Had a lovely Friday wandering around some of the bikes shops of London Town last week which led me to pondering what I think makes a really good bike shop.

The reason for this thought was that of the 6 or 8 shops I visited, I only really enjoyed Condor. Some are just coffee shops that happen to sell a couple of jersey’s (Peleton & Co, Rapha) or display the odd bit of bike porn (Bespoke, though the Parlee on display was beautiful). Others (Soho Bikes, Evans, Cycle Surgery) just have the same generic stuff as every other shop in every other city. Add overly surly and seemingly uninterested staff into the mix and you don’t have a great experience.

Condor however was a different game all together. Lots of interesting bits to buy and very knowledgeable staff make a great start point, any shop that not only has a choice of 10+ different brake blocks but also knows the merits of each gets a geeky thumbs up from me. Add in some seriously good looking bikes in the basement too and you have a winning combo.

So this was my conclusion, I want lots of stuff, interested staff and really don’t give a stuff about how good their coffee is or what shape of pink their signature colour is.

Apologies for the long post!

My LBS, stocks nice mountain bikes, will sell you a road bike if you really want and ask nicely. Fixes things, is honest and enjoys beer.

The staff in Soho where very friendly when I took my bike in and did great work.

Plenty of sails…

A good web presence.. because I have 0 interest in actually visiting shops.

Best shop in the world for bikes… Ebay 🙂

weeksy +1

Not going to make many fans with this but….

Since I fettle my own stuff, or am willing to post any suspension away to a specialist for TLC I never “need” an LBS.

There are Bricks n Mortar shops who are LBSs to someone but not me, but since they have an online presence, I can use them because they are specialists (thinking CTBM, or Sideways, or SJS Cycles) none of whom are anywhere near me (I think. Im not entirely sure where they even are)

There’s almost nothing I find more frustrating than trawling the LBS in say, that London, (5 or 6 around Wigmore/TCH/Mortimer st etc) and seeing all the same unimaginative stuff, rarely anything interesting. And invariably for 130% of an online seller.

I get the same when in Cotswold Outdoors or Field & Trek, when I’d much rather be poking around on backpackinglight.co.uk or alpkit

So to me, what makes a good bike shop, is one that has specialism in their product or service range, and makes it available to me where every they or I may be based with a good online shop.

Any place that adjusts your headset without asking,and trades work for jaffa biscuit cakes . 🙂

Stoner, I’m in the same boat (the home-fettled boat, made of parts from the internet) and that’s why I like Condor – they strike a great balance: it’s an ogle-worthy showroom for their own brand bikes, some of which are very lovely indeed, there’s a lot of interesting stuff on the shelves, from all sorts of parts to books and mags and peripheral things. The guys really know their stuff and are happy to talk, and if you want a couple of odd little bits in a hurry (real LBS win territory), they’ll have them in, and at reasonable prices.

Contrast to my actual LBS, Evans, where they have nothing in the way of workshop oddments, like p-clips or spokes (special order – order online sir), the staff have been wrong about things enough times for me to not trust much they say, and the bikes are a rather dull mix of big brand bikes you’ve seen in countless adverts.

I use Condor a lot, bought my R5ca from them and they service that too. Buy all my bits from them other than tyres which I buy online. I enjoy spending time mooching in there, enjoy looking at their bikes downstairs. I haven’t (yet) bought one of their bikes but I do like to look of the Legaro Super Light.. should I feel the need to change from my year old R5ca I think that’ll be the bike I buy. Other than that the staff have always been bloody excellent and they are currently in a to-and-fro with Look about some Keos that seized on me (less than 8mths old) I expect I’ll get a full refund as Condor are really good at getting results.

Other than that I use Giant in St Pauls for my CX’er and they too have/are excellent. Service second to none and very friendly indeed, ok so the shop is One Brand but hey, service and support for that Brand have been excellent.

Glad you enjoyed the trip in Town…

I do like a wander round condor but it makes an expensive trip :-).
I’m slightly spoilt as my LBS is Evans Gatwick warehouse so I benefit from internet prices and instant collection.
I did find a bike active in stansted abbots that had some interesting display models, Orange and Thomson, that you don’t see very often.

Condor must be pretty much top of the list, really what you want from a shop – and I bet they wouldn’t even consider coming online and trying to get a cheap laugh from their customers