Evans Cycles

surfercyclist

ddraver wrote:

I was forced to buy a C2W bike off of them. It was one of them hipster fixies. The rear gear had been crss threaded when it was built and fell apart within a day or two. They refused to honour a clear warranty.

Fuck 'em, no big loss to anyone

AHAAHA forced to buy a hipster fixie. Oh deary me.

apreading

I must be one of few that really wants Evans to survive and thrive. I think its great to have a 'proper' bike shop doing so well nationally and promoting cycling in many areas where local choice would otherwise be very limited.

I dont think they are any worse than many independant LBS - there are good and bad branches of both, really depends on the people and all have their complaints from time to time. But the choice there is far better than any independant LBS. There is nowhere else I could go to try on Castelli clothing for example or to buy several brands of bikes. The Pinnacle bikes are really good and good value own brand.

I would rather go to Evans than Halfords for anything where customer service or mechanical help is required.

I dont buy alot from Evans although I have from time to time in the past. Wiggle, CRC and Merlin, Evans are probably my most used retailers but sat at home price is king. Of those, Wiggle & CRC are top of the list because they have free 365 days returns. After them, I like Evans because I can return free to the shop if stuff doesnt fit.

I probably use my local Evans more for returns than purchases these days...

They have, in the past, shipped a couple of bikes from other stores for me to test ride though, which I would not have been able to try out otherwise.

My number 1 use for Evans these days is for their Rideit events - road and mountain bike sportives - do at least 10 a year - excellent value if you buy in January when they are usually BOGOF, they arent as expensive as most anyway and the number of riders is kept low so that they dont get unpleasantly crowded. I would be distraught without these as they let me visit parts of the UK that I dont know for a good ride that someone has meticulously planned and with backup and feeding stations.

I think many towns and cycling in the UK would be poorer if they went.

shirley_basso

Agree.

There is room for improvement in some stores, but by and large they do a good job.

Brakeless

apreading wrote:

I must be one of few that really wants Evans to survive and thrive. I think its great to have a 'proper' bike shop doing so well nationally and promoting cycling in many areas where local choice would otherwise be very limited.

I dont think they are any worse than many independant LBS - there are good and bad branches of both, really depends on the people and all have their complaints from time to time. But the choice there is far better than any independant LBS. There is nowhere else I could go to try on Castelli clothing for example or to buy several brands of bikes. The Pinnacle bikes are really good and good value own brand.

I would rather go to Evans than Halfords for anything where customer service or mechanical help is required.

I dont buy alot from Evans although I have from time to time in the past. Wiggle, CRC and Merlin, Evans are probably my most used retailers but sat at home price is king. Of those, Wiggle & CRC are top of the list because they have free 365 days returns. After them, I like Evans because I can return free to the shop if stuff doesnt fit.

I probably use my local Evans more for returns than purchases these days...

They have, in the past, shipped a couple of bikes from other stores for me to test ride though, which I would not have been able to try out otherwise.

My number 1 use for Evans these days is for their Rideit events - road and mountain bike sportives - do at least 10 a year - excellent value if you buy in January when they are usually BOGOF, they arent as expensive as most anyway and the number of riders is kept low so that they dont get unpleasantly crowded. I would be distraught without these as they let me visit parts of the UK that I dont know for a good ride that someone has meticulously planned and with backup and feeding stations.

I think many towns and cycling in the UK would be poorer if they went.

So you really want them to stay but you only really use them for half price sportives.

shiznit76

Brakeless wrote:

apreading wrote:

I must be one of few that really wants Evans to survive and thrive. I think its great to have a 'proper' bike shop doing so well nationally and promoting cycling in many areas where local choice would otherwise be very limited.

I dont think they are any worse than many independant LBS - there are good and bad branches of both, really depends on the people and all have their complaints from time to time. But the choice there is far better than any independant LBS. There is nowhere else I could go to try on Castelli clothing for example or to buy several brands of bikes. The Pinnacle bikes are really good and good value own brand.

I would rather go to Evans than Halfords for anything where customer service or mechanical help is required.

I dont buy alot from Evans although I have from time to time in the past. Wiggle, CRC and Merlin, Evans are probably my most used retailers but sat at home price is king. Of those, Wiggle & CRC are top of the list because they have free 365 days returns. After them, I like Evans because I can return free to the shop if stuff doesnt fit.

I probably use my local Evans more for returns than purchases these days...

They have, in the past, shipped a couple of bikes from other stores for me to test ride though, which I would not have been able to try out otherwise.

My number 1 use for Evans these days is for their Rideit events - road and mountain bike sportives - do at least 10 a year - excellent value if you buy in January when they are usually BOGOF, they arent as expensive as most anyway and the number of riders is kept low so that they dont get unpleasantly crowded. I would be distraught without these as they let me visit parts of the UK that I dont know for a good ride that someone has meticulously planned and with backup and feeding stations.

I think many towns and cycling in the UK would be poorer if they went.

So you really want them to stay but you only really use them for half price sportives.

And to act as a drop off point for online returns, the very part that is killing the high street part of the business

cattytown

I think similar is going on here to other retail businesses. It's venture capitalists.

I not in the article "It has been backed by a number of investment firms, including Active Private Equity‎, which sold it to ECi in 2015 for an undisclosed sum."

This fits with some of the behind the scenes bits with the likes of Maplins & Toys-r-us.

A company is doing well, expanding and has a model that works, and gets bought by venture capitalists who "invest" and borrow money to fund a rapid expansion. That loan is then owned by the business, and the interest is paid for before profits are made.

There are now twice as many stores, so they try selling it on at a much inflated price. They make a profit, the debt goes with the business.

Repeat a number of times.

Now, the business is saddled with debt, has lost its what from what was working and can't make a profit any more.

apreading

Brakeless wrote:

So you really want them to stay but you only really use them for half price sportives.

Just checked and I have spent in excess of £700 with them in the last 12 months online if you dont include things I returned, my guess is another £100 or so in store. Much more than I have spent in the other LBS that is near my work.

shiznit76

Halfords one of the companies that are in for taking Evans over, surely with their Cycle Republic on the high street there is not room for the same company having all those extra stores IF they do win the auction for Evans

plymouthsteve

Where would this leave BMC?
To my knowledge Evans are the sole retailer for the brand in the UK?
I hope it all works out and like many have used Evans many times but often as somewhere to collect online purchases, and usually with club card vouchers. Don't know who subsidises what on the clubcard deal.
No complaints about the Plymouth branch.. never seems busy though

pblakeney

plymouthsteve wrote:

No complaints about the Plymouth branch.. never seems busy though

Coincidence? Doubt it. FWIW I forecast peak cycling (in a business sense) in 2016. I may have been a bit early but...

Vino'sGhost

PBlakeney wrote:

plymouthsteve wrote:

No complaints about the Plymouth branch.. never seems busy though

Coincidence? Doubt it. FWIW I forecast peak cycling (in a business sense) in 2016. I may have been a bit early but...

I think youre right, This move to road discs is im certain intended as a stimulus

ddraver

SurferCyclist wrote:

ddraver wrote:

I was forced to buy a C2W bike off of them. It was one of them hipster fixies. The rear gear had been crss threaded when it was built and fell apart within a day or two. They refused to honour a clear warranty.

Fuck 'em, no big loss to anyone

AHAAHA forced to buy a hipster fixie. Oh deary me.

Forced to buy a hipster fixie...from Evans

Thigh_burn

cattytown wrote:

I think similar is going on here to other retail businesses. It's venture capitalists.

I not in the article "It has been backed by a number of investment firms, including Active Private Equity‎, which sold it to ECi in 2015 for an undisclosed sum."

This fits with some of the behind the scenes bits with the likes of Maplins & Toys-r-us.

A company is doing well, expanding and has a model that works, and gets bought by venture capitalists who "invest" and borrow money to fund a rapid expansion. That loan is then owned by the business, and the interest is paid for before profits are made.
...
Now, the business is saddled with debt, has lost its what from what was working and can't make a profit any more.

It's private equity not VC. They're two quite different industries. Venture invests in early stage (and therefore very high risk) companies often that haven't even started earning income, PE in much more mature companies.

You refer to investors buying these companies, don't forget that to be bought, they need to be sold. So it's not like the purchase has come out of nowhere. I don't know the financial history of Evans, but it might be that the owners chose to sell to PE either because they were finding things tough, or they wanted to grow.

I suspect that the clue to their difficulties is related to the sector they're in rather than their ownership structure. Look at publicly listed retailers, privately owned retailers, worker owned retailers or PE owned retailers and things are brutal.

Why's that? Because of the way we as shoppers are buying stuff.

So, almost certainly the blame can't be laid solely at the feet of investors for Evans challenges. They're getting beasted on the high st like everyone from John Lewis to House of Fraser.

lakesluddite

I suspect that if Amazon sold (decent) bikes, then Evans would have disappeared years ago - they've pretty much destroyed the retail music and bookselling sectors.

Personally I wish Evans well - I've gotten to know some of the staff in my local branch well enough to be recognised when I go in, and they're a friendly bunch on the whole. I'd hate to think they were all going to lose their jobs.

First.Aspect

A big branded store like Evans (or Halfords, or Edinburgh Bicycle) hiring different staff on different days can never provide as much knowledge and experience to its customers as a LBS staffed by keen cyclists. Sure, not all LBSs are like that, but those that aren't tend not to survive.

Flippancy aside, Evans seem to have put themselves in an odd position - city centre locations serving a commuter weekday crowd, with a weekend browsing offering for those customers.

Unfortunately the weekday customers, by and large, now order online and are out on their bikes at weekends, whereas the weekend customers are unlikely to want to fight their way into a city centre at weekends to shop for bike stuff. The only Evans I've been to that are busy and well stocked are in shopping centres and out of town places.

FWIW, there is a branch of one of those Halfords (but not really) places near our local Evans, and there's a lot more footfall in Evans. Never seen anyone other than staff in the Halfords one, also they've sometimes never even heard of the item I want when I go in there (its on the way to Evans, on one of my "I must be desperate" walks). That brand will die, I expect.

apreading

First Aspect wrote:

A big branded store like Evans (or Halfords, or Edinburgh Bicycle) hiring different staff on different days can never provide as much knowledge and experience to its customers as a LBS staffed by keen cyclists. Sure, not all LBSs are like that, but those that aren't tend not to survive.

Why would Evans (& others) have a different staff hiring policy than an LBS?

Do they deliberately exclude keen cyclists at interview stage?

Both are hiring from the same pool of people.

I can see why Halfords is different because when the trained bike staff are on break or short handed for the day they seem to grab staff from other parts of the store who know nothing about bikes. But this is because Halfords is not just a bike shop, its much bigger than that, so they take shortcuts.

First.Aspect

apreading wrote:

First Aspect wrote:

A big branded store like Evans (or Halfords, or Edinburgh Bicycle) hiring different staff on different days can never provide as much knowledge and experience to its customers as a LBS staffed by keen cyclists. Sure, not all LBSs are like that, but those that aren't tend not to survive.

Why would Evans (& others) have a different staff hiring policy than an LBS?

Do they deliberately exclude keen cyclists at interview stage?

Both are hiring from the same pool of people.

I can see why Halfords is different because when the trained bike staff are on break or short handed for the day they seem to grab staff from other parts of the store who know nothing about bikes. But this is because Halfords is not just a bike shop, its much bigger than that, so they take shortcuts.

I can only go on my own experience. Perhaps it's self filtering and they are not in fact picking from the same general pool of people. Perhaps the training or experience you get at a lbs is broader than at a shiny shop. Whatever the reason, there seems to be a tangible difference to me.

apreading

Not my experience. Most staff I see in either seem to be into bikes. There are idiots in both, saturday specials in both, and knowledgable staff in both. I have had to go up to customers and correct what I have overheard them being told in both and had to bite my lips in both when not appropriate to do so... I have also seen acts of kindness in both, both giving excellent and friendly advice and both having workshops too full to keep up and sometimes not finishing mechanical jobs on time.

I dont see why either would choose not to hire keen cyclists if they apply for the job and seem competent to do it.

Maybe the issue with some of the Evans is because they are new shops, they have to recruit all their staff in one hit so cant find that many keen cyclists in the first instance so drop their standards a little. Over time, those staff will either get skilled up or move on and be replaced by keen cyclists though, so this is only a short term issue.

chris_bass

First Aspect wrote:

apreading wrote:

First Aspect wrote:

A big branded store like Evans (or Halfords, or Edinburgh Bicycle) hiring different staff on different days can never provide as much knowledge and experience to its customers as a LBS staffed by keen cyclists. Sure, not all LBSs are like that, but those that aren't tend not to survive.

Why would Evans (& others) have a different staff hiring policy than an LBS?

Do they deliberately exclude keen cyclists at interview stage?

Both are hiring from the same pool of people.

I can see why Halfords is different because when the trained bike staff are on break or short handed for the day they seem to grab staff from other parts of the store who know nothing about bikes. But this is because Halfords is not just a bike shop, its much bigger than that, so they take shortcuts.

I can only go on my own experience. Perhaps it's self filtering and they are not in fact picking from the same general pool of people. Perhaps the training or experience you get at a lbs is broader than at a shiny shop. Whatever the reason, there seems to be a tangible difference to me.

I think the reason is probably that you are only likely to hear of a job at a LBS if you actually go to the shop, so you'd be interested in cycling. Evans on the other hand have a large online presence, you can search for jobs on their website, linkedin, job boards etc

slowbike

Staff issue - perhaps it's because Evans staff are a bit removed from the "top" end ... and with it there's less responsibility, whereas LBS's tend to be owner managed and therefore both owner and staff are more on the pulse of what's going on with the place.
There's another chain store near me where I won't bother going in unless I have to. The staff are friendly enough, but not knowledgeable - even for the product that they stock - ie replacement hanger - I went to another LBS where the owner/manager knew what I was asking for, took the part and got me another very quickly. That's where I go if there's a job I can't do ... which reminds me - I need a BB changing - it's too tight for my tools ... he's reasonably priced so may just as well get him to do it rather than buying new tools myself.

perfectmark

I often use the Canary Wharf Evans as it is by work and never had a problem with them. It's a good place to test ride a bike on a weekend (as the roads are quiet) and I will often get work done on my bike which I don't have the tools for (like changing the bottom bracket). So would be sad to see them go.

combatclaret

Somewhat new to cycling I always assumed Evans was a Dixons/Currys for bikes. Full off stuff you could find 10%-50% cheaper online and uninterested sales people. Having been in one recently turns out I was half right.
They will need some big restructuring to survive. Hard to compete with the low overheads of the online only shops and now the likes of Decathlon with a continent spanning amount of purchasing power to make good value own brand items.

I'd also be wary of buying a bike from them now unless you can walk away with it on the day, If you've got a bike on order and they suddenly fold there's a chance you'll get no bike and no refund.

cattytown

Pay on credit card for protection there.

First.Aspect

CombatClaret wrote:

Somewhat new to cycling I always assumed Evans was a Dixons/Currys for bikes. Full off stuff you could find 10%-50% cheaper online and uninterested sales people. Having been in one recently turns out I was half right.
They will need some big restructuring to survive. Hard to compete with the low overheads of the online only shops and now the likes of Decathlon with a continent spanning amount of purchasing power to make good value own brand items.

I'd also be wary of buying a bike from them now unless you can walk away with it on the day, If you've got a bike on order and they suddenly fold there's a chance you'll get no bike and no refund.

This is really interesting. Evans are quite price competitive (setting aside Wiggle stock clearances in sizes XXXXXL or XXXXXXS) and they aren't in the same market as Decathalon (unlike Halfords). But if that's how they are perceived, they are in trouble.

combatclaret

First Aspect wrote:

This is really interesting. Evans are quite price competitive (setting aside Wiggle stock clearances in sizes XXXXXL or XXXXXXS) and they aren't in the same market as Decathalon (unlike Halfords). But if that's how they are perceived, they are in trouble.

I was pleasantly surprised by the price of bikes, I looked into a BMC I'd never considered after seeing it in the store. Clothing and accessories is harder as there will always one site out of the dozens out there which will have an offer on the item you're after.
I recently purchased some winter shoes, 19% off RRP at Evans, fair play. But 33% off at one site.

Perception is right, I feel I have been conditioned to assume the high street offers poor value.
Department stores and multi-brand retail in general seems to be dying a death. Sadly cycling brands can't support their own stores stores like Apple or North Face.

964cup

The thing about Evans (and CycleSurgery) is that (like most high street bike shops) their market is too wide. While I suppose it's theoretically possible to provide excellent service to a clueless occasional commuter looking for the world's cheapest hybrid, a serious cyclist wanting to buy the right power meter for their expensive carbon road bike and a mountain biker needing new pivot bearings for their DH rig, I think that's a big ask. The result is too wide a stock range, too much patchiness of shop-floor knowledge leading to poor advice and ending neither fish (cheap) nor fowl (expert). It's much harder with chains, since you have a bigger stock problem and many more staff to train and police. I'm sure I'm not the only bike nerd on here who, while able to discuss the finer details of BB30 vs BB30A or spoke lacing patterns, would look at you blankly if asked how (or why) to change the rebound settings on a front shock or which £300 hybrid to buy; there's a lot to know.

Halfords/Decathlon make it work because although they do sell a (small) range of high-end bikes, their focus market is the clueless commuter/leisure cyclist, who won't buy online because they don't know what they want/need and are looking for help choosing and setting up; they also only sell their own-brand bikes (assuming we count Boardman as own-brand for Halfords). Condor and Bespoke make it work because they focus at the other end (although Condor are wider-ranging and friendlier than Bespoke). Both only do road bikes and maybe a little cross or touring - no flatbars/hybrids/town bikes, no MTBs, no eBikes and nothing much bike-wise below £1k (Condor) and £3k (Bespoke) - and of course Condor are also a manufacturer. Many many LBS's have also failed for the same reasons, and so of course have some specialists, like Mosquito (although I think ineptitude also had a part to play there).

I've bought from Evans - because it's convenient to collect from them; because they carry the Bianchi Pista and I wanted one; because they occasionally misprice things in their sales. But I can't imagine asking their advice or letting them service any of my bikes. I doubt I'd really miss them if they went. I would really miss Condor, because they have stock - within their narrow ambit - of stuff I actually need and because they do know what they're talking about and have given me good advice in the past. However, Evans have a much greater impact on cycling as transport than Condor ever will, and if they fold it will drive another wedge between "cyclists" - who know what they need and buy it online - and "bicycle users" for whom two-wheeled transport is simply a convenient (or ecological) choice.

awavey

perfectmark wrote:

I often use the Canary Wharf Evans as it is by work and never had a problem with them. It's a good place to test ride a bike on a weekend (as the roads are quiet) and I will often get work done on my bike which I don't have the tools for (like changing the bottom bracket). So would be sad to see them go.

Id agree the staff in there when I used them were I think very good, but that may have been from a time when Evans would have attracted more bike knowledgeable staff, whereas the one nearest my workplace now I get the impression for most of the staff Ive interacted with its just a minimum wage retail shop job with conditions probably better than the Tescos down the road.

pblakeney

awavey wrote:

Id agree the staff in there when I used them were I think very good, but that may have been from a time when Evans would have attracted more bike knowledgeable staff, whereas the one nearest my workplace now I get the impression for most of the staff Ive interacted with its just a minimum wage retail shop job with conditions probably better than the Tescos down the road.

It is a common cross industry trend right now. You don't need actual skills, as long as you have transferable skills. It is boll0cks.

bmxboy10

So it’s Halfords who are in the frame to buy them out. Great!

shirley_basso

They will probably keep the brand but close the stores near Halfords.