Pilgrim cycles

[roberts8]

This is a wonderful LBS set up and run by Dave who creates bikes for touring and gravel riding.
He is located at Westhumble Station in the old booking office and has helped many cyclists, me included,in the Boxhill area for a decade.
Sadly he is closing at the end of the month and will be missed by many.
Does anyone out there know of someone looking to start a business in a great location?

[TheBomber]

Do you know why he’s closing? Is the business not doing well enough or more personal reasons? I always thought he should have made more of the cafe part of it in that location. It wasn’t somewhere to linger on a cold day.

[MikeF]

Reason here https://www.pilgrim-cycles.co.uk/
Very sad, rather too far away for me to use.

[Carlton green]

Details here too on a different part of their site: https://www.pilgrim-cycles.co.uk/closing

I can’t blame anyone for not having sufficient confidence in the future and particularly so traders with leases to consider.

[roberts8]

I think he just not get the volume of sales.
Must be hard to compete with bigger shops.
Locally we are hoping for a food outlet or eatery so might still be a good idea .
rykas is up for sale and the lease has expired so bang goes a great breakfast if nobody takes that up.
In the grand order of things not that bad but they really do a great breakfast.

[hemo]

Another likely reason for smaller independants is that die hard cyclists do nearly if not all of their own maintenance.
I'm one such that builds his own bikes, wheels and carry out all maintenance so much so that I have only purchased three bikes from a shop since my teens.
The westhumble outlet is tucked away and mainly catering for niche clientel, I suspect even alot of locals to the area may not have known much abput them.

[pwa]

Another likely reason for smaller independants is that die hard cyclists do nearly if not all of their own maintenance.
I'm one such that builds his own bikes, wheels and carry out all maintenance so much so that I have only purchased three bikes from a shop since my teens.
The westhumble outlet is tucked away and mainly catering for niche clientel, I suspect even alot of locals to the area may not have known much abput them.

Niche cycle shops are best concentrating on internet sales these days, as Spa and SJS do, to get a big enough catchment.

[thirdcrank]

Providing a mail order service for "cyclists" is nothing new. Older readers will remember Whiskers - "Our stock is our gimmick" although their descriptions of that stock always referred to the customers as "riders."

The bike industry has turned the bicycle into a fashion item. I don't mean that in the sense that they've made cycling fashionable, but rather that the specification of cycles changes as quickly as the width of trouser bottoms or skirt hemlines. I think Evans Cycles showed that nobody can satisfy Beattie in the old ads - all the bikes in all the sizes AND specifications. A typical LBS has even less chance and there's a risk of becoming a sort of showroom for the mail order outfits: customer tries out the bikes in the shop, says they'll think about it and then buys online.

Back to gimmick, providing service might be one. I don't mean "customer service" which bike shops don't always do well (see the Spa thread) but servicing bikes and charging for it. at a realistic rate. There's no obvious reason why the hourly rate for the services of a skilled bike mechanic should be less than a car mechanic. As bikes get more sophisticated, then there are more bike owners who don't know how to fix them. Not patronising female customers - "patrons" - is a good idea too

Then, there's being local. That can mean different things but it probably doesn't mean largely a destination for bike riders who may enjoy looking at bikes but don't buy much. It tends to mean having car parking, but being handy for a busy railway station can be ideal for customers who combine a bike ride with railway travel.

One outfit which seems to have thrived over the last quarter century or so is Cycle Heaven in York. I've not been since it was just an LBS on the road out to Bishopthorpe but they have expanded to several lots of premises. Being in York probably helped

https://www.cycle-heaven.co.uk/

Just one example BTW

[Dingdong]

I think small niche producers should be actively selling online, or at least have a fairly strong web presence, especially in tough times like we are in now. It's common sense to expand the marketplace, to a global market. Social media makes self promotion very easy, with little or no outlay.

[Paul Smith SRCC]

Sad to read this, it's odd times in the cycle trade.

Dave was relatively local to where I work, yes on one level we are rivals and yet as is the tradition with local stores we help each other out as well, I'd visit their cafe on a ride; I liked him. Quite a few local stores have gone since the pandemic, Geoffrey Butler, Corridori and Cycle Republic in Purley, although arguably the latter had a different business model being part of Halfords; as I said odd times.

[Bonefishblues]

I think small niche producers should be actively selling online, or at least have a fairly strong web presence, especially in tough times like we are in now. It's common sense to expand the marketplace, to a global market. Social media makes self promotion very easy, with little or no outlay.

As an example:

https://www.oxfordbikeworks.co.uk/

[gregoryoftours]

Sad about pilgrim cycles. JD whisker is still going! We've ordered from them a couple of times, emailing the order picked from a pdf catalogue. It creates a lot of extra admin so we rarely use them which is a shame because they're amazing.

[Sweep]

Social media makes self promotion very easy, with little or no outlay.

well apart from truly massive outlay on stock - folk buying online expect stuff to be shipped straight out. ie - stock needs to be held.