Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good bike shop (for the workshop) near Macclesfield?

Cheers,

Working from further away and getting closer to you heading south you have

NWMTB in Cheadle
Bicycle Smithy in Hazel Grove (my LBS and the one I recommend)
That place in Poynton nearthe fire station
Rick Green in Handforth
Royles in Wilmslow (only sell road / tri stuff now, they don’t deal MTB)

Then there are two shops in Macc itself, Macclesfield Cycles (up near the library) was shut when I tried to visit, the chaps at Peak Cycle Sport were open, friendly and helpful. Not used them for work but the workshop area seemed clean and well organised which is a good sign

Peak Cycle Sport were very good when I needed a quick workshop repair. I used to use Royles quite a bit but the mtb stuff stopped a while ago (no idea why they did that – they changed from a multi brand into “Trek’s largest single retail outlet” a few years ago and I think it bit them on the arse).

I’ll be using Peak from now on.

Great – cheers for the response. I need a press fit bb dealt with and figure cheaper than buying the tool.

Don’t suppose either of you two are in Macclesfield Wheelers? I’ve just moved to the area and want to tag along on some midweek evening rides. Emailed their admin but had no response.

Cheers

I’m not – you might also want to try the ‘Nancy Boys’ in Bollington. They seem quite active as well.

Their Facebook seems active:
https://www.facebook.com/MacclesfieldWheelers

I’m at the other end of the Middlewood way in Marple so no, I’m not a macc wheeler – and I’m not really a road riders either. I’ve heard bad things about one of the Macc road club’s MTB offshoots, can’t quite recall which one offhand though

There are two or three groups who ride out of Bollington – white nancy boys as above are quite well known

http://www.whitenancy.co.uk/

White Nancy Boys have regular Thursday night rides out of Bollington at 6:30pm and Sunday rides (mainly at 8:30am). Meet at the Turner’s Arms.

Sometimes we drive away so meet in Bollington and also at the parking destination half an hour later. Some are closer to Macc (like Wincle/Cumberland Clough/Trentabank/etc).

Pop across to Freeride Cycles in Disley sometime too.

edit – replied in the wrong window, oops

You welcome to join me on an evening ride if you want someone to show you some of the ‘usual’ local routes, slowly! That’s mtb not road!

As a Macc lad myself I’m sorry to say of the shops around here I always feel I have to head east and trundle over to 18Bikes in Hope for all my workshop needs. If I can’t do it myself then it needs caring folk with lashings of calm considered engineers blood and good brews… Si, Matt.H and Matt.B are worth the trip every time.
The added bonus is the fact you get another great ride in the peaks whilst over there, and the cafe next door does some ace food too.

Yep, I haven’t had much luck with the local shops either. Royles, Peak Cyclesport and others have all been let-downs. The latest to provide below-par service was In-Gear in Poynton.

My preference is for Sideways Cycles in Alsager.
Many in our group always go to North West MTB.
18bikes is also good.

Cycle Centre in Congleton? Always looked after me very well, good workshop, usually very busy and a really decent bunch of keen cyclists working there.

The lads in cycle centre are ok, but they have given too many of my mates bum advise and the workshop has wrecked threads in 3 frames for the those mates through poor installation of bottom brackets in alloy frames over the past ten years. They just don’t have the right attitude IMO.
And I’ve never been impressed with NWMTB guys either. I think some of their mechanics are ace but you have to get past arrogant attitude on the shop floor. And after having problems with various intense and santacruz frames that snapped the bottom linkage bolts on each, they seemed to imply it was user error rather than poor design of materials and engineering. Yet these are frames that are cared for and ridden by highly capable skilled xc riders, not frame thugs. Again not right attitude. ( in the end I got the issue fixed by working with BETD down in stoke and getting better quality bolts made up )

Yet in complete contrast I’ve found the guys at 18bikes are totally honest, very open and approachable, highly experienced, very proud of their work and trustworthy, and as a result I use them every time. And Matt.H can build the finest wheels I’ve ever seen. And I’ve worked with some great wheel builders in my time, all of which had the same perfectionist pride in their work as Matt.

I am a Macclesfield wheeler and I might well be able to help with the bottom bracket.

AlexSimon – can i ask what the issue was with In-Gear ? Am about to have my forks done by them next week as well as some general fettling. Only heard good reports about them thus far. Used to go to Royles until (as others have mentioned ) they went Road bikes only and the mtb staff all buggered off ?

AlexSimon – if I wanted to ride out with the WhiteNancy group on a Thursday eve is there someone I could contact about it?

AlexSimon, I believe I did a bit of work for one of the Nancies, I hope he is still happy with his Fork and Shock.

We use NW mountain bikes

By the way, I emailed Macc Wheelers MTB section a few years ago and eventually got a reply along the lines of “yeah, I’ll get back to you” and never did. I suspect it was because I let slip that I was a 40 year old woman and thought I wouldn’t keep up.

larrystumbles – to be fair, people had been recommending them for a while. However, we started our Scotland holiday by having to remove a chain device they’d fitted. It was a bb-mount one even though the frame had proper tabs. The bb axel wasn’t long enough to cope so the left-hand crank kept falling off. Then while we were fixing that, we noticed the cassette lockring was loose. Put me off really despite the previous positive comments from others in the group.

edenvalleyboy – Just turn up at the Turners Arms (doesn’t exist any more so that’s your first test 🙂 ) at 6:30 on a Thursday. There’s a load of us in the Bollington Festival Parade on Saturday if you fancy a chat first.

Rick – I’m not sure! What bike was it?

vicypea – Have you tried going out with the Wednesday night girls? Really great bunch – I think you get details from NWMTB, but many of them ride with us too (or are partners, etc). And if you already do – maybe we’ve met!

Purple Orange 5.

Just done a rear shock this morning for one of the group as well.

Good lord that’s a memory. I started riding black in 1985 with the Macc Wheelers as a 12 year old. Our whole family used to do the club runs and my brother and I grew up racing with them. Fond memories.

Rick do the Bethels john and Paul still ride? Other names that might be familiar Renshaw (there were quite a few) Ruth Gamell, John and Steve Jackson?

Brian Renshaw, Ruth Gamwell, John Jackson and Greg Rowson all still ride. Paul Bethel has his own team now, team elite iirc.

That’s so good to hear. I never knew Brian that well but he had two, I think half, brothers called Dominic and Richard, whom I knew really well, Dominic in particular.

Ruth was very good friends with my brother Alex (I knew her also but not as well). There were a group of about seven of us all under 16 or so. We used to get up early in the morning and ride over the Alton Towers during the summer holidays.

John Jackson was always the club run leader. I doubt he would remember me though. His brother was always very quick; John was more into riding Audax as I recall. Not sure I knew Greg Rowson…

Paul having his own team doesn’t surprise me. He was always so quick even as a juvenile. I remember him riding a club 10 with one of the first disc wheels we’d seen outside of the peleton.

Do give them my best and fondest regards even if they haven’t the faintest memory of who I am!