I seem to be plugging a few people recently, but rest assured I only plug those who are actually worth plugging.
As keen readers will know, in August time I bought myself a Giant TCR Advanced - my carbon fibre pride and joy. As a web designer, I rely heavily on the Internet, and my Burls was built up sourcing the parts on the Internet. However, I learnt the hard way with the Burls, getting the sizing right and choosing components that suit me isn’t easy - so I decided when buying a carbon road bike to leave it to the pros.
I did all my research on the Internet of course, and narrowed it down to a few choices, however as important to me was the people I was buying it from. On my rounds of the local bike shops in the North East I encountered everything from indifference to rudeness to enthusiasm. I will name no names, but regardless to say it was a very famous bike shop who were rude to me.
Eventually, on recommendation of friends Cath and Lisa, I ventured up to Prudhoe in Northumberland. What I found was a massive showroom, mostly dedicated to Giant but also with a side helping of some exotic Ridleys, Sabbath titanium and French brand, Look. With my previous experience of so-called big bike shops, I was skeptical that such a large outfit would have the time or inclination to tender to a needy customer like myself.
I was pleasantly surprised. Not only were they helpful, they seemed genuinely interested in me, what I’ve done so far, and where I wanted to go.
The biggest problem I had was that I was buying in that period of time between most shops running out of 2009 stock whilst waiting for 2010 stock. Coupled to the fact that most manufacturers were adding £300-£400 to the price of their 2010 bikes, finding a bike was going to be tough. That’s where Bicycle Repairman stepped in.
Mark from BRM rang around to try and find me the TCR Advanced in my price range, but it was out of stock. Instead, they took the TCR Advanced 1 they had in the shop and specced it according to my budget. This might not sound like much, but a lot of bike shops operate what they call a “bike in a box” approach - in other words you buy the bike as per the specification it comes from the manufacturer in. I know one shop that wanted to charge me to change the saddle - that was the price of the bike, plus the price of the saddle, plus the price of the labour! BRM actually lowered the retail price of the bike for me, so I could have the bike I wanted.
On top of that, as part of the price of buying the bike, the Chris and Tony carried out a full bike fit - including swapping out the stem to ensure the bike fitted me. I spent a good hour and a half having the bike fitted to my needs. They also live and breathe cycling, and every time I’ve been there I’ve ended up talking shop for ages!
Anyone looking to buy a bike, whether it be a budget mountain bike to a top of the range road bike, I can recommend Bicycle Repairman (and indeed Giant) to you. Giant are the global bike company, who actually make other company’s bikes for them (including some big name brands who you’d expect to make their own bikes). Giant’s carbon bikes are second to none, my TCR get envious looks everywhere I go and they have the lowest failure rate in the industry. And if Giant isn’t up your street, then Ridley, Sabbath or Look are bound to have something to suit. They also have a full range of kids bikes and Dahon folding bikes.
Their website is at: http://www.bikerepairman.co.uk/ and Chris is now running a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=228590146149.
If you do go there, don’t forget to mention where you read about them!