Bike shop in lincolnshire

scorchedbee

scorchedbee

scorchedbee

Associate
Joined
12 Mar 2013
Posts
701
Location
Grimsby UK
Hi all,

So ill try keep a long story short but have had three very negative issues with local cycling shops in Grimsby.

My father has aspergers and other issues. His release is cross country mountain biking, he does 26 miles per morning from his home in Grimsby to either donna nook or north thoresby.

Anyway, he wanted to spend 1k on two bikes, so 2k sale.

I went with him to our local cycle shop, velo sport. The owner had no interest in helping my dad and told him to leave. My dad got very nervous and i explained to the owner his condition and he said "well he should be in a special home not in my shop". What a knob!

Next shop JC COOKES, my dad took his current specilized rockhopper bike with him as he wanted to compare what he had to what he was buying. All was well and he was looking at a selection of bikes. The problem arose when the shop assistant thought my dad was stealing the bike he brought with him, i asked them to check cctv as he came in with it and its his bike, we was confronted with we dont allow bikes in here so its clearly stock. Not having much luck!

Lastly the shop my dad uses to get his bikes serviced and upgraded his forks etc. took advantage of how my dad is. He wanted puncture proof tyres even though "no one serious has them or uses them". But its what he wanted and asked for so they fitted what he thought was puncture proof types, i cant remember the brand he wanted. Anyway when we picked the bike up my dad asked if they was the puncture proof ones, he was told "no they are not, like i said no one uses them so i fitted these with slime, but its more expensive". I said i was not happy with that and they either fit what he asked for or we just pay what we was quoted. My dad got upset with this, paid in full and left as he just wanted to get out, when he got home he took the wheels off and threw the lot in the garage and had a bit of a... moment.

Now i know im biased and protective of my father, but is there a decent cycle shop anywhere in the lincolnshire vicinity where i can take him to look at mountain bikes, he wants a hardtail he tells me, claud butler or spesilized but he wants to see the bikes before he buys them and not order blind over the internet.

surely there is a shop somewhere that values service as i dont believe any of these places deserve my dads money anymore!
 
That sucks, LBS can be a hit and miss at times. I seen some sucky ones whilst I lived in Cornwall, that were clearly just after money. I found a fantastic one when living in the Highlands, that would bend over to help. Never ever try to upsale, and you could sit in the shop talking crap for ages.

Sadly I don't know of any though, have you tried a bigger chain? At least they'll give you demo etc without much thought.
 
Sounds brutal but I can see how it happens when we try and get decent staff in the shop.

People have there opinions and try to push it people too much rather than listening to what the customer wants.

Puncture proof tyres? We sell a lot of the Schwalbe marathon plus in various sizes which is the closest thing to puncture proof you can get.

We still make mistakes or don't hit it off with everyone because we're human but walk in one day and you could end up in a conversation about racing, shagging, partying or house prices with 6 different customers having a coffee(Bought from Subway not made as I'm a lazy *******)

Can't really excuse any of the above as I have a few regular customers who have learning difficulties that forget their pin or don't bring money but tell them to drop it in the next day.

Bike shop that doesn't allow bikes in? *****.
 
Rutland cycles is worth a try, not quite Lincolnshire, but not far from Peterborough/Stamford and accessible via A1. Fairly expensive (e.g for servicing/parts - bikes seemed ok) but decent selection of bikes and staff seemed helpful/knowledgeable.

I now use gibbons cycles at Spalding for servicing and can't fault them, but they are only a small shop so don't have a big range.
 
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My lbs is so rude I buy off the net or Evans or Halfords in a pinch rather than give them custom.

Doesn't help your situation though.. How rude, and what twaddle.. All the main tyre manufacturers have reinforced versions of thier tyres, schwalbe have 'snake skin' versions for a mountain bike tyre example.
Might be worth a trip to one of the bigger chain stores, you could give them a heads up about your father's requirements and they could possibly order in/ prep some likely bikes for him to try?
 
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Vonhelmet said:
These sort of stories always baffle me. It's like they don't want your money.
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It baffles me too, they can't compete on price with online retailers, litteraly the only way they can compete is by offering a friendly personalised customer experience.. Which is a valuable thing when buying bikes /parts.
 
A lot of them work through their friends telling everyone their awesome and then posting on FB that you're the devil by not supporting your LBS.
 
Arrow cycles in North Hykeham have always been brilliant with me, great aftercare on the 2 instances I needed it. Sod it I'll go into more detail :)

First full sus bike I had from them went in for it's 1st service-6 months maybe. I mentioned the front fork lock out was a bit hit and miss, didn't seem to 'lock' the forks out. more just kind of dulled the compression a little. No quibles, they replaced the front forks!

I also bought my first road bike from them, Specialized Allez Sport. Nothing particularly high end but the service was 2nd to none. Again, took it in for it's first service. Got a call later that day saying they 'didn't like the feel' of the backwheel... Weren't at the time completely sure what the issue was but wanted to let me know htey were investigating it and that my bike wouldn't be ready for when we had agreed... Fasy forward a couple of days... They had received authorisation from specialized to replace both front and back wheels with an upgraded set. Free of charge!

Top marks :)
 
^always good to see a positive review!

Again it's baffling, the shop can return the suspect part so they may loose half an hour labour, but they gain a customer who will come back and buy more stuff, ask advice, and more than likely make recommendations to friends..
 
Schwalbe! Thats was the brand name!!!

Thanks so far guys, we are thinking of going a bit more afield to find a place for him. Ill have a hunt and see what Hull and Lincoln have. The shout for giving them a call prior is a good idea too!

Hes talked me into doing a few of dalby forest routes with him and hiring bikes for now as i dont own a cycle rack yet. He's keen to get me onto his hobby!
 
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Begbie said:
If you're going to Dalby Forest, it may be worth going to the shop onsite? If they have one that is.
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They do. And it's pretty good/friendly. There's also Big Bear Bikes in Pickering (near Dalby, you'll probably go past it) - they're really good.
edit - actually you probably won't if you're going from Grimsby... or will you? I don't know. Anyway, it's worth giving a call/calling in at. Park round the back (go past the shop building on the right hand side).

The hire bikes from the Dalby centre are probably Scott ones - and they seemed to be well-maintained, when I hired a Genius before I bought my Aeris. If you're in no rush at all to get round the red/black route, and stop for a bit of food at Dixon's Hollow (assuming you start from the main car park) it'll take you about 4 hours to get around. If you just blast along without really stopping you're probably looking at between 2 and 3 hours. I think the record is 1:37h, or something stupid.

It's not the sort of trails centre you can easily repeat sections; more of a go round it once as a whole kind of thing. There's a lot of climbing involved - not so much in vertical distance... but you'll spend a good portion of the time climbing up something, then coming down something not much steeper than you went up it.

Fine if you like that sort of thing, but if you're more used to a steeper climb, followed by some fun descents, you'll find it annoying.

I fell out of love with the place, but went on Saturday just gone and quite enjoyed it. Was with 5 others, though, and we stopped pretty much at the end of every section for people to catch up :)

It's also £7 to park for the day, which is at least £3 too expensive imho.
 
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My father has done dalby a few times and seems to like it, how he missed a shop there i wont know, and we could pop to pickering on route!

Sound advice there for dalby Jono, we are doing red route first hes taking his gopro cam too so hopefully get a few little videos and a few stills!

He's determined to get me into it and ive been out weekly locally with him and its great bonding father and son :)
 
scorchedbee said:
My father has done dalby a few times and seems to like it, how he missed a shop there i wont know, and we could pop to pickering on route!

Sound advice there for dalby Jono, we are doing red route first hes taking his gopro cam too so hopefully get a few little videos and a few stills!

He's determined to get me into it and ive been out weekly locally with him and its great bonding father and son :)
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The shop is to the right/past the start of the red routes - just past it, over the road from the car park... it'd be easy to miss if you were just looking at where the trails start. Single story barn type building, usually with some hire bikes chained up outside to a log.

It'd be a good time to go, soon - despite all the rain we've had up there lately it wasn't really wet/boggy in any places.... there were a few on the flat singletrack between sections here and there... but nothing troublesome/annoying.

And all the overgrown bracken/brambles/nettles/thistles have pretty much all died back to manageable levels now, so you're not constantly getting slapped in the face by thorny/stingy things :D
 
I've been to Dalby once, about a month back.. had a lot of fun, basically did the whole red route which will take a few hours, there's a steep rocky drop which I didn't fancy so walked the bike down that bit. And a couple of tough but short climbs..

The bulk of the rental bikes are Scott hard tails which look fairly decent.

It's a good day out and you can't fail to have fun if you have any interest in bikes at all!

I don't begrudge the parking charges at all, the whole place is pretty well maintained and that's got to be paid for some how.

We didn't spot the bike rental/shop until after we'd gone round the trails, an we got spat out past the bike shed.. there's a map online you can download /print off or its worth buying one from the main visitor centre, but then if your dad's familiar with it you may not need one as there's decent sign posts at the relevant places.

Have a blast!

Also take sandwiches as if your not hardcore like I'm not, you'll need a rest!
 
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cant wait, off first week of novemeber as have a week off work!

will be taking sandwiches and choc bars a plenty, we sure are not hardcore and i can see us needing a break after a few of the climbs, red route is our aim!
 
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