Bike shop recommendations in London?

[Margaret]

Can any of the Brits on-line recommend a good bike shop in London? We'll be there next weekend and are hoping to pick up a kind of Blackburn front rack that's no longer sold in the U.S. but is still available in the UK. Any suggestions? (either a good bike shop or an outdoors store with a good biking section would work) Thanks!

 

[Jitensha Joe]

London's quite a big place
Could try Evans Cycles, they have branches at various spots. Online they sell Blackburn racks, not sure about at each shop - perhaps call the nearest one to you first.

JJ
http://www.evanscycles.com/stores.jsp

 

[cd667]

Their Waterloo (the Cut) branch is the branch that specialises in touring bikes. They should be able to service you.

I have a set of Blackburn CL1 lowriders which I'm not using now - I would give you them for the price of a couple of beers if you wanted them.

I'm in Reading, contact me privately if you're interested.

Chris.

 

[rmartin]

Can any of the Brits on-line recommend a good bike shop in London? We'll be there next weekend and are hoping to pick up a kind of Blackburn front rack that's no longer sold in the U.S. but is still available in the UK. Any suggestions? (either a good bike shop or an outdoors store with a good biking section would work) Thanks!

I have been using Evans cycles for the last 15 years, but their recent Starbucks style expansion (15 shops now?) has meant that the standard of service is now pretty dire. The staff, who used to generally be fairly knowledgeable now seem to be no better than Saturday kids at B&Q (UK equivalent of Homedepot?).

I now shop at Condor cycles on Grays Inn Road (http://www.condorcycles.com), which is a specialist road shop dealing primarily in racing and touring bikes. A large proportion of the London bike courier community use Condor, which in itself is a good recommendation! The staff seem to know what they're selling, and they have a much wider range of specialist kit than Evans - and they stock Campagnolo, which very few shops in London do.