rate the bike shops

llatsni

Hi guys...

I've recently gone thru the two most common experiences the people have with bike shops - buying a bike, and getting serious service on a bike. Both mountain bikes.

I am horrified at the level of service that I was provided by almost all shops.

Buying a bike:
- I was looking for something in the mid-priced hardtail range. I ended up with a 2006 Trek 6500 disc. The journey to getting it was simply painful. I rang just about every bike shop in dublin over a period of 3 weeks. Most did not stock bikes in this price range (800-1000 euro), some claimed they did and then when visited had "sold that one yesterday" and would "order one in for you". When asked to order one in, most did not bother, and others got whatever size suited them... not the size I wanted. Some of the blame here may lie with Centro and the other distributors, but the haze surrounding what was available and what price it would be was very very frustrating. It also was very evident that the shops were engaged in price fixing, again probably due to centro being the supplier of 99% of bikes to dublin.

Getting a bike serviced:
- I was getting my full suspension bike serviced (all LX & XT drivetrain) and my wish was that it would shift perfect. It took 3 tries at the shop to get it anyway near to right. If a chain, cables needed replacment then thats what i wanted. However it seemed that they were more interested in suiting themselves and not the customer. They did not replace my chain when it was clearly worn out. A couple of months down the line I now need to replace my cassette and probably a chainring. Which by the way can be bought on ebay brand new and delivered for half of what the shops here are selling them for.

What is going on. Do we have a market to sustain this industry? Is the problem a lack of competition in terms of distributors? Does the blame lie with managers and their customer service training?

Anyhow, rant over. Are there ANY good or great bike shops in dublin. Sales and or service.

BTW: I bought the bike from cliff in cycleogical. Very knowledgeable and helpful, and the bike was a bargain too.

Paul

Darren_C

Hi Paul,

Have to agree that the service given by bike shops in general in Ireland is quite poor. I think the best way to get your bike running the way you want it, is do it yourself. It may take some time and effort to learn but it's one of the most rewarding things to be able to set up your bike exactly how you want it.

I've also got a Trek 6500 - purchased from a bike shop in Dublin. When I bought it I was getting back into biking after about 7 or 8 years away from biking so was very impressed by the non disc bike with an LX groupset and V brakes. The guy in the shop said I could upgrade to discs at some stage in the future if I wanted. It was only after I had the bike a few weeks that I realised this version of the trek 6500 could only take a front disc brakes not a pair as I was led to believe. Fair enough I was clueless getting the bike after not biking for a few years but I'll never go back to that shop again.

A couple of months later I decided I'd put a front disc on the trek so again I headed for a local Dublin bike shop and had a chat with a sales assistant about the options for putting a front disc brake on my bike. After about 5 minutes of chat I realised that I probably knew as much if not more than he did about disc brakes so I headed away and tried popping off an email to their info address with a fairly detailed email of what I had and what I wanted. About 5 days later I got a one line email back that didn't answer any of my questions and just said to bring the bike into their shop to see what they might be able to do for me. Instead of doing this I found the chain reaction website and fired them a mail and got decent answers to my questions within a day. I also found they were a lot cheaper than some of the Dublin bike shops (I saved ~30 Euros on a pair of XTR Vbrakes). Needless to say my trek is now sporting a lovely new wheel, XT hydraulic discs and XTR back V brakes from chain reaction. I'd heartily recommend them to anyone. And I had a couple of fun evenings drinking beer and fixing my bike.

....Anyway to cut a long rant short - I'm really happy with my Trek and am having fun throwing myself up and down the Dublin mountains every weekend and what's even better is that every time I look at the bike I see bits that I've customised to suit me.

Later
D

Captain Trips

llatsni wrote:

Hi guys...

Anyhow, rant over. Are there ANY good or great bike shops in dublin. Sales and or service.

BTW: I bought the bike from cliff in cycleogical. Very knowledgeable and helpful, and the bike was a bargain too.

Paul

I recently bought a bike form Cycleways on Parnell. The bloke from australia sold it to me, he seemed to know what he was doing. Then again, I know nothing at all about bikes, but at least it looked like the staff *looked* like biking freaks, so I figured at least they were interested and would have some knowledge. All of the bikes are Specialized though.

They do stock some very fancy stuff, like frames for 5 grand and so on. I checked out a few different shops but they seemed alright. I'll see how the servicing is in a week when I bring it back to get the chain/cables/stuff tightened or something. Apparently you need to do that after a month. Assembly took around 45 mins which I thought was fairly fast, as a friend pointed out that you don't just buy one off a rack and cycle home!

mockerydawg

Every new bike, be it €100 to €10000 needs tightening after the first few rides. Bolts loosen and cables slacken - its only natural as things wear in. So having to return to the shop and having them service it for free is the norm.
Like Darren_C says, nothing beats been able to service and fit new parts as you wear through them, but I accept not everyone can do this. I find a good way of picking a shop is to check out the stock they carry. Places like Cycle Ways and Cyclogical carry high end stuff, so its a good presumtion they know how to service this stuff too.

On the other hand you get places like Hollingsworth Kilmacud, who have mostly kids and lower end bikes and then have one or two more expensive bikes on show to attract people in. I would never buy from these places. They don't have a clue. It'd be like getting high end audio equipment from a butchers - just something you wouldn't do.

If you have to go to a bike shop I would reccomend the following in Dublin (in no particular order):

Cycle Ways, Parnell Street
Cyclogical, Bachelors Walk
Cycle Inn, Tallaght Village
Bike Rack, Dun L (I think)
Cycle Superstore, Tallaght - but only if Eamon is helping you

jrey1981

I ordered a Specialized several years ago now from Cycle Ways and as there was a delay in delivery they lent me a Stumpjumper from their racing bikes. They have always been good guys in my books.

However the last bike I bought was from my local Specialized dealer in the UK...I hope Cycle Ways service will be on form whenever I order a new bike from them in the near future.

llatsni

Darren_C wrote:

... I found the chain reaction website and fired them a mail and got decent answers to my questions within a day. I also found they were a lot cheaper than some of the Dublin bike shops (I saved ~30 Euros on a pair of XTR Vbrakes) ...

Chain reaction are excellent, but have a strange stock range. I find ebay is brill (got Avid SL brakes and levers brand new delivered for 100 euro) if you can do the hunting and factor the delivery.

I do want to get into setting up and servicing my bike more, but its even hard to get decent tools at reasonable prices here. I've been eyeing a few Parktool bobs on ebay... maybe i should dive in.
I suppose a stand is a necessity for proper service? What makes/models do u guys have?

Cycleways are a mixed bag in my opinion. Very helpful for the 1st 10 seconds and then they totally lose interest if they sense youre not about to drop 10k on that titanium skewer you've been eyeing.

I agree that most bike shops are geared (pun) toward the lowest common denominator as thats where the biggest market is. But it seems lame that they cant provide a decent service to everyone.

Paul

Morgan

Darren_C wrote:

this version of the trek 6500 could only take a front disc brakes not a pair as I was led to believe...I'll never go back to that shop again.

Darren - most Treks use detachable disk mounts - maybe you should give the shop another chace.

mockerydawg

You can't go wrong with Park Tools, they are sheer quailty. You can get alot cheaper tools, but Park will last.
As for a bike stand it isn't necessary. I've built complete bikes several times and don't use a stand. A friend has one though, he uses mainly to hold his bike. Not service it, just hold it.
Nearly everything on a bike is easy to do, when you get the parts just follow the instructions exactly. Servicing hydraulic parts like forks and shocks should be left to the experts (Mojo UK) but cheaper elastomer based forks are easily stripped, cleaned, re-greased and put back together again without parts been left over.
The only parts I would really get a bike shop to do is replacing a bottom bracket or fitting a new head set. These can damage the frame so becareful if you decide to fit your own!

Harkev

I recently bought a bike from cycle ways (Aussie guy) ... got a good deal and i was quite pleased with the follow up service, everything works smoothly (I bought a Cannondale R500).
This is in contrast to McDonnell cycles(?) - the one on Camden St. It took four visits to get the gears on a new trek to run any way smoothly...
I think its definitely worth paying the little bit extra in a shop that'll give good service.

tdo

I bought a new trek from cycle inn in Tallaght...very friendly guys, know their stuff; also have been dealing with the guys up in cyclesuperstore in tallaght, again cant fault them, knowledgable and accomodating.
Then there are some shops Ive been in that they might as well be selling widgets for all they know about them...

The KEY thing is that once you find a good shop, you need to go when the place is quiet, so you can have the uindivided attention of the people there. Choosing the bike is just the first part, setting it up to suit the person is key. I went to Cycle Inn on a Satuday, mad busy, place like a train station and got a great bike...but in the rush left with my saddle waaay too low, and hurt my knee.

Go on a weekday or be there early on a Satuday morning...