Ever since Christies of Hawthorn closed down, I've been unsure of which shops in Melbourne are best. Generally I'll get small random stuff from my local shop in the Fairfield shopping centre, or the Melbourne Bicycle centre in Clifton hill.. But the first is a little small for some things, the latter just too big and commercial.
Currently I'm looking for gearing up with some new touring stuff, a new rack / panniers and so forth. All of the shops I've visited recently have a _VERY_ limited range of that sort of thing. However, I recall Christies used to be especially good for that sort of thing..
So, what bike shops do you folks recommend? Especially for touring equitment and advice?
BikeNow (South Melbourne) have a good range of panniers and things like that, they do a lot of Mountain bike/hybrid sails and have a good range of that sort of thing. I have not been to the Pegasus Crew (Brighton) but I know they hire out tandems and specialise in touring bikes.
Also be pretty interested to hear if anybody has been out to that new store in Bayswater "Anaconda" that opened up on the weekend, supposed to have lots of mountain biking gear.
Oh yeah, the best price I found for my panniers was at mainpeak, not sure if there are any in melbourne? My partner signed up on some loyalty program, bought the first pair, and then used the reward towards the second pair.
Since the demise of Christie Cycles 🙁 the best shop for touring equipment is Abbotsford Cycles run by Peter Moore. Peter is a very experienced touring cyclists and has the expertise to come up with solutions for touring equipment that aren't just out of the box, eg. hand built wheels, custom racks etc. He is in Swan Street at the entrance to Richmond rail station
I went to Peter Moore's yesterday, got the low down on the racks and panniers. I think by the other guy there (not Peter). Very helpful folks though, gotah say they'll get my business from now on 🙂
Also checked out Ivanhoe cycles, not bad for what it's worth.
