A good bike shop in or near Hampshire

[owenc]

Hi

I live in Andover, Hampshire and have just completed cycling Lands End to John O'Groats. I used a flat bar fast city bike from Genesis, however I don't feel that the bike is the right size for me.

I have been bitten by the bug and want to get into road riding a bit more (possibly a bit of racing if I can get my fitness up to speed) and am looking for a bike shop where I can get properly measured and fitted for a bike.

On the way back from JOG we stopped in at Hewitt Cycles in Leyland and I was very impressed with the service they provided to my sister. Jammy cow won the Cycling Plus competition recently which gave her a free bike from there. Unfortunatelly Leyland is a bit too far to be travelling to buy a bike, and having had problems before buying at a distance I would like to use a relatively local shop. Anybody got any suggestions?

[360fix]

Googling "bicycle shops Hampshire" gave ten shops not so far from Andover with links and telephone numbers but I guess you are looking for someone with personal (good) experience. Sorry can't help...

[keepontriking]

I'm just a few miles from you

I hope you enjoyed the ride. We completed an E2E a few years back - I rode my custom Roberts, while my daughter used her Dawes Sardar.
http://www.jpbdesign.net/EndtoEnd.html

If you want to be properly measured then Roberts (or any reputable frame builder) is the way to go, but it comes with a Big Price. I am repeatedly amazed every time I ride it, as to the comfortable and responsiveness of my Roberts. You will need to travel though.
The off-the-peg Sardar came from Stonehenge Cycles in Salisbury, just a few miles down the road from you. Its a shop which I can thoroughly recommend - I have found that they take care to ensure you get what you want, not what they want to sell you.
They are also quite roadie biased with racing connections.

Another very good new venture are North Hants Bikes - situated in a barn on a smallholding even nearer to you (and me). They are very friendly, and deal with some reliable makes such as Massi and Felt. I can fully recommend them. They are just a gentle potter from Andover.
http://www.northhantsbikes.co.uk/
If you go (call them in advance), please tell them I sent you!

John
Hampshire Cycle Training
http://www.hampshirecycletraining.org.uk/

[360fix]

Here is the fitting computer soft ware:

http://www.rodcycle.com/nextfitsample.html

But with the explosion in IT this could well be out of date today.

[360fix]

...and a non-technical approach...

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

[owenc]

I'm just a few miles from you

I hope you enjoyed the ride. We completed an E2E a few years back - I rode my custom Roberts, while my daughter used her Dawes Sardar.
http://www.jpbdesign.net/EndtoEnd.html

If you want to be properly measured then Roberts (or any reputable frame builder) is the way to go, but it comes with a Big Price. I am repeatedly amazed every time I ride it, as to the comfortable and responsiveness of my Roberts. You will need to travel though.
The off-the-peg Sardar came from Stonehenge Cycles in Salisbury, just a few miles down the road from you. Its a shop which I can thoroughly recommend - I have found that they take care to ensure you get what you want, not what they want to sell you.
They are also quite roadie biased with racing connections.

Another very good new venture are North Hants Bikes - situated in a barn on a smallholding even nearer to you (and me). They are very friendly, and deal with some reliable makes such as Massi and Felt. I can fully recommend them. They are just a gentle potter from Andover.
http://www.northhantsbikes.co.uk/
If you go (call them in advance), please tell them I sent you!

John
Hampshire Cycle Training
http://www.hampshirecycletraining.org.uk/

Just read your E2E page. Looked like a good adventure. I would have like to have done it that way, but time constraints with work etc meant a limit of 2 weeks, so we completed ours in 12 days with a target that had to be reached each day or we were going to be sleeping rough. We blogged ours as we went and you can see it all at http://crosweller-lejog.blogspot.com or for details of why goto www.crosweller.org

I checked out the Roberts website and they seem to be pretty good, and Surrey is slightly closer than Leyland, especially if there is a problem afterwards. I would hope that there wouldn't be, but sods law and all that.

Thanks for the advice.

[sir_lozz]

cycle world in romsey is good, also has shops in southampton and pompey and a decent website

[owenc]

Been into the Southampton branch of Cycle World before and was not impressed with the service I got when trying to talk to them about bikes. Almost as bad as the service I got in a branch of Evans.

[Wildduck]

Ditto Cycleworld. Emailed about a job advertisement. Didn't even have the decency to acknowledge it let alone reply.

Don't even think about Cyclehub in Southampton. I've chased them three times about a part they were suppose to be ordering for me. Given up with them. Obviously don't want my business.

..and LBS wonder why I don't bother with them anymore?

[Tandemist]

Step One:
Measure your inside Leg.
Step Two:
Subtract 9 inches.
Step Three: Buy a nice bike with that frame size.
Step Four: Adjust sadlle so it is about 2 1/2 inches behind the bottom bracket.
Step Five: Make sure that when your elbow is placed in front of the saddle that your outstretched fingers just brush the handlebars.
Step Six:
If not, fit a shorter / longer handlebar stem to adjust reach.
NB: This is applies to proper (not compact) road bikes.

[owenc]

I have a reasonable LBS which I could use to buy a bike, but after seeing the service Hewitt offer in terms of custom building the bike to fit you and the specifications that you want I'm not sure that I'd want to buy something off the shelf/rack. Although that said I could possibly buy a cheaper bike to start with to make sure that this is for me before committing to a bigger spend. Not sure how I'll find the change to drops!

Would I be better spending £600 on s bike to try it out, and then spending £1200-£1500 later on one, seems a bit of a waste. Or should I go for a custom fit/built one for £1200ish straight off? At least with the custom one I'd be certain that its fitting correctly and therefore reduce the risk of me experiencing any problems. I suffered with my achilles after changing my cleats during the E2E, possibly due to poor positioning but not certain.

Thanks for the comments Tandemist. I know the basics on fitting a bike, in a similar way to your points, although based on your estimation of frame size I'd end up on a 25" frame which seems exceedingly high since my MTB is a 21" and my flat bar road bike is 56cm.

[keepontriking]

I have a reasonable LBS which I could use to buy a bike, but after seeing the service Hewitt offer in terms of custom building the bike to fit you and the specifications that you want I'm not sure that I'd want to buy something off the shelf/rack.

It looks as if you have made your mind up

The custom route (dependent on builder) cannot be beaten - and your bike will be something personal and special. When we ordered our Roberts (yes, SWMBO has one too) they couldn't have been more helpful, and patient. It took nearly a whole day to make sure everything was right.

BTW, which is your 'reasonable' LBS?
A new bike recently obtained from one of your local shops had such a loose headset that the bike rocked a good half iinch back and fro on locking the front brake.

[owenc]

Just Bikes in Andover. I wasn't impressed with the customer service that I received when I went into Behind The Bike Shed. The guy I spoke to in Just Bikes seemed knowledgable and listened to what I had to say. Problem is it is quite a small shop with limited brands (same as most LBS) and therefore makes it difficult sometimes when you decide that they don't have what is quite right for you.

[keepontriking]

Just Bikes in Andover.

That's the Andover shop that gets my custom.
Limited stock, but always helpful and will order in.

I wasn't impressed with the customer service that I received when I went into Behind The Bike Shed.

Or loose headsets....