Most recent activity
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Does anyone have any GPS taking in some good bits of twisty Singletrack? I used to know all the bits but as it's been a few years all my old haunts seem to have changed, been chopped down or grown over. Plus I've probably forgotten them, to be fair. CX bike friendly or MTB, it's all good. Happy to copy a ride you've done and won't blame you for a few mistakes and wrong turns here and there.
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I don't even want to touch their brakes etc, which makes me sad on so many levels. Often it's a broken chain that's super worn out and is then going to need a freewheel on a hub that you can't get the freewheel off, for a price that they won't want to (or afford to) pay.
I simply can't do it, but I do sometimes do a front brake or a quick tweak. Ideally outside the shop and for free... Who is installing these kits? Can't we send them there?
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Question: How do you pick what mech hanger to use? Do you just look at a chart and think what would work well and then try and pick something incredibly obscure to make everyone else's life really difficult down the line (it's what I'm guessing bike mfrs do) or is it predicated by the dropouts that you're using and you just go with the flow?
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At my shop we are happy to fix Shimano, Bosch and will have a look at Yamaha (not a lot of experience tbh) and Mahle (now we can get spares). Bafang is easy enough. Anything else gets a very very close look before we let it through the door.
Does anyone know anywhere to send the Deliveroo riders etc with the horrible bikes? I absolutely don't want to work on them, but it seems so shitty to not at least suggest where might be able to give a go at repairing something that they rely on to scrape a living. We would at least like to be helpful, if not liable.
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Cheers Phil, it's actually as much for trike cargo bikes, so having two levers would be a bit of a nightmare knowing our customers (one of whom uses it to transport a £200k Cello around London!). The bikes that come on these trikes seem terrible Bengal things, so we're trying to sort out a better solution. Hope ones would be nice for the disabled customer, but perhaps a bit overkill for someone with one hand who would probably get catapulted off the bike if they applied 8 cylinders of braking power all at once!
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While we're here, have you ever seen someone use one HS33 lever paired up with two disc calipers (via a splitter) to make one handed (f&r) braking? We have a disabled customer and I'm led to believe that this is a viable solution (also for cargo trikes)
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Haha, well have a look at her on Instagram, Sprocket
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Right, I was slightly surprised to see that my shop hasn't been mentioned. We opened up Butternut Bikes in a pub in the middle of the pandemic and are cracking along nicely here in Crouch End. The story here sums it all up pretty well - https://bikebiz.com/its-pleasantly-chaotic-and-energetic-butternut-bikes-on-its-north-london-store/
“It’s pleasantly chaotic and energetic” :)
As for Fettle, they were saying only a few months ago that they wanted to open 90 stores. Mind, they also say that they have special super secret booking software, but it's just HubTiger, the same as we use. They are basically funded by JustPark so get free/cheap locations. Like so much in the bike industry these days, funded by venture capital.
Yeah, things have changed a bit since I was riding there five years ago. It seems a lot of the nice switchback stuff has gone or at least moved. I could be wrong, like! Has anyone got any good post-pandemic routes?
Also the forest is a bit shit now they've started charging everyone for parking, it was cool having a chat with all the cabbies over a cup of tea, but now the old boys don't really pop up there any more during the week.