Oh that sucks! Used to live round the corner when I was at uni, remember drooling over a demo 8 in there, before eventually buying one a couple of years later when I’d got a job and saved up.

#supportyourlbs

It’s a real shame. Always had good service from them, and they went out of their way to help me out on several occasions.

Ah balls, decent shop that was.

And the forum is topped and tailed with adverts for CRC.

🙁

Sad to hear that, especially for such a long standing bike shop.

Oh no. I’ve spent a pretty penny in there over the years and got my Roadrat from there and spent many a lunchtime browsing around. I guess in this age where people don’t value local service and are only interested in getting THE CHEAPEST price these places are doomed.

I have had very mixed service from them over the last……30 years. I always gave them a chance, and some individuals there over the years were outstanding. But never an lbs I would have pointed people to, but it was a bit of an institution and I was sad when their Belper branch shut. I would have recommended anyone go there. Sorry for those that work there, and it will leave a big hole on Ashbourne Rd.

I guess in this age where people don’t value local service and are only interested in getting THE CHEAPEST price these places are doomed.

Indeed. How many times does one see threads with titles like “Where’s the best price for ABCDEFProduct?”. Best, in this case, meaning cheapest, not best. Yet, at the same time, the likes of Sports Direct is berated for delivering exactly that, the cheapest. Not the best.

Hard times for LBS, hard times indeed.

I have had very mixed service from them over the last……30 years. I always gave them a chance, and some individuals there over the years were outstanding. But never an lbs I would have pointed people to, but it was a bit of an institution

15 years in my case, but I’d echo this. The older guys in there were always helpful, but it often felt a bit cliquey, and I know guys who got great deals and discounts in there, and some of us got offered sweet FA and spent thousands of pounds elsewhere as a result.

A mates lad was a Saturday boy there, my son got his first stabiliser bike from there (before balance bikes were a thing), wobbling along the showroom before taking it straight up to Carsington and crashing it big time on a corner, so some happy memories.

Feel sorry for those who have lost their jobs.

🙁

I’ve spent a shed-load of cash with them over the years and hours looking in the shiny things cabinets.

Lived round the corner from them when I was a student, spent a couple of quid in there…

but it often felt a bit cliquey

That was my general impression, certainly not the worst shop I have been in, and its a shame when an LBS dies off, but you have to wonder why it didn’t work out…

They were in a bit of a cycling hotspot, with potential customers almost literally on their doorstep, how much to blame is the internetz? And how much a failure to adapt to a changing environment and market?

They were in a bit of a cycling hotspot, with potential customers almost literally on their doorstep, how much to blame is the internetz? And how much a failure to adapt to a changing environment and market?[b]the internet?[/b]

Can’t blame them for that, not every shop can be the cheapest.

I always liked them, left Derby before I had any serious money to spend but they were always good for middling stuff. Took bikes there a couple of times for bigger jobs and it was always less than the original quote because they’d fixed rather than replaced something or a job wasn’t actually necessary.

Popped into a (not actually that local) guitar shop today to buy strings, it’s closing at the end of the month which is a crying shame, compared to the PDI on a bike setting up a guitar is a pretty nuanced/skilled job, yet people will just buy a squire or epiphone form a box shifter online and it won’t see the light of day between China and the customer.

I’m struggling to think of any bike shop i’ve been into that doesn’t feel Cliquey apart from the big chains like Halfords – and they just don’t give a toss. Typical LBS workers are either a bunch of young cool MTBer types who jump 20ft gap jumps and know are looking at you thinking “This old dude is overbiked man, all the gear and no idea”, or they’re stick thin roadie types who looks at you and think “What a fat bastard, this guy doesn’t need those energy gels he’s got enough calories around his belly to ride the tour on”. They must get some real tossers in full of alsorts of BS they regurgitate from the web and not prepared to listen to whatever good advice they might have for them. Not suggesting that’s you MoreCash or Boatman, but I can imagine it would try anyone’s patients after a while.

I think there is alot of competition in Derby – there are a good 3 or 4 other half decent bike shops and the usual chain outlets in a pretty small town/city, so probably hit a bit of a saturation point. It’s tough for any shop these days.

I find it somewhat ironic listening to the Internet bike shop whingers. I remember being stood looking at a Sanderson Life frame Samways had hanging up, I’m a bit impulsive and I had cash burning a hole in my pocket. As I would have been putting my existing parts on the frame I asked them what travel fork it would take, only to be told, ‘I don’t know, you could probably Google it.’ I duly went home, did that and bought it cheaper on line. I remember feeling tits’ed off thinking if only they hadn’t been such disinterested ****’*, I would have had that frame built up that night. For every good experience I had with them, I would get more bad.

theboatman – Member
I have had very mixed service from them over the last……30 years. I always gave them a chance, and some individuals there over the years were outstanding. But never an lbs I would have pointed people to, but it was a bit of an institution and I was sad when their Belper branch shut. I would have recommended anyone go there. Sorry for those that work there, and it will leave a big hole on Ashbourne Rd.

this (20 years in my case)

it often felt a bit cliquey

and this, last few times I went in I struggled to get a salespersons attention as they where engrossed in conversations with others (and not sales conversations, general chit chat, thats fine for a few minutes but when your stood there for 20 mins earwigging on a personal conversation to gague when it might end so you can get served..)

Ive also had, on 2 occasions terrible service from the mechanic, once telling me that he couldn’t fit a Chris King headset into ‘that frame’ (it was the right headset and I did it myself in the end with no issues he just looked down his nose at it), second time I was told a wheel could not be trued and it would need new rim and spokes. I went home and taught myself how to true a wheel and rode it for another 18 months before selling it on

combined with what I felt was a limited range of brands and a look and feel of ‘just another bike shop’ – wall to wall with only a few ‘mainstream’ brands (mtb, road and kids) they never seemed to have what I was after, (even for example tyres or helmets the choice seemed very limited and restricted to a couple of brands) I came to think of it as a ‘chain pub’ of bike shops rather than a ‘free house’

Their website was also appalling, they just don’t seem to have moved with the times and there are other local shops now (Cyclomonster for example and park Bike Works until that closed) that offer more to both casual browser and serious purchaser, for servicing and repairs there are a number of small one man bands (Big on Bikes in Little Eaton for example) set up that seem to be flourishing without the overheads of a large city centre shop

Sorry they have gone as its never nice, especially with 80+ years of history but I think they made the mistake of not offering the customer anything different from the bigger chains

Iain1775 has it I fear. Love Velo took the top end from them, Decathlon/Halfords took the lower bread and butter market, Cyclomonster and others took the middle ground, Big on Bikes have a great reputation for repairs, and it left them nowhere to go with big premises to pay for.

Sad to see it close, bit of a shock as they had such a long history but it shouldn’t really come as any surprise. As iain mentioned the website was awful, and brands stocked were both limited and uninspired. I thought service wise they were OK, had been helpful and knowledgeable when needed and I’d spent plenty there over time. But over the past couple of years, visits to the shop left me cold. Very small selection of bikes, specifically mtb’s, to make me drool and want to spend any cash. They seemed to try and do a bit of everything, which was probably a major flaw and may have led to their closure.

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/readers-say-samways-cycles-closure-is-terrible-shame-for-derby/story-29717044-detail/story.html

Interesting that the directors say they don’t think they were doing anything wrong – pretty much says it all unfortunately. They’ve always been quite conservative though, and even when they tried out more boutique items, it always seemed a bit half-hearted and never worked out. I remember they had a Mk1 Intense Tracer in there for a few years which they had to sell cheap eventually. Happened with various other brands as well (Cove, Transition and not forgetting that Sanderson frame which was part of the furniture) – they never seemed to be able to diversify. I was told that bike to work had been keeping them going for the past few years, but that’s dropped off considerably. As has been said above, other players have taken big chunks of their business (and done it better too). The shop has been noticeably sparse recently as well, and I did wonder which direction they were going in.

There’s a common theme when the shops shut about what they offer.

My local bike shop in Tadcaster is brilliant. Occasionally too busy to chat but always friendly, they will generally offer up useful tips, suggest the most apprpriate stuff rather than get you to spend loads.

I’ll still keep visiting and buying. They’re not always the cheapest but more times than not I’ve ended up saving more than I would have paid online when buying multiple items.

Most Halfords I’ve been in recently have improved a lot and the staff are usually trying to be helpful and they do seem to be improving with the knowledge – York and Selby branches anyway.

A certain other West Yorkshire Mountainbike orientated shop in a suburb of Bradford has lost any interest from me having had the couldn’t give a sh!t attitude too many times.

I left some tyres on the counter and walked out last visit as the staff couldn’t be bothered even attempting to take money. Don’t even order from them online now. Was half tempted to visit the Wetherby branch but I only get an hour for lunch and remember how long it took to get served.

Looking after customers is the big advantage local bike shops have over the internet.