Bikefix

The crew at Bikefix are super helpful and will fix your bike for a reasonable price. I’ve been many a time and have left with my bike running a dream.

I was a customer of Bikefix for 10 years until 2009 after I bought one of their quirky and exotic bikes, a recumbent. As they were the only dealer for this bike in Southern England I was wholly dependent on them for spares, repairs and upgrades. So I feel that it’s with some authority and experience that I can confidently describe their service as being among the worst I’ve ever received from a bicycle shop. Sometimes repairs were substandard at best, such as the time they didn’t loosen my bike’s front brake sufficiently after a service, leaving the pads stuck against the wheel. Sometimes they’d be somewhat slack in giving me the right part, like the time they gave me a seat cover that was too small for my seat and it consequently ripped. Or the advice would be plain wrong, like the time they advised me that my recumbent would be able to carry the weight of me and four full-​sized panniers. They were wrong and the result was four damaged full-​sized panniers.
But far and away the worst aspect of my experience with Bikefix was their attitude to serving customers. A typical experience would be that I’d wander into the shop looking to buy a component for my bike. I’d look at the options available and then ask for advice. I wouldn’t get any. I genuinely struggle to understand this approach to doing business. In asking for advice, I am effectively saying: «I would like to give you some money. Could you give me some advice so that I am likely to be happy with my purchase and likely to return to give you some more money?» It should be pretty straightforward, so their refusal to help was all the more baffling, not to mention frustrating.
Another typical experience would be incessant delays on their part in sourcing a part. I’d order a part and they’d give me a delivery date. I’d wait, and then ring them on the date to ask if the part had come. They’d give me another delivery date. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Finally they’d get the part, though not before I’d suffered plenty of inconvenience beforehand (my bike is my primary form of transport in London).
That’s not to say that I didn’t on occasion receive surprisingly good service now and then, as sheer probability over such a long period dictates. Once, after their persistent delays in fixing my bike meant I couldn’t take it on a long-​planned training ride, the manager at the time unexpectedly lent me a more recent version of the bike to do the ride instead. Another time, a Polish mechanic was so embarrassed by his bosses’ failure to fix my bike despite having had it in their care for several weeks, and more crucially, their apathy that I was just two days away from flying out to France on a cycling holiday for which I obviously needed my bike, that he insisted on fixing it overnight. He did a fantastic job, but clearly disagreed with the ethos of his managers, because he left for a rival shortly afterwards.
And I know I’m not the only one who has suffered in this way. A friend of mine took his bike there to fix a puncture. He paid before seeing the bike, which when produced hadn’t been fixed properly. He asked them to fix the bike, and, in direct violation of his statutory rights (i.e. his rights under UK consumer law) they refused. If you don’t believe me, Google elsewhere for reviews or read the filtered ones here. You’ll find plenty of other stories from aggrieved customers. Seriously, if I had to impress on the public the advice from just one of the reviews I ever write for Unilocal,it’d be the advice contained herein: avoid Bikefix if you can — there are plenty of other good bike shops out there (Look Mum No Hands, On Your Bike, Cycle Surgery, Evan Cycles, plus various independents) who will treat your time and and money with much more respect.

I’m recommending Bikefix solely based on the fact that they have gift certificates. Other bike shops might have them, but supporting an independent felt good. My outgoing boss is a bike enthusiast, so I knew that a gift certificate from Bikefix would suit.

One of London’s quirky bike shops. I got my Brompton from here and they specialise in folding bikes (and also recumbents and other strange variants).
They have a great selection of biking peripherals and one of London’s better bike mechanics stores out back.
Highly recommended.

Whether you want a traditional «Dutch style» commuter, a folding bike, or recumbent, Bikefix is the place to get it. While other shops have looked in disdain at my motley collection of unusual bikes, the crew at Bikefix seem to embrace the strange and the ordinary equally. Stuart (know secretly to my wife as «grumpy bike man») always has good advice (and isn’t really that grumpy either). When I lived in London I didn’t go anywhere else — and I wish Bikefix was still around the corner.

This tiny store on Lamb’s Conduit Street seems to stock all sorts of things. Frequently flowing out onto the street, the weird and wonderful bikes, make it worth stopping by to take a look. The staff are helpful and knowledgeable, making sure you get exactly what you need. I was even told I could come back and swap if it turned out to be wrong.

This bike shop sells lots of expensive (but no more than bikes generally are) and very classy bikes, including Bromptons and lean, curvy Dutch-​style ones with big wicker baskets. It also sells all the usual accessories. I find bike shops a bit too poncy: the workers tend to expect you to have a degree in bike-​knowledge and get cross if you don’t have hundreds of quids to spend on a handlebar. This one is ok. Could be friendlier. But the good bit is the workshop at the back, where very friendly, helpful and mostly handsome young men will fix anything for a small fee. That is, anything wrong with your bike. I go there when local youths have yet again stolen bits and bobs off my bike, get bits replaced and general makeovers, and they’ve always given fast service and made my twenty + year old bicycle good as new. I’d give five stars for the workshop at the back, two and a half to the shop.

If you need advice about anything to do with cycling, the staff in Bikefix are good people to ask. They’re passionate about bikes, friendly and helpful.
Anything you buy in here will be of good quality. When I bought a lock, the guy told me they stock them only if no-​one has come back and said they’ve had their bike nicked while using that model. I’m unsure how reliable this can be as a test (how many people have had their bikes taken and not gone back to tell the staff?), but it sums up the general approach. Your bike is in good hands in the repair shop.
This is a serious place and perhaps aimed most at serious cyclists. The bikes for sale are towards the top end. They also sell recumbents, child trailers and cargo carriers.