Leeds City Centre Bike Shop - do you want a new one?

tomilinski1

Hi all,

I am in the early stages of considering opening a bike shop in the centre of Leeds - somewhere near to the train station ideally. Initially it would be commuter orientated as I don't want to step on the toes (or get out competed) by other local shops, so it would be spares and repairs mostly with a limited range of bikes for commuting.

I feel that there is a real gap in the market as all the decent bike shops are well outside the city centre (none within the inner ring road as far as I know)

I have a few questions before I embark on this!

1. Would you use a bike shop in this location?
2. What should it stock?
3. Should I just stick to the day job?

Thanks
Tom

mostly harmless

my £0.02.

I personally wouldn't benefit that much, I shop online for stuff and the only services I require of a LBS is installing headset races and selling me spokes without insisting that I buy the box.

Have you considered running a mobile outfit from the back of a van? You could pitch up at several different places and therefore cover more people than fixed premisis would allow. I'm sure some companies wouldn't mind you using their carparks and if it was establised that you'd be at x place on certain day I'd think you'd end up with a regular following.

nasahapley

Funnily enough, there's been quite a few occasions recently when I really could have done with there being a bike shop in Leeds city centre. My lbs can't be faulted, but because I can only get there at weekends (because of work), I don't shop there that often. What I'd definitely use it for (if I could), is servicing; I get the train into Leeds so a shop that I could drop my bike off at before work would be dead handy.

tomilinski1

Thanks for your opinions.

I agree with both of you - I have no decent bike shop within about 10miles of home, nothing near work and nothing on the route home. I can get most things online but occasionally you need something unusual or the odd low price spare when saving a few pennies is outweighed by convenience.

Nick6891

i think you would end up competing with halfords which is only around the corner, but i do think that Leeds lacks bike shops, there is only the one in cross gates and Edinburgh cycles, there is also the one in Tadcaster if anyone goes out that far. oh and drakes in harehills

i think you need to look at the audience you are going for, most families and stuff will go to halfords as there a big name, the bike shop in cross gates isnt that good as it fails big time on customer service, so i think if it was for proper cyclists you would be competing with Edinburgh cycles, i personally would like to see a new lbs with good customer service but i dont know if the centre of leeds would be a good place, you could be better on the outskirts i think

what side of the city do you live at??

rolf_f

Nick6891 wrote:

i think you would end up competing with halfords which is only around the corner, but i do think that Leeds lacks bike shops, there is only the one in cross gates and Edinburgh cycles, there is also the one in Tadcaster if anyone goes out that far. oh and drakes in harehills

Eh?! Which Leeds do you live in!! If I go home by road I pass two on the way home - Woodrups on Kirkstall Road and then Crosstrax in Rodley plus there is Bob Jackson in Bramley (so there's two renowned frame builders for a start). Then, for bargain repairs and interesting things to see, Recycle Engineering in Headingley. There'll be plenty more I'd have thought.

I try to avoid internet too much to support the LBS - I daresay I'd use a shop near the station as it wouldn't be far from my office. Not sure how viable it would be though - Leeds never seems that busy for bike commuting to me.

spasypaddy

Woodrups my LBS of choice when i was a student!

I did feel there was a lack of something in the city centre but im not in leeds anymore so my opinion is not very useful.

Nick6891

never seen them, i live the other side of the city, and surprisingly didnt know there was a bike shop in Kirstall, well you learn something new every day

rolf_f

Nick6891 wrote:

never seen them, i live the other side of the city, and surprisingly didnt know there was a bike shop in Kirstall, well you learn something new every day

Not sure there are so many smallish cities like Leeds that can boast two places to get yourself a bespoke frame built! Then there's two bike shops at least in Shipley. There'll all over the place

CyclingBantam

Rolf F wrote:

Nick6891 wrote:

never seen them, i live the other side of the city, and surprisingly didnt know there was a bike shop in Kirstall, well you learn something new every day

Not sure there are so many smallish cities like Leeds that can boast two places to get yourself a bespoke frame built! Then there's two bike shops at least in Shipley. There'll all over the place

:? Compared to New York, London and Tokyo. Yeah I suppose it is quite small...

Sorry I'm not having a go just not sure wy Leeds would be classed as a smallish city.

rolf_f

BenBlyth wrote:

Sorry I'm not having a go just not sure wy Leeds would be classed as a smallish city.

Because it really isn't that big! Compared to Newcastle, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow it is pretty small really. Takes barely half an hour to get from one side to the other. Of course, if you include pretend cities that are really just big towns (eg Brighton) then it is big.

Also, it might only seem relatively small since it hasn't swallowed other towns and cities up - ultimately, for Manchester I do count the whole miserable, dank expanse of Manchester, Stockport, Salford etc as one big dreary city! I'll concede a slight degree of exaggeration!

prj45

If you open up a bike shop don't be a right snob like most other bike shop owners.

simonaspinall

I think you have to consider is your market base large enough to support a business. If you went down the shop route you'd be going the expensive way with business rates, rents and overheads. The benefit is that geographically in leeds you haven't got a lot of competition. The only down side to this is that your main target market (commuters) are going to work early before you would open and passing the shop after you close. As most cyclists live in the suburbs (assumption) they are well catered for in all areas of leeds. A better idea for the city centre would be a bike lock-up for the station and workshop offering excellent rates for basic daily maintenance...possibly teaching maintenance classes too but i'm not sure if you could make a living doing that without having a retail side too.

The mobile idea is interesting..if you could get access to the database of cycle to work schemes it would give you a better idea of the market size.

You'd also have to think about what sort of service they'd like as well...car valeters just wash and clean...mechanics also do quite well at large businesses but that's a more complicated affair - bikes are really fairly limited to what you have to do mechanically apart from change a puncture, fix a broken chain...? Commuting cyclists tend to be fairly resourceful and can fix a lot themselves and anything major the lbs in their suburb civers it - an event on the way to work is a bit sporadic - though having your number in their phone could be useful i suppose.

The other aspect is retail - the internet provides most homogenous products such as tyres, tubes, lights and so on and if a cyclist has a specialist interest where a lot of money is oinvolved they will be prepared to travel to an expert shop such as racescene on barnsley, stif in headingley and so on.

I think the mobile idea with a small stock of retail items is a good idea, but may be best with a car valeting service in addition maybe!

Love the spirit though - More LBSs to get rid of Halfords!

simonaspinall

You could open early on a split shift and then re-open in the evening for returning commuters - you'd have nooooo competition around there because everyone would be closed! 6-10 and then 4-9. Near the train station area you'd clear up with commuters for the railways and the streets. The Workshop would still be the biggest draw as you could do it in time for the return journey.

Who else could compete with such a service.

Your customers would depend on you - and commuters are appreciative of any help they can get. The number of times i've had trouble from leeds to heckmondwike and back and needed a quick workshop...definitely the model you could open with. + a small retail arm.

Nick6891

Rolf F wrote:

BenBlyth wrote:

Sorry I'm not having a go just not sure wy Leeds would be classed as a smallish city.

Because it really isn't that big! Compared to Newcastle, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow it is pretty small really. Takes barely half an hour to get from one side to the other. Of course, if you include pretend cities that are really just big towns (eg Brighton) then it is big.

Also, it might only seem relatively small since it hasn't swallowed other towns and cities up - ultimately, for Manchester I do count the whole miserable, dank expanse of Manchester, Stockport, Salford etc as one big dreary city! I'll concede a slight degree of exaggeration!

it isnt that big in terms of area, although the leeds postecode does go right out towards boston spa, but population wise its the largest city in the north, anyway back to the thread

i think if you where just selling parts then you may have a good market there, but i think its hard to say as most lbs are outside city centres

topher9

I live in Leeds and work in Manchester and although I couldn't say much about the trade in Leeds City Centre, Harry Hall's seems to do well here.

However, Evans is round the corner from work and it is ALWAYS busy. I often need to pop into these places at lunchtime - Halls rather than Evans when poss - and that is probably where a lot of your business would come from. I suspect that the position of Evans is it's strong point though as it is right on Deansgate with loads of passing foot traffic.

Having said that, good points have been made by others - if you opened a little before work and closed a little after, you'd do very well. Especially if your prices are competitive.

You would also do very well if you joined up to - and pushed your connection with - the cyclescheme. We've just done it at work - unfortunately through Evans - and about half the office has ended up with a new bike. But the advantage was that the majority of it was arranged on lunchtimes - test rides etc.

There are some great bike shops in Leeds though - Crosstrax is my local and they're superstars in my opinion.

W5454

Nick6891 wrote:

i think you would end up competing with halfords which is only around the corner

Halfords moved out of the city centre a long time ago.

spasypaddy

there is a man in london that does a roving puncture/mechanic repair service between the hours of 7 and 7. Maybe start something like that.

nasahapley

topher9 wrote:

However, Evans is round the corner from work and it is ALWAYS busy. I often need to pop into these places at lunchtime - Halls rather than Evans when poss - and that is probably where a lot of your business would come from.

Pretty much what I think too. It's good that there are plenty of bike shops in the suburbs, but for folks working in the city centre (of which there are a lot), they can typically only get to them 2 days out of 7. Open a shop in the centre and there's a lot of people will be able to go there 5 days out of 7; I know that if I could get whatever spares/kit I needed in my lunch hour rather than having to do it at the weekend (when hopefully I've got better stuff to do than shopping), that's what I'd do. I realise I'm totally biased because it would make my life easier, but I still think it's a good idea.

Nick6891

W5454 wrote:

Nick6891 wrote:

i think you would end up competing with halfords which is only around the corner

Halfords moved out of the city centre a long time ago.

did they??

what happend to the one around the back of bridgewater place, was there last time i went past

although it was more a car one that a cycle one

tomilinski1

Excellent - a bit of debate

I have to commute from near Wakefield - I pass no bike shops and the Halfords in Holbeck is pretty rubbish

The lunchtime market is quite big in my opinion - and personally I think commuting is getting pretty popular in Leeds.

However - I think I'm scrapping this plan as I would have to work Saturdays and don't have any experience in the trade - I reckon it would be financially viable - there is a shop near the station which is up for rent for only £16k p/a

Despite the internet - places like Evans are doing well in city centres and their prices aren't generally the cheapest

Nick6891

ye i think there is a market for it if you think about it, there are plenty of bike shops in london city centre and they get business, but the rent is normally expensive in the city centres, and the initial set up cost would be high, but once you got up and going it would probs work

zackwuk

bike shop..... Evans opened today in leeds city centre just next door to the train station.

Clarion

Leeds is well set for bike shops. But not in the city centre. When all the regeneration started, rents shot up. Mind you, by then, the excellent Two Wheels Good had transformed into the terrible anodyne Freewheel.

The morning/lunchtime browsers/afterworker commuter markets are pretty good. London bikeshops (decent ones like Apex & Brixton) open early and stay open till 6pm. Long hours for a business, but there's not a lot of trade in the day.