[Closed] Decent bike shops - Box Hill/Surrey area?

Cycles Dauphin in Box Hill, Head for the Hills in Dorking, Sigma Sport in Kingston, Cycle Works in Leatherhead, Beyond Mountain Bikes in Cranleigh.

What sort of thing are you after? There are dozens around there!

Pilgrim Cycles in Westhumble too, with a great cafe.

Nirvana in Westcott

Depends on what you are looking for in a shop? Dauphin is mainly road. Head for the Hills / Cycleworks combined road/MTB, Nirvana MTB. Dauphin - coffee and Tiffin 🙂

Cycleworks Leatherhead, great staff & service.

Nirvana in Wescott, have been my go to bike shop for all the years I have been riding.

+1 for Cycleworks in Leatherhead. Always helpful.

Oooo, are we voting now... Head for the hills for me 😀

...but also good experiences with Pedal & Spoke and Beyond Mountain Bikes (or Moto Sport going really back)

Its a -1 for Cycleworks though.

nuke
.......and Beyond Mountain Bikes (or Moto Sport going really back)

Ha ha, I still have Moto Sport stickers on my (very) old Cannondale!!

Nirvana are an odd shop. They LOVE people who want to spend thousands, apparently...
I've been in once, for a seatpost:
"We've got Thompson"
"Not got something cheaper like FSA?"
And with that, she turned her back on me and walked off without a single word.
I've never been back since.

I've used Moto Sport/Beyond on and off for 20 years, never had anything other than good service.
It's a well stocked shop too.

And if you come to Beyond this Saturday only I'll be working there. Could be a disincentive.

I find nirvana a well stocked shop and the lads that work there helpful but the owner an obnoxious ****. Head for the hills is run by two decent guys and offers fairly broad stock whilst Howard at pedal and spoke is helpful and enthusiastic.

Neither Simon nor Jackie are obnoxious

When Jackie broke her collar bone on a jump I was very happy to help out in the shop as I and the spare time, asked for and expected nothing in return, I did it as a thank you for years of great service.

This thread looks like it could become fun ..

Nirvana.

Simon is a straight up takes no sh1t type of guy, Jackie is great and a good wheelbuilder.

Head for the hills messed up my wheelbuild, which wasn't dished, and then left a flat spot in the wheel when replacing a broken spoke, so they have lost my custom.

Head for the hills nice enough but not good mechanics

Nirvana are excellent mechanically and usually friendly (but Simon has deffo rubbed people up the wrong way! )

New road shop in Reigate is good

However I haven't found anywhere that is better than just doing it myself!

" the owner an obnoxious **** "

The one time I have spoken to him I would tend to agree. Certainly didn't make me feel like returning.

I found pedal and spoke been to have been really great for mid ride assitance (peaslake) despite little or no chance of a sale! Plus they stock Santa Cruz bikes.

Yeah, Howard from P&S is a good bloke. Excellent rider too.

No one mentioned C&N in Redhill yet?

I've only ever had great service from them. I think they were in some sort of top 20 of independent cycle shop list fairly recently.

No one mentioned C&N in Redhill yet?

Yeah i use to use them back in the day. One of the few local ones to give ST subscribers a discount iirc

Use to like Finch & Sons in Reigate too

Another thumbs up here for Howard at Pedal & Spoke, always excellent service, I travel for over an hour to go there not exactly local to me, and as others have said, H is a great rider and will always give you an honest answer

Evans Cycles in Gatwick (not that far from Box Hill). They seem to have everything that appears on their website. Staff are helpful and friendly. Mechanics have bags of experience and their after sales service is amazing. Plus they give good discounts. Thoroughly recommended.

Head For The Hills are excellent - good stock, great service.

Evans Cycles in Gatwick (not that far from Box Hill). They seem to have everything that appears on their website.

expensive though..... unless you have a lot of clubcard points to exchange for vouchers, which is excellent

the new bike shop in reigate is very impressive

Cycleworks in Leatherhead are excellent. Honest advice. Always have time to chat. Lots of stock. They ran a brilliant demo day earlier this year in Holmbury. Never seen so much cake.

Can't recommend Jackie at beyond enough, for just being really goddamned nice and a pleasure to do business with.

njee20 - Member
And if you come to Beyond this Saturday only I'll be working there. Could be a disincentive

Didn't know you worked there. Have to admit I've never been in but hear good things about it.

Nirvana has popular shop rides, though I hear stories of being dropped though never been on one so don't know myself. The photos of their antics seems to be lots of stuff I'd probably break myself on 😀

Pedal & Spoke I know well and yeah Howard's a top bloke. Friendly place. Expensive bikes, but they're bloody nice bikes (I'm biased as I bought one 😀 ).

Nirvana have some great rides starting from the shop, some led by Simon, others just a bunch of regulars. I did feel sorry for a pair of relative noobies a few years back on a Wednesday night ride - they weren't local and didn't have great lights. I hope that after they were dropped within about 10 minutes of leaving the shop they managed to find their way home again!

I used to live right opposite Head for the Hills and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, same with Cycleworks in Leatherhead, although I never lived opposite them 🙂

Cheers, Rich

did feel sorry for a pair of relative noobies a few years back on a Wednesday night ride - they weren't local and didn't have great lights. I hope that after they were dropped within about 10 minutes of leaving the shop they managed to find their way home again!

That really doesn't scream 'great shop'...

Didn't know you worked there. Have to admit I've never been in but hear good things about it.

I don't really! I used to, and I still help out the odd Saturday when they're short staffed, stake my claim to a trade discount!

Nirvana aren't the Californian have a nice day type shop, but they are very good mechanically.

Get your stuff fixed very quick, good prices no BS. Have spares in stock too.

Head for hills, Corridiori, Kingston Evans are always yeah, too busy, squeeze you in next week.

At Nirvana I came to drop my bike off for a brake service, did it there, went out for a quick ride.

Nirvana.

Simon is [s]a straight up takes no sh1t type of guy[/s] from Yorkshire

Cycleworks Leatherhead.

And if you come to Beyond this Saturday only I'll be working there

I had a mooch round the other week - must be a few years since I was last in as you weren't there to put the kettle on 😉

Beyond are decent types, have done good work on my bike in the past but seem to be turning into a Trek and Specialized, er, specialist.

P&S, well Howard, are/is great. Helpful. Cheap demos (and bargain demo bikes sold off a couple of times a year). Their Cranleigh store is quite nice, too. The Peaslake store is great for mid-ride essentials.

Nirvana rides and getting dropped. I've done quite a few over the years. I've got dropped once as I am very slow. They came back to try and find me but didn't have my phone number. On every ride I have done with them they have to wait for me, they are very patient with me. These are not training wheels rides, you go at your own risk. I've seen a few nasty crashes including one which put Simon the owner out of riding for a few months and Jackie broke her collar bone on a shop ride. I've headbutted the dirt a few times myself. That's all part of riding as is getting lost.

What are you after, new bike, repairs, parts, clothes??? How far from Box Hill etc etc.

To be fair to Nirvana it's well known that their rides aren't for the faint hearted and anyone can have an off day in retail.

Nirvana shouldn't take the blame for people getting dropped on a night ride. The shop doesn't organise the night rides, it's just a meeting place.

I ride regularly from there and we welcome new people who want to come along (and we do make an effort not to leave them lost in the woods, honest) but it's not a shop ride, a club ride or anything very organised. It's dark, it's sometimes chaotic and stuff happens. That's why I enjoy it. 😀

but it's not a shop ride, a club ride or anything very organised.

Well in that case the rides should meet elsewhere, as they're damaging the reputation of the shop.
I live 15-20 miles away from there, and I've heard of more than one instance of it happening....
Might be BS, but there's no smoke without fine.

For me Head for the Hills are excellent, no complaints about workmanship and I've always found that they give balanced advice and don't try and sell you something you don't want. Cycleworks in 'head tried to flog me an Epic when I said I wanted a Stumpy far or Camber evo….. Pedal n Spoke great place for mid ride issues of which a mate is always having (and Howard is too fast so needs to be busier in the shop I think!).

For the record, someone mentioned noobs getting dropped on a Nirvana Wednesday night "shop ride". I'm a regular on that ride, it's not really "a shop ride" it's a peer group/mates ride that happens to start on the green or at the shop front.

Neither is it a noob ride, we're friendly but not ride-nannies. People are absolutely welcome to turn up and have a go and it's usually obvious pretty quickly to the new rider if they're not up to it. We'd never intentionally drop someone or leave them lost but I can't say it hasn't happened. I don't recall the ride described, perhaps I wasn't there that day.

The ride is XC/singletrack/trail riding, a little bit of pace, year round all weathers. We don't do the freeride and jump sessioning that (I believe) all the "shop" rides do.

Hope that helps, turn up (1830 Wednesdays) if you fancy it. The format is usually a couple of hours riding, a pub stop, then back to Westcott for about 2230.

[b]Edit:[/b] cheez beat me to it. Lol @ PeterPoddy.

Well in that case the rides should meet elsewhere, as they're damaging the reputation of the shop.

they meet in Westcott - near a shop that everyone can recognise...

they meet in Westcott - near a shop that everyone can recognise

the posters in the bridal shop were a draw for some