Hi eveyone! My sister wants to buy a bike, something like a Specialized Vita, a flat barred hybrid or similar. She is in Newcastle and I want to recommend a good bike shop to her. Somewhere where she'll get top notch service and be treated well without being blinded by tech or sold stuff she doesn't need. The only shop I know is MSteel cycles, are they any good and are there any others? She hasn't had a bike before so is a real novice to cycling. I can help her over the phone and email.

MSteel are very good, there's a Edinburgh Bike Co-op at the end of the Chillingham Road as well.

Steels is a specialized dealer, and they always seem pretty good

head to the bike place (cowgate)…dave or gordon (both on STW I think or defo visit the site) are good guys and helpful.

The Bike Place in Cowgate have been excellent helping me purchase my Jake the Snake.

http://www.thebikeplace.co.uk/index.php?option=static&page_id=1662&pname=Contact%20us

They have some good offers in Kona's at the moment including ex-hire bikes.

Youll get good and bad stories about both but MSteel and EBC are both spesh dealers and do have good staff, just need to get them on a good day like any shop.

Generally tho she should be fine in either, if your concerned get them to write down what they suggest on a brochure and you can talk it over with her. Remember tho, the best spec isnt always the best bike as for a girl you have to factor in the 'is it pretty' factor which generally is the one they will be happiest on (my experience from helping people i work with choose a bike).

Rich.

I'd have to disagree about Steels. understaffed and technically they're rubbish. They're never getting anything of mine to fix again.

The Bike place have very good staff, they'll sell you what you need, rather than what you think you need, but haven't got a great range in stock.

she might want to give cyclelogical a go in Forest Hall. the bloke who owns it really knows his stuff and they've got a cracking mechanic, who fixed what steels took a month to not fix in 30 minutes

As Nick said, Steel's and Edinburgh Coop are the Specialized dealers in Newcastle. There's also Evans down at the Metro Centre. My personal preference would be Edinburgh Bicycle, although service and "knowledge" will depend on which member of staff you get (in either shop).

To be honest, I think that it's often better for noobs, who don't know anything about the glaring, let alone subtle differences, to just find bikes that they like in their price range and take them outside for a spin. If they have any specific questions after trying a bike – in regards to fit/set-up, for example – then they can discuss it with somebody. As long as they make it clear what they want to use the bike for, they shouldn't be sold an unsuitable bike; and trying out all options means that they'll get the bike that suits them the most without having to try and translate all the babble and sales pitch. I've overheard, and been told personally, some absolute nonsense in every bike shop I've ever been in – so sometimes I think that "ask no questions, hear no lies" is sometimes the best approach.

If it would be of any help to you both, I could ask my partner if she'd be willing to go in with her. She's an experienced rider, both MTB and town/road, and has a pretty good sense of bike fit. My email is in my profile if you'd like to get in touch.

Cyclelogical – Peter Harrison the owner is a good bloke. Mostly roadie stuff (hes chairman of Gosforth RC and organiser of the Northern Rock Cyclone).

Other than that the bike place and speak to Gordon.

Steels is reasonable as is Edinburgh Bike Coop although I think it depends on who you deal with (I did go into EBC to look at road bikes and the guy was pretty clueless).

There's an Evans at the metro centre. They're always helpful but I've never bought anything other than small items.

There's Denton cycles near the EBC. Staff seem good enough.

I have heard there's a new one opened too that's supposed to be huge, no idea what their like though.

I'm not commenting on Steels.

Drac, Ride on? same place as Dentons used to be? not massive, got a few very nice bikes on display, but nowt special

Ride on scotswood rd is newish not sure what its like.

Steels sorted me out ok with some issues with my new five that was actually caused by Orange fitting incompatible parts. They seem to vary depends on who you get (simon is best).

Not sure Warton riding buddies mentioned the other day but kind of forgot the details. Don't think it's that one though.

Forgot to mention she's using Cyclescheme, so it's local shops only. Not evans and I'm not sure about Edinburgh co op tbh.
Recommending a Spesh Vita at the moment as my wife has one and loves it, fit and spec is excellent. So a spesh dealers would be good.

The Bike Place do Cyclescheme.

Not evans and I'm not sure about Edinburgh co op tbh.

Edinburgh Coop do Bike To Work, not Cyclescheme.

If she's going shopping by herself then she might want to look into how the various shops treat women. A certain jesmond based shop gave my mum shocking service a few of years ago.

A certain jesmond based shop gave my mum shocking service a few of years ago.

Giggidy!

The Cycle Centre on shields road were really good when my wife was looking for a bike, so good in fact that we bought her bike there.

The Bicycle Repair Man in Prudhoe came up second for us, he would have got the sale, but she just didn't like the Giant Boulder even though it 50 quid cheaper (grumble grumble), they were excellent with her though, offered lots of suggestions on how to get the bike to fit her better, changing bars, tyres, seats adjusting brake reach etc.

Steels – nice fellow, not much stock
EBC – won't shop there again, didn't like the staff, not a patch on Hardisty cycle's of old.
Ride – nice people, tried hard to help, but no bikes in the right size for her.
Evans – ignored us for 10 minutes as we looked at bikes and then couldn't be bothered to help when we asked.

I've heard good things about the Bicycle repair man actually. fitted my mate on a road bike and did a really good job…

Was in Evans once to buy a cheapy bike for my old man. Based on that one experience I wouldn't go back or recommend it. Perhaps I was just very, very unlucky with the staff member and timing but the attitude of this guy left me with my jaw scraping the ground.

Not to mention a bike which was criminally unsafe despite an enforced hour long wait whilst they performed a safety check on the bike…