns, so I am not very likely to use this shop.

The third is a Giant dealer, maybe a franchise. They weren't very interested when I tried them for a set of mid-range V-brake levers, and they charged me a lot more than either mail order or the traditional bike shop referred to just below.

The good news is that my helpful mechanic now works in a bigger town about 9 kms away, in a medium-sized traditional bike shop that mainly sells racing bikes, with a few gravel bikes, children's bikes and more recently some electric bikes. So for stuff I know this shop has in stock or that he can order fairly easily I go there. And on the rare occasions that I need a job done with a specialist tool that I don't have myself, the mechanic will do the work competently, quickly and for a good price, though he is no longer allowed to lend tools like he did in the old shop.

For hub gear spares and some other stuff difficult to source locally such as decent dynamo lighting equipment I use mail order, mostly from Germany.

For Brompton parts I usually order from the UK, a little easier now than just after Brexit as the customs rules seem to have settled down. My nearest Brompton dealer was until recently in a town more than 100 kms away, I only used them once when I needed a main frame hinge pin replacing, one of the jobs that requires a specialist tool that I decided wasn't worth buying. I have only needed this job done once in more than 40,000 kms of Brompton use. I did invest in the tools and spares to do the seat sleeve and rear pivot replacement jobs as these two parts wear more quickly, on average between 6,000 and 10,000 km. The relatively high cost of the tools was offset by the cost in time and (less important) train fares for the 200 km round trip. But as Bromptons are getting more popular here, there is now a specialist bike shop that sells cargo bikes and Bromptons about 13 kms from home, which might be useful for Brompton spares and maybe even repairs if they are competent enough not to bodge the job. 

And there is a fairly recent bike shop 11 kms away that sells recumbent 2 and 3 wheelers, they will also hire them out. May be useful if I develop balance problems as I age.

And finally there is a cooperative about 12 kms from home that recycles, repairs and sells used bikes and provides maintenance classes and use of a workshop for an annual membership fee. Not been there yet.   

So all in all there are quite a few choices for people who need spares and repairs.

The one thing that isn't easy to find nowadays is someone who will do brazing repairs. Not very surprising now that most expensive bikes have carbon fibre or aluminium alloy frames. Rather than going through the hassle of finding someone willing to do brazing work, sending or delivering the frame end then picking it up or paying the return shipping, it is now probably cheaper to throw away most modern steel bike frames if they break, and just buy another cheap steel frame bike, this is even more true with an old second-hand bike. The last four I bought were all under 50 euros complete, two were bought to replace steel frames that had started to fail after many years of use. 

Danneaux:

--- Quote ---The one thing that isn't easy to find nowadays is someone who will do brazing repairs.
--- End quote ---
A pity we aren't neighbors, Martin, or I would do them for you. :)

I last had a local bike shop service a bike I owned in 1977 and they messed it up so badly, I decided I was better off learning and doing on my own and my repairs expanded from there to design and hobbyist framebuilding. I'm happy to say none of my bikes has been in the door of local shops for repairs since, given their generally high level of sheer rudeness and condescension coupled with the abysmally poor state of repairs they made on friends' bikes for decades dating from my own childhood through my univ years and beyond. Things seem to have improved in the last 30 years or so as a bike cooperative thrived for a number of years, failed, then was replaced last year by a "community" cyclery that seems to in be the right place at the right time, owned and staffed by caring people whose hearts are in the right place, though I can't comment on their skills. I think I last visited a local shop 8 years ago to by a frame pump I saw on sale in jumbles basket out front.

When I "went independent" I also went elsewhere for parts. Early on, I found a town 65km away where shops were polite and happy to sell me parts or order what they didn't have on hand in those pre-Internet days. I remember striking gold when mail-order giant Bike Nashbar began in Ohio, followed after awhile by Performance Bike, started in a basement as a family operation. Both those firms grew to giants, then merged within the last decade to become very generic and less useful to me. I've got a fleet of older bikes to maintain, so nothing really new is very relevant to my drivetrain needs and I don't go through consumables very quickly, chains being the prime item. For anything European in terms of IGH and lighting, I source what I need from overseas, typically Germany, France, and Spain as I've found the American distributor to be very overpriced even with distant shipping costs included.

Best, Dan.

martinf:

--- Quote from: Danneaux on February 02, 2024, 05:35:51 pm ---A pity we aren't neighbors, Martin, or I would do them for you. :)
--- End quote ---

I did consider learning how to braze and build bike frames, but, unlike wheelbuilding, I decided it wasn't worth the time and effort, plus the expense of getting the necessary equipment. On an expensive steel frame I have only needed brazing work once, all the other interventions were on old second-hand bikes.


--- Quote from: Danneaux on February 02, 2024, 05:35:51 pm ---I last had a local bike shop service a bike I owned in 1977 and they messed it up so badly, I decided I was better off learning and doing on my own
--- End quote ---

I've been lucky in that I have always found at least one competent bike shop reasonably close to home, both while I was living in the UK and after I moved to France. My initial motive for doing my own repairs and maintenance was to save money when I was a student. Later on, it was more the idea of being able to repair something on long bicycle tours. And once I started I gradually acquired the tools to do most jobs. 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page