Your once a week dose of retail therapy from Singletrack’s Premier Dealers, stockists and advertisers; Tuesday Treats gives you a quality serving of independent bike retailing and a chance to win big in this week’s prize draw.
This week, we’re revisiting: Velo Virtuoso
This week we’re up close and personal with the 2012 Olympic XC course’s friendliest neighbour. Over to Sam Mashford at Hadleigh’s Velo Virtuoso, with more details of their shop move, exciting new stock and much more going down in Essex …
What have you guys been up to since we last checked in with you?
Quite frankly, seeing off a crazy-busy first year resulted in us acquiring more space to spread our wings. Moving premises to the new site has been great. We have three times the floorspace and, still being just around the corner, we’re a stones throw from the Hadleigh Farm site with loads of accessible parking (and it’s free at the weekends guys and girls).
We still offer the same friendly, impartial and knowledgeable advice. Okay, okay, a horrible, overused phrase. The truth is, we all ride and all know our stuff, from the workshop right through to the shop floor.
What’s new in-store?
Following our demo day over at Hadleigh Farm with Rocky Mountain, we have brought in Stanton Bikes and Rotor (who do dedicated MTB rings) and these are the biggest single difference I’ve made to my riding! You can take your dropper posts and poke ’em. I must not forget to mention our Demo saddles from SDG and ProLogo.
Talk to us about events…
We had a cracking demo day to celebrate our second anniversary which was a great success, we have supported the Mud Sweat and Gears series and are going to again this year, they are fantastic events. The Thetford MTB racing events like Summer Enduro and Dusk til Dawn are ace (and that we also support) means despite having four of the team’s bikes nicked at D2D (including mine!) last year, we’ll have a presence at all of them again this year! We’re hardly souls.
We might make Mountain Mayhem too if I sort myself out. Preparation for the riding includes the South Downs way (double).
What’s happening locally with the Olympics legacy stuff?
There is currently lots of work going on over at Hadleigh right now, mainly new multi-purpose (family friendly) trails, meaning everyone can now explore the whole country park by whatever means they see fit, all year round. This will help with the riding over four seasons. Before in the wet, it had become a grim, claggy bog fest.
There is lots of work happening on the actual course, resurfacing, improving b – lines and a new skills area/pump track. Work has also started on the visitor centre, so this time next year rather than talking about it it should all be open for all to enjoy.
In the meantime, there’s plenty of other stuff locally to enjoy and we are really well placed to show you all around. Just drop us a line. We have a regular ride that leaves the shop Thursday evenings/Sunday mornings.
Remind us, what do our Subscribers get from you guys?
Subscribers benefit from our standard deal: 10% off parts, accessories and servicing. 5% off bikes (excluding sale items and Cyclescheme purchases).
Our Second Year Anniversary is also this month. Madness! Doesn’t time fly… We are doing a special 20% off all stock bikes for the duration of the May. There’s lots to choose from with Silverback, Rocky Mountain, Felt and Bottecchia, also our expanded ranges include BMX and hybrids to.
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Tuesday Treats Prize Draw
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