Best LBS in Britain

[novocaine]

It's definitely not us

We have nothing over £2k
Loads of bikes in the shop are dirty
We don't stock new xtr/dura-ace or di2, although there's quite a bit of pre-owned kit kicking around.

Our stock is so mental that one of our psychiatric doctor customers said it was like the inside of his head.

No epos, no marketing, no hold music, no free parking, no polo shirts, no name tags

The work diary is actually paper!

It can take me a week to answer an email.

I'm incredibly opinionated, (although my colleagues arent)
We may respond to rudeness with rudeness, although it rarely gets physical.

It's more Open all hours or Black Books than Harrods or Apple iStore, that's for sure.
Tom

and for everything else, there's an Evans is walking distance, take your "I want carbon" attitude there.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Why dont you have a branch at the west side of Glasgow?

He's training you up.

 

[Scott-S]

He's training you up.

Dear gods above and below no!!!!!
Im the last person in the world you would ever want dealing with the public (apart from the fact that Im a complete dick)
I admittedly have zero filter and a lack of people skills which would lead to a loss of earnings for the bossman in Bristol,
he'd be much better off with somebody sensible and amiable like @novocaine or @Totoro

 

[Totoro]

or @Totoro

Mate have you seen my work, I wont tackle even half the stuff that you take on!!!
My LBS did my entire frame up build, very apt for this thread.

I have been wanting to post in this thread though as my LBS is amazing and go above and beyond to help me out, often for no charge. They are super into retro and even getting into doing vintage builds. We have 2 shops less than a mile apart and both do good work but the one I don't use is just because when I took my San Andreas in to have the suspension serviced he asked me why I didn't just buy something more modern

There are members on here who have their own shop or work in shops, I'd take my bike to any of them if they were local to me

I am lucky though, my LBS let me go in the back and hunt around for some used parts a couple of weeks back, very trusting and didn't charge me for things they could have just sold me new or even charged for the used stuff I took

 

[Scott-S]

Mate have you seen my work, I wont tackle even half the stuff that you take on!!!
My LBS did my entire frame up build, very apt for this thread.

I have been wanting to post in this thread though as my LBS is amazing and go above and beyond to help me out, often for no charge. They are super into retro and even getting into doing vintage builds. We have 2 shops less than a mile apart and both do good work but the one I don't use is just because when I took my San Andreas in to have the suspension serviced he asked me why I didn't just buy something more modern

There are members on here who have their own shop or work in shops, I'd take my bike to any of them if they were local to me

I am lucky though, my LBS let me go in the back and hunt around for some used parts a couple of weeks back, very trusting and didn't charge me for things they could have just sold me new or even charged for the used stuff I took

Ach there you go selling yourself short again man..
I was forced to learn to do everything for 2 reasons:
1 - None of my local LBS will even look at a bike older than 5 years
2 - Typecast or not Im a miserable badstart that would happily spend thousands on my wife or kids but not a penny on myself.

Youtube and this forum gave me all the information and courage I needed to try it, knowing full well that "IF" I messed up I could send it down south and pay for a proper bike mechanic to fix it for me simply because we know a couple of them and they are the bad influences that got me into this mess in the first place
Looking at you @bikeworkshop, @benjabbi and even you hiding up at the back there @Guinessisgoodforyou keeping your head down

 

[benjabbi]

I think 'best' is subjective. People want different things.
We don't stock anything bar a few consumables.
Our average bike sale is well over £5k, all custom built.
We don't touch the E part of E-bikes but will repair (at least try to) anything else.
I'm in my element when something retro comes in. Just don't express an interest in the older mtb stuff, you'll never get away.
I build a lot of wheels.
Just two blokes in a glorified shed fixing bikes.

Tom's shop sounds like my favourite type of shop. Stuff everywhere, can't find what you want? Ask and a whirlwind of rummaging later it appears. Along with the smell of rubber mixed with GT85. Sadly disappearing in favour of more corporate entitys and even they're dying off. Blame Apple, they deserve it.

My favourite LBS is long gone, shout out to Oakley Cycles of Northampton/Rushden. You are still missed.

 

[baron von greenback]

At least you guys have a bike shops we got halfords and thats enought said about them

 

[legrandefromage]

My shed

Owner is a tosser though and often drunk

 

[bikeworkshop]

At least you guys have a bike shops we got halfords and thats enought said about them

Chain reaction killed 100s of LBS, leaving corporate sheds like Evans and Halfords running on cheap borrowed money and finance.
These are now joined by branded "stores" but I'm hearing whispers that their finances are shakier than Mr Stevens from Cardiff