Whatever happened to Recycle in London? Brother bought a new frame off them in the late 1990’s and they also dealt with a lot of used stuff if I remember correctly. Not seen anything of them in a long, long time.

Didn’t it turn in to “the Fridge”

(Feeling this thread my turn into another “Joe Cocker”) 🙂

(Feeling this thread my turn into another “Joe Cocker”)

I don’t mean it to!

They voluntarily closed down. Must have been years ago now. Early 2000s maybe? Possibly even earlier than that.

Just decided they’d had enough of it I think. The shop was in Anerley, Crystal Palace, I used to ride past it quite regularly on my way out to Shirley Hills or North Downs.

Like a lot of the mtb boom shops, foot and mouth hit them hard. People stopped riding. That this happened at around the same time as the beginning of eBay and the like can’t have helped.

No, I thought it was a voluntary closure.
Sure it was the same guy running Recycle first and then The Fridge which was his “new stuff” shop, he was importing DeKerf.

After a while he closed Recycle to concentrate on the new stuff. Didn’t The Fridge relocate somewhere else? Is that still going?

Almost certainly voluntary, yes. However, it can’t have been an easy time to be in that sort of business.

The mechanic there was a genius.

Owner”s name was Vince. My mate lived in Sarf Lahndan and we often made trips out to Recycle in Penge? when I visited him in the late 90’s. Great guy and shop. He used to import some pretty unusual frames, my mate bought a Chuck and I never saw another one ever. I think he moved to Brighton (as has my mate) and still does bike stuff.

Vince(that jogged my memory – gosh pre-internet sales) was a great guy: very helpful -kitted out a few of my bikes with ‘dream components’ at affordable prices – I wish I’d kept more of them.

The mechanic had a San Andreas downhill bike I seem to remember. Vince did a “honest john” column in MBR for a short while.

Thanks for the info. The service my brother received was very good indeed. Friendly and bent over backwards to get what he wanted.