Good LBS in Surrey or Surrounds

Dizeee

Hi all;

I am in between bike shops at the moment having had numerous dubious experiences and advice with the vast majority round here. I am in Guildford but also near to Woking and Camberley.

Does anyone know of a decent, honest but most of all consistent local bike shop who can be trusted to service and look after a basic aluminium and high end carbon road bike?

wavefront

I generally service my own bikes, but the only two shops that I like and tend to get alot of parts from and who are usually very helpful and seem knowledgeable are:

Beyond Mountain Bikes on the A281 at Smithbrook Kilns between Bramley and Cranleigh (15mins from Guildford). The workshop guy always seem to impress my friends when they have their bikes in for services or repairs.

Cycleworks in Burpham. I've only bought things from them, but friends also say good things about their servicing, and if you're up for a journey out, my club mates talk highly of their sister shop cycleworks in Haselmere.

Be interesting to hear what others think. Who did you find dubious? Hope neither of these?

paul64

Cycleworks are decent people, I use them at Leatherhead sometimes.

Dizee, my favourite is Horsley Cycles (John Tindall) outside the entrance of East Horsley railway station. The shop is full of kids bikes, family bikes and low end stuff so on first look you would dismiss it and walk away. But John is old school, knows his stuff, just fixes things and charges a few quid so you think you have robbed him compared with how much shops usually charge. He can build wheels too, I bought a pair new Mavic Open Pro rims on a pair of Record alloy hubs he took in form someone and cleaned up, bearings checked etc. I paid £130.

I sort of feel like keeping his place a secret but he deserves the custom.

ashleydwsmith

if you go to the halfords in guildford the fulltime mechanic is great. he is a full on rider, cytech trained great bloke all round.

bondurant

Pure Motion Cycles in Woking are good

Dizeee

Thx all. Will look at the Bramley and E Horsley options. Buroham cycle works other than being expensive tried to tell me my cracked carbon fork was safe to ride on so I'm a little dubious there and as for Pure Motion I certainly won't be going there as they were the start of all my problems.

Dizeee

And good as the mechanic may be I'm not sure I would trust Halfords with 4k of carbon, it just doesn't feel right. I wouldn't have thought they see campag a great deal.

diy

Cycleworks are good, but prices are steep, to the point that no matter how much you want to support your LBS you cannot justify paying 50% over the odds. New bike prices are reasonable though.

simonhead

A bit far but only had good experiences with Surbiton Cycles.

Dizeee

simonhead wrote:

A bit far but only had good experiences with Surbiton Cycles.

Good call, used them once before and yes, they were very good.

surrey_commuter

Dizeee wrote:

simonhead wrote:

A bit far but only had good experiences with Surbiton Cycles.

Good call, used them once before and yes, they were very good.

+1 for Surbiton Cycles - have even told me to MTFU rather than selling me stuff

bondurant

Dizeee wrote:

Thx all. Will look at the Bramley and E Horsley options. Buroham cycle works other than being expensive tried to tell me my cracked carbon fork was safe to ride on so I'm a little dubious there and as for Pure Motion I certainly won't be going there as they were the start of all my problems.

Interesting. What did they do? I've only used them three times but was really impressed. Maybe I got lucky.

jpf51

Hoops Velo in Farnham - http://hoopsvelo.com/

LegendLust

If you want the best to look after your bikes take them to Doctor D

http://doctord.co.uk/

He's in Sutton

Sussed out

Wyndymilla in Seale, very near Guildford

drlodge

WyndyMilla should offer excellent service, and I think you can get a discount at Cycleworks with Charlotteville CC membership - not 100% sure though, worth asking.

There are also club members who may help in some circumstances, I'm pretty nifty when it comes to mechanicals, and James "TingTong" Curry is a dab hand at just about everything.

Dizeee

Bondurant wrote:

Dizeee wrote:

Thx all. Will look at the Bramley and E Horsley options. Buroham cycle works other than being expensive tried to tell me my cracked carbon fork was safe to ride on so I'm a little dubious there and as for Pure Motion I certainly won't be going there as they were the start of all my problems.

Interesting. What did they do? I've only used them three times but was really impressed. Maybe I got lucky.

It's a tale of two halves. One of the two guys who work there is faultless, helpful, consistent and knowledgable. The other is a business man who is extremely inconsistent ( in terms of pricing, advice ), goes down the hard sell route and makes promises that are never delivered.

I used them for a long time until when I really needed them when I crashed my bike and they failed to inspect it properly or get back to me initially, then when they did, they gave me bad and totally factually incorrect advice. The owner has conversations that he seemingly completely forgets, and then when the conversation is recounted weeks or months down the line he remembers a different version that suits his argument. It's a feeling shared widely amongst a lot of riders around here having spoken to them.

Plus I know they read this forum as I was contacted about comments I made about them previously. I don't have any issues with them and still attend their club rides, but I don't see why I should refrain from commenting on my experience as it was particularly poor.