Hi from Cambridge

[rjwilki3]

Hi everyone,

just joined up as I am going to be getting back in to riding for the nicer weather.

I am currently without a bike after my stopgap decided to fall apart after mistimed pothole jump to avoid seemingly oblivious pedestrian. As it is payday in about 51 minutes (and counting) this shall soon be rectified.

Does anyone know of any reasonable second hand bike shops in the cambridge area, or could recommend me a new bike to look in to,

My budget it about £300, maybe a little more if I see something that I fall in love with. What I am after is either a road bike or a fast hybrid, looking for the commute to work(only a couple of miles each way 4 times a day) but more importantly something that I can take out for nice big rides over the weekend to combine my love of photography with cycling.

any suggestions for a decent LBS would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Rob

 

[Aperitif]

Hello Rob, welcome to CycleChat!
One of the bikes I read about the other day seemed to have a striking specification for the money.
It's here. And comes from a similar sort of question as yours here.

The 'Bikes Accessories, Kit and Clothing' section has a lot of careful and knowledgeable writing on the 'offers' around. your exact location, and trying bikes etc might be a different problem, but there is plenty of guidance to help within that bit of the forum.

Alembicbassman posted about the Decathlon range also, here.

 

[Becs]

Hi Rob
My family have been using Kingsway Cycles in Cambridge for years. Lovely little LBS run a by a father and son team and very reasonable for repairs and parts. They have a good range on 2nd hand bikes and a slightly smaller range of new bikes but they are always happy to order stuff in for people. The shop is tucked away on a corner near the Grafton centre/Adam and Eve car park (http://www.kingswaycycles.com/.)

For a bigger store with a larger selection of new bikes I would try Ben Haywards cycles in Horningsea (on the same site as Notcuts garden centre) I went for a fitting there to tweak my road bike a bit and they seemed very reasonable and friendly and full of nice shiny bikes that I refused to look at to avoid temptation!

Hope that helps and welcome!

 

[MarkH]

any suggestions for a decent LBS would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Rob,

I'm just starting out with cycling again (and live in Hardwick, just west of Cambridge). I found Ben Hayward (horningsea) to be very helpful.

Cheers, Mark

 

[rjwilki3]

cheers for all the suggestions guys, im going to venture in to town cash in pocket tomorrow and hopefully be riding home

has anyone had any experiences with kingstreet cycles, ive heard mixed reviews but not sure if its just sour grapes from some people

 

[Becs]

nope, but it has bad reviews on google. I'm loyal to Kingsway (for 20 odd years!) although Haywards were very good (Kingsway don't do dynamic road bike fittings unfortunately so I had to cheat on them).

 

[rjwilki3]

Hi Becs,

Will make sure to check out kingsway tomorrow then I seem to remember going there a few years back to have a look at a merida road bike and the guy was very helpful so will definitely be on my list of places to check, I dont remember them doing anything second hand though, will have to ask.

 

[Becs]

they have the second hand bikes outside, or in the motorcycle garage. In all fairness my loyalty started when I was 9 cos they had a big fluffy white dog I could play with while my dad bought bike stuff . . . . . . . .

 

[rjwilki3]

definitely a plus one for Kingsway, I am now the proud owner of a shiny new Giro 300, got a very nice price as it was last seasons colors.

The service that I received was first rate and the guy that I dealt with really new his stuff and they were more than happy to let me have a test ride about on a few different models to see what suited me the most. Very happy with my purchase, made the 10 mile ride home a dream and im really hoping that the nice weather stays on for the rest of the weekend so I can get some serious distance under my belt.