So what’s the best mtb shop in London then?

best?

choice, stem bars, bitz n bobs.

Central.

Depends what you’re after, really.

For bling and parts – Cycle Surgery Spitalfields
For coolness – Brixton Cycles or Moose (In Tooting)s
For a good allrounder – On Your Bike or Putney Cycles
For comedy – Harrods
For poor service and surly staff – Evans
For a pleasant surprise – BikeHut by St Pauls

Ooh, that’s a good one, actually…

Cycle Scurgery in Spitz used to be good for MTB stuff, but it seems to be too ‘chain-store’ bike shop now. Staffed by disinterested bods who’d rather be somewhere else. Can’t blame them, I spose.

I’ve found the bods in Brick Lane Bikes to be quite helpful, likewise with Magic in Whitechapel. I’m sure Condor is great if you want to spend loads on spensive road bikes or Rapha/Assos clothing, but I’ve repeatedly found them pretty patronising. There’s a mechanic at On Your Bike in Tooley st, forgot his name, he’s really helpful and friendly.

TBH, bike shops generally pay shit wages, so you’re rarely going to find really good staff, who are knowledgeable, well-trained and enthusiastic. It’s the bods who run the little shops, that are often the best to deal with. Lots of the young bods are just there to fill in time, get cheap bits, etc.

Strangely, some of the best, most helpful, pleasant staff, I’ve found in Halfords, Evans and Decathlon! Don’t seem to posess the arrogance of those that work in ‘proper bike shops’.

The worst person I’ve ever seen working in a bike shop, is a feller I worked with, in one place that’s a franchise. Useless. He’d spend most of his time either on the ‘phone to his mates, or reading bike mags. Would ignore customers, or tell them we didn’t have stuff in stock, when we did, just to get rid of them. He tried telling me stuff like ‘hoover the floor’, or whatever, whenever the manager was out. Me and the others would just tell him to get fecked, and get on with our jobs. Turned out he was the son of a mate of one of the owners…

I remember a place in Covent Garden, way back. Run by a right poncy posh twunt. Crap shop, that was… 😉

Tooley St / Bike Hut looks 10 mins walk away, will go for a ‘ganda’.

moose in colliers wood is good as they do everyday and bling. marin, giant, commencal through to intense and sana-cruz.
ir’s run by the owner and 2 staff so you don’t get a snotty teenager trying to sell you the wrong part.
cycle surgery is good if you want a lot of stock to look at.

Is London Fields Cycles still any good? A long way off my patch these days.

Oi, RudeBoy, you looking for a fight, are you? Eh? Eh?
😉

LF Cycles= a bit miserable, ime. Woon’t think it’s worth the trip, tbh.

Ear, Flashy- I probbly have been in your shop, actually! There used to be a few round there. Wasn’t the one down an alley by Neal st, was it? I remember an Oriental looking lass working there, she was great.

Actually, looking back on it, most shops were a lot better, back then. You felt like you could go and have a chat, get some proper advice, and not feel patronised or pushed to buy the wrong thing. And people would spend half an hour, just to find you the right number of spokes, or something. You’d even get staff arguing over the relative merits of one thing or another, which was actually quite helpful, in trying to make a choice! You din’t feel like they were under pressure to sell you whatever they got the best mark-up on.

Mosquito for lovey boutique brands… it’s like an bike jewellery store, I love it 🙂

That would have been Covent Garden Cycles, RB up the other side of the Garden. your description of shops “back in the day” still rings true of many places. I;ve had a lot of that from Putney Cycles, Brixton and the like over the years, but even more from my preferred bike shop, Stonehenge Cycles, out in Salisbury.

You’re right though, there’s something lovely about that friendly almost club-like atmosphere of a regular shop. Back when I ran mine, I did what I could to encourage regular customers, to build up a following of people who’d just drop by for a chat, just as they were passing. Nice.

Mosquito for lovey boutique brands… it’s like an bike jewellery store, I love it

yeah that place is awesome. i took my GF’s siter’s roadie aussie boyfriend in there for a look round before xmas. he left without buying anything but loving it all, i left with a merlin full suspension frame under my arm… 😆

beware their trickery!

great shop, though.

I got an empty bike box from Mosquito
I thought it might be a Moots or an Indy Fab one
it was a Ridgeback 🙁

i left with a merlin full suspension frame under my arm

Was that the Works 4.0 beasty? I was eying that off for quite a while, lovely frame 🙂

Was that the Works 4.0 beasty? I was eying that off for quite a while, lovely frame [:)]

that’s the one! now looking like this:

almost there!

They are nice, and the rear suspension will be ace. Just ashame about those new gopping Merlin stickers!