Good Local Bike Shops

brasso

I'm looking for a good LBS in the surrey area, my local evans seem a little disinterested and I'm reluctant to spend money in a store where the assistants seem to spend more time worried about their hair. Any one suggest a good store for me to try.

Thanks.

spada01

Is your local Evans Woking by any chance? I've been there today and they were pretty uninterested and very rude to my partner. She was looking at the in store customer computer and was asked by a member of staff to let a customer use it. She was a potential customer!

I've been to Brighton Evans and they were superb.

Anyone tried Evans in Woking?

Mytchett Mike

I also have mixed views on the Woking branch of Evans.

Try Cycleworks at Burpham - I feel they gave me good advice and were genuinely interested in finding out what I wanted rather than - "this is wot we gonna sell u"

brasso

Yes your correct SPADA01, It was the Woking Branch, been in a couple of times and service was poor on both occasions. And it’s not the first where I've had to suffer disinterested staff.

I didn't want to buy from to far away as I'll struggle to get a new machine home as I don't have a cycle carrier for my current car yet

Thx Mytchett Mike I'll give Cycleworks a go.

Be good to get a list of good LBS on the forum for everyone’s benefit

Father Faff

Now there's an idea - a database of LBSs with the ability to give feedback a la Ebay. You could even rate them for different skills such as Friendliness, Grubiness, Price, Technical ability, Stock levels, Staff fitness, Staff looks, Staff outfits, etc.

brasso

Yeah thats just the sort of thing I had in mind.


Forum Moderators, would this sort of thing be possible???


Possible that the cycling mags could do featurs on good shops?

The Big Cheese

Evans are crap, and I have been to a few. Rude, sullen and damn right unhelpful. They don't know how to set a bike up for toffee either, will never grace a store again.

JasonRwmb

Other good shops in the area include:

Beyond Mountain Bikes near Cranleigh
Mountain Trax near Crowthrone
East Street Cycles in Farnham

All are a lot lot better than Evans. I guess depending on where you live they may not be that easy to get back from without a car.

I have never bought anything from Cycleworks, but when I popped in looking for a new frame they did seem knowledgeable and honest.

dangerousjules

EVANS SUCK...i'm sure i contributed to a thread on c+ a few months ago about how much i dislike evans. i've been into a few of their branches over the years and all their staff seem to have as much charm,knowledge and charism as a fart in a thunder storm. another case of the more branhes the more customer catchment and through that they naturally will have a higher sales conversion rate. all i ever buy from them is a spare inner tube when caught out.

brasso

Thanks JasonRwmb, I'll go have a look this weekend and post back with an update.

L60N

I do honestly feel its unfair to judge "Evans" as a whole on one or two solitary cases.

To counter the negative comments, I had a really good experience at Evans in York. I didnt buy from them because they werent the cheapest BUT they were very patient, let me take numerous bikes outside to test AND the young chap was very helpful and Knowledgable, which helped me decide on the bike i currently own.

Dont let the actions of a few tossers taint your view on the whole.

Having said that, it does seem judging by the comments here that Evans Woking houses a few cum burpers who care more about thier hairdos. lol

So I also feel that a database of Shops could be put together to help People find a decent shop. I'll start a thread called "Local Bike shop Experience" and people can put theres in reply, maybe the mods can make it sticky, im sure they dont have the time to make a whole database themselves so we could get the ball rolling this way

Leon

fishyweb

As I work in Woking, I visited Evans when I required a specific accessory. The staff were able to find exactly the bell that I was after and I was very happy to hand over my £4.99 to an outlet who have obviously trained their staff on the subject of bells to the highest degree possible. So there.

brasso

Well good for you

[Rant Start]

I was in London today and went round a few shops in my lunch. I made the mistake of going into another Evans nr Waterloo, staff were equally unhelpful and when I asked to try some new shoes on wanting some size 44's the thick assistant came back and said will these size 45's do even though I specifically asked for 44's

[/Rant Over]

ChingfordMarin

I went to the Evans in Victoria and found the same thing however I then went to the one off Fenchurch Street in London and found them very helpful. I think I lucked out and found the right assistant.

My local bike shop in Epping is great btw

brasso

I've now got some transport suitable to get a bike in the back while I wait for my roof bars to turn up for my normal 4 wheeled transport. So travelling isn't now going to be a problem. Any stores a little further afield that I might also try?

JasonRwmb

The only other ones I can think of are Nirvana at Westcott and Head for the Hills in Dorking. What sort of bike are you looking for?

metalsteve

I would like to sing the praises of i bike in crowthorne. Fantastic bunch of guys and really friendly and knowledgeable!

brasso

I'm after xc/ trails bike with the ability to a bit more. Parents also live very close to peak district so chance to get up there 10/12 times a year and I get upto the lake district 3/4 times too. And Wales is only a two and a half hours down the M4. I may also me moveing back upto the midlands with work so the peak dstrick will hopefully get a little closer.

I came into a little bit on money to boost my budget last week, in the form of an unexpected bonus from work. I can now afford up to £2k as an absolute maximum (hope the wife doesn't read this ).

I currently have a road bike and a rigid mtb (something from halfords when I was hard up student) so I was looking for full sus. Had a look at the stumpy fsr and trek ex08. I haven't tried the epic yet but I'm not into racing anymore after several bad road accidents. I decided against a hard tail (having tried a rockhopper and stunt jumper HT) as I don't think my back would hold up in the longer term. I want to give the brain shock a try which hopefully I'll be able to do this weekend.

The wife is now after a spes FSR d4w as well so I might end up getting her a bike first and waiting for the 2008 models/ 2007 sale in the next couple of months

Atz

I ended up tracking into London (I'm also in Surrey) to Edwardes in Camberwell. Great service and good people. A thousand times better than Evans or my local LBS who, frankly, couldn't be arsed (although that might be Saturday boys).

JasonRwmb

For a sub £2k full suss bike a visit to the shops mentioned above should let you see pretty much all the offerings from all the main manufacturers.

Off the top of my head other bikes to consider are the Orange 5, Scott Genius and Giant Trance.