Just wanted to say a big thanks, and give a recommendation to Dolgellau Cycles, after the help they gave me this weekend!

I’d driven up to North Wales from Surrey this weekend to meet up with friends and to ride Snowdon on Sunday. On the Saturday we thought we’d ride Cadair Idris and the Pony Path. Unfortunately this is where I had a bit of a personal disaster as we neared the top. I must have caught a big rock with my rear mech, and the mech was torn apart and the rear hanger also snapped.

As we were so near the top I pushed and carried it the rest of the way, then single speeded it for the ride back down to the carpark.

I thought that was probably it for the weekend, as I couldn’t really see the likelyhood of anywhere having a Scott rear mech hanger in time for Sunday, especially with my luck! We asked a guy in the carpark if he new of any local bike shops, and he mentioned there was one in Dolgellau. So I headed off with my fingers crossed.

Arriving there I was met by a very helpful guy, who on hearing I’d got a Scott, luckily told me he’d recently order rear hangers in. They are also a Scott dealer luckily for me! So we checked it it was the right one! I then asked if he had a rear mech. He did but only had an XT in stock, what I’d already had on the bike, but could have done without the expense that weekend! He then really surprised me by checking what the big bike shops were selling them for online, and then gave me a very decent discount! What a top guy! He then also lent me an adjustable spanner, something a lot of shops won’t do, to let me bend the broken dropout back!

So with an early start doing a bit of mechanics in the hotel carpark in the morning, I was able to roll out and ride Snowdon with the rest of my friends!

Did attach some photos, are we not allowed to link to facebook ones?

Sounds like a potentially rubbish weekend turned into a really good one there Ladders, great story! 🙂

Yes, thanks Shermer. Well worth the travelling!

Also nice to know there are shops that will help you and aren’t just about flogging you the most expensive kit! I’ve walked into a couple of shops round London and asked if they’d got bits so I could carry on and ride to races and they weren’t interested. Having worked in a bike shop myself I’d have done anything within reason to get people back on their bikes as it’s the kind of thing people remember for next time.

It’s a good little shop ~ lucky they could help you out 🙂
You may not be so lucky next time ~ I always think it’s worth having a spare mech hanger stashed in my Camelbak. Saves the ride even if you are just in the local woods……

I concur, Dolgellau Cycles is a great shop. We stayed in Dolgellau at Easter and hired a tag-along to take our daughter for a bike ride which we returned earlier than agreed due to the chilly weather. They offered to let us hire it again the following day for free as we hadn’t used our allocated time. I thought it was a great example of a small business going the extra mile to please a customer.

Actually the whole of Dolgellau seems to get the whole tourism thing very well. Wherever you go from the pubs to the butchers to the coffee shop, the staff seem genuinely pleased to see you and thankful for your business. Its a lovely little town.